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The leading rusher among NFL rookies in 2004, Detroit Lions tailback Kevin Jones, was an anomaly of sorts.

How so? Because Jones, who ran for 1,133 yards after emerging at midseason from a spate of nagging injuries earlier in the year, was a first-round choice. And in the recent past, the first-round imprimatur hasn't necessarily stamped a back for immediate stardom.

Position-by-position schedule
In preparation for the NFL draft (April 23-24, ESPN), Len Pasquarelli and John Clayton will roll out a position-by-position look at draft prospects, along with a breakdown for each position. Click here to see the complete schedule.

Prior to Jones, a running back outside of the first round actually led NFL rookies in rushing yards in each of the preceding nine years. And the performances of later picks such as Clinton Portis, Domanick Davis, Mike Anderson, Corey Dillon and Curtis Martin, coupled with the success of the Denver Broncos in unearthing talented tailbacks deep in the draft pool, has spawned the empirically driven suspicion that teams can find a viable runner outside the first round.

But for the 2005 draft, which features the so-called Big Three at tailback, there are some questions as to whether the supply will really approximate the demand.

This has been dubbed – principally because of the presence of Auburn standouts Carnell "Cadillac" Williams and Ronnie Brown, along with Cedric Benson of Texas – the "year of the back." But outside of the first round, perhaps even beyond the top 10 selections, some scouts and personnel directors are starting to wonder if such a handle is actually a misnomer.

Indeed, once you move past the three sure-fire first-round selections, there lately has developed a suspicion that the alleged depth of the tailback pool in the 2005 draft does not live up to its hype.

"Because of what's happened the past 10 years or so, with teams being able to locate productive [tailbacks] later in the draft, we've been kind of lulled into this feeling that it will always be that way," said one AFC college scouting director. "And looking a little bit harder at this year's draft now, I've got to tell you, it might be kind of a false sense of security. You hear a lot of guys in my profession, people I respect, talking about all of the depth at running back. Maybe it's just me but, man, I don't see it."

It is, make no mistake, a contrarian view, albeit one shared by a few scouts with whom we spoke. And there is some evidence to support the notion that, beyond the three first-round tailbacks, the 2005 class is more about projects than prospects.

Consider the two runners, J.J. Arrington of California and Florida's Ciatrick Fason, who most scouts have evaluated as the tailbacks most likely to follow the Big Three off the draft board. Arrington was just a one-year starter, a player whose eye-opening season in 2004, when he rushed for 2,018 yards, catapulted him into prominence. Faison has been a durable back, but his resume includes only one 1,000-yard year, and he has registered pedestrian 40-yard times in workouts.

And those two aren't the only backs rated as possible first-day selections who have some warts on them. Kay-Jay Harris of West Virginia and Oklahoma State's Vernand Morency are both overaged prospects, the former 26 years old, the latter 25. Frank Gore of Miami has suffered torn anterior cruciate ligaments in both knees during a star-crossed career. Ryan Moats of Louisiana Tech and Kansas State's Darren Sproles are undersized.

For many talent evaluators, who consider the second round a safe haven for executing less tenuous choices on tailbacks projected as solid contributors, the safety net might not be there with the 2005 class. The problem: The demand for runners remains strong.

Seven of the teams with the top eight choices in the draft did not have a 1,000-yard rusher in 2004. And history has demonstrated – most recently in 2004, when eight of the top 10 rushing franchises in the league advanced to the playoffs, and three of the four clubs that appeared in the conference title games were among the rushing leaders – that you still have to run the ball to succeed.

There is, though, this disclaimer: You don't necessarily have to run the ball with players you originally drafted. None of the top five rushing teams in 2004 featured a homegrown 1,000-yard rusher. Just three of the top 10 rushing teams – San Diego (LaDainian Tomlinson), Seattle (Shaun Alexander) and Baltimore (Jamal Lewis) – had 1,000-yard tailbacks who were former first-round picks.

So while there is always an emphasis on finding a young, talented back in the draft, it is not necessarily an imperative. Especially when a draft pool is as understocked at tailback as at least a few scouts feel this one might be.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.