Daryl Richardson outshines Steven Jackson, (justly) terrifies fantasy football owners

I've been waiting a while to make the call, but now I think it's officially reasonable for Steven Jackson fantasy football owners to panic about the St. Louis Rams running back's playing time. After monopolizing the Rams' carries for most of the year despite his ineffectiveness, Jackson finally appears to be playing like his old self—and now he's splitting carried with Daryl Richardson. During the Rams' Week 6 loss to the Dolphins Jackson got 12 carries for 52 yards, for a perfectly respectable 4.3 average. Richardson, meanwhile, got 11 carries for 76 yards.

44 of those were on one attempt, of course, but whatever the results, during one of Steven Jackson's more effective games he got 15 touches (3/28 through the air) to seventh-rounder Daryl Richardson's 13 (2/23.) Isaiah Pead even touched the ball!

Steven Jackson is still the starting running back on this team, and he's probably still the more effective one, though I feel much less certain about that than I did a few weeks ago. But now—after Week 6—is officially the moment where it looks like Jackson's fantasy football value is on a serious downward trend. Of course, it's also worth noting that neither Richardson nor Jackson nor any Rams rusher except Sam Bradford has a rushing touchdown yet.