"The Green Bay Packers now have a pretty good idea what Ryan Grant is as a starting NFL halfback.

If Grant hasn't repeated his phenomenal play from the second half of the 2007 season, when he rushed for 929 yards and a 5.1-yard average per carry in the final 10 games, he also showed last season he wasn't the more pedestrian runner from 2008 who gained only 3.9 yards a rush playing through a hamstring injury.

So, what is he after three seasons and 776 carries as their primary back? A tough, physical runner who can handle a heavy workload, a back who shows some power and burst but with only OK ability to avoid tacklers.

That came through last year when, as a healthy 16-game starter, Grant got enough out of his 282 runs to finish with more yards (1,253) than one of the six NFL backs who had more carries (Cincinnati's Cedric Benson), though not enough to prevent one player who had fewer carries (Baltimore's Ray Rice, 254 carries for 1,339 yards) from surpassing Grant in yardage.

That puts Grant on a three-year run in which his 3,362 yards rushing trails only Minnesota's Adrian Peterson (4,484), Kansas City's Thomas Jones (3,833) and St. Louis' Stephen Jackson (3,460) over that time. Total yards is only one measure of a runner's effectiveness and, for instance, doesn't take into account better backs who play for teams that have superior depth at halfback. But the 27-year-old Grant probably will get the large majority of the Packers' carries for a fourth straight season in a well-rounded offense that figures to be one of the best in the NFL.

"Those (last) three years, there's really been only one other back that you can say was more productive, and that was Adrian Peterson," said Edgar Bennett, the Packers' running backs coach. "A lot of things with Grant (not repeating '07), he had the injuries. (But) he has to improve in some areas as well, when we get out there in a one-on-one battle (against a tackler), we've got to win that battle. When we get on that second (i.e., linebacker) level, we expect him to win those battles.""