By Dalton Del Don
Now that San Diego has slapped the franchise tag on Darren Sproles, where does that leave LaDainian Tomlinson? The Chargers’ brass claim they want to bring LT back and have stated that Sproles’ role will remain largely unchanged, but that seems hard to believe. Sproles may not be suited to be a 20-plus touch guy, but last year’s total (90 touches) should easily double in 2009.
Let’s assume Tomlinson returns to San Diego (as the team’s second highest paid running back), where would you be willing to draft him in fantasy leagues? For a perceived down year last season, 1,536 yards and 12 touchdowns wasn’t too shabby. Still, his YPC dropped for the second consecutive season, finishing with a poor 3.8 mark. And for the second straight year, his season ended prematurely with a serious injury, this time a torn groin muscle. Remarkably, Tomlinson has still only missed just one regular season game during his eight-year career. However, he’ll be 30 years old soon, and much more importantly, he’s now at 2,657 career carries – a staggering total that ranks 16th most of all-time. And that’s not taking into account the 510 receptions.
Before Week 17 against a joke of a Broncos defense, Tomlinson averaged 3.4 YPC over the second half of last season, so the decline is definitely here. I always prefer being one year too early than a year too late when it comes to avoiding players in the twilight of their careers, so it’s safe to assume LT2 will appear on none of my teams next year. Personally, I’ll probably have Tomlinson ranked somewhere around 20th at running back. I’d prefer Ronnie Brown to him for one. Moreover, waiting and snagging Sproles much later seems like a better idea as well. Am I crazy? Where would you draft Tomlinson next year?
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