Back to the trifecta idea, there seems to be a different feel to the offseason free agents and draft philosophy than in previous years. With the terrible year that the passing game had and that Williams is in his final year, Streets is probably going to the curb and Dez still rehabbing, the FO in the past seems like they would have drafted and stockpiled WRs. Or at least been overtly reactionary.
But reading the tea leaves here, it seems like Dunbar was supposed to have kind of a pivotal role last year - maybe as a Marshall Faulk type WR/RB and the injury just ripped a pretty substantial sail down from the ships mast. Looking at the two areas that are stockpiled right now, the RB and the TE, maybe the plan is have more of that Tennessee Titan offense from 1999 where the TEs and the RBs methodically controlled the game and the downfield strikes were less desperate to how the offense functioned?
But back to Dunbar, maybe McFadden is being kept for that role. There have been a few articles about McFadden not fitting the zone running plays and he has tremendous straight line speed. So perhaps, the RBs are Morris and EzE, but McFadden splits out, the defense is going to lose the mismatch if they put a Safety or LB on him. In 2010, he had 500 receiving yards, he has caught 40+ passes twice in his career and there were two seasons where he was targeted 55 and 61 times. In 2010 his receiving skills alone accounted for 21 first downs. He catches 70% of his targets (I realize that he runs high percentage routes) but if you compare that Terrance Williams only catches 57% of his targets and Darren and Terrance's per season catch averages are not that disparate, it might be more advantageous to go with McFadden's speed and versatility on the offense.
Just wondering if the plan is to keep more RBs than in the past (and I am a huge fan of Darius Jackson too - did you see what Mayock said about him vs LSU?) and to have the Reggie Bush/Marshall Faulk player in McFadden start in the backfield and split out.
