I'm not sure the fantasy football rankings purists would agree—there are no numbers here, as such—but I think the conclusion Deadspin comes to in its annual fantasy football preview is that Steven Jackson, the St. Louis Rams' only fantasy football asset of note, is trending down. You have to read between the lines here: Specifically, they believe he's going to "[collapse], like a burning Duraflame log that crumples to ash the second you poke it. The poor, poor bastard."
↵To be honest, I actually thought that about Steven Jackson last year. 2010 was the first season he'd ever finished with a yards-per-carry below 4.0, and it was, give or take a carry, the fifth year in a row the Rams had run him 20 times a game. He looked old in Pat Shurmur's conservative offense, and Sam Bradford didn't seem ready enough to help.
↵But 2011 was actually a nice bounce-back season. Given his lightest load since Marshall Faulk was the backup running back, Jackson averaged 4.4 yards per carry in a system that was not designed to give running backs impressive numbers. The 2012 Rams seem 50/50 about poking Jackson a little too hard—they drafted Isaiah Pead, which is good, but they also hired Eddie George's old coach, which is perhaps not the best fit for a 29-year-old with 2138 attempts already on the clock.
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