Man, between the hate in here and the hate in the Richardson thread, I honestly think a dynasty owner could make a pretty decent squad betting on the league lepers for pennies on the dollar.
IMO there's plausible explanations for the results we've seen the last few years.
1) 2011 - Chud came to town with his pass happy ways -- it certainly paid off for Carolina and for Cam expecially, but it didn't really bode well for the RBs. Chud should have run the ball more... likely a lot more given the poor D Carolina put on the field, but they were often trailing. Stewart averaged 5.4 YPC for the season, his career best, but lacked the volume as Carolina split carries between Stew and DW nearly down the middle (142 for Stewart; 155 for DW; 126 for Cam) and they didn't exactly pound opponents, finishing 14th in rushing attempts despite their investments in the guys toting the rock. Hard to blame Stewart for a lack of volume.
2) 2012 - Chud does what he always does in his second year... go all mad scientist. And Hurney being Hurney didn't help either -- knowing they didn't run the ball a ton, he goes out and brings in Tolbert. Stewart actually severly injured his ankle in the first preseason game against Tampa, and wasn't right all year. After attempting to rehab, he injures the other ankle and eventually is forced to shut it down. Still, he played in 9 games, but his YPC fell to 3.6. The running game was a wreck with the team switching between zone read, zone blocking, and power blocking schemes. They also couldn't settle on a lead back, rotating DW, Stew, and Tolbert to the extent that none of them could find any sort of rhythm. Stew wasn't the only back to drop off in effectiveness; DW dropped to 4.3 YPC after averaging 5.4 in 2011, but all the running game struggles were masqued by Cam's dominance running from the QB position. For the first time in his career, Stew missed significant action -- 7 games. Prior to 2012 he had played in 62 of 64 career games.
3) 2013 - New OC, a recommitment to the running game, turning the reins over to Stew as a lead back, only Stew couldn't get healthy... lingering issues from both ankle injuries in 2012 forced him to have offseason surgery on both, with his recovery lingering long into the season. Williams, in turn, topped 200 carries for the first time in four years, Cam kept on keeping on, and Tolbert stepped into a complimentary role with 100+ carries of his own. Stewart finally returned to health, but with the team rolling, wasn't really given a ton of opportunity to take the reins. Only 48 attempts on the season for Stew.
Now we enter 2014... Stew is fully healthy for the first time in years. DW is 31 years old, and we've seen the cliff for RBs come completely out of nowhere... father time catches everyone eventually. Tolbert still lingers, as does Cam, but there's opportunity for Stew to get 200+ carries in this offense, and when healthy, he's an athletic freak.
The vitriol in here seems to suggest he's not worth the price of a roster spot, much less his acquisition cost. I find that hard to believe. There's just not a lot of borderline fliers available that have a clear path to playing time as well as the incredibly rare talent we've seen from Stew in the past. He wasn't fully health in 2012, and the recovery bled into 2013. Before that he had never averaged less than 4.3 per carry and twice had topped 5 YPC. He can also catch the ball with a 47 reception season on the ledger. Why not throw a roster spot and a few pennies at this guy? I simply don't get the hate... if he gets hurt, you move on. If he sucks, you move on. If he hits, like he's certainly capable of, you've likely won money assuming you can halfway manage the rest of your roster.
PROGRESS!Shame on people for continuing to pimp this turd.
