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Edgerrin James career statistics

If ever someone was perfectly positioned to shatter every record in the book, it was Edgerrin James. Through his first two years, here's where he stood:

Career rushing yards through age 22

Edgerrin James       3262
Barry Sanders        2774
Emmitt Smith         2500
Jerome Bettis        2454
Marshall Faulk       2360
Walter Payton        2069
Natrone Means        1995
Ottis Anderson       1605
Rashaan Salaam       1570
Mario Bates          1530

The list includes all players whose career started in
1970 or later.

James was the only RB ever to meet both of the following two qualifications:

1. He entered the NFL at a young age;
2. He started putting up monster numbers immediately.

Emmitt and Payton entered the NFL at a young age, but had less-than-spectacular rookie years. Other young entries -- Sanders, Bettis, Faulk -- weren't piling up the rushing numbers nearly as quickly as Edge was. The guys that did put up huge numbers immediately, like Earl Campbell and Eric Dickerson, started their careers older than James started his. You can't start handing all-time records to guys who have only been in the league for two years, obviously, but like I said, nobody had ever been better positioned after two years to break the all-time rushing record than Edge was.

One year and one ACL surgery later, Edge has lost his edge in this derby. As far as the numbers are concerned, he's still in the hunt:

Career rushing yards through age 23

Barry Sanders        4322
Emmitt Smith         4213
Edgerrin James       3924
Walter Payton        3921
Jerome Bettis        3091
Ottis Anderson       2957
Marshall Faulk       2947
Natrone Means        2725
Rodney Hampton       2655
Curtis Martin        2639

The list includes all players whose career started in
1970 or later.

But the bigger question is whether James will be the same runner he was before the knee went.

It's a real shame we didn't have a chance to see what a completely healthy Edgerrin James could have accomplished, but that's the nature of sports. This kind of daydreaming is an example of what I like to call "Mickey Mantle rookie card syndrome."

Ask any sports fan who grew up in the fifties and he'll tell you that he had a Mickey Mantle rookie card when he was a kid. But he doesn't have it anymore, darnit, because he tore it in the spokes of his bike, or his mom threw it out without asking him, or some such. Ah, but that's the exact reason that Mickey Mantle rookie cards are worth so much: because almost everybody's mom threw them out.

And that's why records are records. Not because they necessarily represent the best performance possible, but because almost all the people with a real shot to better them ran into some sort of road block.

Just as Mickey Mantle rookie cards would be a lot less valuable if everyone's mom had been a little more careful, records would be a whole lot higher if there were no ACL tears.

On the more relevant topic of what James' fantasy prospects are for 2002...

Like everyone else, all I can do is guess at this point. But my opinion is that he's going way too high in drafts at this point (late June). As far as I know (and be aware that I may very well be missing someone; let me know), the best two performances ever in the year immediately following an ACL tear belong to Terry Allen in 1994 and Jerry Rice in 1998. According to VBD, Rice was the #8 receiver and the #27 player overall in 1998, and Allen was the #11 RB and the #33 overall player in 1994.

If James earns that first or second round pick that's been the going rate for his services this year, he'll be the fist ever to do it (again, as far as I know). You'll find no greater Edgerrin James admirer than I, and it's true that he's been the first guy to do a lot of things, but I'm not going to be counting on it.