FanHouse PJ Hill

Earlier this offseason, Sean Payton broke down the Saints' personnel objectives into needs and wants. Among the needs: safety, corner. Among the wants: power running back. They were close to obtaining the latter in last month's draft, when they almost swung a deal to move up and select Beanie Wells. Alas, they didn't, thus they're currently still left wanting.

The team that did wind up selecting Wells, Arizona, pushed a disgruntled Edgerrin James out of town to make room for the rookie. Now, the Saints are looking at Edge to fill the power-back role in New Orleans.

As hundreds of young athletes continue their preparations for next month's NFL Draft, it's inevitable that at least a few of them will run afoul of the law. For them, the draft will become a bit more stressful, as they take quite a hit in the wallet while they plummet down the board.

This year, former Wisconsin running back P.J. Hill now finds himself in that predicament. Hill was arrested early Saturday morning in Madison for drunken driving. While he wasn't exactly flying up draft boards and appeared a bit slow at his Pro Day, what's left of Hill's stock is sure to start falling now.

Wisconsin junior running back P.J. Hill has decided to turn pro.

The three-year starter battled injuries throughout his Wisconsin career, but still managed just short of 4,000 yards, good for third on the school's all-time rushing list behind Ron Dayne and Anthony Davis.

The Wisconsin State Journal speculates that 770 carries over three years was simply enough for Hill. That's a lot of wear and tear on a body that has also dealt with a lot of injuries over the years. There's also the matter of John Clay being on the roster. Clay has the look of a stronger, faster version of Hill. He looked very good in a complimentary role in 2008 and should step in as the unquestioned starter by the end of 2009 fall camp, if not earlier.

Hill made it clear that it's just time for him to move on.

"I just feel the time is right for me to take the next step in my career," Hill said. "I would like to thank my teammates, coaches and the Badger fans for the great experience I had during my time at UW."

I'm biased, but I think Hill has a puncher's chance of making it in the NFL. A lot of his draft prospects will hinge on what scouts think of his speed and the injuries he's suffered. He's also going to have show more potential as a receiver than he was allowed to show in Wisconsin's offense.

Paul Bunyan's Axe will spend another winter in Madison after a game that might not appear on either team's season highlights video.

If you heard that the Badgers were held to 116 yards rushing by the Gophers, you'd probably assume the Badgers lost. But not today. The long-dormant Badger passing game didn't exactly explode today, but Dustin Sherer threw the ball well enough to make up for the largely absent running game.

Okay, it wasn't completely absent. PJ Hill did have 117 yards on 24 carries. And, with a 58% completion percentage, it's not like Sherer has anybody saying "Graham who?" Only the final score counts, though, and Wisconsin had the bigger one, 35-32.

If you only saw the first half of this game, you're little surprised by that. The Badgers fumbled four times in the first half and lost three of them. Minnesota could only turn one of those turnovers into point. though. The Badgers were lucky they were only down 21-7 at halftime.

Luck turned the other way in the second half. Two Wisconsin safeties, one on a fumbled kickoff and the other on a sack of Adam Weber, made the difference not just for the game but for both teams' seasons.

This was way more difficult than it appears. Overrated players are usually at glamor positions on glamor teams; with Beanie Wells definitively not overrated, Penn State's general lack of star power, and everyone predicting doom for Michigan there was little to go around. So, like, I had to go with concepts. But not for #1.

1. Curtis Painter, QB, Purdue

I've posted on this before, when Mel Kiper put Painter in his top ten senior prospects for the NFL draft and a small portion of the logic center in my brain died. Last year, Painter was the beneficiary of a silky-soft schedule (nonconference: ND, Eastern Illinois, Central Michigan, Toledo, and Central Michigan again; in conference the Boilers missed Illinois and Wisconsin) and still couldn't put up good passer efficiency numbers, finishing 46th. His YPA dropped almost a full yard from his sophomore year, and when it came time to play the big boys Purdue's offense completely disappeared. And now he's lost Dorien Bryant, Selwyn Lymon, and Dustin Keller. No matter: Purdue's got a Heisman campaign going and Kiper's lost his mind. This is madness. Painter's immobile and erratic; he's not a wizard at reading defenses; his conference TD:INT ratio was 11:7. He'll be better this year, but closer to average than excellent.

This is the sort of thing that leads to serious comment flaming complete with people calling other people "loosers!!!!" so if we could just clarify: it's not that any of these players are actually bad. They're just not as good as popularly acclaimed to be, either by rave-prone announcers or star-dazed recruitniks or awards-granting committees or All Big Ten teams. All of these players would start on most teams in the league and said teams would be happy to have them; they just aren't all that with bag of chips and salsa and guacamole and etc etc etc.

1. James Laurinaitis, LB, Ohio State

It's not that Laurinaitis is a bad player. He's not. He flows well sideline-to-sideline and if you don't get a blocker on him he will find you and tackle you. He's good on his zone drops, too. But what he is not is an all-conquering "animal" -- ha! -- that can destroy you by idly considering ways in which he would like your head to implode. Nor does he have hypno-toad eyes which force quarterbacks to throw the ball directly to him, copious evidence from last year be damned. But don't tell this to Brent Musberger, whose orgasmic rendition of the James Laurinaitis show in this year's Texas-Ohio State matchup established the middle linebacker as the country's best... for some reason. Never mind that Texas wasn't actually that good at running the ball last year or that Colt McCoy was still in freshman embryo mode and was reduced mostly to checkdowns and screens. By the time these facts became clear, it was too late: the legend of Laurinaitis was born. Simply, if you get a hat on the guy he's done. Both Michigan and Florida eliminated him from their games just by blocking the guy and put up 39 and 41 points, respectively. He should improve this year, and I'd even put him on an All Big Ten second team behind true monster Dan Connor, but he is not the be all and end all of linebackers.