Are we really better off at RB than last year?

[Chasing6]

Yeah, but counting on a fifth-rounder and seventh-round to "be heavily involved" is like counting on being able to breath underwater. After all, we haven't exactly counted on the sixth-rounder we drafted just a couple of years ago.

Jordan Mason was undrafted.

If the OLine makes holes they will find them.

 

[Chasing6]

He’s slow.

4.56 40 time

Now go look up Dereck Henry's 40 time.

 

[Pass2Run]

Remember, Rico couldn't get into the end zone.

 

[TexasBacon]

Definitely a huge upgrade. Williams is a good back and Blue is electric. The combination of those two are better than Dowdle, though I agree Dowdle was underutilized and play calling was abysmal last year for the run game. More importantly, Martin was very hurt and not himself last year, so I think with Beebe in his second year, Smith and Booker at Guard, and Guyton in his second year, the OL will be much better in the run game. Perhaps most importantly, we finally have a real WR threat outside of Lamb in Pickens, Schoonmaker came on last year as a passing threat, and Ferg should be healthy. This means teams can't just stack the box against us and dare us to run. I think it's been undersold how much both the passing AND running game needed that additional threat at WR.

If everyone is healthy, playcalling is decent to good, and the OL gels, this team should be right back in the mix if Dak can step up and play up to his contract. If he can't then it's time to go.

 

[gimmesix]

Jordan Mason was undrafted.

If the OLine makes holes they will find them.

Do you know how many running backs go undrafted every year or for that matter how many are taken in the later rounds and fail? Sure, you can find one, but the hit rate is extremely low. For every Bucky Irving, there's 10 other backs taken who flame out.

Our fans consistently expect us to beat the odds on draft picks when evidence says that we don't. We have around a 20 percent hit rate on third-day picks, just like other teams. In the last 10 years, we've drafted four backs from the fifth through seventh rounds (Darius Jackson, Mike Weber, Bo Scarbrough and Deuce Vaughn), none of them have been successful. We did have success with Tony Pollard (a fourth-round pick), but even counting that we're 1 of 5.

In fact, looking back at our all-time drafts, the last successful fifth-seventh RB we had was Herschel Walker in 1985 and that's because Walker wasn't a typical draft pick. You want to bring up exceptions; there are always exceptions to the rule, but the rule is the rule for a reason.