I don’t care what your fantasy league says, sorry Fantasy God, right now Ravens running back Ray Rice is the best in the NFL at his position. As ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley reports, Rice has already beaten Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Johnson, Steven Jackson and Arian Foster head-to-head this season.
In week one, Rice earned 107 yards on the ground compared to Mendenhall’s 45 in the Ravens 35-7 beat down of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Ravens stumbled in week two, falling 26-13 to the Titans as Rice only rushed for 43 yards compared to Chris Johnson’s 53 in 11 more attempts. Rice did however collect 53 receiving yards and reached the end zone, which CJ2K failed to do. His week three battle against Steven Jackson wasn’t even close. Rice carried the ball nine times for 81 yards, with a long of 53 yards and caught five passes for 83 yards. Jackson had just four rushes for 23 yards and zero receptions. The Jets don’t really have a good running back, so comparing Rice’s week 4 stats to Shonn Greene’s (10 attempts, 23 yards) or LaDanian Tomlinson (3 attempts, -3 yards) really wouldn’t be fair. He finished the day with 25 carries for 66 yards and touchdown and led the Ravens in receiving yards with 64 on just two catches. This of course brings us to Baltimore’s 29-14 win over Houston in which Rice doubled the 2010 rushing champion Arian Foster’s total (101 yards to 49 yards).
Since 2009, when Rice became a full-time starter, he has averaged a league-leading 122.1 yards from scrimmage. During that time, he’s produced an NFL-best 25 games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage — which is three more than anyone else in the league (Johnson and Adrian Peterson have 22).
Tonight’s matchup against Maurice Jones-Drew will likely finish the way the other five games have for Rice. It will be Baltimore’s elite back that finishes over another one of the league’s better RB’s.
At this point its inarguable that Rice is the receiving back in the NFL. Rushing ability is a lot more debatable.
The Fantasy God agrees that Ray Rice is better than Peterson. My only argument as to who could be better is LeSean McCoy. Rice and McCoy are definitely #1 and #2 in whatever order.
Ray Rice is a very good RB, but he is no AP. The fact that Ray Rice outperformed the RB on opposing teams is a little meaningless, considering the opposing RBs had to go against Baltimore’s superior defense. Ray would not have put up such high numbers had the opposing D been as good as Baltimore’s. Also supporting cast should be mentioned. Ray Rice has arguably the best O-Line, and Lead blocker (Vonta Leach), in the NFL. It’s hard to compare RBs on different teams, but I’m willing to bet Baltimore would swap Ray Rice for AP straight up……
Not with AP’s outrageous contract, they wouldn’t. AP is more physically gifted as a runner, but I am pretty sure the Ravens are not interested in moving Rice for anyone at this point. He fits in perfectly to the personality of this team and he is an emotional leader on the offense.
This is the stupidest article I’ve read in a long time. As “pointing out the obvious” noted, you can’t compare rice’s totals to those he has played against since the ravens have the best defense in the nfl. Peterson is a whole level or two above rice not even close! peterson has no passing attack to help him and a very crappy offensive line compared to one of the best o-lines in baltimore. still peterson’s production is much better. you also can’t argue that rice is a better receiver. i admit that he is an excellent receiver but he’s either the top or second option in the ravens’ pass attack and gets so many reception. peterson is an excellent receiver as well even though he isn’t used as often for this purpose. ray rice is a great running back, but this article was written with so much bias, it’s not even funny
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I’m guessing you’re like Prince and have a symbol for a name?!?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this blog (no, it’s not an article) is called the BALTIMORE Sports Report, right?
28 rushing yards Vs the Jags….