How is it that zeke lost his explosiveness

[Awakened]

Zeke does have a history of starting slow. I'm hopeful he gets better as the season progresses. After last season and then zero snaps in preseason, it would make sense that he wouldn't be quite ready.

 

[kumizi]

even though he’s the lightest in years and he’s never been hurt? He’s clearly in fantastic shape and worked hard in the offseason.

He carried a huge load his first 2-3 years. Almost no RB does that anymore. Cowboys were morons to draft him #4 overall and then they doubled down on their stupidity running him into the ground and then they tripled down on their stupidity giving him a huge second deal.

 

[BHendri5]

I think a big part of what makes the top backs great at the moment is their strength to weight ratio built in the gym. Guys like Henry, McCaffrey and even Eckeler are monsters in the weight room, built different even compared to other hard working NFL players.

I don’t think Zeke is loafing but you can’t dial in the diet and intensify the training regime for one offseason and expect to catch guys that have been pushing every day for a decade.

Henry, his team continues to do like you people said Garrett did they keep running him giving him the ball like 30 or more times, but if you guys notice that when it comes down to the playoffs the teams that put the titans out don't let Henry get started, because it's nitty gritty time, during the regular season a lot of them make business decisions. When teams really want to stop Henry they know how and they do it. Henry is a big back but when you get to him before he gets his momentum he is useless, just like defenses make a point of doing before Zeke gets going. Guys like McCaffrey and Eckeler and Pollard they are swiss army knives, McCaffrey and Pollard are better when they are in space and can get outside, Eckeler is not as fast or quick as them he is just as good a pass catcher. But those guys are not heavy load backs because they will not be durable and cannot get the hard dirty yards when you need them. Zeke is still an elite RB

 

[BHendri5]

Zeke was never explosive. In 2016 the holes were so big that he looked better than he was. Zeke is a good back but he isnt what he used to be and neither is the line. Moore is doing the obvious thing. Thank heavens Garrett is gone.

Zeke has never been elusive or quick, he is explosive and powerful. There is a difference between explosive and quickness they are not the same thing. People think those two things are the same

 

[Coogiguy03]

even though he’s the lightest in years and he’s never been hurt? He’s clearly in fantastic shape and worked hard in the offseason.

GOT THE MONEY AND LOST IT ALL!!!!

 

[BHendri5]

I’m quite tired of the Zeke slander.

Zeke is still an elite RB — let him get hot. Guarantee if he stays healthy he will be cooking late in the season.

He’s coming off a disastrous season with no preseason reps. Let everything come to form.

I will say this again our Line was bad last season, the only disastrous part for Zeke was that he was trying to do too much and kept fumbling or letting the ball be taken from him, other than that, you give me a RB that can give me 979 yards with a bad Oline I will take that all day everyday and twice on sunday.

 

[theogt]

Running backs are fickle and have oddly short shelf lives sometimes.

 

[Coogiguy03]

OK SO I HATE WHEN THEY SAY "MAKE ZEKE THE FOCAL POINT, GIVE HIM THE BALL, HE'S A GREAT WEAPON lol, he used to be all this!!

 

[Sarge]

He rushed for 97 yards yesterday.

Just a few less than Pollard.

 

[Hardline]

Just a few less than Pollard.

That's wrong info
He rushed 16 times for 71 yards.

 

[Ranched]

MEANWHILE....

 

[Sarge]

That's wrong info
He rushed 16 times for 71 yards.

Correct, that’s a few less yards than Pollard, like I said.

 

[jwitten82]

Th

He has like 2000 carries or something obnoxious. That's how.

That's not slowing Derrick Henry down

 

[kskboys]

I think as the season wears on Zeke will find his equilibrium. He has always been a downhill north/south runner but most of the running plays out of this offense have him taking handoffs going sideways. If you think back to his first two seasons we were primarily an under center deep setback offense.. Now we're primarily shotgun. In doing this we have taken away a lot his strengths.. Deep back sets allow the back to see the blocking as it develops better, see the hole, make one cut and hit it at 100 mph. Shotgun runs put him closer to the line, limiting his view of the blocking AND robs him on momentum. Most of the time he's taking the handoff standing still. It's an absolute travesty of misutilization. It's fine if this is the offense we wanna run.. but we should go ahead and trade Zeke if it is.. He's being wasted in it and thus so is his salary.

This sounds eerily similar to what MINN did to Walker and Philly did to Murray.

 

[kskboys]

Could of had Assante Samuel Jr.

I was in shock when we took Joseph over him. Still am. Think we were just trying to be cute again?

 

[Aviano90]

That's not slowing Derrick Henry down

He is the generational talent.

 

[RonnieT24]

He is the generational talent.

I guarantee you that if the Titans were handing him the ball from shotgun 90% of the time like we do with Zeke they're fans would be having the same conversation about him. That said, that dude is a MAN!!! The Seahawks bottled him up for like 3 quarters but the Titans kept giving it to him.. I would love to see us be that stubborn with the run game but alas I don't think our defense is good enough yet to do it.

 

[blueblood70]

Th

That's not slowing Derrick Henry down

his first 3 seasons he didn't do squat he split time and did nothing ...hes just now come on the last 2 seasons , so its not the same Zeke got off hot for 3 years as rookie and has settled down little but had they not gave pollard all those carries zeke would have got 100 no doubt..4.4 yards carry means 7 more carries gets him 100 ...so he splits time with pollard pollard has one nice game and the zeke attack's keep coming..

its nice 1-2 duo

2 of those big run were pollard and zeke in the same backfield and the defense bit on zekes movement and then were late to come after tony..it was great play calling and scheming and it worked..zeke made a lot of pollards yards easier yesterday and thats a fact.

if you cant see those plays develop you dont know a lot about football..

 

[TequilaCowboy]

At this point you can’t even get mad at Zeke. The coaches continue to have him run plays that are clearly not how strength like running outside the tackles.

Correct, running outside shows his lack of speed, he is better right now going off tackle. North/south runner. Pollard is better at both actually. but i think you still need both of them.

 

[Cydios]

He got paid, he's too full now.