Maurice Jones-Drew: Jaguars RB Not Worth First-Round Fantasy Football Selection

Maurice Jones-Drew is one of the best running backs in the NFL. He totaled up more yards on the ground last year than anyone else, made the Pro Bowl and All-Pro team and helped many fantasy owners to a league championship.

However, don’t even think about wasting your first-round draft pick on the 27-year-old RB. Not even in the latter portions of the round is it worth risking on a guy who simply may not produce—or possibly even play—in 2012.

The team and player are currently at an impasse in contract negotiations, but the Jacksonville Jaguars have more leverage considering MJD still has two years left on his current deal.

Even if a deal gets done, there are a ton of red flags.

There are a lot of parallels to Chris Johnson’s poor performance last year to MoJo’s current situation.

The star RB is missing an entire training camp and preseason, meaning he’s likely not anywhere near in game shape and hasn’t reestablished rapport with his offensive lineman or learned the new plays installed in the Jags’ offense.

Aside from that, Jones-Drew has had a ridiculous amount of touches over the past three seasons (954 rushing attempts and 130 receptions to be precise).

There is just no way the undersized 27-year-old rusher can keep up that kind of production. While there is a shot that MoJo is still putting up decent numbers in 2012, they won’t be league-leading numbers worthy of a first-round pick.

There are too many other options—Arian Foster, Ray Rice, LeSean McCoy, Darren McFadden and Marshawn Lynch to name a few at RB—that should be selected well before MoJo and some aren’t even projected to land in the first round.

Don’t make any rash decisions and attempt to get a “high-upside” player like Jones-Drew early. The risk will not result in any reward.