As if I didn't have enough reasons, as a St. Louis Rams fan, to love Marshall Faulk: The Hall of Fame running back predicted on NFL.com that they wouldn't use the No. 6 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft on Trent Richardson with money invested in the still-valuable Steven Jackson. Faulk generalizes from personal experience to say that Jackson "has problems playing with another premier back"—which could possibly, as the rest of the table speculates, mean Trung Canidate...
The major reason the Rams shouldn't draft Trent Richardson is easier to explain: He won't be Marshall Faulk or Steven Jackson, even if he's just as good. Individual running backs carry the ball less frequently than ever, and even with Jackson gone—and assuming he's as good as the two consecutive Hall of Famers the Rams have trotted out there behind him—Richardson wouldn't have the same workload either back did.
Running backs are just less important than they used to be. That may or may not appeal to your sense of what football should be, but it had better appeal to the Rams' sense of what football is.
More NFL Draft 2012 coverage from SB Nation St. Louis:
- The St. Louis Rams have denied they're thinking about trading Steven Jackson.
- Whatever happens with the running backs, the Sam Bradford-Robert Griffin III comparisons are going to prove unbearable almost immediately.
- Check out SB Nation St. Louis's 2012 NFL Mock Draft.