Is Portis worth the risk?

Clinton Portis is once again graded by fantasy experts as a first round running back, based mostly on potential. But those experts would be wise to caution owners before they make the plunge. After all, he does have something of a history of injuries.

So, do you draft him? Do you avoid him like the bubonic plague? That’s the question burning on some owners’ minds, especially those owners who have a chip on their shoulder from when Portis burned them last season.

Me, I’m not going to be the guy in my league who drafts Portis and sweats it out every Sunday, hoping to God he doesn’t get hurt. The potential Portis brings is enormous, but is he really worth the high risk, high reward? Not in my mind. For my draft pick, there are safer players to be had, players who can perform at a level close to or equal to Portis without carrying the risk of a nagging injury.

Statistics 

                 +--------------------------+-------------------------+
                 |          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 2002 den |  16 |   273   1508    5.5   15 |    33    364  11.0    2 |
| 2003 den |  13 |   290   1591    5.5   14 |    38    314   8.3    0 |
| 2004 was |  15 |   343   1315    3.8    5 |    40    235   5.9    2 |
| 2005 was |  16 |   352   1516    4.3   11 |    30    216   7.2    0 |
| 2006 was |   8 |   127    523    4.1    7 |    17    170  10.0    0 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+
|  TOTAL   |  68 |  1385   6453    4.7   52 |   158   1299   8.2    4 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+

I’m going to let you readers weigh in on the situation. Do you plan to draft Portis in the first round? Is he worth the risk? What’s the earliest position in the draft you would use to draft Portis?