How large of a role will Dunbar have?

[ThreeandOut]

We ran 1049 offensive plays last year and 658 were passes and 355 were rushes. Our opponents ran 441 rushing plays BTW. That's roughly running the ball 39% of the time. I'd like to see a better ratio. The Pats had 1191 plays of which 641 were passes. So they ran the ball about 46% of the time. That's just one team but I'd like to be in the mid forties, too.

Say we have 1150 offensive plays this year which would be pretty good. At 45% that's 517 rushes or 32 rushes a game. I'd like to see Dunbar get 8-10 touches a game which is 28% of the touches. Obviously that's my projection and also his touches will be dictated by game situations and opponents each game. That leaves on average 72% to be divided between say 2.3 RBs since you're just going to have 3 rather than 4 RBs some games due to dings and such. That's roughly 10 snaps for those 2.3. Or another way to look would be Murray gets 70% of those snaps followed by 20% for Tanner and 10% for Randle. Murray would then avg 32 rushes per game times 72% times 70% or 16 rushes per game. So 16 to 20 a game for Murray is not out of the question. Assuming he's the go to back that game.

Splits might look like this on average:

Murray 16
Dunbar 8
Tanner 5
Randle 3

I can just as easily think Tanner will get some of Murray's snaps. In fact I see Murray/Tanner/Randle as RB and Dunbar as RB/Scatback.

Those numbers will fluctuate from game to game obviously but I expect over the year to be reasonably close as long as Murray is RB1 and all stay about the same health.

If he ends up playing a Sproles type role, his receiving touches will be as significant or more so than his rushing touches.

 

[jobberone]

If he ends up playing a Sproles type role, his receiving touches will be as significant or more so than his rushing touches.

I think if he gets 10-12 touches a game he'll be doing pretty good. That's on average though and excludes STs.

 

[CowboyStar88]

I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again I think Dunbar is the perfect back for this offense. If he can stay healthy there is no reason why he can't be dangerous or carry the rock 15 times a game. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if Dunbar winds up starting at some point. JMO

 

[jobberone]

I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again I think Dunbar is the perfect back for this offense. If he can stay healthy there is no reason why he can't be dangerous or carry the rock 15 times a game. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if Dunbar winds up starting at some point. JMO

I'll be surprised if he carries the ball 15 times a game but who knows. He may get 10-15 touches a game although I'd pick the low end of that scale on average. We'll see. If he can stay healthy and get that many touches and average say 8+yds a touch or more then great.

 

[CowboysToTheBone]

I took him in fantasy because we're supposedly going to use him like Sproles.

EXACTLY. If we could utilize him like Sproles, it would be a dimension this offense hasn't had in a long time. Remember us running the screen with Dorsett? We used to be the best in the league at running the screen, I think Dunbar would be great at this.

 

[KJJ]

I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again I think Dunbar is the perfect back for this offense. If he can stay healthy there is no reason why he can't be dangerous or carry the rock 15 times a game. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if Dunbar winds up starting at some point. JMO

Dunbar won't come close to carrying the ball 15 times a game he's not built for that and he certainly won't end up starting. He's a space player like Sproles who's a big play waiting to happen in the open field. I see him catching a number of passes out in the flat this season to try and get him out in space where he's capable of picking up a lot of yards after the catch with his speed, agility and quickness. He's caught 6 passes this preseason and one of them resulted in a 43 yard play. He'll see more passes than carries this season you can mark that down. He's not a back you want to beat down with a bunch of carries he's only 188 pounds.