Chris Fumatu Ma'afala Signs

[Abe Sargent]

Chris Fu signed today with the Jags. Have to admit that the team has made some smart and good cap acquisitions this year.

Anyways, was Chris worth it? A lot of teams were looking at picking him up week two after the veteran guarantee for the full salary drops to half the salary. Did the Jags jump the ship and make a questionably poor cap move or is Chris good enough to stay on the roster the whole year long and contribute on the field?

-Anxiety

[Swaggs]

How much did he sign for?

Fu is a good clubhouse guy and a good runner, but for his size, is not very durable. I think he is a nice 2 down back, if you have a specialist for 3rd downs or go to a 4-wide often.

[General Mike]

I don't really see Fu getting that many carries this year, unless Fred Taylor suffers a major injury. LaBrandon Toefield is gonna get the rest of the playing time. It's always nice to had a good 3rd stringer tho.

[The_herd]

Originally posted by General Mike
I don't really see Fu getting that many carries this year, unless Fred Taylor suffers a major injury.

That could never happen.

[General Mike]

Originally posted by The_herd
That could never happen.

Poor Freddy T. Gets no respect.

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by General Mike
Poor Freddy T. Gets no respect.

does he deserve any? the man warrants a lifetime of injury jokes.

[PilotMan]

Taylor and Fu?

Someone, quick get the strecher!!!!!

aaaaahhahahahahahah!

[sterlingice]

Fred Taylor is a top 3 back in the league when healthy. That's a big caveat there.

SI

[Vince]

Top three? Maybe top 5...

[The_herd]

Originally posted by sterlingice
Fred Taylor is a top 3 back in the league when healthy. That's a big caveat there.

SI

I could still name 10 backs I'd rather have instead of him.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by The_herd
I could still name 10 backs I'd rather have instead of him.

You have got to be kidding me. When healthy you can name 10 backs better than Fred Taylor? He would get 1500 yards a season if he could ever stay healthy for 16 games. I can't name a lot of backs with those credentials. Again, he has yet to do that (while he was in all 16 games last year, he wasn't healthy at the end of the year as is evidenced by his low carry numbers in the last couple of games).

SI

[Franklinnoble]

I think Taylor's injury prone nature is exactly why most GM's could name 10 RB's they'd rather have.

[scooper]

Originally posted by sterlingice
You have got to be kidding me. When healthy you can name 10 backs better than Fred Taylor? He would get 1500 yards a season if he could ever stay healthy for 16 games. I can't name a lot of backs with those credentials. Again, he has yet to do that (while he was in all 16 games last year, he wasn't healthy at the end of the year as is evidenced by his low carry numbers in the last couple of games).

SI

"When healthy" is the key phrase here. Football is not played in a vacuum. You can't just take away his health issues when arguing his worth.

[sterlingice]

I know it's a couple of posts up the board so I'll post this here again:

Originally posted by sterlingice
Fred Taylor is a top 3 back in the league when healthy. That's a big caveat there.

SI

Note the bolded text, no less, and the fact that I went out of the way to say that is a big caveat.

Of course his health is an issue- that's why he's not a first round pick in most fantasy leagues- everyone knows he can't stay healthy. Although I thought I had already made that clear.

I mean, c'mon, this is definately something that can be argued- maybe you think Faulk, Holmes, Tomlinson, and Ricky Williams or some other group of backs are better even when Fred Taylor is at 100% but at least disagree with what I said.

SI

[Franklinnoble]

Backs that are better than Fred Taylor healthy:

Marshall Faulk
Priest Holmes
Stephen Davis
LaDanian Tomlinson
Ricky Williams

Backs that are better than Fred Taylor if he only plays half a season:

Trung Canidate
Kenny Watson
Ladell Betts
Willis McGahee
Garrison Hearst
Onterrio Smith
Terrell Davis
Maurice Clarett
etc., etc., etc....

[The_herd]

10 backs I would rather have on my team:

Ricky Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Priest Holmes
Marshall Faulk
Shaun Alexander
Ahman Green
Clinton Portis
Deuce McAllister
Edgerrin James
Travis Henry

You could also throw in:

Jamal Lewis
Tiki Barber
William Green
Stephen Davis

If I was positive Taylor was going to be healthy for 16 games I would still say these guys are better:

Ricky Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Priest Holmes
Marshall Faulk
Clinton Portis
Deuce McAllister
Edgerrin James

[SteelerFan448]

Fu is a good situational player (3rd down back) and a solid special teams player. I don't know if he could ever be a full-time starter, but bottom line is that he is injured too much. That is why he isn't wearing black and gold anymore.

[scooper]

Originally posted by The_herd
10 backs I would rather have on my team:

Ricky Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Priest Holmes
Marshall Faulk
Shaun Alexander
Ahman Green
Clinton Portis
Deuce McAllister
Edgerrin James
Travis Henry

You could also throw in:

Jamal Lewis
Tiki Barber
William Green
Stephen Davis

If I was positive Taylor was going to be healthy for 16 games I would still say these guys are better:

Ricky Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Priest Holmes
Marshall Faulk
Clinton Portis
Deuce McAllister
Edgerrin James

I'd throw in Corey Dillon.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by scooper
I'd throw in Corey Dillon.

Everybody forgets Corey. The curse of being a Bungle....

[scooper]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
Everybody forgets Corey. The curse of being a Bungle....

Good point. Thing is, he's that good. He'd be a superstar on another team. Hopefully the rest of the team catches up to him a little this year.

[The_herd]

Originally posted by scooper
Good point. Thing is, he's that good. He'd be a superstar on another team. Hopefully the rest of the team catches up to him a little this year.

I would throw Dillon in if had a better attitiude. Every preseason he whines about playing for the losing team THAT HE RESIGNED FOR.

He's actually one of the top 5 talents in the league at RB in IMO, but he really just need to put on the uniform and play.

[sterlingice]

Didn't know there was so much hatred towards Fred Taylor. Remember, this all went back to "when healthy" and the fact that when healthy, he can get 1500 yards which is more than I can say for most of the people on these lists. Not only that but he does actually have that ability to break one for a touchdown every once in a while which is how he (prorated for injury) could get 10 per year even with Stacey Mack or someone else taking away a lot of his goalline TDs.

First off, Corey Dillon is not a huge league top 5 talent unless you are going to blame his bad stats on Cincy's offensive line. Every year he gets a game or two where he goes off for 150-200 yards against horrible defenses (last year it was Indy, Cleveland the previous two years, Detroit a couple of years ago) and then barely averages 75ypg the rest of the year. That's why I never fear facing a Corey Dillon fantasy team: unless he's against some awful defense, he's not going to beat you at all.

I can't say a thing about Holmes or Faulk as they have put up gaudy numbers the last couple of years (even with Faulk's fall off last year) and they have that added dimension of being able to catch out of the backfield. Williams and Tomlinson have had multiple thousand yard rushing seasons and both had over 1500 last year so I definately can't fault those as well. This is why I mentioned those four in my previous post.

Then there are the oddball cases:
Clinton Portis had a great rookie year, but until he shows he can do it continuously then I'm not going to bet the farm on him.
Stephen Davis had 3 straight 1300-1500 yard seasons before being hurt most of last year so if he can show he's 100%, then great, I'd include him with the previous 4 guys as someone in Taylor's class and a coin flip as to who I would rather have.
Edgerrin James completely proved me wrong when he came out of college and blew up. He is also one of those who gets the caveat "when healthy" tacked on to any argument about him. When healthy, he is one of the top backs in the league as well.

Then everyone starts listing off guys who are 1000 yard rushers but anyone who has a starting job the entire season with a team that even puts a halfhearted attempt into a running game can get 1000 yards. A 1000 yard season only averages out to just over 60 yards a game. If your primary back is only averaging you 60 yards a game (ie they get 80 one game, there's a 40 down the road somewhere) then that's just sad and it's certainly not better than the premise of Fred Taylor's 1500 yards per season. This list includes Shaun Alexander, Ahman Green, and Jamal Lewis.

Then there are some names that just make me scratch my head. William Green turned it on last year when he was a starter but he's only had one year in the league and only a half starting. Travis Henry has only had one good year but again, not at all a proven commodity. Tiki Barber is the same and not only that but it took him a while to break out from behind Ron Dayne of all people. Again, Deuce is one of those who has only had one good year.

And before you start shouting me down for discounting a lot of guys for only having one good year, the NFL is littered with the bodies of running backs who pulled down a 1000 yard season and struggled to do it ever again. This time last year, Curtis Martin and Eddie George would have been in that "well, if they bounce back, they're in the top of the league list", how definately Anthony Thomas or maybe Dominic Rhodes has so much potential to be one of the top backs in the league. Or how about some of those thousand yard seasons a couple of years ago from Mike Anderson, Lamar Smith, or James Allen?

SI

[General Mike]

I agree with most of everything you said sterlingice, except for about Tiki Barber. Tiki did nothing in the NFL until the Giants drafted Ron Dayne, and then he just blew up. I'd definitely take Fred Taylor over him any day of the week tho. Ricky Williams isn't the most healthy back in the NFL either. Remember, his 1st 2 years he missed a combined 10 games. It took 3 whole years before Taylor had missed 10 games. I'm not gonna say Taylor is going to play every down of every game like an Emmitt Smith is gonna do, but the threat he puts on the field is equal to the top backs in the NFL.

[The_herd]

If you compare Dillon and Taylor statistically last year and over their careers, they are very similar.

Last years numbers:
Taylor
287 1314 4.6 8

Dillon
314 1311 4.2 7

Each had 5 100 yard games with 1 game over 150.

Over their career's Taylor has 3 1,000 yard seasons in 5 years, Dillon has 6 in 6. Taylor has averaged 4.6 ypc, Dillon 4.4. Taylor has averaged more touchdowns per year, but go figure, Dillon does play for the Bengals.

So, statistically speaking, I don't see how it can be argued that Taylor is so much better than Dillon.

[korme]

Originally posted by The_herd
10 backs I would rather have on my team:

Ricky Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Priest Holmes
Marshall Faulk
Shaun Alexander
Ahman Green
Clinton Portis
Deuce McAllister
Edgerrin James
Travis Henry

You could also throw in:

Jamal Lewis
Tiki Barber
William Green
Stephen Davis

If I was positive Taylor was going to be healthy for 16 games I would still say these guys are better:

Ricky Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Priest Holmes
Marshall Faulk
Clinton Portis
Deuce McAllister
Edgerrin James

No Corey Dillon love? You've got to be kidding me!!

[korme]

*doesnt read entire threads*