2020 Las Vegas Raiders Depth Chart

[Bitty 2.0]

On 6/12/2020 at 12:31 PM, Darbsk said:

I'm expecting Bowden to be a disappointment if I'm honest, I can see him being a gadget type guy on the end of the roster but to play full time RB isn't as easy as some believe, most teams place a very high value on blitz pickups and pass protecting for example which doesn't get taken into account nearly enough. Maybe I'm too pessimistic without having seen him even play in silver and black but it seems like a stretch to me that he'll be a bona fide NFL running back with a well rounded skill set by next season. I think his future may be as gadget guy and we'll have to bring in a full time RB2.

He'll never be a traditional full-time RB that's not in skillset he'll line up behind center and run the ball up the middle a few times to keep the defense honest but mostly he'll be moved around to create mismatches.

I would love to see Bowden and Jacobs in the backfield at the same time with a double TE look. If they bring in the nickel package to cover Bowden then Jacobs can just run crazy over them.

 

[Darbsk]

34 minutes ago, Bitty 2.0 said:

He'll never be a traditional full-time RB that's not in skillset he'll line up behind center and run the ball up the middle a few times to keep the defense honest but mostly he'll be moved around to create mismatches.

I would love to see Bowden and Jacobs in the backfield at the same time with a double TE look. If they bring in the nickel package to cover Bowden then Jacobs can just run crazy over them.

 

Yeh, that was kind of what I was speculating in reply to HB saying he might be the real deal, I always seem a little disappointed in these gadget or Swiss army knife type players.......they never seem to me to have more than a flash here and there and their draft value always seems debatable to me. I hope we can figure out ways to get him on the field regularly and put him in mismatch situations. Id like to see him exceed expectations for sure but not sure how he'll provide great value if he doesn't play a lot if snaps at RB.

[Bitty 2.0]

9 minutes ago, Darbsk said:

Yeh, that was kind of what I was speculating in reply to HB saying he might be the real deal, I always seem a little disappointed in these gadget or Swiss army knife type players.......they never seem to me to have more than a flash here and there and their draft value always seems debatable to me. I hope we can figure out ways to get him on the field regularly and put him in mismatch situations. Id like to see him exceed expectations for sure but not sure how he'll provide great value if he doesn't play a lot if snaps at RB.

I see him as a Reggie Bush type guy.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Bitty 2.0

[Jerry]

4 hours ago, Bitty 2.0 said:

I see him as a Reggie Bush type guy.

Maybe a Jalen Richard 2.0.  

[Humble_Beast]

I don’t think Bowden ever be physical enough to be a starting RB, but the guy was making people miss in the SEC and looking explosive. He is obviously football smart for the coaches to trust him to play QB. I think a good ceiling is being one of the best 3rd down backs in the NFL. Look how many passes Richard has caught in the past, Bowden is a legit wideout. let’s see Bowden can get down the blocking part. 
 

Bowden: 5’11 205

Chris Thompson: 5’8 195 - one of the best backs when healthy 

James White- 5’10  195- probably the best 3rd down back in the NFL. 

Duke Johnson- 5’9 210 

so Bowden has the build of some of the best 3rd down backs in the NFL. I think maybe Gruden wasn’t fond of Richard. Gruden a football nerd, probably pissed about his fumbles from a few years ago and doesn’t trust him. Also probably why Richard doesn’t run the ball at all, which is why Gruden never schemes run plays for him. I see Bowden eventually replacing Richard, and Gruden might be hoping RodSmith/Booker/Stanback step up as the physical RB2 thumper type. 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Humble_Beast

[jimkelly02]

9 hours ago, Humble_Beast said:

I don’t think Bowden ever be physical enough to be a starting RB, but the guy was making people miss in the SEC and looking explosive. He is obviously football smart for the coaches to trust him to play QB. I think a good ceiling is being one of the best 3rd down backs in the NFL. Look how many passes Richard has caught in the past, Bowden is a legit wideout. let’s see Bowden can get down the blocking part. 
 

Bowden: 5’11 205

Chris Thompson: 5’8 195 - one of the best backs when healthy 

James White- 5’10  195- probably the best 3rd down back in the NFL. 

Duke Johnson- 5’9 210 

so Bowden has the build of some of the best 3rd down backs in the NFL. I think maybe Gruden wasn’t fond of Richard. Gruden a football nerd, probably pissed about his fumbles from a few years ago and doesn’t trust him. Also probably why Richard doesn’t run the ball at all, which is why Gruden never schemes run plays for him. I see Bowden eventually replacing Richard, and Gruden might be hoping RodSmith/Booker/Stanback step up as the physical RB2 thumper type. 

 

 

 

Yeah, Bowden will likely/hopefully if all goes right replace Richard in ‘21.  I think that’s the plan, Richard is a very good 3rd down back but he’s kinda expensive now so if you can replace him with a rookie contract player that’s good.  I think Bowden has the potential to be a fabulous 3rd down back.... if he can get good at blitz pickup, which is absolutely important and something Richard is very good at.

I think Gruden knows it’ll take Bowden a year to get there... so we signed Richard for 2 years with only 1st year guaranteed.  It seems redundant to have Richard, Bowden, and Booker as backups..... you would think Gruden wants a bruiser to complement Jacobs and Richard/Bowden but all we did was sign Stanback and Rod Smith.... it’s not like their gonna force their way onto the team.... and Booker is a lesser version of Richard and Bowden.... that’s more redundancy..... the whole RB situation is just odd at the moment.  IMO, unless they think Booker can be a good Powerful rusher, we should have signed or acquired a power back.  
 

I’m still holding out hope we can acquire (via trade or if they get released and we then sign) a classic RB2, power back like (I said LIKE.... other similar options are okay with me too) Jamaal Williams (BYU / Packers).

[Humble_Beast]

Maybe I have false hopes in Booker, but he does have decent thumper size at 5”11 225.... maybe not Tyrone Wheatley big, but he has decent build. I feel he is a bit of a wildcard, he got lost in the shuffle in Denver. We do have one of the best offensive lines in football, made Washington look good last year. 

[Darbsk]

5 hours ago, jimkelly02 said:

Yeah, Bowden will likely/hopefully if all goes right replace Richard in ‘21.  I think that’s the plan, Richard is a very good 3rd down back but he’s kinda expensive now so if you can replace him with a rookie contract player that’s good.  I think Bowden has the potential to be a fabulous 3rd down back.... if he can get good at blitz pickup, which is absolutely important and something Richard is very good at.

I think Gruden knows it’ll take Bowden a year to get there... so we signed Richard for 2 years with only 1st year guaranteed.  It seems redundant to have Richard, Bowden, and Booker as backups..... you would think Gruden wants a bruiser to complement Jacobs and Richard/Bowden but all we did was sign Stanback and Rod Smith.... it’s not like their gonna force their way onto the team.... and Booker is a lesser version of Richard and Bowden.... that’s more redundancy..... the whole RB situation is just odd at the moment.  IMO, unless they think Booker can be a good Powerful rusher, we should have signed or acquired a power back.  
 

I’m still holding out hope we can acquire (via trade or if they get released and we then sign) a classic RB2, power back like (I said LIKE.... other similar options are okay with me too) Jamaal Williams (BYU / Packers).

I can see exactly where you're coming from here, maybe we're not seeing the big picture but we seem to be filling our RB room with 3rd down type guys plus Jacobs. Now, Jacobs will obviously take the majority of snaps but we dont seem to have a true complimentary back, who is our Zach Crockett or Tyrone Wheatley? Maybe we envision Ingold to have a bigger role carrying the ball but he doesn't seem that good an option to me. Maybe we're trying to find our Charlie Garner.

Booker Ive never really thought much of and never watched him and been that excited. I don't really see the plan here or what he brings that we don't already gave a better version of. I would have thought we bring in a guy like (just for an example, not advocating for him) Lynch who's a bigger back to take some tough carries off Jacobs in short and goaline type situations. We at present have a true all round back in Jacobs and a bunch of finesse backs who all seem to fill similar roles.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Darbsk

[jimkelly02]

18 hours ago, Darbsk said:

I can see exactly where you're coming from here, maybe we're not seeing the big picture but we seem to be filling our RB room with 3rd down type guys plus Jacobs. Now, Jacobs will obviously take the majority of snaps but we dont seem to have a true complimentary back, who is our Zach Crockett or Tyrone Wheatley? Maybe we envision Ingold to have a bigger role carrying the ball but he doesn't seem that good an option to me. Maybe we're trying to find our Charlie Garner.

Booker Ive never really thought much of and never watched him and been that excited. I don't really see the plan here or what he brings that we don't already gave a better version of. I would have thought we bring in a guy like (just for an example, not advocating for him) Lynch who's a bigger back to take some tough carries off Jacobs in short and goaline type situations. We at present have a true all round back in Jacobs and a bunch of finesse backs who all seem to fill similar roles.

Exactly.... there’s Jacobs plus Richard + Bowden + Booker (possibly makes team) Who are all soooo similar plus Stanback + R.Smith (who are clearly just camp bodies)..... 

I think most of us assumed we’d get a “RB2” to complement Jacobs as a runner, but maybe we’ll just use a bunch of “3rd down backs” in a committee for that role.  It would work.... i don’t love it but what we sacrifice in power we gain versatility in play calling and scheme.  Gruden just seems to me (and I believe someone else said it on here before) does like to use Richard as a runner.  But maybe that’s not true and we see Richard go back to 80ish carries like he had his rookie year AND Bowden (and possibly Booker) sees 80-100 carries.  Then use Ingold for short distance.  
 

id much rather role with Jacobs and a classic bigger RB2 (like Jamaal Williams) then use Richard and Bowden as 3rd down backs who occasionally run.

Ive said it before we really should get ahead of the curve and get a RB to share carries with Jacobs.  Injuries are far more likely to happen due to overuse OR at the end of games where the player has already rushed the ball a lot,,, each additional carry drastically increases the chance of an injury.   RBs are notorious for hitting a wall right around the end their rookie deal.  If Jacobs is going to be a 2nd contract player for us it makes sense to protect him by not overusing him.  Having a bigger RB to keep Jacobs carries at a reasonable, sustainable rate is something we should have, IMO.

[jimkelly02]

23 hours ago, Humble_Beast said:

Maybe I have false hopes in Booker, but he does have decent thumper size at 5”11 225.... maybe not Tyrone Wheatley big, but he has decent build. I feel he is a bit of a wildcard, he got lost in the shuffle in Denver. We do have one of the best offensive lines in football, made Washington look good last year. 

I did think Booker has the makings of a solid RB2 rusher coming out of Utah.  If he would give us even just 80-100 carries at just 3.8-4.2 (and Richard and Bowden get some carries).... i think that would be incredibly beneficial to the team.  His rookie year he did have 174 carries with 3.5yd average.  
 

A combination of Richard, Booker, and Bowden should be able to take enough carries from Jacobs so he isn’t overused.   Obviously this assumes Booker 1) makes the team 2) proves to be an effective rusher.  It would also keep defenses completely on their toes as all 4 RBs are good receivers.  I’m very curious if they went with Booker (Over a more powerful runner) for this reason or if they signed him due to the lack of a more powerful RB available in FA.   Hyde was available but he got $2.75M (up to 4.0M) and given we paid Richard I can understand why we elected not to spend that type of money on Another RB.  I don’t recall any other RBs being available at the time that are solid rushers.  We did talk with Frank Gore but I believe the story was he “chose” to sign elsewhere.  So obviously we considered a more traditional Rushing RB2.

 (BTW i think RB yard/carry stats are so inaccurate.  They use whole numbers for each carry, despite the fact that a 3yd run would really be 3.5 or 3.25/3.33yds.... the refs don’t spot the call right on the yard line.... it can be halfway between yards (.5) or 1 footballs length in front of the yard (.25/.33) mark.  If a player rushes just 5x and actually gets 3.0, 4.5, 4.25, 5.5, 4.25 but its listed as 3,4,4,5,4 the average is listed as 4.0 when it really should have been 4.3.  That’s a big difference. Now extrapolate that out 100,150,200,250 carries.... the yds per carry stat becomes highly inaccurate, and the fact that it is often listed to the .1 or even .01 place makes it not useless IMO.  So when the balls on the 3.5yd line and the RB runs it in it’s listed as a 3yd run.  Just by pet peeve.)

Btw Booker was never a “thumper” and is more 212-219 then 225 and always has played lighter then his actual weight.  That’s fine... we don’t need a classic thumper... we just need someone to take some carries each game and be effective.

Booker did carry the ball 292x (5.2yd/carry) in 13 games his junior year and 268x (4.7) in 10 games his senior year in college.  

[Humble_Beast]

24 minutes ago, jimkelly02 said:

I did think Booker has the makings of a solid RB2 rusher coming out of Utah.  If he would give us even just 80-100 carries at just 3.8-4.2 (and Richard and Bowden get some carries).... i think that would be incredibly beneficial to the team.  His rookie year he did have 174 carries with 3.5yd average.  
 

A combination of Richard, Booker, and Bowden should be able to take enough carries from Jacobs so he isn’t overused.   Obviously this assumes Booker 1) makes the team 2) proves to be an effective rusher.  It would also keep defenses completely on their toes as all 4 RBs are good receivers.  I’m very curious if they went with Booker (Over a more powerful runner) for this reason or if they signed him due to the lack of a more powerful RB available in FA.   Hyde was available but he got $2.75M (up to 4.0M) and given we paid Richard I can understand why we elected not to spend that type of money on Another RB.  I don’t recall any other RBs being available at the time that are solid rushers.  We did talk with Frank Gore but I believe the story was he “chose” to sign elsewhere.  So obviously we considered a more traditional Rushing RB2.

 (BTW i think RB yard/carry stats are so inaccurate.  They use whole numbers for each carry, despite the fact that a 3yd run would really be 3.5 or 3.25/3.33yds.... the refs don’t spot the call right on the yard line.... it can be halfway between yards (.5) or 1 footballs length in front of the yard (.25/.33) mark.  If a player rushes just 5x and actually gets 3.0, 4.5, 4.25, 5.5, 4.25 but its listed as 3,4,4,5,4 the average is listed as 4.0 when it really should have been 4.3.  That’s a big difference. Now extrapolate that out 100,150,200,250 carries.... the yds per carry stat becomes highly inaccurate, and the fact that it is often listed to the .1 or even .01 place makes it not useless IMO.  So when the balls on the 3.5yd line and the RB runs it in it’s listed as a 3yd run.  Just by pet peeve.)

Btw Booker was never a “thumper” and is more 212-219 then 225 and always has played lighter then his actual weight.  That’s fine... we don’t need a classic thumper... we just need someone to take some carries each game and be effective.

Booker did carry the ball 292x (5.2yd/carry) in 13 games his junior year and 268x (4.7) in 10 games his senior year in college.  

Ya, we don’t need Brandon Jacobs as RB2, just need someone who can hold it down when Jacobs needs some rest. Someone who can start in a stretch in the event of an injury. 

[Jerry]

On 6/16/2020 at 1:12 AM, Darbsk said:

I can see exactly where you're coming from here, maybe we're not seeing the big picture but we seem to be filling our RB room with 3rd down type guys plus Jacobs. Now, Jacobs will obviously take the majority of snaps but we dont seem to have a true complimentary back, who is our Zach Crockett or Tyrone Wheatley? Maybe we envision Ingold to have a bigger role carrying the ball but he doesn't seem that good an option to me. Maybe we're trying to find our Charlie Garner.

Booker Ive never really thought much of and never watched him and been that excited. I don't really see the plan here or what he brings that we don't already gave a better version of. I would have thought we bring in a guy like (just for an example, not advocating for him) Lynch who's a bigger back to take some tough carries off Jacobs in short and goaline type situations. We at present have a true all round back in Jacobs and a bunch of finesse backs who all seem to fill similar roles.

I think it's exactly this.  I don't think Gruden is looking for much of a bruiser.  I think he feels Jacobs can get the 3rd and 1 for us and be our elusive power back.  Jacobs is good!

[Humble_Beast]

Still hoping we sign 3 vets: DL, LB, S at the very least for competition. Clowney would be a dream but I don’t see it.

[drfrey13]

On 6/16/2020 at 1:12 AM, Darbsk said:

I can see exactly where you're coming from here, maybe we're not seeing the big picture but we seem to be filling our RB room with 3rd down type guys plus Jacobs. Now, Jacobs will obviously take the majority of snaps but we dont seem to have a true complimentary back, who is our Zach Crockett or Tyrone Wheatley? Maybe we envision Ingold to have a bigger role carrying the ball but he doesn't seem that good an option to me. Maybe we're trying to find our Charlie Garner.

Booker Ive never really thought much of and never watched him and been that excited. I don't really see the plan here or what he brings that we don't already gave a better version of. I would have thought we bring in a guy like (just for an example, not advocating for him) Lynch who's a bigger back to take some tough carries off Jacobs in short and goaline type situations. We at present have a true all round back in Jacobs and a bunch of finesse backs who all seem to fill similar roles.

Last year proved we need a top RB2.  Team stunk when Jacobs had a bad game or was out with an injury.  Unless we are playing a bottom team if Jacobs is out you might as well expect a loss.  For the past 3-4 years I have been calling for us to get a RB to be our Crockett.  With our o-line there is zero reason why we should not lead the league in 3 and short conversion rate.  I remember when we had Crockett and it was 3rd and 1-2 I did not even need to watch the play.  I knew we would convert.  I do not know the stats but I can not remember a single play where Crockett was stopped for a loss.

[NYRaider]

On 6/15/2020 at 10:35 AM, Humble_Beast said:

I don’t think Bowden ever be physical enough to be a starting RB, but the guy was making people miss in the SEC and looking explosive. He is obviously football smart for the coaches to trust him to play QB. I think a good ceiling is being one of the best 3rd down backs in the NFL. Look how many passes Richard has caught in the past, Bowden is a legit wideout. let’s see Bowden can get down the blocking part. 

I agree that he won't ever be a guy that gets 20+ carries consistently but he should be a good running back. What he did as a wildcat QB running the ball last season was incredible.