Come free agency 2005, my feeling is that Edgerrin is all but a Phin like right away. But, that doesn't help us this season. The Colts won't deal him, because they are looking to make a super bowl run themselves. Contrary to popular belief they did not need to dismantle the ship to keep Peyton, in fact they kept most everything in tact that they wanted/needed to keep in tact. But, if you think OUR "window is closing" well the Peyton deal ensures that their window is about to be slammed shut by Aunt B on someone's fingers. Reggie Wayne's coming into his 4th year, Marvin Harrison I think has contract issues...Edge becomes a UFA next year. I doubt they'll trade Edge because they want to make a run this year.
I find it funny how many people are talking about Edge being past his prime when he and Ricky are the same age. No, wait, Edgerrin is younger than Ricky. He is about to turn 26 years old in a week. Ricky turned 27 a few months ago. Wear and tear? Edgerrin James came out of college early, having really only been a fulltime starter at UM for like 1 year. Ricky had carried the load over 4 years enough in college to where he set the record for yardage by a single college runningback. When Ricky and Edgerrin came out, Ricky was the one considered to have the short end of the stick in terms of durability and length of career...because of the pounding he took in college.
How about durability over their careers? Edgerrin has played in 65 games and rushed for 6200 yards on a 4.2 ypc...with 42 TDs. Ricky has played in 70 games and rushed for 6350 yards on a 4.0 ypc...with 41 TDs.
I'm a big Canes fan, so I'm somewhat familiar with Edgerrin, and I'm also likely to be a defender of him (even though I despise some former canes like Vinny Testeverde, Warren Sapp, etc). I find it funny when people say something like "he hasn't been the same since the injury" Well, he hasn't had the same production, but he hasn't been looking at the same offense either. First off, he had an ACL tear. It was a weird injury, because Edgerrin actually ended up playing with it I believe for maybe a game which made it somewhat worst, and initially it was diagnosed as a sprain but then they found that it was a tear so he was getting the wrong treatment. The surgery he had for it in 2001, happened later in the year because of this, and therefore in 2002, he was still greatly affected by it. Also during 2002 he was greatly affected by the fact that the Colts OL was probably the worst run-blocking OL they had seen in years.
There's a saying about ACL tears, they say it takes 2 years to come back fully from them...and a lot of times, they are right. How off a year did Edgerrin have in 2002 coming back from the ACL tear? Well he averaged a better ypc than Ricky did in 2003...
So anyway, this season Edgerrin came back, felt a lot better, ran for 1250 yards on a 4.1 ypc, 11 TDs...caught 50 passes, and averaged almost 100 yards rushing per game played. It kills me when people say that he hasn't been the same since injury because, well first off its only been 2 years since the injury, and one of those years the normal prognosis is that the RB will have difficulties producing the same as he's use to as he continues to rehab the ACL...and the other year, 2003, how many people that say that actually watched Edgerrin play this year?
The main difference between 2003 and his hey-day when he led the league in rushing two years in a row, is that the Colts offense morphed during the time that Edge was out, from a play-action offense to almost a K-Gun type check-with-me passing offense...and the reasoning there is the injury to Edgerrin, combined with the maturation of guys like Harrison and Reggie Wayne. Edgerrin didn't get the same kind of carries this year as he use to, but thats because the Colts don't want to burn him out like we were burning out Ricky.
As as far as style of running goes, Edgerrin is much more of a speedy slasher than Ricky, who is more like a bulldozer. So, of the two, the one you would think would wear down quicker in his career, would be Ricky Williams.
It just gets to me when people who thought Ricky was a god say something like Edge is over the hill or Edge hasn't been the same since injury, etc. Next offseason when Edge becomes a UFA, he will turn 27 years old at the start of training camp. Thats not too bad, considering he's not the kind of Jim Brown, Eddie George, Earl Campbell plodder that Ricky was.
