Lack of Breakaway Talent

[Sonny Joe Hog]

Our lack of big-play talent at RB and WR is an area that needs to be addressed. We need to face the near certainty that Stephen Davis will be gone next year. Although he is a great back who will be missed, he was not a major threat to go all the way from anywhere on the field. What type of RB do we need to replace him and where will he come from? First, we can all stop fooling ourselves if we thought that the starting RB we need is currently on the roster. He isn't. Recent NFL history has shown that you don't get a great RB in free agency. There is little chance of a trade happening. So we're talking the draft. My first round pick would be at RB if the right one were available. Lee Suggs? Some people who post on this board have way too much faith in the development of our current WR's, although I must say that Rod Gardner would be a fine "Art Monk type" playing opposite a "Gary Clark type". Go back and check out some Gary Clark highlights. That's what I'm talking about! He made more big plays in a three game stretch than all of the WR's we now have (with the possible exception of Gardner) may make in their entire careers - combined. I don't know how to fix this one, but I know we need a game breaking WR opposite Rod Gardner. I think we have our QB in Ramsey and Royal has the potential to be a big time weapon at TE next year. Of course, to make it all work, it is imperative that we fix the interior of our offensive line. So there's a lot of work to be done on offense in general but my main point in this post is that we need some exceptional, game breaking talent at RB and WR to get back to the top. If we had anyone with that kind of ability on the roster he would have flashed it already. So let's stop kidding ourselves that somebody is going to step up and become a star at those positions. We need to go outside of the organization to find our stars.

[Whiskeypeet]

So let's stop kidding ourselves that somebody is going to step up and become a star at those positions. We need to go outside of the organization to find our stars.

We don't know enough about our young players to write them off just yet. They could be the spark we are looking for yet.....especially at running back. We really have not seen a lot of Betts or Rock for that matter other than a little spot duty. Betts on those occasions has come up with some explosive plays. We don't have any evidence pointing to the fact that he can't get it done as a starter. We just have not seen enough of him.

[G.Smitty]

I do agree that our main problem offensivevly is a lack of any big plays. Our YAC yards this year is pathetic. However if you think Robert Royal has the potential to be a big play TE I have to strongly disagree with you there. He looked decent in the preseason, but don't foregt that so did Reidel Anthony and every other offensive player on our roster. Robert Royal is very very slow. Probably comparable in speed to Walter Rasby. I do think we need an explosive WR, but I'm not sure if it is going to be best to go draft or FA. WR's normally take atleast a year to develop and unless we get one of the top guys like Williams or Rogers we will probably have the same receieving corps as we had this year unless we adress the situation in FA.

[NavyDave]

Receivers having to slowdown or jump for catches wouldnt have anything to do with that huh?

Exactly when did Shame/Waffle overthrow receivers on fly patterns or put the ball so they could run for big yards?

[Tom [Giants fan]]

Having the break away talent at these positions isn't always the only answer. The Giants have break away talent at WR. Ron Dixon and Tim Carter. Ok, this was Carter's first year and it was filled with injuries but Dixon has been around for awhile and he is just starting to show the talent. He has all the speed but he has had prioblems learning the offense and running crisp routes. When you look for speed, there are many more intangibles that need to go with it. Hopefully Dixon will put it altogether after his current suspension and next year.

Now, I know you guys knew this but I was looking for a post to respond too to get my posts up to 999.

[The Sisko]

Just make sure that whatever you use that 1k post on is well worth it.

[TennesseeCarl]

First, we can all stop fooling ourselves if we thought that the starting RB we need is currently on the roster. He isn't. Recent NFL history has shown that you don't get a great RB in free agency. There is little chance of a trade happening. So we're talking the draft

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I'm not convinced of this. We have Kenny Watson, basically in his first year and he's got about 600 combined yards. He took a screen pass 60 yards for a score. We don't even know what Betts or Cartwright can do at RB. If we're letting Davis go, I don't understand the point of playing him at all at this point.

Free agent RBs? How about Priest Holmes?

Trade? How about Marshall Faulk? Ahman Green? Those guys went in trades.

I'm not saying that the next Holmes or Faulk are out there and are on Cerrato's radar, but they do occasionally become available. We turned up Ki-Jana Carter last year and he worked well as a 3rd down option. Amazingly, Ki-Jana decided he was a feature back and, even more perplexing, he signs elsewhere and shows up out of shape.

[dayumnuttinleft]

TC I have to agree with you on this one, Watson nor Betts have really had the amount of touches to discount them as being breakaway threats. But Watson did show the ability to take it to the house against N.O. Watson's numbers have been good, better than Carters last year.

Now keep in mind that the Seattle game was his first start at RB since High School, and I don't want to hear that stuff about it being Seattle, because if there wasn't any talent there, he wouldn't have produced at all. He stepped in against Tenn, Indy and Seattle and played well, he also played well in Jax until they stopped running. I say let the two of them play and see what happens.