1. Adrian Peterson- And you thought I was going to put DeMarco Murray here. Seriously though, there is no back out there better than Peterson. He's everything you want in a pure rusher with his versatility in that he can blow by you, juke you out, and run you down 'till you fall flat on your face (the song is Madden 2003's "Suck It Up").

2. Jamaal Charles- The ACL tear sucks, and Charles is a monster who averaged only about six yards per carry last year.

3. Darren McFadden- Yeah, I'm boarding this train until it hits 'Frisco, cause he is tearing it up. He's nicked up too, but that doesn't deter from his overall value.

4. Arian Foster- He doesn't give a damn about your fantasy team either.

5. Chris Johnson- He's still top 5, but I've always thought he was a tad overrated.

6. Maurice Jones-Drew- A versatile back to say the least.

7. Ray Rice- Does a ton of damage with his hands and can make cuts inside; top back.

8. DeAngelo Williams- Too elusive for their not to be a bounce-back.

9. Fred Jackson- Good hands, and great overall ability. Finally getting some press thanks to a line that suddenly figured out how to block.

10. LeGarrette Blount- This is all purely based on skill, and Blount is extremely talented. He is so agile and strong that he's a new beast to defend against; it's amazing to think what he could do with an average line in front of him.

11. Matt Forte- While catching is his forte, he can run and is the team's focal point offensively; pay him.

12. Michael Turner- I wish I had him higher, but 12 is still really good.

13. Ryan Mathews- I am fully on the bandwagon.

14. Ahmad Bradshaw- Catches, blocks, and runs well.

15. Frank Gore- Is more effective when he doesn't get too many carries, as he is extremely explosive should get 15 carries to have optimal impact. He can't take the wear and tear very well, but he does add value in the receiving game.

16. Peyton Hillis- Has been invisible this year (not in a good way) and fumbles too much because of an unbalanced rushing style, but he does possess great blocking and has surprisingly good hands out of the backfield.

17. LeSean McCoy- Brings so much to the table as a pass-catcher and runs effectively.

18. Jonathan Stewart- Could afford to be a little higher, but he is an elusive back who is among the best ten pure rushers in the league.

19. Brandon Jacobs- Was insane last year and is one of the most punishing backs out there.

20. Steven Jackson- Workhorse.

21. Rashard Mendenhall- A little overrated but still an effective back who plays behind a horrible line.

22. Ryan Grant- The statistics don't always favor him, because people don't always look at the right stats. He is a solid player who gets the yardage his team needs.

23. Tim Hightower- Showing that my running back stat isn't full of crap.

24. Cedric Benson- He is an overrated back who is still solid but not as good as people think.

25. Joseph Addai- Underrated back who struggles with injuries but plays pretty well on the field. He is their only hope in the running game.

26. Chris Wells- I'm not ready to bring him into the top 20 yet, as he needs to show me some consistency first.

27. Michael Bush- Solid, bruising back.

28. James Starks- He really likes making me eat crow.

29. Chris Ivory- I think this guy can play and needs to get some time.

30. DeMarco Murray- I'm in but not all in.

31. BenJarvus Green-Ellis- Sold, albeit unspectacular moving-chains back.

32. Ben Tate- Explosive but not there yet.

33. Ryan Torain- Mike Shanahan and I know that he is better than people thought last year.

34. Mike Goodson- Man, the Panthers have a lot of wealth at the position.

35. Felix Jones- This is on the basis of his receiving skills and ability to break off the big play.

36. Mark Ingram- Better than the stats indicated.

37. Isaac Redman- Finally breaking out of the underrated shell.

38. Jackie Battle- Believe Chiefs, believe. No more Thomas Jones.

39. Marshawn Lynch- When he goes beast mode; it's over. Unfortunately, he doesn't go beast mode enough.

40. Pierre Thomas- New Orleans hasn't been treating him well recently.

253

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10/2011 Football Talk: The Pouncey Brothers

October 20th 2011 15:01

Last year, one of the dumbest Pro Bowl vote-ins of all-time was made. Yet another overhyped rookie, Maurkice Pouncey, was voted as a Pro Bowl starter. The Steelers center may be a lovable figure, but he's actually a poor player. He's among the most overrated players in the game, as he is one of the worst centers in pass protection. The whole Steelers offensive line stinks, but Pouncey isn't the odd man out on the line. While he isn't all that bad of a run blocker, his pass protection is detrimental to the team. I wish fans would start watching the games more closely instead of hopping onto some bandwagon.

However, Maurkice's brother Mike has been far better so far in his early NFL career. Although he did struggle last game against a very tough opponent in the running game (Sione Pouha), he was once again lights-out as a pass protector. Mike Pouncey has already been arguably the best rookie thus far, but he hasn't had the same hype as his twin brother did last year. In fact, the newest Pouncey to the league had more attention as a draft pick. Guys, it's time to give the elder Pouncey his due. Defensive tackles will tell you that he is already a force in the Dolphins interior.

As for you Cowboys fans, stop blaming Tony Romo for all your problems. He's one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and I hate the idiots who look at box scores and try to assess a player from those. Look, interceptions have more to do with stuff out of the quarterback's control. All incompletions that are the quarterback's fault are bad, so accuracy percentage and the statistics over at PFF are much better statistical evaluaters.

While it is obvious that Romo does make his fair share of mistakes, he is actually very accurate. The problem is that he trusts his skills a little too much and tries to force the ball into coverage. That doesn't bode well for his INT numbers, but it's actually worth it to take risks in the passing game. When you average it all out, an interception negates about 30 yards, and the chance of completing a difficult pass is 40 percent, compared to a 3 percent chance of an interception. Through ten passes, the net yardage of going for those passes would be 71 yards (8 per attempt, 7.1 counting the chance of a pick). Getting sacked is worse than running the risk of being picked, and Romo is actually playing to these newfound thoughts. So don't blame him, blame the atrocious secondary and injuries to the receivers and Felix Jones. They don't have much of a running game anyway, and Jones is about league-average. However, losing him means losing more than half of an already weak production level running-wise.

I was going to talk a little bit about Eli Manning, but I'll save that post for another day. I also wanted to talk about why teams should throw it deep, and I already have a little bit of the argument written down above. In the next Football Talk post, you should expect these two topics to headline the post. For those of you who haven't caught on yet, Football Talk is a new thing I do where it's all in-depth football analysis that is usually about players and somewhat new and controversial ideas.

Quit it with the box score searching

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Posted By: Joe Soriano - Category: Sione Pouha, Mike Pouncey, Maurkice Pouncey, Felix Jones, Tony Romo

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10/2011 Player Profile: Felix Jones

October 4th 2011 15:00

Although he is a very explosive player who is a terrific pass-catcher, I am really not a big fan of Felix Jones as a player. I think he is an average running back at best, and the Cowboys need to get a new feature back to help out Romo. His RB Efficiency score last year was a below-average 46.6, but he is still a more than capable number two back in this league.

It may seem like I'm hating on Jones right now, but it's just that I don't think he is a consistent enough rusher. There is no doubt that Felix Jones is one of the most explosive backs in this league, but that really doesn't mean much if you can't consistently help your team get yards on the ground. He's good enough that opposing defenses definitely have to account for him on every play, but he's not the guy who strikes fear into opposing defenses. They know that they can leave six men in the box and can still survive the encounter.

That's not to say that Felix Jones is a bad player by any means, but people who believe that he is a capable feature back in the NFL think too highly of him. While he is a good option out of the backfield- his receiving skills are huge- pure runners are the only running backs with legit value in the league today with all the passing going on. Jones has value, but he obviously doesn't command the respect that a guy like Jonathan Stewart does.

For as elusive as he is, Felix Jones won't be a star back in my eyes until he can consistently churn out results. For now, he is a good back who is an excellent number two running back for a team who needs that extra dimension. The Cowboys need to find more of workhouse back so that Jones can be a more effective player.

Explosive, but not a star back

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Posted By: Joe Soriano - Category: NFL Player Profiles, Felix Jones, Tony Romo, Jonathan Stewart

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9/27 NFL Rumors: Felix Jones injury update

September 27th 2011 14:58

So apparently, the dislocated shoulder that Felix Jones aggravated will not keep him out of next week's game. If it did, the Cowboys running game would go from subpar to really bad. Jones is an explosive back who is average at best, but his main asset comes as a pass-catcher out of the backfield. He, like Reggie Bush, adds another dimension to the Cowboys' offense and is an important safety valve when Romo is under pressure.

For those of you who can't bear watching Curtis Painter (every Colts fan), this could be bad news. Kerry Collins has yet to be cleared to play, and even though he has been poor this season; he's definitely a step above Painter. Although America's favorite quarterback was a terrific player at Purdue in college, he has left a lot to be desired on the football field. I do think that Painter has a chance to be a decent quarterback, as he has studied under Manning and his performances are under a small sample size. I mean, he's only played in three games and wasn't truly ready for those games. While Painter will most likely never be anything resembling a league-average quarterback, there is still hope.

We all know that Antonio Gates has been struggling with foot injuries recently, and he is set to visit a food (sic) specialist to make sure that he isn't doing further damage to his body. All we can do is hope for the best and wish Gates luck.

The reason why star back Arian Foster did not play in last week's game was because his hamstring tightened up. Head coach Gary Kubiak is confident that Foster will be able to play in next week's game. Yeah, that's always good news.

Should Play Week 4

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Posted By: Joe Soriano - Category: NFL Rumors and News, Reggie Bush, Curtis Painter, Kerry Collins, Peyton Manning, Arian Foster, Gary Kubiak, Antonio Gates, Felix Jones, Tony Romo

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New Running Back Stat 2010 Full Rankings

August 11th 2011 13:38

To qualify a running back must have at least 100 carries. Thanks guys for your feedback, and feel free to comment and criticize. Do you think I should give an extra bonus to the guys with more carries? It seems as if the players in the 100-199 range have the advantage, but this is- after all- and efficiency stat. (The groupings should not be interpreted as tiers, as they are only used to make it look less messy)

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