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Well, I guess we can't say we weren't warned. Steven Jackson came with disclaimers, fantasy football and otherwise, from nearly anybody who previewed running backs or the St. Louis Rams going into the 2012 season. That might have been built on a lazy foundation—he's 29 years old, which is a lot like being 65 in any other profession—but through four weeks Jackson has yet to have a Steven Jackson-type game.
After 18 carries for 55 yards against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Jackson finds himself on pace for just 747 yards over 219 attempts. His best start of the season, nine carries for 58 yards, was interrupted by a groin injury that a lot of people didn't even think was real.
Now that the conspiracy theories are over—he's been a game-time decision each of the last two weeks—it might just be that Jackson legitimately hasn't been healthy over the last two weeks. If that's the case, and he's not improving by next week, it might be time to give him a week to actually recover and hand the ball over to Daryl Richardson and Isaiah Pead. Jackson's still better than both of them, but it's better to have no Jackson for one week than to have him at 70 percent for the rest of the year.