Tough to Rank: DeAngelo Williams
Time for everyone's favorite short-lived running segment from last year I forgot about: Tough to Rank. In it, I bring up a player that could seemingly go in any direction and throw it to the floor to find out your infinite wisdom.
First up is last year's Fantasy MVP: DeAngelo Williams. In the first half of last season, Williams was the RB19: 620 total yards, five scores. In the second half, he went bonkers: 1,038 total yards, 15 scores!
The Panthers had 500 rushing attempts and 30 rushing scores last year. Those overall numbers are likely to fall with a tougher schedule that includes both Eastern Divisions.
So which guy do we get this year? Jonathan Stewart had 89 fewer carries than Williams last year; will he close the gap?
Early Mock Draft data has Williams going as a mid-to-late first-round pick. My tone here probably makes it obvious that I see that as tough to swallow. But obviously we can't dismiss last year's top scorer. Let me know where you think he fits.
Comments
Two words for all of you:
Lamar Smith
THIS is who D. Williams is going to remind everyone of. One season he's a stud. Now comes the crash...
Posted by: Bryan Penney | May 4, 2009 01:00 PM
To (Bryan Penney)
Lamar Smith averaged a cool 3.7 in his 1 notable season. No way you can even begin to compare him to Deangelo Williams.
I think people forget just how good D-Willy was in college and how good he has been in the NFL.
Posted by: Shawn | May 4, 2009 01:24 PM
Looking back on Williams' numbers from last season, he had 5 100+ yd. games (including 2 150+) in the second half of the season. In those last 8 games Stewart averaged 11 carries per game, Williams averaged 19. This shows that even though Stewart was getting only a little less than half the carries, Williams was still extremely productive with the carries he was getting. The Panthers won 6 of their last 8 games. I think Fox will want to keep the carries about the same since it was working so well last season. If that is the case, then I'd say that Williams definitely belongs ranked with the RB1's, and Stewart with the RB3's.
Posted by: Reaper | May 4, 2009 01:39 PM
Everyone that is talking about him like he is some one year wonder needs to do their homework on Deangelo at Memphis.
He carried that team on his back and broke all sorts of records in the process, he didn't just all of a sudden get talented.
As people have stated Fox won't stop feeding his veterans, even when they suck(see:Foster), and DWill is coming off an amazing season, there is absolutely no reason not to continue feeding him.
Now he's going late 1st, but the funny thing is with one more 20 TD season in 2010 he'll be a top 2 pick and he'll be looked at as a steal late in the 1st in 09.
Posted by: Chris R. | May 4, 2009 01:51 PM
I don't see Williams going before guys like Jacobs, Gore or any WR1, like Reggie Wayne, Roddy White, etc. I'd put him near #30 overall. I'm just not sold on him, regardless of what happened in the 2nd half of last year.
Posted by: Nitty | May 4, 2009 01:59 PM
Deangelo has bust written all over him and I hate saying that as I rode his back all the way to the title last year. Of course the guy will get his carries but can your team live with 100 yards and two TD's one week and then 32 yards and no Td's the next? Personally I see a way bigger upside with Chris Johnson who also has a solid line and is going to take more goal line carries from Plumpy this year.
Posted by: Tfram | May 4, 2009 02:02 PM
I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say 100 yds 2 TD's and then 32 and no TD's...Williams went over 100 yds in 6 (not 5) of his last 8 games and only failed to reach the endzone in one of those games. He also had 4 multi-TD games out of those 7. That seems pretty consistent to me. As for Chris Johnson taking the goal-line carries from Plumpy, you must not have read Gregg's post about stuffs: "Only Dominic Rhodes was "stuffed" at or behind the line of scrimmage a higher percentage of times than Johnson. I love the kid, and will rank him in the top-five overall picks this season, but the Titans weren't totally irrational handing LenDale White 21 carries inside the five-yard line, to only four for Johnson."
I still think Stewart will steal a few more of Williams' goal-line carries, but even so I still think he is just as valuable as C. Johnson.
Posted by: Reaper | May 4, 2009 03:47 PM