Many on this site are calling for our beloved G-men to draft Mark Ingram in the first round. I am not one of them. As many others on here have stated "good" running backs are easy to find in later rounds and RBs in general have a short NFL shelf life. Also, our franchise has not had the best luck drafting RBs in the first round. However, sometimes special players come along at the position who are worthy of a first round selection. This post will detail why Mark Ingram is NOT one of those players. To warrant first round consideration a RB imo should get consistently positive yardage and be a TD threat every time he touches the ball...kind of like a baseball player who can hit for average and power. Ingram seems to be the former but not the latter. Here are the things from the scouting report that lead me to this conclusion.

1." Not an elite athlete, just has marginal top-end speed, is not the guy you will draft if you're looking for a home run threat."

2.  "Doesn't have much for open field moves, absorbs a lot of hits."

So, he is not particularly fast or shifty.

3. "Had 1,075 yards after contact in 2009, over 50 percent of his total yardage." This cuts both ways. It's impressive but will he be able to do it against NFL defenders? Probably not to the same degree. If not, he doesn't have much else to fall back on because he is not particularly fast or shifty. This style will also probably give him a short NFL shelf life.

4. "Numbers took a huge dive this year, went from 1,658 yards in 2009 to 875 in 2010".  It's even worse when you look closely at his 2010 numbers. 308yds came in two games against horrible Duke(113th) and Arkansas(68th) run defenses. That means in the other nine he rushed for 567yds(63yds/gm). Not particularly impressive for a college RB. Additionally, the numbers indicate he was not particularly explosive. His longest rush was 14yds or less in seven of his eleven games last year. Again, not particularly impressive for a college RB. Why the huge drop off in production? It's not as though Bama was a doormat this year. This is a red flag for me.

I like Mark Ingram and some compare him to Emmitt Smith but I see more Marion Barber than Emmitt Smith in him. A physical runner who doesn't fumble would make a nice addition to the team but not in the first round.