What happened? Marshall Faulk was the first player taken in most drafts and likely yours. He still ended up as the eleventh best runner but that does little to mask the disappointment of squandering a precious first pick in the draft. Problem was that after a monster week nine, Faulk failed to produce as well as Jonathan Wells, for instance. His injury was a death knell to teams that had hoped the two prior years would repeat and Faulk alone would be nearly enough to win the league. It almost was, except his name turned into Priest Holmes and then even he pulled the rug out from under every owner with his week 16 disappearance.

Ahman Green did play well, but he too suffered injuries that made him miss two games. Shaun Alexander ended very strongly but he shocked the fantasy world by starting out with three terrible games. Those who did not freak out and kept him were rewarded with a five touchdown day against the Vikings in week four.

Edgerrin James was nowhere near as healthy as was promoted and Curtis Martin joined him by eventually hurting both ankles badly but still playing. Even Corey Dillon, normally good though inconsistent, failed to deliver well enough to reward his draft slot.

Of the top twelve runners, only Ricky Williams, Priest Holmes, LaDainian Tomlinson and Deuce McAllister exceeded expectations.

What is most interesting is that after the 30th back was taken, none of the next 10 taken amounted to much of anything. However, those backs taken at the 20th to 30th slot normally exceeded expectations, including four of them which ended up as top ten runningbacks for the season.

When we look at what really happened, an interesting pattern emerges. Conventional wisdom was most wrong about Clinton Portis, Tiki Barber, Travis Henry and Charlie Garner. All were taken likely as a #3 runningback for a fantasy team but ended up as solid top ten picks.

Those picks for #2 fantasy rushers from #13 to #21 taken almost all disappointed and never amounted to a difference maker for your team.

What was most notable was that last season did not really see any huge sleeper come from nowhere to make a difference. Marcel Shipp was the closest to a big surprise and he only managed to end up 20th in points per game.

This all illustrates the importance of getting your runningback picks correct. Last season produced nice results for those that grabbed an early runningback, then perhaps another position or two and later coming back to still draft a runner that included Garner, Portis, Barber or Henry. Those players were still available in the third rounds in almost all leagues and in some cases stretched out to the fifth rounds or more.

On the good side, other than early drafters who got stuck with DeShaun Foster, there were few runners who did not deliver at least something for their owners.

As always, about half of those top ten picks panned out well enough to stay in the top ten. Last season was not kind to landing a big runner from the waiver wire and consider that a lesson learned. This is not and never will be the position that you can wait on filling. Let's take a look at the last three years:

Let's see how the busts and undervalued players fell out the last three years.

2000 Busts (Drafted/Actual) considering Points Per Game

Terrell Davis (5th/Dud) - Injury falls even the tallest tree.
Emmitt Smith (7th/21st) - Old age catches the others.
Duce Staley (10th/Dud) - And back to the injuries.
Dorsey Levens (11th/Dud) - Old age with injuries coming off career year.
Jamal Anderson (13th/Dud) - Injured. This was a bad year for RBs.
Ron Dayne (14th/29th) - Slow, fat rookies cannot live on their resume'
Mike Alstott (15th/37th) - Followed his career year with injuries.

2001 Busts

Eddie George (3rd/26th) - Injury to an older player
Fred Taylor (4th/Dud) - Injury without sense of shock
Stephen Davis (5th/15th) - Optimism about new coach unfounded
Lamar Smith (10th/19th) - Still not terrible. Yet.
James Stewart (11th/25th) - Injury slowed him.
Jamal Anderson (13th/Dud) - Stud returning from injury is injured.
Jamal Lewis (22nd/Dud) - It was an anti-Jamal year. Actually drafted higher.

2002 Busts

Marshall Faulk (1st/11th) - Besieged by line problems and injuries.
Edgerrin James (6th/25th) - Stud returning from injury is injured.
Curtis Martin (7th/23rd) - Injury and played hurt - age a factor?
Anthony Thomas (11th/27th) - Was injured but bad before that.

The main reason for a bust was injury, either a new one or the failure to return well from a prior one. It is almost scary how few RB injuries happened last year compared to prior seasons.

2000 Undervalued

Robert Smith (16th/7th) - Last hurrah helped with new QB and WR.
Ricky Watters (21st/8th) - Last hurrah before age caught him.
Charlie Garner (22nd/9th) - Speed back stops sharing so much in SF
Lamar Smith (38th/11th) - Backup inherits great line and ineffective rookies
Tiki Barber (44th/13th) - The speed back runs circles around big Dayne
Ahman Green (47th/5th) - Fumbling afterthought shines when Levens doesn't.

2001 Undervalued

LaDainian Tomlinson (18th/8th) - Hot rookie comes through
Tiki Barber (21st/14th) - Too few believed in 2000
Priest Holmes (25th/3rd) - New coach and system does not use Richardson
Shaun Alexander (38th/5th) - Hot rookie gets his shot a year later
Anthony Thomas (48th/12th) - Hot rookie fights through depth chart

2002 Undervalued

LaDainian Tomlinson (9th/3rd) - The good gets even better with a new coach.
Deuce McAllister (12th/5th) - Hot rookie gets his shot a year later
Travis Henry (22nd/8th) - Fulltime status while Bledsoe scared defenses
Tiki Barber (23rd/7th) - This is a one person trend now
Clinton Portis (25th/4th) - Hot rookie fights through depth chart
Charlie Garner (27th/9th) - Speed back stops sharing so much in OAK

The main reason for an highly undervalued RB is that either they had their final big career year before heading off into the sunset, or they were a hot rookie either that season or had waited a year for a chance, or they were Tiki Barber or Charlie Garner and broke the mold of what an everydown RB is supposed to look like.

With an apparent lack of hot incoming rookies and the general shift in offenses away from power backs to spread offenses, the speed backs and their ability to catch the ball is mixing up the previous view of what sort of back will be most productive.

This season looks very deep in runningbacks even though they are being quickly drained in drafts this summer. But you can be sure that at least four or five of the top ten will not turn in a good year, likely due to injury and the league is overdue for another big RB injury season. Above all, forget the notion that your fantasy back must be a Bettis-like bruiser and make use of those speedy, pass-catching backs available deeper in your drafts.