The year before, he sent me to cover another auction for him with the instructions, whatever you do, get Peyton Manning and Frank Gore. 'Who the heck is Frank Gore', I asked. 'He's going to be the starting RB for the 'Niners,' he said.
While I won our auction league last year, it was in spite of Adrian Peterson being on the Bomber's squad, and the Bombers did ride Gore to a championship the year before.
I thought I had searched pretty hard for the value plays at RB last year and among my selections on various teams were Brandon Jacobs and the supposed starters for Green Bay and Detroit. You see I only remember one of their names off the top of my head, right? My picks for 'secret top-five RBs' in my auction league last year were Cedric Benson and Thomas Jones. If I swore, I'd do so here. I won my auction league by getting Ryan Grant and Justin Fargas off the waiver wire to complement Brandon Jacobs. That and TO, TJ Houshmandzedah, Jason Witten and I think it with the Steelers D I started most often.
I digress... The point is, the Bombers make a pretty good habit of finding a stud for an insane value on draft day. I'm trying but I can't claim quite the success he's had. We've been talking this year already, so maybe I can get him to post an article to share his secrets.
Pending that, I'm searching and I have some early candidates.
From the rookies - Matt Forte, Kevin Smith and Darren 'Run DMC' McFadden will surely be day one starters. I think DMC will have to share work with Fargas and Bush and the team is trying to put him in the slot and do other creative things with him. I don't think they intend to use him 25 carries a game. Smith does have a little competition to beat the incumbent and should do so, but in the early games he may have to split carries with Tatum Bell. I also don't know how to gauge how often the team will run the ball considering they have to adapt from departed Mike Martz's schemes. That leaves Forte. I think he'll get about 250-300 touches counting receptions and should put up decent stats. He could be a real steal on draft day.
Also from the rookie crowd, I'm still going against the grain in liking Steve Slaton. You tell me what Ahman Green and Chris Brown do to scare anyone and I'll back off. Slaton will push from day one, overtaking one or both of the starters and then even if neither Green nor Brown gets hurt, he could end the year as the stud on a relatively prolific offense.
Jonathan Stewart in Carolina ... yeah, maybe. I'll have to look here some more.
From the veterans - Thomas Jones is still one of my leading candidates. I know he burned me last year. Accordingly, he is the consensus #23 back on footballguys.com. All he needs to do is add a few more yards and get back to a normal level of 6-8 TDs and he's low-level RB at a low-RB2 price. I think the OL has improved enough to justify that risk.
Other considerations for a break out veteran are Michael Turner - we know he can run, but can he do it every down and can he do it in Atlanta and how much will Jerious Norwood cut into his carries? - and Willis McGahee. McGahee is a top 10 back right now, so finishing in the top 5 is not outside the bounds of expecations, but with Cam Cameron around, it just might happen. The new QB, whoever he may be, may have McGahee facing 8 man fronts, but if Cam can make Ronnie Brown the #1 fantasy RB after week 7 with the QBs he had in Miami, he should be able to do it with McGahee. One more for now - Maurice Jones-Drew. He's one Fred Taylor injury away from superstardom, I think.
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