Bleeping Idiots

I have looked at stats from last season, taken into consideration the starting line-ups for each team throughout last year, and the expected line-ups for this coming season. I have been through the injury reports from last year and the injury reports so far this season, and the facts are undeniable…Stephen Jackson is a better running back than Adrian Peterson.

From a Fantasy Football perspective, AP has been hyped up to the point that some people are drafting him first overall, or at least second in most leagues. Now first of all I don’t know how there is even any kind of debate on whether one should draft LT or AP first overall, that is just ludicrous. Everyone is putting all their hopes on an injury prone RB who had an excellent ROOKIE year. Does anyone remember Cadillac Williams’ rookie year? How about Kevin Jones? Where are they now? In fact, I don’t know if either running back was actually drafted in my most recent fantasy draft.

Now lets get into the facts about Each running back. Adrian Peterson broke into the league by gaining over 100yds in 4 of his first 5 games — with 224 yds in one game. However, after week6, he only broke the 80yd mark twice for the rest of the year. Stephen Jackson on the other hand started off the season much slower with only one 100yd rushing game in the first 3 weeks, and then he was injured and missed the next 4 weeks of the season. The main thing I want to look at is how the two Running Backs finished in the second half of the season. Obviously no defense was expecting Adrian Peterson to cause them so many problems, but once defenses around the league started to catch on, they made life for AP a lot tougher in the NFL.

I compared the stats for both players from weeks 10-17to see who finished the season stronger. From weeks 10-17, Adrian Peterson averaged 50.83 yds per game in 6 games and 16.2 yds receiving for a total of about 67 total yard per game. He also scored 4 total TDs in that span. Stephen Jackson finished out the season with an average of 91 rushing yard per game, throughout 8 games, and added another 25.6 yds receiving for a total of 116.6 total yds per game. So in the second half of the season, Stephen Jackson averaged almost double the yards that Peterson did throughout the final 8 weeks of the season. Jackson also scored a total of 5 TDs in that span. Even if you add in Peterson’s record breaking 296 yds in week 9 to his second half average, he still would have averaged only 85.8 yds per game. Overall, the stats clearly show that Jackson ended the season MUCH stronger than Peterson did, and he was far more consistent as well. In the second half of the season, Jackson rushed for 75+ yds in 7 of those 8 weeks, had 4 or mor ereceptions in 5 of those games, and also scored a TD in 5 different games. Peterson rushed for 75+yds only twice in 6 games, including a 3 yard outing against the 49ers, and did not catch more than 3 passes in any game.

Some other factors that clearly lead me to believe that Jackson is the better back include:

- The fact that Stephen Jackson not only missed 4 games due to injury and still reached 1000yds on the season, but also the fact that Jackson played another two games without his starting QB.

- The fact that Stephen Jackson played behind a mind boggling 18 different Offensive Line combinations throughout the season. While Peterson’s OL stayed pretty much intact for the entire season.

I am not saying that AP is not a good player, in fact I think that he will be an elite RB in the NFL for years to come, if he can stay healthy. I mean the guy set the single game rushing record in his rookie season. However, if you looka t AP’s two biggest games (296yds 3TDs against San Diego, and 224yds 3 TDs against Chicago) combined, he gained 520 yards and scored 6 TDs. That does not say much for AP’s consistency however, because those two games alone made up almost 40% of his total rushing yards for the season and 50% of his TD total.

Sure, fantasy owners were very happy in those weeks that AP blew up, but how about the game against San Francisco where he rushed 14 times for 3 yards? Jackson never failed to reach 50 yards in a game last year, where Peterson failed to reach the 50 yard mark 4 times.

I feel like everyone has been hyping Adrian Peterson up so much over the past year because of what a great season he had last year, and yeah it was a good season, but he was actually very inconsistent. Therefore, I have to say that whether looking at the two from a fantasy perspective or just in general, I feel like the stats and the facts all say that the controversy over the best RB in the league should not be between LT and AP, but instead be between LT and SJ….