Zombo said:

See my thread on the Highest rated rookies of last year. ONLY Luck/RGIII/ Tannehill and Kuechley of those players drafted ahead of Weeden supposedly outperformed/outproduced him last year....and only about 6 other guys drafted behind him, including Wilson and a couple of guys from like the 5th and 6th round.

@shep said:

I've come around to your way of thinking Shep. Our current SB Champs the Ratbirds got Ray Rice in the second round. OK Z- sure he would have been taken higher. re-do those respective drafts, Joe Montana & Tom Brady get picked #1 overall, as an absolute no brainer while we've got the hindsight goggles on.

History says the greatest of all time- Jim Brown won but a single Championship in his career. Same for Walter Payton. Nada for Ladanian Tomlinson and Barry Sanders. I see a trend developing here.

Running backs are valuable, it's just hard to pick the right one.

Here's the guys taken between Richardson and Weeden: let me know when you get excited about a guy at #3.

It was a down draft, he was a sure thing. He's going to be very, very good. and he's lucky he went to a team that is going to maximize his capabilities.

The Chorv offense is a running back's dream.

Zombo

Skeptical2013 said:

Yeah- and Peterson is the type of back that comes along maybe every 5-7 years or so- he's on a HOF track. TR? Time will tell. What I saw was TR get caught from behind a bunch of times in college- blame that on injury if you will. That NEVER happened with Peterson or Barry Sanders. Till proven otherwise, I'll say Richardson lacks the top end speed to be truly elite. I'll grant that he has great field vision and good hands.

I'm 100% with Shep on this one- in today's pass happy NFL, unless you're certain you're getting the next Ladanian Tomlinson, high first round isn't where you take a RB, and certainly not give up picks on top of it. I won't go so far as to say (to borrow a Ghoolie phrase) running backs are a dime a dozen but it's close.

@gftchris said:

I am just saying that it is ironic that Warmack was billed as the best OG to come into the draft in decades...and that he wasn't the first OG taken.

Which, perhaps, simply shows how also well thought of Cooper was. I was'nt trying to pick you apart.

@the-gipper said:

So when I try to make a point in favour of your argument you decide to pick it apart? Yes, Cooper was taken one spot above Warmack. Big woop. Everyone leading up to the draft was saying that Warmack was the best player in the draft bar none, and would be number 1 pick if he played a better position.

All I'm saying is, perhaps him opening up lanes was a major contributor to Alabama producing top running backs the last 3 years?

The point? Running the ball really well or a lot doesn't mean much in today's league... except that you probably don't have the top 10-12 QB you need to compete year after year. Like Banner and Lombardi have both said, today's league is about throwing aggressively, taking first half leads, and rushing the other team's passer. Like it or not, running backs have mostly been marginalized with the overall dominance of the forward pass in today's NFL.

That's not to say it doesn't matter. You'd rather run the ball well than not. But as somebody big recently said, it's about doing it "well enough," because it's a support system to the passing game, really. It keeps defenses honest and gives you a way to milk the clock and lock down a win late in a game. Being overtly one dimensional has hurt even Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. If the whole point of taking leads is to make the opposing offense one dimensional, the Packers had already done that to themselves. Hurts more in the playoffs against better defenses with pass rushes.

The Packers got Lacy and the underrated UCLA kid (so underrated I forgot his name) in 2 and 4 to create a respectable running game. It was a very good idea. But they weren't looking for a "franchise back" because it isn't 1978. As Aikman said, the teams with the best quarterbacks win, period. I don't even know who Brady hands off to but I know it isn't Adrian Peterson.

I positively would've taken Ryan Tannehill and then Doug Martin in those same draft slots. I think Banner/Lombardi would've done the same thing. But we didn't and now we have to hope T-Rich can get healthy, stay healthy, and put up about 2,200 yards from scrimmage to pay out on the investment. It's a lot to ask so, well... let's not. Let's just hope he stays healthy and plays really well.

@gftchris said:

Except that Warmack wasn't even the top OG picked in this draft....Jonathan Cooper was. So, how about that?

@the-gipper said:

Given that their OG (Chance Warmack) is supposedly the best OG to come out for decades, it's a legitimate question.

Skeptical2013 said:

Injuries are the great bugaboo for TR, that seems for sure.

Though...one other question has to be brought forth.....Alabama has recently produced what seems like the top RBs in the nation over the last few years.....first Ingram, then TR, and now Eddie Lacy.

So, you have to ask....is it that these guys are that talented? Or is it the Alabama system that makes these RBs perform so well.

Its kinda like the days of the Broncos....where it seemed that every year they had a different guy running for 1000-1500 yards. Guys like Terrell Davis, Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Clinton Portis, Reuben Droughns.

Was it the player or the system.

Same deal with Bama.

@hoorta said:

Glad you could tell from his college tapes that Richardson is no Adrian Peterson. A lot of experts looked at the same tapes and said Richardson is the best back since Peterson.

When he was healthy -- and that wasn't all the time in college, either -- Richardson was one of the best RBs in college football in years and he was a man among boys in the SEC. He was far superior to Mark Ingram, who won the Heisman, and you could easily see that when Richardson was a freshman playing with Ingram.

Browns fans haven't seen how great the healthy Richardson is. Sadly, they may never see it because he has become so injury prone, making that high draft pick for him look foolish. Same with Hardesty. Fantastic senior year at Tennessee -- the only yhear he was healthy. Now he's injury prone, too, and never reached his potential with the Browns as a result.

@hoorta said:

I'm pretty sure if we didn't take him, someone else would have done in the top 10. He may not be Jim Brown incarnate, but he's going to be a really good back for this team, which is what matters. Assuming we stuck at 4, who else would we have drafted? Luck, RG3 and Kalil were gone, you have the choice of TR, Claiborne, or Justin Blackmon - not a tricky decision with such a gaping hole at RB.

Sure we can rehash the draft completely, say we take Claiborne at 4, kuechly at 22, schwartz still at 37, and then russell wilson in the third and alfred morris in the 6th, but hindsight is a fabulous thing - I think any GM looking back would probably ask himself why he didn't take wilson/morris higher than they went, but that doesn't mean they should be fired.

@vagitron said:

Exactly what I was trying to tell PG before we drafted Richardson. I could tell from his college tapes he was no Adrian Peterson, or Barry Sanders. He'll be hard pressed to equal Ray Rice, IMHO.

And now he's dinged again- I don't care what Z thinks, the guy gets nicked (or worse) a lot.

You could make a case one of the primary reason(s) Heckert got shown the door by Banner was drafting TR that high, and giving up picks on top of it. Oh, and dumping Lawrence Vickers to take total bust Owen Marecic.

Zombo said:

I like Richardson. I enjoy the way he runs and he's a physical specimen but he's no Adrian Peterson (I know you aren't saying he is) and in this NFL running backs have a REALLY short shelf life. I'd have a hard to putting a super high draft grade on a running back as a direct result. I think you're going to see more and more running backs going in the late first, early second. They'll still have tremendous careers but unless the tailback is Adrian Peterson 2.0 drafting one in the top 10 is a major risk when you have guys like Doug Martin, Ray Rice, Alfred Morris being drafted later (second round) or Morris (6th round) lighting it up. Hell not a single back went in the first round this year and there were some quality ones to be drafted.

Peterson has done as much to carry a team as I've seen in the decade... and it still isn't enough. If you're running too much you probably aren't keeping up.

But I will say this to piggyback: In Chud's offense, the back catches a shitload of passes and Richardson's a good receiver. If he turns into Ray Rice, we'll forget the draft slot... even though Ray Rice, like Doug Martin, went way lower.

I'm not worried about a sore muscle in May, he'll be good to go this year.

What is exciting is knowing what great running backs like LT and Emmit did in Norv's offense.

Even the one explosive Chud year we had, an aging Jamal Lewis ran for 1,300 yards and had his only ypc above 4 post knee injury.

That downfield passing opens up running lanes. It's a thing of beauty, I can't wait.

Zombo