Fantasy Football: Steven Jackson Fantasy Jabber

St. Louis Rams Running Back Steven Jackson is a poster boy of a feature back in fantasy football. You never have to be concerned of him losing time in a running back by committee.

His touches in the passing game gained steam each year since falling after his 90 catch season in 2006, topping 50 in 2009. He would rather try and run through guys than around them and sometimes you would miss him for a couple games a season because of it.

More of the same in 2010? Let’s have a look at some things to take into consideration.

Let’s throw this out there right away before someone jumps on that second sentence. The Rams are rumored to be bringing in another back because of the shallow depth behind Jackson. If it is someone like Brian Westbrook, people are concerned that he will lose touches.

Let’s look at it from this perspective—those are touches he may have lost anyway from being out with an injury. Another back could keep Jackson out of the trainers room by spelling him a bit.

The last two years, Jackson averaged 21 rushes per game, mostly while the Rams were trailing. Consider the attempts lost in 2008 and that is 84 attempts he could give away and still have 250 rushes and 40 catches. That is still starting back material and more productive touches if he is healthy. Considering his back surgery in April and that he plans to continue his bruising ways, he can use a spell here and there. Bring on someone to help this man!

We can stick with the downside for now. He plays for the St. Louis Rams. They appear to be handing over the team to rookie QB, Sam Bradford.

While some may have a glossed over view of recent rookie QB success in Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, and Mark Sanchez, this still isn’t the norm for rookie quarterbacks. The supporting cast in St. Louis is not is not on par with those other teams either. One of the biggest, and most important concerns that the Rams have is that they just do not score enough points and it isn’t looking good that they will start in 2010.

How about some upside?

In Jackson you have the team’s best football player. They know they have to give him the ball and he still gets it even when the Rams are trailing. You can’t really expect that teams are going to focus on the run because of a rookie QB any more than they already did.

The upside of having Bradford starting could mean even more dump off passes and a jump in leagues that reward points per reception. As mentioned, if they bring in a back to spell Jackson, we could see him make it a 16 game season.

The lost touches could make up for the missed games (over the last three years, one game in 2007, four games a year in 2008, 2009). Jackson says that his back is 100% and the team is not taking any chances in the preseason with him. Jackson also packed on another eight pounds of muscle over the offseason which should help with the pounding he puts on himself and others.

At this time, Jackson has an Average Draft Position ninth overall. He is being taken anywhere from the mid first to mid second round.

I recently selected Jackson myself at #8 in an experts draft. It was a hard decision as Larry Fitzgerald was still on the board, but the first round was so running back happy that there would have been nothing left in the second round for me.

This is a decision you may find yourself having to make. Now myself, I was happy with it. If you are in the later half of the first round, do you take Jackson or go WR there, considering Andre Johnson is probably already gone? Steven Jackson may be one of the last backs on the draft board available that is the “feature back” on his team and isn’t in a RBBC situation.

Currently Steven Jackson is ranked #7 in our Running Back Redraft Rankings.

Year	Gm	Rush-Att	Rush-yds	Avg	Rush-TD	Rec	Rec-yds	Avg	Rec-TD	Fan pts
2009	15	324	1416	4.4	4	51	322	6.3	0	197.8
2008	12	253	1042	4.1	7	40	379	9.5	1	190.1
2007	12	237	1002	4.2	5	38	271	7.1	1	159.3