The margin of difference between his numbers, and Henry who led the league last year is pretty small. Not sure your angle here, other than you just don't like Zeke. Zeke if not suspended would have had the rushing title 3 out of 4 years, even with a consistently banged up OL. Heck, if not for drafting Pollard, he may have gotten it last year. Can't blame you. Zeke is kind of annoying.
I don’t like Zeke as a person but that is completely separate from my criticism of him as a player.
I’m not saying he’s not a good back but he wasn’t worth a #4 overall pick (no RB is IMO) and his contract certainly wasn’t worth it.
Consistently banged up O line? Lol, c’mon now. Here are the statistical rankings for O line run blocking since his rookie year. There’s only one other team that has been near that consistent, Zeke has been spoiled his entire college and pro career. As I said, most top 15-20 RB’s in the league would have had similar success in his position.
2016- 4th
2017- 8th
2018- 4th
2019- 2nd
I just don’t get how people say he is the best and only use his total yards as a measuring tool which is one of the most misleading and pointless stats when measuring how good a RB is overall.
He is 5-10th in several more significant categories, and even much worse than others but none of his supporters want to acknowledge that. Just like when he has a good game it’s all Zeke, with no mention of the O line, yet when he has a bad game it’s always the O lines fault. The excuses have become so bad that even the 2nd best run blocking O line in the league isn’t good enough!
Just imagine what some of those RB’s that beat Zeke is yards after contact, missed tackles forced, yards per carry, yards from line of scrimmage, etc would do behind this O line. Likewise, I’d like to see how great he is behind a pedestrian or below average O line. If people are making excuses for him with the O lines he’s had, I’d shudder to think what they would say if he had anything worse yet I don’t see Barkley or a handful of other RB’s getting that excuse and he’s had one of the worst O lines in the league!
Speaking of...imagine what Barkley would have done behind this O line if he had that much room to run! Sure, he has his faults as well, but if he had the same room to run zeke has had he would be taking it to the house every other play.
Another fair point, is that outside of Henry, the 2016 RB pool wasn't that great, and after losing our starter, it was certainly a glaring hole. I wasn't stoked about a RB at 4 either, but once Wentz went off the board Zeke was my next best man, personally. I liked Henry, but I tend to prefer shorter backs for longevity. I don't think Zeke deserved the giant payday he got, but here we are.
