"Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams didn't practice all week with a foot sprain, and he didn't even make the trip to St. Louis.

And you know what? It might not be the worst thing to give him all the time he needs to get well.

As much as the 10-games-and-ticking job status of head coach John Fox, the other big elephant rambling around the Panthers locker room is the future of their running back situation.

Williams is very good, and his contract will be very much expired in the same ten games Fox has left to log. Unlike Fox, however, there's a general sense he might not mind coming back, and they could keep him paired with Jonathan Stewart for another two years.

But should they?

While elite running backs are rare, good ones are fairly fungible. And in Mike Goodson and Tyrell Sutton, they've got two good ones, who could probably play more of a role if not for the traffic in front of them.

If Stewart performs well in Williams' absence, maybe the right call is to keep him (and his rookie-scale contract that runs through 2012) and complement him with the parts on hand.

Keeping Williams wouldn't be cheap, as he'd get in excess of $7 million per year in an extension, based on comparable deals signed by other top backs.

So as much fun as it was watching Williams and Stewart each exceed 1,100 yards last year, the reality is you might get the same level of team yardage for a lot less money if one of them was getting the bulk of the work."