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I think my hyperbole comes out of my interpretation that some LT owners and ( I guess to an extent Chargers fans) seem to be thinking everything is cool...that the wheels will never fall off. I think the treads on him are ripping. I think the same thing is happening to Westbrook right now. As far as fantasy football goes.... I'm not advocating dumping for pennies on the dollar....but I'm not buying at the cost one of these two will cost. Their name and previous production bump the price up to where I don't want to pay...particularly with newbies and casual players. I passed on both of them in the second round of my drafts ( to get Frank Gore).
I'm both (LT owner and Charger fan) and while I don't see 2006 LT returning anytime soon, I still see an extremely productive RB playing on probably the 2nd best offense in football. Health is a concern, just as it is with MBill, and Knowshon, and lots of other RBs.
I think most Charger fans can see the reality of the situation. We know the 2006 Tomlinson (or anything close to it) isn't going to happen again. But I don't think he's any worse than a guy like Thomas Jones or Cedric Benson. There's no reason (except injury, and we recognize that he's now injury prone) he can't be productive for another year or two in that kind of role. The Chargers could be a very successful offense while still employing Tomlinson to the mutual benefit of both. The guys that have to buy into that are LaDainian and Norv. I'm hoping the last couple of weeks will bring them around to that.FF owners will have some upset stomachs going forward due to his health concerns, but he should be in lineups when he's expected to play.
Good luck to you and him then. I hope he doesn't play well on the week the Eagles play and on the weeks I have to play him.
I'm not a psychic, so Sproles might indeed be the man this season, but it's not due to the 5.4 ypc last season. He had 61 carries, so all it would take is a handful of long runs to artificially raise the average. He ran often out of spread sets and in passing situations, which tend to help the ypc as well. The 2.6 ypc this season is probably unfair the other way, as the Ravens are not known to be weak against the run, the Raiders DL was inspired and is pretty good, too, and the Chargers OL is struggling and injured.The best apples to apples comparison is MNF against the Raiders as Sproles had the same role against the same team. LT 13 for 55 and DS 9 for 23 gives the nod to LT. Obviously very limited sample size.I'd consider LT a bigger injury risk at this time than Sproles, but it must be mentioned that Sproles has 162 carries for his entire career, only twice has had more than 14 carries in a game, and the end of 2008 was the only time he has had double-digit carries in three consecutive games. It's premature to suggest he can handle anything approaching workhorse-level carries without himself encountering injury. It's not that he can't do it, but that he hasn't done it before.The only thing I'm certain of his that hindsight will be 20-20 on this one.
Expletive.
Exactly the same for me. I am really hating drafting LT as my number 1 RB right now
exactly, most charger homers realize that the end is near for him and he is not really a legit RB1 in ffl anymore.
Didn't practice yesterday, sounds dubious about playing this week. Hardwick out 8 weeks at least, Vazquez sounds doubtful for Sunday. Dielman has some sickness and missed practice yesterday. See the official Charger thread for details.
Link?
I agree. I am an LT owner and I would rather see him 100% healthy. He already isn't the LT of old, and if he's healthy, he still can be a viable RB2, sharing time with Sproles. SD still has a potent offense, and LT can still punch it in from near the goalline.
Everyone is talking about when he's healthy he'll still be a solid productive back, not his usual self, etcetcetc. But how about Sproles' production. Even last year, with both guys playing, sproles stole a lot of LT;s thunder. I remember watching him scamper in on screens from 30 yards out thinking, 'back in the days that was LT doing the same exact thing.' Now he's sitting on teh sidelines. Granted he wasn't 100%, but who's to say he will be 100% the rest of the year. And if by week 6 sproles is running a muck, even a 100% LT coming back can be relegated to 50% touches. Makes sense from a non fantasy perspective, keep him and sproles healthy for the playoff run. But from a FF perspective, makes him worthless, while sproles at even 50% touches can be startable. Dunno, I think LT is done, in FANTASY FOOTBALL terms. In pure football terms he'll still hang on for a year or 2, but even there I just don't see much. I don't think he's even a TJones anymore to be honest...Got an offer for McNabb straight up, in a qb skewed league, and will likely pull the trigger...
Assuming LT comes back healthy in week 6 this is not a RBBC and he's not going to be relegated to 50% of the touches. He's going to be the main man except passing downs. I don't think Sproles averages 5 carries a game when LT returns.
Based on what?!?!? Your opinion as an LT owner? I own LT also, took him at 1.9 and am paying for it. But I'm not blind because of it. Sproles is producing, and producing like a horse. Not 15 carries for 65 yards. He's a threat to break it any time he gets the ball, and that offense is high octane. They are unstoppable with sproles in there, not the case with LT. We'll see, obviously I'm not the coach so its my opinion the same as you have yours, but I just don't see the old, 'when LT comes back Sproles is back to 3rd down and gets 5 carries and 3 catches.' Not gonna happen like that IMO. If anything, I can see sproles at more than 50%. WHy would you take out LT on 3rd downs anyways, if he was still all that. He's one of the best pass catching rbs in the history of the league...
Does unstoppable include having some semblance of an inside running game?
I think a far more germane question is whether inside running is even doable with Hardwick and Vasquez out of the lineup?
THis is 2009 guy. An inside running game is not mutually exclusive to being a winning team. And it most certainly is not a mutually exclusive part of being an explosive offense. Furthermore, Sproles is capable of the 3 yards and a dust of cloud, WHEN NECESSARY. Running him inside 20 times a game is certainly not going to work, but with their weapons, they have plenty of 1st and 10 and 2nd and 3rd and short plays that do not necessary involve running through the middle. And finally, I haven't seen LT run up the middle with any sort of conviction in over a year...
Apparently it wasn't necessary on 4th and 2.
If you can't run inside, at least sometimes, you're proper ####ed. Norv isn't going to abandon that. It's a dimension Tomlinson gives gave them that Sproles can't. Just the lack of Tomlinson's presence in the backfield cost the Chargers dearly when they got close to the goal line last week. Even if he dosen't get the ball the fact that the D has to honor the possibility that he does opens things up for everything else.
Sproles capable of the 3 yards and a "dust of cloud"? 
And it's not even close. They keep trying that and he'll break apart on the field.So if LT was in there instead of sproles, he would have broke the Ray Lewis tackle?!? Sounds about right. He probably would have leaped over Ray right into the endzone from where they were. Sounds about right...
If LT were in there they would have converted one of their 5 opportunities inside the 10 into a TD.If LT were in there they would not have tried that stupid pass on 3rd & 2 in the heavy jumbo set. The bottom line is that the Chargers have to get creative to pick up short yardage situations when Sproles is in there. With LT they can give it to him and pound it up the middle repeatedly.I like Sproles and think he could be a featured back but he has some serious limitations with short yardage situations being chief among them.
I am starting to believe that one day a fantasy football player is going to take a shot at an NFL player.
I can't disagree with that logic. However, I do question how much actual 'production' they'll get LT or Sproles up the middle this year with their O-line banged up. But I also agree that if they run Sproles too much inside, he won't last.I'm as interested as any LT owner to see what he can do if he can get his health mojo back. But I'm not holding my breath on that.
I don't let me owning a player dictate my opinions. I'm down on LT. I think right now I put him on par with Ryan Grant who I viewed as a mid third round pick in a 12 team PPR league. He's a first and second down back who gets all the goaline work on a potentially high powered offense. That's not horrible but not what I had in mind when I picked him in the first round either. Here are some reasons I don't think Sproles averages more than 5 carries a game when LT returns:* Sproles is not getting it down as an every down runner. He's electric in space but he has not set the world on fire with his every down running.*In two games Sproles has played that LT has not suited up he has gotten 10 and 11 carries. He did get 22 against the Colts in game LT played in but 10 and 11 carries when LT is not even suiting up does not suggest they plan for him to have a large role in the running game so I don't feel projecting him for less than 5 carries when LT returns is so shocking. *Norv Turner has never used a RBBC.I think LT will play some third downs because he has pass catching skills and he's a terrific blocker which will become more neccassary with the OL issues but the third down/passing down role will largely be held by Sproles and that's enough to seriously dent LT's value especially in PPR leagues.
Just for the sake of relevance, where do you think he'll finish after he misses the first 4 games? Just askin.
But we can speculate on his production going forward ,can't we? In fact that is the key to fantasy success.LT did not look good at the end of last season and there was a great deal of speculation, looking for a reason for this decline.Basically you had three camps:A) Age - he got old and worn down. This was based on the 30 year old RB model we all know so well.B) Injury (He will be back) - He had a bum toe that bothered him and in fact kept him out when the Chargers needed him the most. He has been working out in the presason and looks good. There are no other backs for the Chargers to really steal his carries and it seems his goal line work will not be declining.C) Age + Injury (He is done) - Last year was very telling, even when he played last year he did not look like the old LT.Now we are seeing more evidence that he really is on the decline and to ignore that could be very costly in FF.
Are you guys holding Sproles accountable for Ray Lewis blowing him up on 4th and 2 as soon as he got the handoff? Wow.Sproles capable of the 3 yards and a "dust of cloud"?
And it's not even close. They keep trying that and he'll break apart on the field.
none of us know what that future will hold. certainly not until we see how sproles does the next 4 games, but if they are anything like the last three LT could be this years Edgerrin James 2008 or Suax 2007
I was thinking more of all the other times they tried to run Sproles into the line and he got squished for no yards. Wow.
not really (surprisingly). But Most teams don't have a gates quality TE and The receiver/qb combos that SD has. Combine this with the decimated line, and inside running will be a "keep em honest" part of the game plan, but that you will see a lot more of a "spread" style offense. As teams eagerly rush the (crappy) middle , you just dump to sproles and/or seam to gates instead. It's not traditional, but it seem in this case to be effective.
That was a blown assignment by the pulling guard. was so keyed on getting downfield to block (he missed ray lewis charge the line and blitz) Thers not a back in the league who is gonna get 4 and 2 when you get blindisded by an unblocked ray lewis.
would you care to make a wager on that?
why would I think that he would miss 4 games is his sprained ankle degenerative?
