Darren Sprole's Profile at Pro-Football-Reference

D-D-D-Do I St-St-Stutter?

Darren Sproles may be one of the smallest RBs with a stutter to ever play the game but he just doesn't seem to give a $#!t (neither do we, really).  If his football career doesn't work out, he can always be a horse jockey.  Anyone have Jorge Chavez's digits?  At 5'6", 181 lbs, he's easy to miss... literally.  This little f'er sprints around the field like Speedy Gonzales and opposing defenses whiff on this guy more than Dave Kingman in a double-header at Wrigley Field the year disco died.  

What's with the puss tunes?  Someone please re-do this one with some Eminem or Slayer.  

The Chargers like them some speedy.  They threw their franchise tag on Sproles this past off-season.  Sproles will now be able to continue to Wow the rest of the NFL with his return abilities along with spelling Tomlinson at a higher clip this year as San Diego will want to keep LT fresh for the playoffs for once.

"The Appetizer" is one of many nicknames that San Diego's finest have come up with.  Here's a few more.  Sprud?  Heh heh. 

He's the shiftiest little character the NFL has seen since Barry Sanders.  He possesses the same center of balance and strength to shed tacklers when needed (391-lb bench press, 818-lb safe squat).  His numbers in college at Kansas State are downright mind-boggling as he holds 23 school records along with being 11^th on the all-time rushing yards list and 6^th all-time in all-purpose yards.

2009 Fantasy Outlook

We've got to admit, we would really love to see what Sproles could do as a starting RB in the NFL, but it's probably not going to happen this season.  Like Michael Turner before him, he'll have to wait his turn in line until Tomlinson is either done or moves on, or until he goes to another team himself.  We have some doubt that a midget can make it as an every-down back in the NFL, but based on what we've seen, we'd be willing to roll the dice.  We expect Sproles to see at least 50% more touches in '09, perhaps up to 150 total.  He managed some pretty sick per touch numbers in '08 (only 90 total touches), so with 60 more his numbers will approach fantasy backup status, and that is with or without an injury to LT.