Mark Ingram: Jack of All Trades

Everyone can skip the part where they comment saying they already saw this on Yahoo. I'm not implying that I'm the first person to break this story, nor do I ever imply that I'm the first person to break a story. Believe it or not I'm just a sophomore in college who writes reactionary blog posts to stories that someone else already reported. Imagine that?
Anyway, Mark Ingram is a beast. I loved him last season for Alabama and he was the main reason I was pulling for the Crimson Tide to take down Colt McCoy and the Longhorns. Ingram enters his junior season under coach Nick Saban having already earned himself a Heisman Trophy and an NCAA championship. Couple in the fact that he would wreck Brady and Kraft on one of their golfing trips, and you've simply got a jack of all trades here. Hell, maybe even just a master of all trades. Some people are just gifted. They're good at everything. That's Ingram. But you might be asking... why am I so interested in this running back?
I'm interested because the Patriots haven't had a stud running back since the days of Curtin Martin -- maybe except for Corey Dillon's one big season with us (1,635 yards and 12 touchdowns). And guess whose 1st round pick the Pats have this year? Oakland's. Now, knowing our luck, the Raiders will probably go like 12-4 this year. But seriously, there's no way that draft pick will be worse than 10th. We're talking about the Raiders here. Belichick and the Patriots are infamous for always trading down and getting better "value" in their draft choices. And, for the big picture of their time here, it has worked out extremely well. But if that pick we acquired from the Raiders is a lottery pick that will give us the chance to land a feature running back for the first time in ages -- can we pass that up? Granted, Ingram may not even go to the draft after next year. He might choose to play his senior year. But I'm not just solely speaking about Ingram. If there is any standout running back on the board with a high selection, and that selection belongs to us... can we pass on it?
The Patriots are a pass-first offense. We all know that. But Randy Moss is in a contract year and Wes Welker has still yet to see game action on that repaired knee. Nobody knows for sure if he'll be the same. Hell, Tom Brady isn't even extended yet. There's the chance that this is the last year we see these guys in Patriots uniforms. Don't get me wrong -- I think Brady returns, and I even think Moss will be back too. But we could really use a better running game. Maroney just never seizes that opportunity when it's on the table for him. If a guy like Mark Ingram was on the board, I just don't see how we could pass him up. It's very wishful thinking to think that we'll get that high pick and that a guy of Ingram's caliber will be there. And it's even more wishful thinking to believe that those circumstances will fall into place and we will actually select the guy. But hey -- I'm just throwing it out there. Wouldn't it be nice?