In the interests of a serious discussion, instead of people posting random lists with their favorite rb way up at the top, let's talk about some of these guys.
adrian peterson will be the number one pick for the next couple years. Even if he tears another acl, he will be top ten.
Darren mcfadden can be the number one back this year and he won't go above top five because people will always worry about the injury risk.
Same thing is true about cj2k and the flakiness of his down seasons. I love him this year and I think he can be top five, but there are still 10+ backs I would take ahead of him. People who don't like him as much as I do have a longer list. Hard to picture him going top 5, and certainly not first or second overall.
Richardson is probably the only guy I can see moving into the number one overall spot. Yes, he has injury concerns too, but the norv turner factor and the overall talent could push him ahead of peterson if needed.
Mccoy, martin, spiller, charles, foster, lynch, rice are all obvious candidates to stay in the mix. But lynch has michael behind him, and that could push him out of the top tier.
Fosters value could nosedive this season with an injury and a successful tate season. Ditto mccoy and brown, but I'm not sold on browns long term potential. Rice and pierce have a similar problem too, but rice is the man there until he isn't.
Unlike those guys, martin, spiller and charles just have to earn it. It might make sense to put them slightly higher on the list than the others. But I can easily see martin having a sophomore slump, or spiller failing in his first real shot as a full season starter, or charles getting hurt again. And if any of that happens, it will impact next years top ten.
Next we have forte and sjax. They're pretty unlikely to move up, because forte doesn't get goal line carries and sjax is old.
Wilson and miller are fairly likely to move up. A healthy and not unsuccessful season could bump those guys up by default if the guys ahead of them stumble.
Then there's the rookies. Lacy could make the jump with a big season. Id be surprised to see him in the top five, but he can flirt with top ten like ryan grant used to. Gio could get there if he was sure to have goal line carries, or if bjge got the boot in the offseason. Montee ball would become top ten just by playing studly down the stretch - as long as peyton has another year in him.
Lattimore and michael would probably be top fifteen at best - people would be very high on their potential if they got starting jobs next year, but they probably won't have enough opportunity to show something this year.
There are other guys who could break through. Bradshaw could get there with a fully healthy rb1 season. I would be surprised if ballard got there. Richardson could put up big numbers and get there easily, as could any of the other stl rbs.
I'm sure I'm missing a few, even on a list with way more than ten guys on it, but this seems more productive than an arbitrary top ten
