Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Here's the problem with the 'we don't need a power back' approach:
It's not going to be wrong 80% of the time. And if you're extremely lucky it may not be wrong at all for a season. But let's not forget where this team plays, lads.
This ain't Lubbock - the Air Raid is gonna have some moments in November when the field is soft and the air is cold where it's just not the way to go in short yardage. When you're trying to spread a team out inside the 5 and Thompson goes to plant that foot to turn upfield and the turf fails, what's your answer?
No, when it's 72 degrees and sunny, there's no real need for Carlos Hyde. But fellas, in all likelihood we're not playing in any domes in the playoffs. We're probably not playing down south in the playoffs. We're going to have probably 4-6 critical games played in less than stellar conditions and in those conditions, in a short yardage situation, you just want to be able to push the other guys out of the way.
May turn out we don't need him, but I'd rather have him and not need him than need him and not have him. Especially when the cost is Tremon !@#$ing Smith, who's demonstrated no ability to play CB, no ability to play RB and who's only strength is the area of the game that the NFL is desperately trying to phase out.
If Darrell Williams can take his job and save us some money - okay, I can live with that. But I'm not comfortable with a stable of RBs who top out at 210 lbs. Imma need a 225-235 lb dude on this roster who I can trust to give the ball if the field has turned to shit and I just need someone to slam into a pile.
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Nice post DJLN, I find myself thinking the same thing. Only I’m not sold on any of our RBs as a real power back. With Hunt and Ware gone we have no one to set a physical tone on offense. None of our current offensive guys are going to go out and look for a CB or safety to crush when they get to the second level. We are a total finesse team right now and that usually doesn’t go well come December and January.
I’m kind of thinking we cut Hyde and Darrel in favor of some other team’s power back that gets cut as teams go to 53 man rosters. I just don’t think Hyde or Darrel have shown enough to really cut it for us. We may not do that, but I think it’ll come back to bite us at some point if we don’t get someone who can run with an attitude.