Looking over early FFL draft rankings, Steven Jackson is consistently listed as the #3 or #4 overall pick.   You know what?

I’m not buying it.  He’s better than that.

Jackson’s 2007 season was a bust any way you want to measure it.  He finished with 1002 yards and only 5 touchdowns, though he did miss four games to injury.  Still, even when he did play, his production was atrocious.   He only had two games with 100+ rushing yards and six total games with 90+ rushing yards.  The Rams were behind in nearly all their games, which took the focus off the running game.

You can blame any number of things for this poor performance: he was injured, the offensive line was garbage, Torry Holt was injured, Marc Bulger was injured, etc, etc.  Those are all valid points.

This year the Rams have resolved a lot of those problems: Jackson, Holt and Bulger are supposedly healthy, and the Rams drafted offensive linemen in the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th rounds this season.  Maybe most importantly, they dumped Greg Olsen, their offensive coordinator, and replaced him with Al Saunders.  Saunders was the offensive coordinator for the Redskins the past two seasons, and then with the Chiefs the five seasons before that.  Those Redskins and Chiefs teams had some of the best offensive lines in the league those seasons, which bodes well for the Rams.

Oh yeah, and this is a contract year for Mr. Jackson.

I also like the fact that the Rams have a passing game in Bulger and Holt that is good, but not dominant.  Opponents will have to respect the pass this season, which they didn’t  need to do for much of last season. 

Right now, I consider Jackson a strong contender for the best RB in fantasy football.  If you can talk up Peterson and Westbrook to your leaguemates, you might be able to get the best at #4.