Jones is young enough and skilled enough that he should eventually land another job. While he won’t be a starter at first, if he can stay healthy there is no limit to what he can accomplish. It wasn’t too long ago that Jones was considered one of the best up-and-coming running backs in the NFL.

Here’s a Kevin Jones workout video that shows his mobility is still top notch:

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Fred Taylor, Jacksonville Jaguars
It seems like Fred Taylor is underrated every season. Expect that to hold true in 2008. While Maurice Jones-Drew gets all the publicity, Taylor is the workhorse on the team and is arguably the best player on the team.

Laurence Maroney, New England Patriots
Fantasy football owners will look at Laurence Maroney’s lukewarm 2007 campaign and won’t feel compelled to select him too early. But if you watched the Patriots closely, you would have realized how much more important he became later in the season. Expect that to carry over in 2008.

Willie Parker, Pittsburgh Steelers
Willie Parker has a lot of negative surrounding him right now. He’s coming off of a major injury. He had only two touchdowns in 2007. His backup, Najeh Davenport, played very well. Even with all that, Parker is an extremely solid running back prospect who should find the end zone more in 2008.

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By Guest Blogger, Ron Bishow

A friend of mine emails me most week for some fantasy advice, usually pertaining to who might be a good pick up on the waiver wire, and this Monday’s email caught my attention.

He asked me what I thought about the third string running back for the Buffalo Bills Fred Jackson, wondering “how the hell am I supposed to know anything about the Bills third string back?” I am sure many Bills fans are wondering the same thing after Marshawn Lynch and A-Train went down with injuries.

Jackson had 65 total yards Sunday, and will be playing a Redskins team this week that is generally weak against the run. Still, that is pretty much guessing advice on if Jackson is worth a play or not. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who is carrying the ball, but how good the team is overall at running the ball.

The Denver Broncos are the perfect example. Every season they throw a different body out there and they run for 1,500 yards. This season alone they have gotten 100 yard games out of Travis Henry, Selvin Young and this past week Andre Hall who had 167 total yards and score. Denver is such a good running team that any player that starts for them is a great start no matter what.

Take the Miami Dolphins as another example. They might have not won a game all season, but one thing they can do is run the ball. Ronnie Brown was leading the league in rushing before he got hurt, and if you through out Monday night’s mud bowl, the Dolphins had averaged 115 yards a game on the ground and scored 10 rushing touchdowns. That makes this week’s probable random starter Patrick Cobbs a decent option at back if Jessie Chatman can’t go.

Here are the top ten ranked teams in rushing this season.

1 Minnesota 173.3
2 Pittsburgh 141.7
3 Jacksonville 138.5
4 Tennessee 132.0
5 Oakland 131.4
6 Washington 124.6
7 New England 124.2
8 Denver 124.0
9 Indianapolis 123.6
10 NY Giants 123.2

Surprised to see the Patriots in there since they seem to throw every down, but just look at how many of those teams have used multiple starters. The aforementioned Broncos, the Giants (Jacobs, Ward, Droughns), Minnesota (Peterson, Taylor), Tennessee (Brown, White), Indy (Addai, Keith), Oakland (Jordon, Vargas) and Jacksonville always plays Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew.

What separates a great back from a good back is what a player can do after they break the line of scrimmage or what they can do in traffic, like Adrian Peterson. If a player was good enough to make a NFL team, chances are if they have a good offensive line they will be able to get 90 yards on 20 carries.

He might not be a name you recognize, but remember fantasy is a game of numbers not letters.

Ron Bishow has been reporting on the sports world for the past seven years for AOL, Tribune interactive and CO-ED Magazine among others. He is such a fantasy sports fanatic he plays fantasy NASCAR. He is currently a contributing writer and video producer at www.newyork.metromix.com.

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