Oh believe me, I'm not disagreeing about Ajayi and the rest of the RBs. In fact Ajayi is exactly the type of RB I wanted in Miami, and was hoping for...I hate RBs that will lose 3 yards here, 4 yards there, then will get 30 to 40 yards. Power runners for the most part continue moving forward more consistently, and in so doing, helping the offenses to get more manageable 3rd downs, but something was off with Ajayi this year, and though I can't say I know exactly if it was due to the line, or the knees are starting to bother him, the one thing that we do know was the running game was not working, so losing Ajayi is not going to make it worse then what we have see so far this year.
I liked Ajayi, and it will hurt at the end of games what he brought last year, but we all knew that his shelve life very well could be even shorter then the normal back, and he seemed to not be running as hard this years as he did last year...either way, I do wish him the best.
Well I also agree about the RB. But Damien William's ability to catch passes and Kenyon Drake's ability to hit the edge are not going to change the primary issue, which is the inability of the OL to consistently open run lanes for the RB's to get through. Ultimately, those guys are hit with LB's and S's who fill the open spots, and with DL who prevent our soft OL from moving them to create run lanes.
This is compounded by the fact that our OL just plain sucks at giving a QB (any QB) time to throw deeper routes, which would reduce the run blitzes, tight coverages, and 8 man boxes.
The Seattle style defense works not because their Legion of Boom is able to stick to WR's for 7 seconds. It works because they're able to get their hands on guys near the line of scrimmage, make that 3 second route a 3.5 second route, and in 3.5 seconds their front 7 has put pressure on the QB where he can't just sit there and pick out open WR's nor does he have time to throw those deeper routes. The problem is that our OL is able to do neither the run blocking to open up the run game, nor the pass pro to allow the QB to throw those deeper routes. None of this changes for Drake or Williams.
Losing a very good power back who was exceptional at evading tacklers, running through arm tackles, breaking free of ankle tackles, and stiff-arming defenders, will be missed. My hope is that the OL somehow reaches down inside their uniforms and finds some stones. My hope is that they finally man up and open up some run lanes. Because we have no Barry Sanders waiting in the wings to evade everyone ... unless Jakeem Grant suddenly changes positions or something. Drake is not that guy, nor is Williams.
Personally, I think we should have been playing Isaac Asiata. Will the rookie make mistakes? Sure! But look at our OL's production ... everyone is making mistakes ... and making a LOT of them. Just add up the sacks, hits, pressures, unopened run lanes, blown assignments picking up blitzes, and penalties for Tunsil alone. He's faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar too talented to be playing that poorly. When one guy does it, it's on him. When the entire unit does it ... it's on the coaches. I give Steen a pass because he was never expected to be a starter, never paid to be a starter, and is only starting because the people who were supposed to step up are either injured or just plain underperforming. But I blame Gase for bringing back Bushrod at a starter salary, because we already knew Bushrod wasn't good enough. Gase set Ajayi up to fail. Maybe with Larsen and Steen both hurt, we'll finally see Asiata ... but it sounds like we're going to see Jesse Davis. Well, at least he should be better at creating run lanes. Because when we evaluate this team ... it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out the most underperforming unit is the OL, and the most underperforming positions are the RG and LG. Pouncey is up and down, and sure, maybe that's health ... but at his age, much like Branden Albert, we should expect more injuries every year, not a recovery. This OL needs a major injection of talent, and we need an OL coach who can do the job. To me, our failed offense gets worse with the loss of Ajayi. At least, that's my $0.02.
