Week 1 of the fantasy football season is well underway by now, and nervous Steven Jackson owners now have two confusing sets of stimulus to freak out about. One: He's done! He averaged fewer than three yards per carry against the Detroit Lions! Two: He's the full-time starter! He carried the ball 21 times and tied for the team-lead in receptions! And Isaiah Pead didn't even touch the football!
So: Of the two things that have set Steven Jackson owners into full-time offseason anxiety attacks, one was "proven" right and the other wrong. So far as I can tell, that means nothing's been proven except the very boring idea that you need more than one week of playing time to prove whether your aging feature back is going to be able to carry the fantasy load you need from him in 2012.
Lots of questions still remain unanswered. We'll have to see what the Rams do when Isaiah Pead is integrated in the offense, and we'll have to see how much they're willing to ride Steven Jackson when he gets off to another poor start. In general I still think the likeliest outcome is a solid season in which, like last year, he plays a little less than we're used to Steven Jackson playing. It seems like the only rational thing to do with a 29-year-old who's endowed a permanent chair in the "probable" section of the Rams' injury report.
↵