Usain Bolt only had to run the 100 meters in under 9.6 ONE time to show he was capable of it. And he never did it again.. I only needed to see Zeke explode when he hit the accelerator once to know that the speed is still there.. he just chooses not to use it as much. Maybe he's pacing himself.. I honestly don't know.. But I don't need to seem him run away from DBs every game to accept that he can do it.
So umm.. most RB's gain more yards than Zeke every game? Yet he ends up near the top of the league every year? Zeke is 9th in the league in rushing and 7th in the league in yards after contact. So who are these "most RBs" you're talking about who must clearly be outperforming him. He's playing behind crap for for a line for a head coach who wants him to be a fullback yet there he sits in the top 10 in most every meaningful category. You clearly have a different definition of "most" than I do. Maybe it's because I played the game.. maybe it's because I coached it for a long time but I much prefer a back who can give me a consistent 4.5 yards a pop even if he only occasionally breaks one over a guy who gives me 2 yards per carry for 10 carries then breaks off a 50 yarder then crows about his yards per carry. I don't care if the latter guy gives me one of those every game he is NOT the back I would take to war with me. Give me that guy who keeps the chains moving every day all day. Why do you think Frank Gore is still in the league at age 37? Emmitt could have played until he was 40 if he wanted to. Marcus Allen was the same way. So was Curtis Martin. Guys who can move the chains will always have value in the league. Even in it's ridiculously pass happy present incarnation. You prefer the highlight film guy? Fine that's your prerogative. Just don't try to push it on me. I know better. As do most coaches. The only reason Zeke is not earning the money we paid him is opportunity. He is getting fewer touches and he's playing in a pass happy offense. I will gladly concede that if that's what we were going to do we should NOT have signed him. My hope is that we wake up from this 65% passing nightmare and go back to playing smashmouth football. At which point Zeke will go back to being the best back in the league and worth every penny ..
Lets take this in steps. He’s near the top of the league every year in yards, where is he in carries and how do you think those two correlate with with each other?
You would rather take a guy who averages 4.5 yards a pop but without a top 5 O line zeke already has two games with ~2.5 ypc and it would be 3 gams if it weren’t for his 25 yard run against Cleveland.
Stop using the O line as an excuse, I never heard any of his supporters making excuses for Barkley when he was putting up similar numbers behind one of the worst O lines in the league as zeke behind one of the best in the league.
It seems like you’re still stick in the 90’s. Smash mouth football doesn’t work in todays league and our offense has never been the problem. You want to go back to running the ball every down when teams are putting up points at will? How exactly do you think we’ll keep up? You want to keep giving him the ball when he’s averaging less than 3 ypc in half the games he’s played and is leading the league fumbles?! Hell, they BENCHED him for a good reason and you think he should ball more, lol.
RB’s are a dime a dozen, especially when you have a top O line like zeke has had. Now once he doesn’t have a great O line, he’s been exposed. He falls in the average to below average in almost every statistical category outside of total yards and total carries and this isn’t a result of the current O line. He has always been average to below average in those categories and the O line masked that, some of us saw it and others didn’t or were in denial.
So you think Barkley is nothing but a highlight reel RB when he’s played behind a horrible O line, beats zeke in almost every category such as yards after contact, yards after catch, elusiveness, etc but now zeke is putting up pathetic numbers and he gets the O line excuse? Seems a bit hypocritical. If Barkley had the same O line zeke has had, with the same amount of carries and the same amount of room to run he would have smoked zeke’s numbers.
BTW, did you ever think that zeke’s yards after contact numbers are a bit misleading? Instead of making people miss or because he can’t make people miss, he prefers to run right into them for a couple yards instead of avoiding them for several more yards.