2010 Fantasy Football Player Watch: Is Jonathan Stewart Undervalued?

The nagging heel injury that has basically been towed luggage for Jonathan Stewart the past two years is now nothing more than an afterthought. NFL.com is reporting that Stewart is back to 100 percent from his Achilles surgery, which means wonderful things for fantasy managers everywhere as they prioritize their RB ranks.

Stewart is ranked 19th with a current ADP of 34, but you can expect that to change with the updated health news.

But is it worth it to wait either way?

The running backs ahead of him—some of them anyway—are not guaranteed to outshine Stewart, they only carry a name. Here is the list:

1. Chris Johnson
2. Adrian Peterson
3. Maurice Jones-Drew
4. Ray Rice
5. Frank Gore
6. Michael Turner
7. Steven Jackson
8. DeAngelo Williams
9. Knowshon Moreno
10. Jamaal Charles
11. Rashard Mendenhall
12. Ryan Matthews
13. Cedric Benson
14. Pierre Thomas
15. Ryan Grant
16. Shonn Greene
17. LeSean McCoy
18. Chris Wells

Out of this list, Stewart rushed for more yards than eight players: Gore, Wells, Thomas, Turner, Charles, Moreno, Mendenhall, and Greene.

Now, a lot of that had to do with Stewart’s injury and whether or not his recovery was going to go over well, which it has.

So what to do?

You can conceivably push him up in your rankings—to be honest, I would do this list all over with Stewart ranked 10th—or you can simply play your cards if you have an early first-round pick.

Those of you who are lucky enough to get back-to-backs early have a grand opportunity to score two premier running backs, if that’s your strategy, but even if you aren’t the owner of two back-to-backs, Stewart makes just as fine of a selection as Adrian Peterson or Maurice Jones-Drew.

Remember, Stewart rushed for 1,133 yards and 10 TDs while catching 18 balls for 139 yards and a single score, and he did all of that while injured!

Hope this helps and be sure to check us out at Fantasyknuckleheads.com.