Several stars still bitten by injury bug


As we prepare for our approaching league drafts, there might not be any more frustrating factor than injuries. Teams are practicing sporadically and lightly. Coaches hold players out only to leave us guessing about whether it’s serious or precautionary. The season is far enough away that pretty much every guy says he has no doubt he’ll be ready. All we can do is wait, watch and hope things become clear, especially when we’re dealing with potential top-tier guys like Patriots running back Laurence Maroney. Some of us can’t wait, though, with drafts coming up before or in the beginning of training camp. In many cases it wouldn’t matter if we could, because clarity is often evasive until the regular season arrives (and sometimes even then if you’re trying to figure out Bill Belichick or Mike Shanahan. So, all we can do is use what information we have and make educated guesses about certain players.

With running backs being the stars of draft day, and several prominent ones facing injury questions, I figured I’d take this week to share mine.

Maroney’s shoulder is about the most worrisome of the running back injuries, because after a promising rookie year, he could be in line for a breakout. Corey Dillon’s gone, and Maroney figures to get the majority of carries in New England. At least, there seemed to be no doubt about that until we found out he had a significant injury to his right shoulder that required off-season surgery. Reports from the latest minicamp said that the second-year back was still favoring that side and being held out of a lot of drills. What are we to think for this young potential first-rounder?

Well, it’s still quite early for Maroney to be tossed back into contact drills, and we all know by now that the Patriot coaches are too smart to put their young stud at such risk. I think the best evidence of what the team expects from Maroney, though, can be found in how it addressed the backfield in free agency. Dillon was allowed to leave, and the only addition has been ex-Dolphin Sammy Morris, whom the Patriots list as a fullback. The only other runners on the roster are Kevin Faulk, fullback Heath Evans, rookies Justise Hairston and Quinton Smith and some young dude named Quadtrine Hill who doesn’t even get his mug shot or bio on the team’s Web site. If that franchise were really worried about Maroney’s prospects for 2007, I have to think it would have invested in more insurance. To me, Maroney’s still a first-rounder.



Next up is a guy who has been a perennial first-rounder and was widely considered a top-five pick last year, at least in leagues that drafted before his preseason shoulder injury. Clinton Portis has been pretty much awesome throughout his career, up until a second injury forced him off the field in the middle of last season. Now, Portis is preparing for 2007 while continuing to get that separated shoulder back to full strength and nursing a sore knee. He did participate in Washington’s recent minicamp, after which he reported, “My shoulder feels good; my knee’s a little sore,” and (of course) informed us that he’ll be ready for training camp.



In Portis’ case, as with Maroney, the shoulder doesn’t worry me much. It’s bound to be in better shape than it was early last season, and he played with it even then. The knee injury doesn’t sound like it’s too serious, but the combination of ailments can only serve as further motivation for the Washington coaches to get the ball in Ladell Betts’ hands plenty of times. The team didn’t re-sign Portis’ backup to a nice-sized, long-term deal so that he could simply remain Portis’ backup. Even if things go as well as Portis expects them to in camp, it’s hard to imagine him not sharing more carries. He’s still an excellent back, and this certainly doesn’t doom him, but I won’t be in a big hurry to grab Portis before at least the middle of Round 2, with Betts as a more important handcuff than he was last year.



Last but definitely not least comes the case of Seattle’s Shaun Alexander, who treated us all to the nice surprise that there’s still a fracture in a bone in the foot he broke last season, causing him to miss six games. That announcement immediately caused fantasy players to panic and think about avoiding him completely come draft time, but fortunately it came in the winter, with the time for drafting still a ways off. Since then, Alexander has been taking part in Seahawk practices, missing time only for personal reasons.



Alexander says the foot won’t be a problem, and I’m inclined to believe him. Last season, he averaged 3.8 yards per carry in the seven games after returning from injury, which is thoroughly unimpressive until you realize that he had only gained 2.9 per rush in the season’s first three games. He put up two 140-plus yard games -- including the 40-carry, 201-yard outing against Green Bay in just his second game back -- as well as two others with 90 or more yards. Alexander scored five touchdowns in his final five games, including one at Denver and two against the stingy Charger run defense.



Alexander is clearly out of the range of the top three picks, but he shouldn’t fall much past the middle of Round 1 in 12-team leagues. Of course, as you should with each guy I mentioned -- along with pretty much everyone else -- you’ll need to keep an eye on the injury as training camp begins and then gives way to preseason games and opening day.



Further back

These guys aren’t anywhere near first-round consideration, but their injury situations bear watching as we get toward draft time.



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As I mentioned here before, Jacksonville’s Greg Jones returns to a crowded backfield after missing all of last year with a knee injury. Jones has reportedly still been gimpy, and his uncertainty erases any fantasy value he might have had. His return, however, could take away some all-important goal-line carries from a pot that’s already divvied between Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor. Just one reason I don’t like Drew as a first-rounder.

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Word out of Carolina camp is that DeAngelo Williams is 100 percent recovered from last season’s ankle ailment and ready to capitalize on a new blocking scheme similar to the one that helped make him a star in college at Memphis. DeShaun Foster is always an injury waiting to happen, and I think it’s only a matter of time before Williams is the featured Panther. I won’t be surprised if this is Foster’s last year in Charlotte.

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LenDale White’s biggest ailment seems to be a weakness for buffets, but the hamstring injury that followed his showing up to Titans workouts weighing 260 had to have factored into the team’s decision to sign Chris Brown. That addition takes White completely off of my draft board but doesn’t hurt Chris Henry too much in my eyes. Brown’s a regular injury issue himself, and now he hasn’t even been working out with the team through the off-season. Henry’s a sleeper in Tennessee.

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Kevin Jones is still reportedly Mike Martz’s favorite running back in Detroit, but there are two big strikes against him as he tries to return from a Lisfranc sprain to join a suddenly crowded backfield. Jones, of course, says he’ll be ready for camp. Even if he is, Tatum Bell is bound to get some of his work, and T.J. Duckett figures to steal goal-line touches. They all look like late-rounders to me.

The Wright man for Cleveland at corner

At the beginning of the Browns’ recent minicamp, rookie Eric Wright was running with the second-team defense. By the end, he was reportedly impressing coaches while taking reps with the first team. Granted, it helped that starting corner Leigh Bodden left the workouts with a minor injury, but it sounds like Wright is on the verge of sticking in the starting lineup.

“If anybody stood above anybody, I think probably Wright’s ability stood above,” coach Romeo Crennel said of his team’s second-round pick. Although that’s not exactly a glowing appraisal, it’s clearly noteworthy that Wright’s name was singled out on a team that selected a big-name left tackle and a big-name quarterback in the first round.

Wright is widely regarded as a superior talent who slipped down draft boards because of a drug offense that led to his leaving the team at USC and transferring to UNLV. Although some might worry about such a player in the newly morale NFL, it’s telling that Wright got an endorsement during the predraft buildup from the very coach, Pete Carroll, who disciplined him at Southern Cal.

Wright’s sparse starting duty in college doesn’t give us much to go on, but he definitely bears watching in preseason and the early part of the regular season. Daven Holly and Leigh Bodden each turned in some useful IDP performances last year, and this young stud could very well do so in 2007.

In position

According to Pro Football Weekly, Kansas City defensive end Jared Allen has thoroughly cleaned up his act since his second DUI arrest and resulting league suspension. (If only these idiots could do so the first time.) PFW reported that he’s been sober for eight months, has dropped 15 pounds and has quieted the contract complaints that he’d been shouting pretty loudly since sometime last season. He quietly signed the team’s restricted free-agent tender and has gone about preparing for his contract year in 2007.

Of course, none of this turnaround changes the fact that he’ll miss the first four games.

Allen is arguably the best player on a Chief defense that hasn’t been rich in good ones lately. His absence not only hurts the team, but it figures to limit second-year end Tamba Hali’s numbers on the other side. Hali enjoyed a nice rookie season that included eight sacks, but with the team’s only other established pass-rush threat out, opposing blocking schemes can afford to key on him.

With Allen out, Kansas City may very well go with rookie Turk McBride in his place. (Lord knows their other options are nothing special.) If that is the case, McBride will get a golden opportunity to prove himself and to show the team it doesn’t need to spend a ton of money on Allen after the season. He’ll need to establish himself quickly to take the pressure off Hali.

As for Allen, watch for an extra motivated player once he returns. Already a high-effort guy, Allen will need to show that much more in the wake of his DUI suspension to garner the kind of contract regularly given out to star ends these days. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to draft him later in IDP leagues and sit him through the first four weeks.