Finding the Next Ryan Grant

Most of your top fantasy backs are former high picks. Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson are former first-rounders. Ray Rice and Maurice Jones-Drew were drafted in the second round once upon a time. Some were taken later in the draft and had to sow their oats behind other backs, like Jamaal Charles. Some even had to switch teams to finally get a chance to shine, like Michael Turner.

Then there's Ryan Grant. He signed with the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2005 and spent his first year on the practice squad. He missed 2006 with a non-football related injury. The Packers traded a conditional sixth-rounder for Grant before the 2007 season and placed him on the third-string. Fortunately for Grant, the only two backs ahead of him were Brandon Jackson and DeShawn Wynn. A Wynn injury opened the door, and Grant's game took over, rushing for 956 yards and eight TDs on less than 200 carries.

He was handed a big contract after that huge first year. Over the next two years, he would rush for over 1,200 yards in each and score a total of 16 TDs, with 11 coming in 2009. Pretty good stats from a player that anyone in the league could have had at one time.

Are there running backs out there that could potentially follow the Ryan Grant path to fantasy stardom? Absolutely. Let's take a look at a few ...

Tyrell Sutton, Panthers. Here's my favorite to one day be a star. Sutton was unstoppable as a freshman at Northwestern, winning Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors after rushing for 1,474 yards and 16 TDs in 2005. He also added 396 receiving yards and caught two TDs. Injuries played a big part in his junior and senior years, with an ankle injury hindering him as a junior and a wrist injury maligning him as a senior. He signed with Green Bay as an undrafted free agent but didn't make the final 53-man roster. The Panthers scooped him up and have used him as a kick returner, but he did have 68 yards on 12 carries and 62 yards on six receptions throughout the season. At a Jones-Drew-like 5-foot-8 and 213 pounds, Sutton would make an excellent trade target for a team in need of a young backup running back.

Khalil Bell, Bears. Bell was an unheralded back coming out of UCLA, leading the team in rushing in his last two seasons despite mediocre rushing totals. No one selected him in the 2009 draft, but the Vikings signed him as a free agent. He was waived and landed in Chicago. He then got the chance to tote the rock when Garrett Wolfe and Adrian Peterson went down in front of him, taking his first pro carry 72 yards. He would finish the year with 220 yards on 40 carries. While he's in no danger of taking the starting job away from Matt Forte, Bell could find himself in the mix for the No. 2 role, where he'd be just an injury away from being fantasy relevant.

Jeremiah Johnson, Texans. The one-time co-starter at Oregon (along with Jonathan Stewart), Johnson averaged 6.7 yards per carry in about 350 carries with the Ducks, scoring 30 rushing touchdowns along the way. His senior season was marvelous, with 1,201 yards in 168 carries (a 7.1 ypc average). That season was capped off by a 119-yard performance in the Holiday Bowl against the Sooners. He signed as an undrafted free agent in Houston, but was placed on the injured reserve at the beginning of August. With the RB situation in Houston completely up in the air at this point, Johnson has a window of opportunity to prove himself worth of a large role in the offense.

Ian Johnson, Vikings. Johnson will always be remembered first and foremost for the amazing Boise State upset of Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, where Johnson took the Statue-of-Liberty handoff to score the winning two-point conversion (then promptly proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend). He posted a very nice 4.46 forty-yard dash at the Combine in 2009 but didn't get drafted. The Vikings signed him to the practice squad, but Johnson never received a chance in his first year. Like Grant, we could see Johnson surface on another team in a couple years.