When the St. Louis Rams take the field today in training camp it will be the 17th workout that RB Steven Jackson has missed. His holdout will be just one day short of the two week mark. To this point no progress has been made on a contract extension for the Rams' biggest offensive weapon.
There is a good chance that this holdout could extend into the regular season. If it does move into the start of the season, Jackson must report no later than the time between the eighth and ninth game of the season in order to honor his current contract. Should he do that he would then be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in March of 2009.
Jackson had a down year last season. He ran for just 1002 yards and had just 271 yards receiving and a total of just 6 TDs. These numbers came on the heels of his best season in the league. In the 2006 season he ran for 1528 yards and had 808 yards receiving and a total of 16 TDs. Between injuries and the Rams offense just not rolling like it has in the past, Jackson's numbers suffered. A bounce-back year is definitely a possibility, but it'll be a little hard to do that if he's not on the field at all. Keep a close eye on this situation throughout the preseason.
FANTASY IMPACT: Jackson is widely considered as a top five, if not top three, overall pick in fantasy drafts this year. Because of this holdout, he becomes a high risk, high reward candidate. He may fall a few, maybe several, spots in your draft if people know about his holding out. If that is the case, you almost have to take the chance and snag him and hope the holdout ends soon, preferably before the regular season starts. If you do take Jackson, be sure to follow up that pick with another RB in the second round, which you may do anyway, but its even more important to do so when taking a guy that you're not 100% sure will be there come the start of the season.
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Fantasy Football
rams, steven jackson