Fantasy files: That wacky Cedric Benson

The only running back I had on my local keeper league roster worth a crap last year was Cedric Benson. If we had keepers this year, he’d be my keeper running back. Benson has been accused of punching a bartender in Austin. It’s bad enough that he was accused. It’s doubly bad (from a perception standpoint only) that he hired Ben Roethlisberger’s attorney. What also happened is that he hid this from the NFL.

The NFL doesn’t like hiding, because the NFL’s going to find out anyway. The incident allegedly happened on May 30th and Benson was arrested today. He did not let the league know, and that’s officially bad. It’s hard to say what really happened. Any time a guy who has previous issues with the law is arrested again, that’s bad. There’s enough guilt by association involved that even if he clears his name, it’s not going to be 100% clean.

A possible suspension is a good reason to drop Benson in my rankings. The fact that he got into this situation bodes poorly for him getting an extension for the team, which really hurts in keeper rankings. I loved Benson as a RB2 this year. He’s probably dropping a round or two now.