Take a look at fantasy football draft recaps and you’ll see a familiar trend. Many owners are jumping on Ronnie Brown like he is an all pro running back with continuation aspirations. Sure he is headed there, but based on last season there needs to be more shown from Brown. The fact that Ricky Williams is out of the picture does not guarantee a thing. If anything it could have an adverse affect as Williams created that extra motivation for Brown.

Even though people will argue the best back in Miami last year was Williams. You could blame the fact that Brown was a rookie or even the Dolphins offensive line, but Williams did factor more and more as the main back as the Dolphins great finish winded down. It is a stretch by far to include Brown now as a top five running back. Ranking him near the bottom of the top ten with an upside asterisk seems ideal right now.

First off, Brown is going to be dealing with two things he has not been familiar with. One will be carrying the load more than usual. Even in college he had Carnell Williams to split up his carries. As a young explosive back in the NFL now, Miami will be looking to increase his workload significantly. They may reduce it if he can not handle it, as Travis Minor has been effective as a secondary back.

Secondly, Daunte Culpepper is going to be his quarterback, and he’ll likely be rusty for the first month or longer. Meaning teams will gear to shut Brown down from week one on.

Last season, Brown had some crucial fumbles in critical points that were not talked about a lot. Fumbling four times in the NFL season does not seem bad, but when you only carried the football 200 times it is more alarming. Add more carries in 2006 and he could be one of the leading fumblers in the league. Let’s not even think worst case scenario, which would be seeing Joey Harrington inserted as quarterback if Culpepper struggles.

Neither Culpepper or Harrington has been a great producer for their running backs. In Minnesota, Culpepper never had a back that could be counted for in fantasy football, and in Detroit the same went for Harrington. Those cases had all to do with their teams offensive philosophy and the lack of a strong back.

So when you have that early to mid first round pick do not over reach for Brown. He is going to be a solid back but there are too many question marks to take him that high. We all know that having running backs in fantasy football is vital, but you may want to elect to trade that pick down to crop up a tandem of backs.

Fantasy football drafters are loving the fact that Brown has it all too himself. With a weak crop of running backs to draft this season, Brown’s value has skyrocketed. Will he prove to be worthy of his hype or just an okay fantasy back? We’ll see.