WHY DO WE DISRESPECT THE RUNNING BACK POSITION.

[doumeyer]

For many years the Jets have had outstanding RB's, players like John Riggins, Adrian Murrell, Shonn Green, Thomas Jones, Johnny Hector,  Matt Snell, Emerson Boozer, Freeman Mc Neill,  Curtis Martin. What have we had the last six years or so a bunch of washed up players or late round second & third tier year players. A  strong running game is the best friend for any QB. There are players in this years draft that can sure help us, like Najee Harris Javonte Williams & Travis Etiennne. The three years Darnold as been the QB for the Jets he has never had any kind of running game and don't think that didn't hurt his play. How and where Douglas can get one of these players is going to be tough. How we passed up on Devin Cook i will never understand.

[xrade]

Not sure what you mean by disrespecting the position. The Jets have drafted RB’s and signed them in FA, seemingly every year.  If you are referring to the fact the Jets have not drafted a RB in the first round since whenever you have to ask why?

Here is my two cents:

1.  Scheme fit. The league as a whole has devalued the position in part due to more emphasis on passing. This kind of led to:

2.  An increased emphasis on pass protecting OL. It is rare that you find a lineman equally adept at pass blocking and run blocking. Take our own Mekhi as an example. Superior run blocker but needs work on pass protection. The O needs to decide if it wants to be a “pass to setup the run” or “run to set up the pass” type O. We have not had a GM or coach that could establish either in the recent past. Which further led to:

3.  A de-emphasis on drafting quality linemen. Let’s face it, without a good OL a RB goes nowhere. You could have everyone of the RB’s you mentioned and they would fail because the OL sucked. Since the team had no O identity, the run game sucked. When we had Freeman and Curtis we had the OL to open holes because we had a scheme to do so. So if we have no identity or OL why:

4.  Draft RB high in the draft? He will fail. We need that identity and good linemen for the RB to succeed. Once that is established, go get that top RB prospect. The thing here is that:

5.  A good RB can be found anywhere in the draft. Look back at where the top backs were chosen. A surprising number were in round 3 and later. Why? Because the system was in place for them to succeed. Do you think 3rd round pick Kamara would succeed here. Nope. The Saints had the system in place for a back like him. Conversely, how did Zeke do this year? His OL suffered injuries thus he was pedestrian.

Summary: develop an identity, get the OL in place for said identity, get that stud RB. It seems such a simple philosophy that we have not followed in quite a while. At least not since Rex but he had Idzik and Mac to deal with so it never came to fruition.

Edited March 4, 2021 by xrade

[jetfuel34]

12 hours ago, doumeyer said:

For many years the Jets have had outstanding RB's, players like John Riggins, Adrian Murrell, Shonn Green, Thomas Jones, Johnny Hector,  Matt Snell, Emerson Boozer, Freeman Mc Neill,  Curtis Martin. What have we had the last six years or so a bunch of washed up players or late round second & third tier year players. A  strong running game is the best friend for any QB. There are players in this years draft that can sure help us, like Najee Harris Javonte Williams & Travis Etiennne. The three years Darnold as been the QB for the Jets he has never had any kind of running game and don't think that didn't hurt his play. How and where Douglas can get one of these players is going to be tough. How we passed up on Devin Cook i will never understand.

You forgot one of the best RB in history was a jet too. LT was a beast for us. The simple answer is RB are a dime a dozen and you can win by having 2 averge RB instead of having 1 stud that cost a lot of money. When you can pick up guys like Fournette duirng the season why worry about it. You always have good RB hit he market that yoy can pick up pretty cheap. I think Aaron Jones is in for a world of shock when he is offered 8-10 mill instead of hos 15-16 mill he wants. Bell has already proved you just don't get paid. James Connor would be a cheap fill in for the Jets too. 

[doumeyer]

8 minutes ago, jetfuel34 said:

You forgot one of the best RB in history was a jet too. LT was a beast for us. The simple answer is RB are a dime a dozen and you can win by having 2 averge RB instead of having 1 stud that cost a lot of money. When you can pick up guys like Fournette duirng the season why worry about it. You always have good RB hit he market that yoy can pick up pretty cheap. I think Aaron Jones is in for a world of shock when he is offered 8-10 mill instead of hos 15-16 mill he wants. Bell has already proved you just don't get paid. James Connor would be a cheap fill in for the Jets too. 

Your way just isn't working all these late round draft picks we made in  the last seven years flat out suck Guys like Barkley, Chubb, Henry, and Mc Caffery are far from a dime a dozen. The same thing goes TE's I hear the same crap all the time we can't draft a TE high. Look how teams are doing when they have good TE's. I am tired of being 4-12 every year. And LT was never the best RB in Jet history what was he here two years at the end of his career, Curtis Martin was out best RB It would have been John Riggins, but we let him walk to the Redskins.

[jetfuel34]

1 hour ago, doumeyer said:

Your way just isn't working all these late round draft picks we made in  the last seven years flat out suck Guys like Barkley, Chubb, Henry, and Mc Caffery are far from a dime a dozen. The same thing goes TE's I hear the same crap all the time we can't draft a TE high. Look how teams are doing when they have good TE's. I am tired of being 4-12 every year. And LT was never the best RB in Jet history what was he here two years at the end of his career, Curtis Martin was out best RB It would have been John Riggins, but we let him walk to the Redskins.

I said LT was one of the best RB in the history of the NFL which he was. He was a jet and played well for us. Yes Martin ws by far the best RB in jets history. 

[Jag68Sid87]

I am also on the Etienne/Harris train. If we trade down from No. 2, we might be able to land a WR, OL, RB and developmental QB in the first two rounds. That is my hope, unless we are able to land one of those positions in free agency.

[rickyt31]

I'm a fan of Harris & Williams. Williams is my favorite. 

[KodiakThunder]

RB's have the shortest careers and tend to have one of the easier transitions from College to pro. 

Because of that,  RBs arent as highly valued cause a round 1 rb is typically worth the same # of wins as a round 3-4 rb. 

A QB can play at a high level toll 31+. Most RB's start to deteriorate around 26 or so. 

[Bobby816]

For me this is the way the RB position should be drafted....

Build up the OL and then draft a highly talented RB.

To draft a Rb with a valuable pick with a poor OL is a waste. But if you put and average RB behind a good OL, you get good production. You put a great RB behind and average to above average OL. You have an identity. Look at Henry for TEN. They lost Conklin in FA and Lewan to injury and he was still arguably the best RB in the league. And still gave that team an identity. So you can’t tell me a RB doesn’t make a team better. And it was criminal that Henry slipped that far in the draft.

We resign Elf and land Thuney... Yes I think drafting a highly talented RB at 23 or 34 should be in play. We wouldn’t be throwing them behind a bad OL. It would be an asset at that stage. Especially with most the guys as better run blocking OLineman.

People keep wanting to talk about have every expert has us going Wilson at 2. But let’s not forget that most

mocks also have us going Etienne at 23. For me I like Harris more. But I’d be happy with either.

[jetfuel34]

9 hours ago, Bobby816 said:

For me this is the way the RB position should be drafted....

Build up the OL and then draft a highly talented RB.

To draft a Rb with a valuable pick with a poor OL is a waste. But if you put and average RB behind a good OL, you get good production. You put a great RB behind and average to above average OL. You have an identity. Look at Henry for TEN. They lost Conklin in FA and Lewan to injury and he was still arguably the best RB in the league. And still gave that team an identity. So you can’t tell me a RB doesn’t make a team better. And it was criminal that Henry slipped that far in the draft.

We resign Elf and land Thuney... Yes I think drafting a highly talented RB at 23 or 34 should be in play. We wouldn’t be throwing them behind a bad OL. It would be an asset at that stage. Especially with most the guys as better run blocking OLineman.

People keep wanting to talk about have every expert has us going Wilson at 2. But let’s not forget that most

mocks also have us going Etienne at 23. For me I like Harris more. But I’d be happy with either.

You are using the best RB in the league as your example. Did you see Zeke play this year. Once his line went down he sucked. James Connor is another example once the line went down so did he. Heck you can even use Joe Mixon too. It is the line that makes the RB unless you have that ultra rare RB like a Henry. Please don’t tell me that Harris or one of these guys is an ultra rare RB because they are not.

[Bobby816]

11 minutes ago, jetfuel34 said:

You are using the best RB in the league as your example. Did you see Zeke play this year. Once his line went down he sucked. James Connor is another example once the line went down so did he. Heck you can even use Joe Mixon too. It is the line that makes the RB unless you have that ultra rare RB like a Henry. Please don’t tell me that Harris or one of these guys is an ultra rare RB because they are not.

Read my 2nd line. I said the OL needs to be the focus before investing in a RB. But as I said... would signing Thuney and resigning Elf not make our OL a strength for this team? IMO... yes!!! So it’d be very smart to get a highly talented RB to run behind that line to not put too much pressure on the QB.

[KodiakThunder]

2 hours ago, Bobby816 said:

Read my 2nd line. I said the OL needs to be the focus before investing in a RB. But as I said... would signing Thuney and resigning Elf not make our OL a strength for this team? IMO... yes!!! So it’d be very smart to get a highly talented RB to run behind that line to not put too much pressure on the QB.

No. Thuney and Elf would not by itself make this oline good. We have 1 good LT and maybe a decent guard. Adding thunder gives us 2 guards but OC and RT are still playing below league average. 

In fact, Becton is the only OL that truly excels at run blocking (IMO). Thuney is a better pass blocker IMO.

[Bobby816]

4 minutes ago, KodiakThunder said:

No. Thuney and Elf would not by itself make this oline good. We have 1 good LT and maybe a decent guard. Adding thunder gives us 2 guards but OC and RT are still playing below league average. 

In fact, Becton is the only OL that truly excels at run blocking (IMO). Thuney is a better pass blocker IMO.

Elf is a very good run blocker. He struggles in pass protection. McGovern will be better just by better OG play around him (as we saw when Elf was plugged in the end of the season). And Fant is better in pass protection.

An OL of Becton, Thuney, McGovern, Elf, Fant is good. 

[doumeyer]

9 minutes ago, Bobby816 said:

Elf is a very good run blocker. He struggles in pass protection. McGovern will be better just by better OG play around him (as we saw when Elf was plugged in the end of the season). And Fant is better in pass protection.

An OL of Becton, Thuney, McGovern, Elf, Fant is good. 

Agree, Thuney, is the key we must sign him and Fant, did the job at RT he is a very athletic player

[jetfuel34]

40 minutes ago, Bobby816 said:

Elf is a very good run blocker. He struggles in pass protection. McGovern will be better just by better OG play around him (as we saw when Elf was plugged in the end of the season). And Fant is better in pass protection.

An OL of Becton, Thuney, McGovern, Elf, Fant is good. 

I can go along with this for an OL. I was a guy that was thinking we would do very little in FA but this year is TOTAL diffrent than years past. The cap number has dropped which has never happend and you are going to have a massive flood of good FA ot there and very little money to give out. We are at the top with a ton of cap room and I think some of these great players will come here for that money. If a guy wants 10 mill but most of the teams are offering 6-7 mill and the Jets offer say 8 or 9 mill you get that guy and for under his market value. I think we are in a GREAT SPOT in FA.