2. I think I don't care how good Darren McFadden looked last Friday, and if you saw how he steamrolled LSU in Baton Rouge, you know he looked like a future star in the NFL. Probably. I wouldn't use a high first-round pick on him. Of the top 50 running backs in the NFL entering this weekend (ranked by rushing yards), 30 were not first-round picks. In my team rankings this week, I've got New England, Indianapolis, Dallas, Green Bay and Pittsburgh as my top five. The Patriots (11-0) have a running game by committee. Tony Dungy of the 9-2 Colts has given CFL refugee Kenton Keith 9.0 carries a game. The 10-1 Packers have had rushing efforts of 104, 55, 119, 88 and 101 yards from Ryan Grant in the last month. Grant, an undrafted free-agent by the Giants in 2005, entered camp fifth on the Giants' depth chart this summer, then was traded to Green Bay for a sixth-round draft choice. Dallas (10-1) has Julius Jones and Marion Barber III manning the running game. Jones was the 43rd player picked in the draft when he came out, Barber the 109th. Undrafted college free-agent Willie Parker -- who couldn't get consistent playing time at North Carolina -- has 3,624 yards over the last two years and 10 games for the 7-3 Steelers. More than any position in football, running back is the one you can find players from the most disparate sources.
But I think you can take it a bit further and extrapolate it to using big money on a free agent running back as well.
I was listening to the radio this weekend and one of the analysts was talking about Shaun Alexander and how he appears to be resting on that fat contract. That he's perfectly happy to sit on the sidelines. Larry Johnson was also mentioned.
I don't know if that's true, but whoever was on the radio (it might have been Keyshawn Johnson) said something along the lines that the backs that make little are the ones that are going to run harder for you. They haven't yet cashed in on that big pay day so they'll bust their asses like there's no tomorrow.
I've long been a proponent of getting that superstar type runningback. I wanted the Packers to deal up to grab Reggie Bush. I was largely in favor of moving up and taking Peterson. I've said that I would deal picks to move up and take McFadden.
But King and Keyshawn make a good argument that it's not needed, or even a good idea. Part of King's argument is it's such a risky position to dump cash into. Your one knee injury away from tens of millions of wasted dollars.
Then you look at the effectiveness of the two back system a lot of the great teams employ. Maroney/Faulk, Jones/Barber, etc.
And then you have the no names that are putting up great numbers when given the chance. Ryan Grant obviously isn't the only one. Maurice Morris, Michael Turner, Kolby Smith, Justin Fargas, Earnest Graham, Adrian Peterson (Chi)...these are the backups without the big contracts and they're running like they should be starters.
It isn't that they're against taking a runningback in round one. It's taking a runningback high in round one. There's a mountain of difference between investing 52 million with 26 guaranteed in Bush, and 10 million for 4 guaranteed in Addai.
I could be turned against the idea of a McFadden.
) so somewhere around 47 of the 82 were first rounders