THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS RUNNING GAME ISN’T DOOMED AFTER ALL

[Quinton619]

Hey everyone ! Take a look at my latest article and tell me what you think! Let's discuss this! ‪#‎HTTR‬

 

http://lastwordonsports.com/2016/06/14/redskins-running-game-isnt-doomed/

 

 

[Airyx]

This is good, but you left out the TEs.

 

Because of injuries, the 'skins ran out of people to play the TE position last season. In Gruden's approach, the TEs do almost all of the lead and back-side blocking. At points during the season, there wasn't a single TE on the roster who could do either effectively.

 

Adding Davis does three things. He can help Reed become a better blocker, he is a better than average blocking TE himself, and his presence in the package does not telegraph the play.

 

If Paulson is on the field, you know they are probably going to run.

If Paul is on the field, you know they are probably going to pass.

If both are out there, then you know that Paulson will be the lead, and Paul will be the backside.

 

However, with Davis and Reed out there...could be a pass, could be a run, could have Davis lead, might have Reed lead. That should make a pretty big difference in the effectiveness of the running game.

[Jumbo]

Welcome , but you need to comply with the site rules, some of which you immediately violated in your hurry to self-promote.

 

You need to format your title and OP per our rules asap or risk closure of your thread and temporary suspension.

 

When you registered you agreed to LEARN and FOLLOW forum  rules. 

[Quinton619]

My apologies! I'll re read them, this won't happen again

Welcome , but you need to comply with the site rules, some of which you immediately violated in your hurry to self-promote.

 

You need to format your title and OP per our rules asap or risk closure of your thread and temporary suspension.

 

When you registered you agreed to LEARN and FOLLOW forum  rules. 

Great point !

This is good, but you left out the TEs.

 

Because of injuries, the 'skins ran out of people to play the TE position last season. In Gruden's approach, the TEs do almost all of the lead and back-side blocking. At points during the season, there wasn't a single TE on the roster who could do either effectively.

 

Adding Davis does three things. He can help Reed become a better blocker, he is a better than average blocking TE himself, and his presence in the package does not telegraph the play.

 

If Paulson is on the field, you know they are probably going to run.

If Paul is on the field, you know they are probably going to pass.

If both are out there, then you know that Paulson will be the lead, and Paul will be the backside.

 

However, with Davis and Reed out there...could be a pass, could be a run, could have Davis lead, might have Reed lead. That should make a pretty big difference in the effectiveness of the running game.

[Koolblue13]

I wish there were no font options.

[NewCliche21]

At first I read the thread title and was like, "Eh, I'm not so sure."

 

Then I saw that the thread title was in caps and was like,"Oh, caps?  Definitely agree now."

[TK]

My apologies! I'll re read them, this won't happen again

Then why haven't you edited your thread title like Jumbo directed you to do & why did you quote a large block of text just to say "great point"?

Before you reply, your next action is to actually read, comprehend, & understand the Rules. Then edit your thread title & condense your large block of text quote as per the Rules.

[Passizle]

I think there is a lot of wishful thinking in that article. I did not like letting Morris go. He was humble, a total team player and an asset both on and off the field. That being said, I can understand that he did not fit in Coaches scheme. i am worried about him vs us with that VERY big and talented Cowboys front 5. he is gonna do some damage for sure.

We have a very young, very green RB lineup. The only talents are Jones and Thompson. I view Jones as an average RB with room to grow. He is young, big, strong, decent pass catcher and seems to like contact. But... he lacks burst, top line speed, patience to the hole or cutback, has a fumbling issue and is a liability in the blocking game.

Outside of him, I cant really opine on the rest. Too little or no carries.

[skinny21]

This is good, but you left out the TEs.

Because of injuries, the 'skins ran out of people to play the TE position last season. In Gruden's approach, the TEs do almost all of the lead and back-side blocking. At points during the season, there wasn't a single TE on the roster who could do either effectively.

Adding Davis does three things. He can help Reed become a better blocker, he is a better than average blocking TE himself, and his presence in the package does not telegraph the play.

If Paulson is on the field, you know they are probably going to run.

If Paul is on the field, you know they are probably going to pass.

If both are out there, then you know that Paulson will be the lead, and Paul will be the backside.

However, with Davis and Reed out there...could be a pass, could be a run, could have Davis lead, might have Reed lead. That should make a pretty big difference in the effectiveness of the running game.

Agree with almost all of this. Not sure about Paul and Paulsen, and what it means when they're in the game, though I can see why you used "probably".

Paul bulking up last year and talking about how he wasn't getting thrown around any more was one of the things I most looked forward to seeing play out last year. Didn't happen. Given what we've heard this year about how quickly he got himself rehabbed and chomping (not "champing") at the bit - I think he's got a chance to be a very versatile weapon for us... perhaps similar to Vernon Davis actually (particularly earlier in his career).

Paulsen is interesting - we've seen him make some surprising catches in his time here, but also drop some easier ones. He (oddly enough) reminds me of Garçon a bit - both in his slightly inconsistent hands, and the way he'd fight for yardage after the catch. What bugged me about Paulsen (aside from inconsistent hands and blocking), was how often he'd fight for yards, get stood up, and then have the ball stripped. Point is though, I don't know that his blocking clearly outweighs his receiving skills.

I think the coaches are going to have fun getting these guys into versatile sets that work.

[NeverSurrender]

There's a lot to comment on here, I'll do my best:

 

Interesting read on the article.  I think there are a lot of reason the running game sputtered last year and it all started with the O-line.  Litch is very good at blocking in the 2 level "linebackers and safties/corners"  This is why he fits better at Center.  You can go back and look at some of the tapes of last years good runs.  Chances are that you will see some good blocks from him downfield. Lavauo going out really hurt as well, in terms of push.  Dude gets push on running plays, plain and simple this is why Gruden likes him so much. 

 

Another thing about the running game that hurt was Morris's inability to adjust to the changes.  I believe there were holes to run through with the Ribs/Long combo, however Morris wasn't decisive enough to hit small holes hard.  Its just not his style.

 

As for the TE debate i do think that was an issue as well, that much was pretty obvious.  But I will say that we did what we could with what we had.  This year we have a stable of TEs to say the least and it should be interesting to see the combinations especially in the redzone. 

 

 I have seen a few articles about how we lost a lot of leadership this offseason and those same articles go on to talk about how the Cowboys are getting romoSUCKS and Dez back.  Well.... we are getting Niles Paul back.  If anyone can remember, he was our TEAM CAPTAIN last year before injury.  I fully expect he will be that again this year.  With added weight this guy can be a monster for us this year in a lot of different ways.  Leadership, passing game blocking in the run game and special teams.  To sum that up, I'm very excited about having him back and I know the players love him and so do the coaches. 

 

I think Matt Jones has everything you look for in a solid running back, speed, vision, physicality and hands.  I think he can be a force in the passing game.  Particularly in the screen game which I think we will see a lot of this year.   

[roanoker]

I hope that some of the RBs we have on the roster will rise to the challenge at TC.  Like any other player, Matt Jones could get hurt or not perform as expected.

[Hail4Life]

Nice article, keep up the writing Quinton619!

[bobandweave]

Hate to rehash thoughts as if they are cemented and can't be changed but eh I'm bored and I don't get on here much so thank you for humoring me. As for the article, goes against my feeling that unless we have a rabbit coming out of an empty hat the running back situation here bothers me the most out of every single aspect of the team today and much more so then my second biggest concern.

 

 

I personally am finding it very hard to be excited about Jones this season. This is the time of year when everything out of the coaches mouths is glowing and positive and with Jones it's no different. Those comments right now do not mean as much to me as seeing us pretty much ignore this part of the team this year outside of a long shot 7th round pick. Ignoring it does speak loudly to Jones role with the team and how the coaches envision this going, I'm just not sure we have the right man for that plan yet.

 

So Matt Jones...what we know about the guy....Drafted in the 3rd round, 8th RB selected in a deep RB class. He didn't have a great college career but shined some and last year well to put it kindly overall he stunk. I know I'm being harsh but some stats on him

 

In 2015, Matt Jones finished outside the top 48 among running backs in yards per carry, average yards after the catch and forced missed tackles per attempt

https://www.profootballfocus.com/fantasy-steer-clear-of-matt-jones-in-fantasy-drafts-chris-thompson/

 

Not good. Besides that we know that he played in 13 games last season missing a couple due to injury more red flags and we know he had a fumbling issue he's working on even more red flags. He has according to PFF only four good games from the 13 he played in and he only scored 3 rushing TDs with 2 scores coming against the Rams all season. He averaged only 3.4 yards per rushing attempt which is awful.

 

Now this is not the resume of a guy I think we should be going all in with and handing him the ball  20-25 times per game. This is a guy that you try and use in a committee with someone else (Alfred Morris) and hope that giving him 10-15 carries a game could possibly produce 60 yards of offense per game like we did last season. Now 60 yards of rushing times 16 games would equal out to a season total of 960 rushing yards and if you told me today that Jones would have 960 rushing yards this year I would be pretty excited after all last year only 6 men rushed for more then 1000 rushing yards.

 

But that's probably unrealistic. Based on his yards per carry average to reach 960 rushing yards not that this is a magical number or anything but to give perspective he would have to rush for 60 yards per game and last year he only did that in two of the 13 games. Expecting him to do every game in a 16 game season to me is wishful thinking. And it's not like 1000 yard rushers are magical or even a necessity for team to be successful in the NFL today but they do help.

 

I personally don't blame the Offensive Line much at all for Jones struggles last season. That is the same offensive line that helped Kirk Cousins only get sacked 1.625 times per game (He was only sacked 26 times last year). Compare that to other QBs and that's exceptional. Now I know that offensive line blocking for the rush is different then the pass but thought I would mention it before mentioning how we ranked last season in terms of the rush blocking.

 

First we rushed the football a total of 398 times with our Running Backs which ranked 7th overall in the league, we rushed a lot last season. Of those rushes

 

20% Left End
13% Left Tackle
37% Middle/Guard
13% Right Tackle
17%  Right End

 

So 33% of the time the rush went to the Left, 37% it went up the middle, and 30% went to the Right. That shows we didn't have a glaring weakness on the line as its pretty equal

 

That line unit ranked NFL average 18th overall with Power rush success, they ranked average with rushes stuffed at the LOS as well but where the unit failed was ranking 27th in getting those 2nd level yards meaning when the line blocked the players with the ball didn't do very much with it. To me the line was not to blame for the RBs not having success last season

 

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

 

 

To sum it all up I have serious doubts about this position. Jones is taking the place of Alfred Morris who behind that same offensive line last season had a .3 more yard average increase then Jones. With RBs you have to expect the younger players would out produce an aging veteran but that didn't happen last season. Now with another year older and more bumps and bruises I'm not real sure he can

 

His most troubling stat to me is his elusiveness or lack there of it. He's not big enough to steam roll players and he's not breaking tackles like we need from him. He seems to be easy to bring down.

 

I really hope that his best years are yet to come and we see more out of him this year. If not we will likely be worse here then we were last season and that may place too much on Cousins to perform. I hope I'm wrong about this one

[Master Blaster]

I think there is a lot of wishful thinking in that article. I did not like letting Morris go. He was humble, a total team player and an asset both on and off the field. That being said, I can understand that he did not fit in Coaches scheme. i am worried about him vs us with that VERY big and talented Cowboys front 5. he is gonna do some damage for sure.

 

Absent injuries, he is at best RB3 for the Cowboys.  I don't have a lot of concerns.

[DJD2]

Absent injuries, he is at best RB3 for the Cowboys.  I don't have a lot of concerns.

 

Yeah unless Elliott and McFadden get injured, it's hard to imagine Morris getting more than 4-5 carries per game. Maybe they'll use him in some goal-line packages.

[RabidFan]

We had the same run and pass TE dynamic with Warren and Didier and were successful.  Of course if they knew we were running we still had the HOGS to make holes.  If it was pass we had Monk, Clark, and Sanders.

 

Now currently I think with Garcon, Crowder, and Djax we have the possession, shiftiness inside and across the field, and the deep ball burner.  Add Josh and the future is bright and will allow us to let PG or DJ walk.

 

You are correct about the current TEs though with the versatility we have now.  2 passing threats in Reed and Davis and Davis can block too.   Paul was all over the field playing catch and run a few years back so if he can do that then he can cause match up problems as well

 

We've got the right side of the OL shored up with youth and a beast LT.  If we can coach up and find new blood at C and LG among Long, Arie, or others to take over starting roles....again, the future is bright.

[DC9]

Yeah unless Elliott and McFadden get injured, it's hard to imagine Morris getting more than 4-5 carries per game. Maybe they'll use him in some goal-line packages.

 

I don't know, man.

 

The others two (DMC and Elliott) are power backs.  Not saying Morris can't sniff the goal line, but he made his bread and butter in the ZBS.  The other two are just more violent runners as a style.

 

Clearly the Cowboys signed AlMo thinking they'd be able to draft romoSUCKS's replacement (prior to all of the trades).  It'd be interesting to see if and how they use Alfred.  

 

I can confidently say that I don't feel any different about our running game without Alfred than I did with Alfred still here.                                                                             

[Passizle]

Yeah unless Elliott and McFadden get injured, it's hard to imagine Morris getting more than 4-5 carries per game. Maybe they'll use him in some goal-line packages.

Well... you know McFadden will get injured... and Elliot is #3 on the depth chart. I can see Morris being #1 RB early in the season.

[Wildbunny]

Well... you know McFadden will get injured... and Elliot is #3 on the depth chart. I can see Morris being #1 RB early in the season.

 

I doubt Elliott will remain #3 much longer. I wouldn't be surprised if they start him by week #1.

[bobandweave]

Yeah unless Elliott and McFadden get injured, it's hard to imagine Morris getting more than 4-5 carries per game. Maybe they'll use him in some goal-line packages.

 

McFatty is already injured

I can confidently say that I don't feel any different about our running game without Alfred than I did with Alfred still here.                                                                             

 

I usually agree with you but not this time. It's not that Morris added strength but he was a body for us just like he's a body for them. The problem is our depth of bodies is not good in fact I'm not sure it's not the worst in the league

 

1 Matt Jones

2 Chris Thompson  

3 Keith Marshall

4 Mack Brown

5 Rob Kelley

 

According to Rotoworld that's the depth chart. We have no one to be our 1st-2nd down back should Jones get hurt again as Thompsons value is clearly in his ability to catch the ball. We have no idea if the 3-5s can actually play as they never have before. One injury to Jones and we could be royally screwed

[Bobby Peppers]

Anyone else a little worried that Moses gained 17 pounds in one offseason? You can point to the weight room but that amount of weight can't be all muscle. I really hope he hasn't lost a step with the extra weight. I can see a 335 pound Guard but a Tackle worries me.

[DC9]

 

I usually agree with you but not this time. It's not that Morris added strength but he was a body for us just like he's a body for them. The problem is our depth of bodies is not good in fact I'm not sure it's not the worst in the league

 

1 Matt Jones

2 Chris Thompson  

3 Keith Marshall

4 Mack Brown

5 Rob Kelley

 

According to Rotoworld that's the depth chart. We have no one to be our 1st-2nd down back should Jones get hurt again as Thompsons value is clearly in his ability to catch the ball. We have no idea if the 3-5s can actually play as they never have before. One injury to Jones and we could be royally screwed

 

 

Morris is a veteran, but he offered very little to the team the last couple of years.  He'd be JAG like the rest of that depth charge, but JAG with less tread.

 

Three things:

 

1)  I've been told that they will play the games.  All 16.

 

2)  I don't disagree that we are in a bad way as far as established depth goes

 

3)  And I've really gone out on a limb with my preseason prediction of a TD leader for the team... but it's going to be Kelley, the UDFA RB.  About 50% of that is because I wanted to be different than everyone else, but the 0ther 50% is because I think he's a sleeper.

 

We're going to be okay.  It'll work itself out.

[Wildbunny]

RB is exactly the position where I expect a surprise or two by the time the cut to the 53 comes.

[DC9]

Anyone else a little worried that Moses gained 17 pounds in one offseason? You can point to the weight room but that amount of weight can't be all muscle. I really hope he hasn't lost a step with the extra weight. I can see a 335 pound Guard put a Tackle worries me.

 

That's a bad weekend when you're that big.

 

He can lose it in a week, too.

[Commander Chaaarmnder]

Yeah unless Elliott and McFadden get injured, it's hard to imagine Morris getting more than 4-5 carries per game. Maybe they'll use him in some goal-line packages.

Didn't McFadden break an elbow trying to keep his cell phone from hitting the ground recently? Coulda sworn I saw that on ESPN.