The 2011 NFL Draft is over, and Steven Jackson is still pegged to get the vast majority of rushing opportunities in the St. Louis Rams' offense. Whether that's by the design or the result of the Rams' thinking on the running back as a position or the individual players available is anybody's guess, but with college free agents lining up to be picked there remain some options for St. Louis once free agency actually opens up.
Turf Show Times offers a list of possible running backs, including Graig Cooper, Derrick Locke, and Noel Devine. Kenneth Darby, the primary backup in 2010, was a seventh-rounder in the 2007 NFL Draft, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers project; Keith Toston, the only other running back to pick up at least 10 carried in 2010, was undrafted out of Oklahoma.
Those aren't, perhaps, the most sparkling endorsements for running back bargain-hunting, but there's always Willie Parker and Priest Holmes—and Lawrence Philips, perhaps—on the other side of the ledger. Nobody the Rams sign off the street is likely to take over for Steven Jackson someday, but he might take up some slack for Jackson in 2011.