Upside by Chase Stuart
In case you've been under a rock the past three seasons, Hall of Fame RB Eddie George no longer has "it". He's not a capable running back, despite what the Titans led us to believe the past three seasons. Consider this: Since 2001, George has averaged 3.23 yards per carry. If you look at the top fifty RBs with the most carries over that span, the other forty-nine averaged a full yard per carry more than George. He's second to last on the list, ahead of only James Jackson.

Perhaps even more depressing for George is that there's no excuse. While he was "running" for 3.23 yards per carry, the other Titans RBs had 1,165 yards on 268 carries, a 4.35 average. That includes such stalwarts as Mike Green, Skip Hicks, Robert Holcombe, John Simon and Chris Brown. Yes, Eddie appears to be running well below league average behind an offensive line that made some mediocre runners look pretty good. Including playoffs, George has 2,939 career carries. At thirty-years old, he's simply got very little (if anything) left in the tank.

So what's it all mean? Julius Jones, who has seen his stock fall dramatically since the George signing, becomes a tremendous value pick. His speed and acceleration will be much more impressive than George's running into the line and falling. I'm not so sure that George will get the lion's share of carries as many predict, because Jones is probably the superior player. Parcells must have seen something he liked in Jones to pass on every other RB in the draft, and he will play the best player.

Jones' speed will be the difference maker that Parcells craves. With questions at QB, Parcells knows he must get the most out of his ground game. To think Parcells would risk losing games just to play the veteran is silly; the best player will play. He'll likely get stronger as the season goes on too. By midyear, he'll have left George to be just the short-yardage back, and Jones may be getting twenty carries a game.

Downside by David Yudkin
Gets to watch Eddie George fall for 3 yards a pop

Those that drafted early learned that a lot can change in the few months prior to the start of the season. Exhibit A: Julius Jones, RB, Dallas Cowboys. Jones was selected as a late second/early third round draft pick in many fantasy drafts, as at the time he clearly had value as the only viable RB option in Dallas. Many projected him at 300 carries and 1,200 rushing yards with 6-8 TD, hailing him as the next Curtis Martin.

While that all sounded like the feel good ending to a Hollywood movie, that seems very unlikely at this point. The Titans since cut Eddie George, 31, and almost before he made it to the airport the Cowboys were calling him begging him to come to Dallas.

The problem for Jones is that Bill Parcells is a big fan of veteran leadership. Looking back at the Giants when Parcells was coach, Ottis Anderson was 33 when the Giants drafted Rodney Hampton. Hampton only saw spot duty and Anderson carried the load throughout the season. Anderson trudged his way to 225-784-11 with a marginal 3.5 ypc. Hampton posted only 109-455-2 with a 4.2 ypc but still couldn't pry away anymore of the workload. Hampton followed with 5 straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons, but in his first year he mostly watched from the sidelines.

Julius Jones could easily suffer the same fate as Hampton-at least in terms of watching and learning. Even though George's performance and productivity have been below average, the Cowboys will likely feed him the ball provided he doesn't turn the ball over.

Jones may turn into a good NFL running back, but he won't get a full-time workload this year, making him overvalued for many that invested an early pick to acquire him.