Offensive Line

2008 Rushing

2008 Receiving

#

Name

Team

Pos

Age

Exp

Run Blocking

Att

Yds

Avg

Rec

Yds

Avg

TD

FPTS

Reward

Risk

Tier 1

1

LaDainian Tomlinson

SDC

RB

29

8

Same

320

1500

4.69

14

55

450

8.18

2

291

Medium

Low

Tomlinson has been a top 3 RB for 6 straight years but he is 29 years old; still a very safe pick and the obvious #1 though.

Tier 2

2

Adrian Peterson

MIN

RB

23

2

Worse

280

1350

4.82

13

30

300

10

1

249

High

Medium

Dominating rookies improve PPG by about 9%, 59% remain very good, 24% dominate even more. Players in first 5 yrs with YPC between 5.2 and 6.0 and at least 200 carries decrease YPC by 18% in next season. Loss of Richardson will hurt.

3

Joseph Addai

IND

RB

25

3

Better

290

1300

4.48

12

50

400

8

2

254

Medium

Medium

Averaged 4.9 YPC and had 5 TDs last season in first 5 games before Ugoh and Diem went down but lost Jake Scott in the off-season; the injury to Saturday is a concern but Addai has a lot of room to increase his number of carries.

4

Brian Westbrook

PHI

RB

29

7

Same

270

1250

4.63

7

80

700

8.75

4

261

Medium

High

See Tomlinson... Westbrook gets a high number of receptions year after year so is very valuable in a PPR league but has never played 16 games in a season. Coaching staff wants to lighten his workload, Booker will get some carries.

5

Clinton Portis

WAS

RB

27

7

Better

320

1350

4.22

10

45

350

7.78

1

236

Medium

Low

There are 17 RBs who are 28 years old or under that were consistently good for three straight NFL seasons which Portis would have done had he not missed 8 games in 2006. 13 of them increased or decreased by less than 10% in the next season.

Tier 3

6

Marion Barber

DAL

RB

25

4

Same

280

1300

4.64

12

30

250

8.33

2

239

Medium

Medium

Of the 13 RBs entering their 4th or 5th season that showed good improvement in their previous season, only 3 showed very nice improvement but only 3 had their performance drop by more than 10%.

7

Ryan Grant

GBP

RB

26

4

Better

275

1325

4.82

9

45

300

6.67

1

223

High

Medium

There are 15 RBs who came out of nowhere in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th season, 8 of them continued to improve. Grant had 166 pts (in a PPR) from weeks 8 to 16, projects to 295 over 16 weeks. Rodgers effect is unknown but probably slightly negative.

8

Maurice Jones-Drew

JAC

RB

23

3

Slightly Better

230

1100

4.78

9

45

400

8.89

1

210

Medium

Low

There are few RBs who had similar statistics as MJD in their first two seasons but historically RBs have their number of carries drop by about 20% when they reach the age of 32 (Fred Taylor).

Tier 4

9

Steven Jackson

STL

RB

25

5

Slightly Better

320

1225

3.83

7

60

475

7.92

2

224

Medium

High

Only 3 of the 10 RBs 27 yrs old or younger who had a dominant season followed by a disappointing one managed to improve in the next season and none returned to the level they were at previously. New contract but still overrated.

10

Jamal Lewis

CLE

RB

29

9

Same

315

1300

4.13

8

35

250

7.14

1

209

Low

Low

Lewis will be 29 and you can't expect him to improve much over last year but the line is still as good and no one can steal many carries away from him in Cleveland. Lewis averaged 23 carries a game in the 2nd half of the season.

11