Image credit: Getty images / CHRIS KEANE 

Summary: Another week in the books, and another week we're glad we haven't invested in the 49ers backfield. Since we haven't suggested spending more than 10%-20% of FAAB on any one player through the first two weeks, we'll take a closer look at Chuba Hubbard and recommend making your first significant investment of the year.

• Chuba Hubbard (17.3% rostered in ESPN leagues) - Let's be clear that that Chuba is likely not your season long solution at RB. All indications are that CMC will be back in < 3 weeks, and upon his return, Hubbard should be on your bench. But there's reasons to believe and invest heavily in Hubbard:

  • When CMC missed significant time last year, we saw Mike Davis be slotted into a very similar, high usage capacity. For as long as CMC is out, Hubbard is a strong RB2 play.

  • Last year, we didn't believe CMC would miss 13 games. It's unfortunately a reality that health issues will persist for CMC throughout the year, and if that's the case Hubbard is a must own/weekly play.

  • While it's out of the norm to spend this much on a player who only gets volume for a couple of weeks, we're going to recommend spending more than 20% of FAAB for the first time this year here. At least 30%, and up into the 50% range if you're a CMC owner is where we'd place our bids.

• Emmanuel Sanders Patterson (32.2% rostered in ESPN leagues) - We're slow to acknowledge Sander's performance given his age and durability issues, but it's hard to ignore the weekly 6-8 targets he's receiving in Buffalo's high pass volume offense. If your roster is hurting after the AJ Brown injury, or you're simply reeling given Amari Cooper's back-to-back duds, spending ~5% for Sanders can give you an occasional spot start.

• Peyton Barber (16.9% rostered in ESPN leagues) - Barber was picked up in many leagues upon news of Jacobs missing last week's game. While the performance this week is likely an outlier given the lack of elite talent, Barber showed how viable of a start he can be for a RB needy team. It's possible Jacobs is fine for the rest of the year, so the price here needs to be optimal, but it's also possible he has multiple starts given what we've seen from Jacobs early this year. Spending up to 10% makes complete sense.

• Alexander Mattison, Tim Patrick and Bryan Edwards - We’ve highlighted each of these last players in previous weeks, and all three showed why they are viable pickups in week three. Patrick is the most ready to contribute and as bodies continue to fall in Denver - first Jeudy, now Hamler - he’s the most exciting.

• Staying away from - Pat Freirermuth (like the talent, but hate the passing game), Taylor Heinicke (unless a 2QB league), any Arizona Cardinals WR that costs more than 1%, any SF RB that costs more than 1%,