FanPost

Jamaal Charles Gets a Bill Simmons Shout-Out


Love him for his KD man-crush and hate him for his excessive dislike of Rick Barnes, The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, has been on my personal Friday reading schedule for years.

And this Friday, Simmons gave a shout out to a guy who is quickly becoming Chris Johnson-lite: former Texas running back Jamaal Charles, whose sickening speed and ability to make himself difficult to tackle have made him an electric but undervalued commodity on the NFL scene this season.

Simmons:

By the way, if you created a differential for "how exciting a football player actually is on a scale of 1 to 100" and "how much buzz that player gets for being exciting on a scale of 1 to 100," Jamaal Charles would be an 84/9 for a differential of plus-75. I can't think of a more exciting football player who's gotten people less excited.

Well, Bill, Longhorn fans who have been paying attention to the NFL have noticed and the rest of country is going to start to take notice as well. Especially if Charles continues to have games like he did last week -- 22 carries for 177 yards against the Bills.

The former Longhorn speedster is averaging 6.5 yards per carry sharing the load with Thomas Jones. By comparison, only four other Top 30 backs in the NFL average even 5.0 yards a carry or more, the next-closest to Charles averaging nearly a yard less every run at 5.7 yards per carry. Yeah, that's no joke -- Charles averages nearly a yard more per carry than anyone else in the NFL with 64 or more attempts. Give him the ball, Todd Haley!

In other words, if you haven't been paying attention to Jamaal Charles, it's past time to start.

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