tombonneau
Footballguy
Living in LA, I've seen quite a bit of LT2, and he never really has impressed me a great deal. He is a very good RB, a lot like Emmit, but his game & FF success are predicated on grinding it out & getting a lot of carries. He lacks the huge homerun big game ability that the #1 FF backs in the past have had.Looking at RBs and their YPC/game in 2002, LT proved this to me. In 6 games he avg. >5.0ypc, but in the other 10 he averaged less than 4.0ypc. To put it in persepctive, Shaun Alexander, the man whom everyone loves to label Mr. Inconsistant had (ypc/#games) >5.0/3, 4-4.9/4, <4.0/9. Sure, LT is gaining lots of yards in those 3.7 games, but at the cost of 30+ carries and the associated wear & tear.On the other hand, you have Ricky Williams who averaged >5.0/6, 4-4.9/3, <4.0/7, a bit more attractive of a break down than LT.But frankly, IMO, neither of those two is worthy of the #1 pick, a player who should be explosive, be able to take the ball to the end zone from any square foot of the field, gain yardage in huge chunks at a time, be able to post 150 yds on only 20 carries.And that player is Clinton Portis.His YPC/game in 2002 was simply mindblowing as he put in >5.0/8, 4-4.9/6, <4.0/2. The man averaged 5.0ypc in half his games and only posted less than 4.0 twice. That is extremely impressive & something that cannot be ignored. And he was able to do it all with only exceeding 25 carries once (26).When choosing the #1 fantasy back, I don't see how you can ignore YPC on a per game basis, as you can see just exactly how they are gaining & averaging all of their yards. That being said I cannot fathom not taking Portis #1 over LT & Ricky. In fact, I would now rate the top three as 1. Portis 2. Williams 3. LT, whereas I previously had Ricky & LT flip-flopped.