Recently, the waiver wire has seen a severe lack of running backs, but not this week. A couple RB1s went down, with Zac Stacy and Knowshon Moreno up in the air for Sunday. Here are five guys who are very strong adds. If you're looking for deeper adds, we have some you can check out in our deeper version.
Benny Cunningham (owned in 3 percent of leagues)
St. Louis running back Zac Stacy suffered a concussion against the Chicago Bears on Sunday and his status will be up in the air for the Week 13 contest against the San Francisco 49ers.
Cunningham stepped in and was outstanding, with 13 carries that yielded 109 yards and one score. This isn't the first time he's put up numbers, and had an impressive eight-touch, 90-yard overall game against the Colts in Week 10. While Sunday's game certainly helped, Cunningham boasts an impressive 6.0 yards per carry on 40 attempts this season.
He is not going to be worth starting in most formats this week with the tough matchup against the 49ers, but if Stacy has to miss a lot of time, the Rams play the Saints and Bucs in the fantasy playoffs -- Week 15 and Week 16, respectively.
Montee Ball (owned in 49 percent of leagues)
Broncos running back Montee Ball has his fumbling issues. He put the pigskin on the turf in the third quarter of the Sunday Night Football game against the Patriots and he had another lost fumble at the goal line in the Week 2 win over the Giants.
Before he fumbled, Ball was playing well, with 40 rushing yards on seven carries and three catches for 17 yards. In Week 11, he actually vultured a couple TDs from Knowshon Moreno, and he was also getting some goal-line work on Sunday. The possible loss of Moreno means fantasy owners probably should burn their top waiver priority on Ball, if available.
Donald Brown (owned in 41 percent of leagues)
It's not often that fantasy owners take a running back in the first round, and that guy stays healthy but completely flops. Well, that's the case for Indianapolis Colts running back Trent Richardson. He was terrible again on Sunday with seven carries for 15 yards on the ground, adding two catches for 11 yards. Quite frankly, he's not even worth owning in standard leagues.
So that means someone has to step up. It's going to be Donald Brown, but it didn't happen on Sunday against a stout Arizona Cardinals defense. Those who picked him up last week due to his 94-yard, 15-touch game against the Titans shouldn't be worried. In fact, the Colts will get the Titans again. He'll be worth a look as an RB2 this week.
Dennis Johnson (owned in 11 percent of leagues)
Ben Tate didn't exactly have his best game on Sunday against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. It was so bad that he had a 0.1 yards-per-carry average. Tate mustered just 1 yard on his seven carries while adding 26 yards in the passing game. He looks to have kept his job for now, although he was basically yanked in favor of the rookie Dennis Johnson on Sunday.
Johnson gave the Texans a new sense of life and was able to move the ball to the tune of 74 rushing yards on 13 carries with two receptions for 13 yards. No other running back had a carry in the game.
Before that game, Johnson was building some momentum with 14 carries in the previous three games, but most of that came with Arian Foster in the lineup. The Texans are dead in the water and Ben Tate's contract is about to run out. So they might not want to play him much since they've already seen enough to make their assessment. Meanwhile, the sample size on Johnson is extremely small, with his 27 carries yielding 4.4 yards on average. The Texans are going to run the ball a lot, so there is a chance Johnson gets hot. He's a high-upside pickup, but it won't be easy to play him against the Patriots in Week 13 since the Texans will likely be down the whole game.
C.J. Anderson (owned in 0 percent of leagues)
Those in deep leagues might have found the last great pickup. Knowshon Moreno left Sunday night's game with crutches and a walking boot, and is dealing with a bone bruise. His status for Sunday's game against the Chiefs is up in the air, but is likely moving closer to doubtful. The good news is that it isn't serious.
Anderson's stat line was far from impressive with three carries for 16 yards. But unlike Montee Ball, he doesn't fumble all the time. Fantasy owners needing help at running back simply must pick him up given the amount of points the Broncos put up week in and week out.
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