Team:Green Bay Packers Position: Running Back
Height: 6-1 Weight: 225 lbs Born: 12-09-82 Experience: 4th season
Past three seasons:
Rushing
Receiving
Year
Team
G
GS
Att
Yds
Avg
TD
Rec
Yds
Avg
TD
2007
Green
Bay
Packers
15
7
188
956
5.1
8
30
145
4.8
0
2006
New
York
Giants
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2005
New
York
Giants - PS
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Career: Ryan Grant spent four years at the University of Notre Dame and had his best season in
his sophomore year after Julius Jones went down with a season-ending injury. Grant was
however very disappointing in his junior and senior seasons and lost the starting job to
Julius Jones first and then Darius Walker. Grant was then signed by the New York Giants as
an undrafted free agent in 2005 and spent the season on the practice squad. In March 2006,
Grant was at a nightclub with some teammates when someone bumped into him, Grant lost his
balance and as he tried to keep himself from falling, his hand went through some champagne
glasses. Grant severed a nerve, a tendon and an artery in his left arm and doctors
suspected that he would not be able to use his left hand again. Grant recovered and was
then traded to the Green Bay Packers right before the 2007 season for a sixth round pick.
He became the starting running back in week eight and allowed the Packers to get past the
Seahawks in the playoffs with career highs of 201 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns.
Supporting Cast: The biggest change for the Green Bay Packers in 2008 will obviously be to deal with
the retirement of Brett Favre. The impact this will have on the running game of the
Packers is very difficult to predict since Aaron Rodgers played very little last season.
The passing attack is unlikely to be as dangerous so defenses will be able to focus on the
run a little more but on the other hand Grant may get a few more carries. Either way, the
impact should not be too big since Rodgers is a good quarterback and the system will be
very similar to last season. On the offensive line, the Packers will return all five
starters from last season and they should be able to perform as well as they did in the
second half of the season. As you can read in our complete analysis of
the Green Bay Packers offensive line, the guards are not particularly strong so it
remains difficult to run against big defensive fronts. The young guards will continue to
learn McCarthy’s zone run blocking schemes and the running game should be as good as
it was in the second half of the season. The Packers still have a very good and deep group
of wide receivers with Jennings, Driver, Jones, Martin and 2008 second round pick Jordy
Nelson. This deep group of wide receivers forces defenses to play nickel and dime packages
and opens holes for Grant in the running game.
Job Security: Grant became the starting running back in week eight last season and will be the
starter on opening day but he still has quite a bit of competition at the position. 2007
second round pick Brandon Jackson is the main backup with DeShawn Wynn and Vernand Morency
still in the picture. Last season however, all four had their chance and Grant average a
full yard per carry more than any of the other three. Furthermore, none of the other backs
had a single touchdown after Grant took over as the starting running back and he should
continue to receive the goal line carries this season.
Fantasy Outlook: In 2007, Grant came out of nowhere and was an excellent waiver pickup in many leagues.
In nine games as the starting running back, Grant had 166 fantasy points in a PPR which
equals to 295 points over a 16 games season and the same points per game total as Adrian
Peterson. There are 15 running backs that had over 250 fantasy points per 16 games in
their second, third or fourth NFL season after never having more than 100 in their NFL
career. The average decrease for those 15 was 8% but eight of them improved their points
per 16 games total of the previous season. There are many question marks about Grant
because he was only productive for a short period of time and there is a lot of
competition in Green Bay but he still showed he could be a top five fantasy running back
in the nine games he started. Grant should still have at least 280 carries and even if his
yards per carry average drops from last year’s 5.1, he should still be able to reach
at least 1,200 yards. Overall Grant is a high reward and medium risk player if you draft
him in late first round but he has been dropping to the second round in many leagues, very
nice value for a player who showed in the second half of last season that he has the
talent and supporting cast to be a top five back.
