Note: Ages are accurate as of midseason 2010.

What’s interesting about this position is how watered down it is. Because so many backfield are utilizing two (even three) players in a rotation, the number of clear studs is low. And while there are more players these days than usual who do have some value now due to a fairly large role, they’re still in situations that prevent major fantasy production. We’ve also seen fewer legitimate developmental prospects at the position and a lot of players who are kind of in limbo, with little long-term potential and even questionable short-term potential.

I’ll start off this section with the (surprisingly few) players who are clearly slam-dunks for those in keeper leagues: Adrian Peterson (Min, 25), Steven Jackson (Stl, 27), Chris Johnson (Ten, 24), Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac, 25), and Ray Rice (Bal, 23).

It's probably a little early to proclaim Ray Rice as a legit fantasy stud for the long-term, but the guy was incredibly impressive in 2009 – and he's very young

These five players are clearly the cream of the crop, and with youth on their side. Rice may not be a legit top-5 overall RB over the next few years, as the [...]

In case you haven’t noticed, we posted on Friday our “Post-Draft” Rookie Report. We did so after our annual pow-wow at the FantasyGuru.com nerve center on Friday. Each year, we gather our main contributors and go over all 32 teams and their key players to prepare for our magazine and the whole season.

Speaking of the gathering, we did so in our new office building. I’ve been looking to buy a building for quite some time, and with this current economy and real estate market, this year was the time. We literally just moved in officially last week, and the building is awesome. We’ve got high-speed internet, of course, but also Direct TV with TIVO so we don’t miss a thing during the season. This is a big relief for me, since I’ve been going out of my mind the last 3-4 months coordinating the building improvement and doing a lot of work myself. But it’s now done – just in time for the magazine push.

Here's a shot taken from the FantasyGuru.com nerve center on 5/1. Each year after the draft we gather with our key staff members to go over all 32 teams, their players, and everything else. It's [...]

Just got off a long conference call with our guys Greg Cosell and Adam Caplan and went over most of the rookies in this class. Adam’s been at the Senior Bowl and Combine, as has Greg, and Greg’s broken a lot of these guys down on film. He still is, but he’s seen most of the guys.

We’re using their info and analysis as the foundation of this year’s rookie content, along with opinions from Tony Pauline from TFYDraft.com, so rather than rush to put up rankings and analysis in March, which is meaningless to most, we’re taking our time to make sure we have these players scouted correctly.

Of course a lot of the real analysis for 2009 will be catered to the teams these players get drafted by, but here are some initial thoughts that will wind up being the foundations of our scouting of these players. If a skill player is truly worth mentioning, he’s mentioned below.

Quarterbacks

Matthew Stafford is clearly the best prospect at this position this year, and it’s not really close. He has all the necessary throwing tools to be high-end NFL QB, including a [...]