Javon Ringer Sits Out Senior Bowl With Knee Injury

Michigan State running back Javon Ringer had a monster senior season for the Spartans -- but one of the concerns throughout the season was that coach Mark Dantonio was running his star into the ground by giving him approximately 400 carries a game.

It's not a huge surprise, then, that Ringer is dealing with injury concerns as he preps for the NFL Draft in April. Ringer had a slot reserved for him in Saturday's Senior Bowl, but had to withdraw.

Ringer accepted an invitation but pulled out this week. "We were told he had his knee scoped and would not be ready," said Kevin McDermond, Senior Bowl public relations director.

It goes without saying that this is problematic for Ringer. After rushing for 1,637 yards and 22 touchdowns this year, Ringer seemed destined for a draft spot in the second or third round, but this will give teams pause.

Ringer tore his ACL as a high school senior, then missed time during his sophomore season in East Lansing with another knee injury. Given that history, he'll have a hard time improving his stock between now and April -- rather, the challenge will be to maintain a spot in the draft's first day.

Despite his incredible season, the general thought on Ringer is that he's destined for a role as a backup in the NFL. He's not great in short yardage, he has pretty average speed (in the 4.5 40 range before this knee scope) and he probably won't get much bigger physically.

There's little doubt that Ringer has a bunch of skills you look for in a running back -- he has great vision, for example -- but it's the intangibles that coaches seem to like most about him. Hopefully, for Ringer's sake, those intangibles are enough to compensate for his growing injury history.