One of the most exciting days of my childhood was when my grandparents bought me Pokemon Blue for Christmas. I opened the box, saw I had gotten exactly what I wanted, and then proceeded to ignore the rest of my presents while playing that bad boy well past my bed time.

Within the first several minutes of play you're asked to make an important decision that will define a large part of your overall gaming experience. You must choose between Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander as your first Pokemon.

I feel like there should be a bad Buzzfeed quiz about how depending upon which of the three you picked a person can learn a lot about you. If you chose Charmander, you're a risk-seeking adventurer who isn't afraid to dream big. If you chose Bulbasaur, you're a hippie, hipster, or contrarian; you like going against the mainstream. If you chose Squirtle, you're risk-averse and utilitarian.

Anyway, the gravity and terror of this initial decision has weighed heavy on my soul and I think of it often. Just last week, in fact, when I was forced, with the first pick overall in a recent MFL10, to choose between potentially limited ceiling -- but someone who could help keep my team afloat all year.

And then I saw Jamaal Charles, my usual pick, and couldn't help but envision him as a beautiful green gigantic plant-toad. My typical pick in Pokemon was Bulbasaur, and much like Bulbasaur, I think Charles is being criminally underrated; in Rotoworld's recent mock he lasted all the way until pick 1.09.

There are two common narratives I've been seeing in fantasy circles. The first is that it's Jamaal Charles and that you should take him in the first three picks. The second is that he's old, he's declining, and fifth-worst in the league.

There has always been Charles publicly asked that the Chiefs address the offensive line in the offseason, Kansas City granted his wish by drafting an offensive guard, Mitch Morse, in the middle of the second round and then shipped their fifth-round pick for Saints guard Ben Grubbs.

However, the biggest boost to the Chiefs offense could be coming from the familiar face of according to Charles, it was the injuries. He didn't feel right all season. He first twisted an ankle shortly after the end of training camp, sat out most of Week 2 and all of Week 3, and then played through foot, back, shoulder, knee, hamstring, and head injuries throughout the rest of the season. Though, he says now, he's fully healed and feels like he's 20- or 21-years-old again.

If Jamaal really was suffering through a multitude of injuries last season, it would come as a surprise to anyone looking at our NEP data. Last season, Jamaal Charles ranked as our most efficient running back with at least 100 carries, posting a 0.11 Rushing NEP per play, which was actually a big improvement on his Rushing NEP per play score of 0.05 in 2013.

It appears the rumors of his decline have been greatly exaggerated. So, if the passing game and offensive line are better in 2015 and he's still the same old Charles, the only thing standing in the way of him and top-three fantasy production would be more limited usage; but if he's healthy this season, why wouldn't the Chiefs feed their best offensive weapon?

Charles In Charge

After destroying the combine in 2013, Knile Davis burst onto the fantasy football scene in Week 2 of last season. After Charles went down with an injury, Davis compiled a total of 318 rushing yards with 3 touchdowns on 70 carries and had 7 receptions for 38 receiving yards over the course of a three-week span.

Davis would end his season with 134 rushing attempts, 463 rushing yards, 25 targets, 147 receiving yards, and 7 total touchdowns. Many are projecting that his number of carries and targets will remain constant next season. Davis himself just last week said he doesn't see a gap between his talent level and that of Charles'.

Okay, well luckily, we can be the judge of that.

Over the past two years, Charles has demolished Davis in almost every meaningful rushing metric. Moving the baseline down to 65 rushing attempts, in 2013, Charles ranked top-10 in Rushing NEP, Rushing NEP per play, and Success Rate (the percentage of rushes that lead to positive NEP gains), while Davis ranked eighth worst in the league in Rushing NEP per play and dead last in Success Rate.

Last season, Charles mirrored his impressive feat, finishing third in Rushing NEP, second in Rushing NEP per play (or first if the baseline moves back up to 100 rushing attempts), and eighth in Success Rate. Last season, Davis ranked third worst in Rushing NEP, sixth worst in Rushing NEP per play, and fifth worst in Success Rate. In yards per carry too, Charles has averaged 1.5 yards per carry higher than Davis in each of the last two seasons. So, in the same offense Jamaal Charles ranked as one of the best runners in the league, Knile Davis ranked as one of the worst.

While it's clear Davis is nowhere near the talent running the ball as Charles, and just isn't very good at it in general, a huge part of Charles' fantasy value is in receiving the ball out of the backfield, so, it's important we take a look at those numbers as well.

In 2013, Charles led all running backs in Reception NEP and finished fifth in Reception NEP per target, which is a crazy level of sustained efficiency considering I had to set the baseline for only 10 catches here. Meanwhile, in 2013, Knile Davis managed to post a higher Catch Rate (again, on a much smaller sample) but couldn't sniff Charles on per-target efficiency.

Last season, however, while Charles posted a higher Catch Rate this time around, Davis was much more efficient, posting a 0.45 Reception NEP per target score to Charles' 0.28. Is this a sign that Charles is slipping as a receiving back and that Davis is more effective in this area of the game? Could he be in line for more third down work in 2015?

No, it's really only a likely due to a small sample size and the fact that one of Davis' only 16 receptions went for 70 yards and a score in a game against the Raiders.

Andy Reid tends to pick a running back and stick with him throughout the year. While Reid may inexplicably forget he has a star running back some games, the back-up is typically far more neglected. Looking back at Andy Reid running backs like the all-time leader in rushing yards per carry with a 5.5 average to his name; this number is 0.3 yards higher than even the next closest running back (Jim Brown). He's also never had a season where he's averaged fewer than 5.0 yards per carry. That's just crazy.

His NEP marks in his career are just as impressive.

It's hard to say whether or not Charles should be a lock for one of the first picks in your fantasy draft without a more in-depth analysis into the other options available, but he's arguably one of the best running backs of our generation, his offense should be greatly improved this year, he seems to be healthy going into this season, and Knile Davis should not be considered a threat.

If you're looking for the right companion to help you take down the Elite-4 win your fantasy league, Jamaal Charles should make for an excellent choice in the early first round of your draft.