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The Next Priest Holmes/Larry Johnson?


SkinsNoles21

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With Al Saunders in Washington and all the talk of how great Betts is, what are the chances Portis runs for 15-1700 yards and Betts still gets between 6-800 yards. This combo could be better than Holmes/Johnson because of the youth. Lookout world, the Skins are loaded.

I am not trying to compare Betts to Johnson I am just saying we will have two backs who can hurt the opposing defense and can run for a lot of yards.

By the way, can someone tell me what Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson had done before Al saunders. Holmes had one thousand yard season under his belt and was a backup in Baltimore. LJ had barely played.

Maybe if I put a question mark at the end of the title that will make it better.

People freak out when any type of comparison is made at all.

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I think Betts will spell Portis more often this season to prevent him from tiring down the stretch, but I wouldn't go as far as comparing him to a Larry Johnson. Betts has also been praised for his great hands out of the backfield - I wouldn't mind seeing him used for this throughout the next season as well.

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You're loony.

Ladell Betts has done nothing to merit any comparison to Larry Johnson.

I'm a big KC fan. They're my number 2 team, and I spent most of my teenage years going to their games. I track them almost as closely as I do the Skins.

Larry Johnson had done nothing to merit any comparison to anybody else in the league until he was given the spotlight. When it was his time to shine, he stepped up. You're implying Betts is a lesser back by performance, but they haven't had the same opportunities.

Make that statement if Bettis gets his shot as the primary back and fails to carry the load. He may be stunningly good, but we'll never know until he's the featured back. Until that time, there's no real point in your statement.

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I'm a big KC fan. They're my number 2 team, and I spent most of my teenage years going to their games. I track them almost as closely as I do the Skins.

Larry Johnson had done nothing to merit any comparison to anybody else in the league until he was given the spotlight. When it was his time to shine, he stepped up. You're implying Betts is a lesser back by performance, but they haven't had the same opportunities.

Make that statement if Bettis gets his shot as the primary back and fails to carry the load. He may be stunningly good, but we'll never know until he's the featured back. Until that time, there's no real point in your statement.

I can see the point you're trying to make but Betts is just a back up in my opinion. Many think he could start (given a team in need of a featured back). I mean, I like the guy... he takes hits and keeps moving, pretty good kickoff returner, and is a nice compliment to Portis when he's tired... However he hasn't shown flashes of brilliance (he doesn't dance around... mainly runs straight up field), had injury problems, only average size/strength/speed, and he hasn't proved that he can handle the duty of a starting back.

As you said, Betts was never given the opportunity to carry the load, as Johnson was (carrying the team once Holmes was down). However, Betts has seen a lot of playing time because of how we used Portis (ground and pound). I would think that Betts saw the most time among all the backups (unless a starter went down). So, have we seen Betts start several games? Nah... but I don't think we need to. I think we have a valid opinion of what he can and can't do based on what we have seen of him (which is plenty).

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Betts also has to stay healthy to warrant extra carries. I like Betts and I like his potential game, but he does leave some things to be desired thus you cannot compare him with Larry Johnson in any shape or form because of what Larry did last season. You can however compare them using what Larry Johnson had done prior to last season when he was just a back up (i.e., comparing two backups versus a starter and a potential back up). Even then, Betts would still fall short.

Betts to me is a back up and will never be able to carry a full load because he always seems to miss the holes in my opinion. :doh: Who knows, maybe he will surprise me this season.

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Man, these predictions are getting pretty outlandish.... Lets just hope that Portis stays healthy, and Betts can relieve him when needed.

Larry Johnson? Betts has some talent, but let's not go overboard. People were saying some pretty nice things about Skip Hicks at one point, too....

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I think we have a valid opinion of what he can and can't do based on what we have seen of him (which is plenty).

I can appreciate that. Johnson was a third series back until this past year, which was one of his major complaints under Vermeil. He constantly complained that he could do more and could be the featured back. Fortunately for him, he backed it up when given the chance. But I don't believe that he had too many more backup opportunities than Betts has had. It's hard for me to research that stat for last year, as his yearly overall totals completely skew his backup numbers. All I'm really getting at is that 1: I don't think we will get a true view of his full potential until he's the featured back and 2: That would mean CP has been injured, and I hope that never happens! :D

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I'm a big KC fan. They're my number 2 team, and I spent most of my teenage years going to their games. I track them almost as closely as I do the Skins.

Larry Johnson had done nothing to merit any comparison to anybody else in the league until he was given the spotlight. When it was his time to shine, he stepped up. You're implying Betts is a lesser back by performance, but they haven't had the same opportunities.

Make that statement if Bettis gets his shot as the primary back and fails to carry the load. He may be stunningly good, but we'll never know until he's the featured back. Until that time, there's no real point in your statement.

Larry Johnson did rush for 2000 yards at Penn State and had 9 tds and over 500 yards his second season and averaged 4.8 per touch thats pretty good.

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I am sorry but in Betts' defense, college stats don't count. ;)

College stats count as little as performing well in practice (sorry Taylor Jacobs). ;)

ps: I don't know how distinct the correlation between college and the pros is... I just wanted to throw Taylor Jacobs in.

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Taylor Jacobs is going to be a Solid to good and still even possibly a great WR in the NFL, maybe not the skins, but in the NFL. He will be another Stan Humphries if he leaves.

Portis is twice the back either LJ or Priest were/are, and he is much younger than either of them. By the time he has the experience they have/had and is in an instilled system for a year or 2, he is going to be the best back in the league or neck in neck with Ladanian or Ronnie Brown (who I think is going to be the most productive of those RBs in the end.)

I have to see Reggie Bush make it through a season's worth of carries before I'm convinced he isn't going to be moved to WR, where he would be dominant anyway.

:2cents:

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It wont happen in KC Holmes got injured a lot and getting old and had a young back who never played. For us we got two backs around the same age 1 who is most likely top 5 and another guy is who is good but he shouldnt take carries away for Portis. Betts is a nice player dont get we wrong but he is no CP.

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I say portis should get at most 2/3 the carries and let betts and rock take the rest. All those 300 carry seasons are gonna pile up so we need to keep portis fresh for as long as possible. He's a keeper. They should let him carry the ball less times and on draws and such so he gets a much higher ypc and can get in the open field more where he is the most dangerous. I heard portis on ESPN and that is what he wants. I say all that talk about portis for 2000 is stupid. It would be cool but a 2000 yard season puts a lot of strain on any runningback and portis doesn't need that. I say CP should start and be used if we really need him but at the end of the game when we need to grind out the clock, we should strictly use ladell and maybe rock to pick up the 4-6 yard chunks instead of risking portis for longer runs.

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I find something interesting in the praise of Saunders. It's not like we didn't have a pretty good coach calling the plays last year. It's almost like people are saying, "Now that we got a real coach calling the offense, good things can finally happen."

I think players matter more than coaches. The reason the offense stalled last year was because Brunell got hurt and we only had one receiver.

If Brunell gets hurt early this year, we may struggle. If Brandon Lloyd does not live up to the hype, we may struggle.

Otherwise, things should be okay.

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  • 11 months later...

Betts still isn't Larry Johnson. But he did have a higher ypc than Johnson last year.

Betts just hasn't proven to be durable enough or a threat in the red zone. Betts has 9 rushing TD's in his career. Johnson had that many 1/2 way through each of the past 2 seasons.

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Betts still isn't Larry Johnson. But he did have a higher ypc than Johnson last year.

Betts just hasn't proven to be durable enough or a threat in the red zone. Betts has 9 rushing TD's in his career. Johnson had that many 1/2 way through each of the past 2 seasons.

true, but Betts is a stud, and not "just a back-up" like many claimed...

also...

the consensus was that if he did have a huge season, he would leave since he was due to become a free agent...

good thing he didnt leave.

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