RB is definitely the last position you need to address in a rebuild...but we've had three years not to bring in any decent running backs and the answer we've settled on is Malcom Brown.
In 2/4 games we've played this year we've had both teams offenses come out the gate with neither team's passing games being able to get much traction. Early game momentum was decide or shifted in both instances by a big run from an RB who doesn't make that run without first or second draft day talent. What a boost it is to a team's prospects to be able to have a back change a game by ripping off a big scoring run, and take the onus off the QB for being solely responsible for any big plays. I pointed out all year along what a mistake the team was making by not giving our QB's a boost by bringing in anyone really capable of taking the load off QB's, especially when the offensive line is going to be....offensive. It's sad how underused Gaskin is right now in the offense, but even still Gaskin is a guy who helps the offense by being a nice component in the pass game and being able to generate consistent positive yardage with good reads, but he simply doesn't have the skill to make defenders miss or break tackles at the second level.
How much better could this team be if just once they got a play from their RB that completed changed the game?
This isn't about not drafting X or Y player, because some of the RBs fans on here have fixated over I don't think are going to be very good, or worth where they would have been drafted. It's about the fact that we've had the chance to draft any number of good RB prospects over the last few years and haven't drafted any of them. And as an organizational philosophy, we seem to willfully embrace guys with marginal physical talent under Flores. We learned all the wrong lessons from New England, who won never developing a running back and constantly shuffling them, something they were able to do because they had freaking Tom Brady, Josh McDaniels, and a line and system that had been built over twenty years.
In 2/4 games we've played this year we've had both teams offenses come out the gate with neither team's passing games being able to get much traction. Early game momentum was decide or shifted in both instances by a big run from an RB who doesn't make that run without first or second draft day talent. What a boost it is to a team's prospects to be able to have a back change a game by ripping off a big scoring run, and take the onus off the QB for being solely responsible for any big plays. I pointed out all year along what a mistake the team was making by not giving our QB's a boost by bringing in anyone really capable of taking the load off QB's, especially when the offensive line is going to be....offensive. It's sad how underused Gaskin is right now in the offense, but even still Gaskin is a guy who helps the offense by being a nice component in the pass game and being able to generate consistent positive yardage with good reads, but he simply doesn't have the skill to make defenders miss or break tackles at the second level.
How much better could this team be if just once they got a play from their RB that completed changed the game?
This isn't about not drafting X or Y player, because some of the RBs fans on here have fixated over I don't think are going to be very good, or worth where they would have been drafted. It's about the fact that we've had the chance to draft any number of good RB prospects over the last few years and haven't drafted any of them. And as an organizational philosophy, we seem to willfully embrace guys with marginal physical talent under Flores. We learned all the wrong lessons from New England, who won never developing a running back and constantly shuffling them, something they were able to do because they had freaking Tom Brady, Josh McDaniels, and a line and system that had been built over twenty years.
