Keep One Eye Open: On Ronnie Brown

by Matt Prendergast

 Keep One Eye Open is a series of quick notes on players that ReclinerQB.com is pointing out that maybe, just maybe, you should put in your 'Players To Watch' queue, wherever your league may be hosted. These aren't guys that we're saying you should draft come fantasy league time; in fact, you probably shouldn't. These are guys to keep in your holster with a watchful eye, because there's some potential that you might want to take a roll on them at week three, five or seven when your sleeper guys are revealed to be 'the dead weight they've always been'.

You all know Ronnie Brown, right? The man who truly made The Pro Wildcat a workable idea for a couple of years there -  a punishing, multi-faceted runner with great passion for the game and a nose for the end zone! At times unstoppable, there were weeks where RB could put the whole Dolphin team on his back and run to glory. And then usually this would happen:

He's actually carrying these three guys -  good teammate.

Oh, and this down here:

'That's why we stress 'stretching' pre-game, Ronnie!'

But hey, everybody gets a little dinged up sometimes right? What is Ronnie Brown supposed to be, some sort of Iron Man? It hardly seems fair to label a guy as 'injury prone' when it's only a couple of minor - oh, I almost forgot about the broken hand.

In the interest of full disclosure

Okay, so the guy only got through three complete seasons out of his six in Miami. So what? That's two more than Chad Pennington ever gave them, and in the history of Miami Dolphins' quarterbacks, I think it's evident to everyone that Chad Pennington was one of them. And what thanks did Ronnie get? He got the undying appreciation that management gives a rough-and-tumble fighter who keeps getting up off the mat to fight another round: He got replaced by Reggie Bush. That probably hurt the worst.

So last year, Ronnie Brown went to Philadelphia as part of their plan to built a giant Voltron Eagle that could win the Super Bowl in three games or less and defend our planet. That worked out terrific for him, with a career highlight of 'almost being traded to the Detroit Lions for their third or fourth best running back that year, whom the Eagles traded away the year before, and who had a brain tumor. And also, the Iggles had to kick in a draft pick'. A dismal turn of events for our Mr. Brown.

But this year, Ronnie's got two full seasons of good health in a row under his belt, and he's gracefully accepted the position of 'the guy behind Ryan Matthews'. The same Ryan Matthews who also hasn't submitted an entire 16 game season for review in his two years as the Chargers 'gonna-be-workhorse'. Now, I'm all for a healthy season for Matthews - I'm gonna be aiming to draft him whenever possible....but if that fella goes down, I'd be ecstatic to have Ronnie Brown in my back pocket to pick up the yards and scores for a month or so - he's got the talent, and a lot of miles left on the warranty.

So file Ronnie Brown under 'possible late-round handcuff that you can probably just pick up in week 5 if you don't feel like killing that roster spot for a month'.

Which leaves us with only one remaining question; WHY in the effing eff eff, when I Google Image Searched for 'Ronnie Brown Hurt', did I receive this visual present:

Answer: There is no God.

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