Neither is named Ricky Williams.

Carrying the ponderous expectations fueled by a blockbuster trade in which the New Orleans Saints surrendered the entire '99 draft class and two high-round 2000 picks as well, Williams as a rookie had nearly as many injuries as he has body piercings. And only half as many touchdowns.

The rookie tote board totals, 253 carries for 884 yards and two scores, cost Williams millions of dollars in incentive payments and coach Mike Ditka and general manager Billy Kuharich their jobs. But nearly as disappointing as Williams' dreadfully dreadlocked performance on the field was his deportment off it.

Running sweeps with Ricky Williams rarely worked for the Saints last season.(AP)

Callous, indifferent and incredibly self-absorbed as he conducted interviews from behind the sanctuary of a helmet face-shield, Williams became a public relations nightmare for a struggling franchise that tried to market itself through him.

This time around, the marketing focus will be on the new front office tandem of general manager Randy Mueller and coach Jim Haslett, and His Weirdness can concentrate on football. That could mean Williams finally begins to fulfill his potential as a feature attraction now that he needn't worry about his recurring role in the freak show.

"If he just does the things he can do well, and forgets about all the distractions, then he's going to be The Man," said quarterback Jeff Blake, the former Cincinnati starter signed as a free agent. "It isn't my place to defend him on whatever happened last year. But looking at some tapes, you can see he wasn't used in the best ways. He's a power back. I say, just give him the ball 30 times and let him pound on people."

Because it appears that is precisely what Haslett and staff plan to do, Williams is SportsLine.com's runaway favorite to have a "breakout" season at running back. Truth be told, there weren't really a lot of other candidates. In the "breakout" series, now in its second year, SportsLine.com tends to seek out younger veterans on the cusp of taking their game to the next level. Most of the younger running backs of quality in the league -- players like Corey Dillon (Cincinnati), Edgerrin James (Indianapolis), Fred Taylor (Jacksonville), Duce Staley (Philadelphia) and Stephen Davis (Washington) -- already have made their marks.

Because running back tends to be an "instant gratification" position in the NFL, one at which a rookie can come into the league and quickly establish himself, it isn't often that a young veteran suddenly makes a quantum leap the way Davis did in 1999, when he led the NFC in rushing. The other possibilities in 2000 include Curtis Enis of Chicago, Miami's J.J. Johnson, Michael Pittman of Arizona and Buffalo's Jonathan Linton. Of that group, though, only Enis is assured of having a starting job.

At least two publications predicted this summer that Williams will lead the NFC in rushing this season. There is some legitimacy to that prognostication.

While it is difficult to defend Williams' often inexplicable actions as a rookie -- and also an offseason interview with Sports Illustrated in which he ripped everything from the fans to the Saints secretarial pool -- there is also validity to Blake's assessment.

Under former offensive coordinator Danny Abramowicz, who was always miscast in his role, Williams was asked to run a lot of sweeps, and that kind of game is hardly his forte. There also was internal pressure, exerted principally by Ditka, for Williams to play hurt. By the final game of the season, covered by SportsLine.com, the tailback looked totally spent, ran with no passion or enthusiasm and barely got out of his own backfield.

If healthy, the New Orleans offensive line can be one of the league's most powerful units, and the blocking schemes will be less exotic in 2000. For the most part, Williams will run off tackle and, hopefully, over defenders. He is at his best when used as a battering ram, the kind of back whose production improves the more he touches the ball. The Saints offense will be a lot more sophisticated in 2000 under Mike McCarthy, but Williams' role will be simpler.

"I'm ready now to put last season behind me," Williams said in training camp. "It was a learning experience, that's the one good thing, and I'll use it that way. I made some mistakes that I won't make again, I know that. And I'll handle things better in general. There were times I didn't look all that forward last year to even playing football. Now I'm hungry for the game again."