San Diego Chargers running back Ryan Mathews turned in a frustrating, injury-marred rookie season in 2010. A few days into training camp, he's not inspiring a lot of thought that he'll rebound in 2011. Mathews came into camp out of shape, so much so that he failed the team's conditioning test, which some teammates describe as "fairly easy." And now Mathews is hurt. Head coach Norv Turner has said that Mathews missed the past couple of days due to soreness, but some sources in San Diego say it's actually a toe injury that's keeping Mathews sidelined. Then there's this quote that Mathews unleashed a couple of days ago: "I haven't been doing much speed work like that. There's a couple things I probably should have done differently in the offseason, conditioning my legs."

Fantasy Analysis:

I have never played organized football, but I would guess that conditioning your legs is, you know, sort of important for a running back. Good thing the Chargers have Mike Tolbert back for another year because early indications are he'll be getting a lot of work this season. It's too soon to totally freak out about Mathews and jump ship, but he clearly didn't commit himself to the upcoming season while he had time to train on his own, and now he's paying the price. According to FFToolbox's average draft position, Mathews is the 15th-rated running back and being selected around pick No. 31, in front of Ahmad Bradshaw, Shonn Greene, LeGarette Blount and Jahvid Best. I would take all of those guys before I even think about Mathews right now.