High Side (#12) by Mark Wimer
Duce Staley is poised for a renaissance season in 2002.

The 2001 Philadelphia Eagles were right in the middle of the pack rushing the ball. They put up 1778 yards - good for 14th in the league. With the season-ending injury to Correll Buckhalter during mini-camp, Staley will be the featured back throughout 2002 - meaning Staley should see the lion's share of the team's rushing yardage in 2002, even sharing a significant number of carries with Donovan McNabb.

Staley is reported to be in top physical condition, and looks like he's 100% recovered from last season's shoulder problems (and nagging pain in his foot). In fact, Staley feels that he will have his finest season in 2002.

I believe that Staley should return to his top form in 2002, and given the quality of his offensive team mates and offensive line, that should mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 1100-1200 yards rushing with another 300-400 yards receiving, and 9 total touchdowns (6 rushing, 3 receiving) - which puts him at #13 in my rankings.

Low Side (#24) by Chris Smith
I have Staley ranked at # 24 overall and I believe that is the perfect place for him to reside on my cheat sheet. The past two years have seen him slip from being a solid running back to a player who was going to be cut this season if it wasn't for the season-ending injury to second-year running back, Correll Buckhalter. Now everyone is assuming that Staley is left to reap the benefits and will pick up all the carries and yardage but I have my doubts that he has the ability to carry the ball on a full-time basis anymore.

Another reason, he is low on my list is because of a rookie who is making waves with the Eagles. He is not one of the "Marquee" guys in the NFL draft this year but he has the talent to be the best. His name is Brian Westbrook and it will become a household name as he begins to vulture touchdowns from Staley much like Anthony Thomas did for the Bears. He is built like Barry Sanders and you can read my analysis of his NFL potential in my Roll the Dice article.

The bottom line on Staley is that I find him a risky player to have on my team. I would rather roll the dice on Westbrook ten rounds later and hope he wrestles the job away from Staley at some point in the season.