Lost the Edge
07/17/2003
Codding Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
Everybody's talking about LaDainian Tomlinson, Ricky Williams, Deuce McAllister and Clinton Portis.
Nobody seems to remember who Edgerrin James is.
In fantasy football drafts this year, LT, Ricky, Deuce and Portis will all be top picks.
Edge will likely be an afterthought after most owners have already filled their fantasy backfields.
People wonder how the hip injury Priest Holmes suffered at the end of last season will affect the former rushing champ's upcoming campaign.
Those same people forget that James led the NFL in rushing in both 1999 (1,553 yards) and 2000 (1,709 yards) before injuring his knee two years ago.
For two and a half years, Edgerrin James reigned as the AFC's premier running back and, in some people's minds, he even stood above Marshall Faulk as the top back in all of football. Drafted fourth overall by the Colts, who shocked everybody by selecting the Miami star over Heisman winner Ricky Williams in 1999, James proved to all the critics that the Indy brass knew a little something about talent when he led the NFL with 1,553 rushing yards as a rookie.
But it wasn't just those ground totals that set Edge apart from his peers; his soft hands gave the Colts an explosive receiving threat out of the backfield. In that remarkable rookie season, James caught 62 passes for 586 yards and four touchdowns, giving him 2,139 all-purpose yards and 17 total touchdowns.
Faulk, meanwhile, amassed 2,429 all-purpose yards with 12 combined scores.
Then in 2000, James somehow managed to trump his debut performance, running for 1,709 yards while catching 63 passes for 594 receiving yards. Edge's 2,303 total yards topped Faulk's 2,189 but Marshall, who ironically was shipped out of Indianapolis in a 1999 draft-day trade to clear room for the Colts' new rookie runner, dwarfed James' own impressive touchdown total, 26 to 18.
Things changed, however, in a week-seven victory over the Chiefs in 2001. After running for 102 yards on 27 carries against Kansas City, James left the game with a season-ending knee injury, ending his two-year term as rushing champ and also putting the start of his 2002 season in jeopardy. With Edge on the shelf, a new AFC back took over his throne, Kansas City's Priest Holmes, who totaled 1,555 yards on the ground while providing some notable secondary stats of his own with 62 catches for 614 receiving yards.
Yet, despite early worries that he wouldn't be ready for the opening kickoff last year, James ran for a promising 99 yards on 26 carries in a week-one win over the Jaguars. A week later, he ripped off 138 yards on 30 carries against Miami while adding eight catches for 82 more yards. Against the Texans in week three, James ran for another 88 yards in a 23-3 win in Houston. Following his summer-long rehab, Edge amazingly looked ready to regain his crown just months after tearing up his knee.
But right about then people started to forget just how good this kid was.
Week five: 60 yards on 22 carries against the lowly Bengals.
Week seven: 62 yards on 20 carries.
Week eight: 33 yards on 14 carries.
So after gaining 325 yards in his first three games of the year, which paced him for about 1,730 yards over the course of the season, James managed just 198 yards in his next four outings. Even worse, his yards/carry average dropped from 4.01 throughout those first three games to a pathetic 2.71.
Things picked up bit for the Indy back after sitting out weeks nine and 10 with a minor injury, running for 106 yards in a win over the Cowboys, but that just about marked the last highlight of the season for the former rushing leader. In his final seven games, including Indy's embarrassing 41-0 loss to the Jets in the playoffs, Edge ran for a paltry 374 yards on 108 attempts. His output in that shutout loss to New York was particularly dismal: 14 yards on only nine attempts.
The final 2002 line wasn't much better: 277 carries, 989 rushing yards, two touchdowns. And while James hauled in 60-plus passes for the third time in four years, he only managed 354 receiving yards and one extra touchdown. For a guy who accumulated nearly 4,500 all-purpose yards and 35 total touchdowns in his first two years in the league, Edge's stat sheet looked remarkably barren.
And so we forgot.
Our focus instead shifted to Tomlinson, the second-year San Diego running back who rumbled for 1,683 yards and 14 touchdowns to go along with his 79 receptions. We finally saw what Ricky Williams was truly capable of in Miami, leading the NFL with 1,853 yards rushing to go along with 17 total touchdowns. Ricky's replacement in New Orleans, Deuce McAllister, was nearly as effective as his predecessor with 1,388 yards and 16 combined touchdowns. And then there was rookie Clinton Portis who, in another ironic twist, succeeded Edge in Miami before totaling 1,508 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in his rookie campaign with the Broncos. As for Holmes, his hip injury derailed what nonetheless turned out to be a magical season: 1,615 rushing yards, 672 receiving yards, 24 total touchdowns.
Don't be surprised if Edge makes us remember again this year. He's still only 24 years old, and as so many backs before him have proven, it often takes another year after rehab to fully recover from torn knee ligaments.
Remember, this is still the same guy who averaged 4.2 yards/carry as a rookie. This is still the same guy who averaged 4.4 yards/carry in his second season. This is still the same guy who led the league in rushing each of his first two pro campaigns, the only running back ever to accomplish that feat.
And yet, Edgerrin James will likely be forgotten when debates about the league's best back awaken in the coming months. He'll likely be forgotten when fantasy football owners look to stock up their backfields this year. And he'll likely be forgotten when people wonder aloud who will win the rushing title in 2003.
All this despite the fact that he plays in one of the AFC's most lethal offenses, surrounded by star talent like Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Dominic Rhodes, who replaced James in the starting lineup following his injury, ran for more than 1,100 yards and nine touchdowns in just 10 starts two years ago. Just imagine what a healthy and fully recovered Edgerrin James is capable of this season.
Fortunately, we don't have to imagine it because we've already seen it. So to everybody in my fantasy football leagues this year, go ahead and let Edge slide past you on draft day.
Because I've got a feeling we're going to see it again.
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all e-mails to jcodding@bullz-eye.com.