Maurice Jones-drew: Kenyan Drake Is A Bottom-five Starting Nfl Running Back | Page 7 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Maurice Jones-drew: Kenyan Drake Is A Bottom-five Starting Nfl Running Back

I loved him as a player, but as an analyst he is so biased against the dolphins it isnt funny.

I dont think he has said a single good thing about them since he got the TV gig.
Okay, well if you think he's jus biased, that's a deferent story.
 
Gase never wanted to run the ball. Never committed to the running game. There were a number of factors involved in his thinking as well. No one is going to give up on Drake. MJD just running his damn mouth because its his job.
 
Drake can make some nice plays but in today's NFL pretty much every RB drafted and even many not drafted can make some nice plays. That just comes with the position. He's not special and he didn't get that many carries last year because he didn't earn them. For every nice run he had there were another nine where he didn't make good decisions and got negligible gains which was absolutely crushing on a team that didn't have the ability to convert third and long.

There's scarcely a team out there that doesn't have a guy or two in camp that can make some big plays like Drake. It's not that he's not useful, but being useful and being a legitimate starter are two different things.
 
Drake can make some nice plays but in today's NFL pretty much every RB drafted and even many not drafted can make some nice plays. That just comes with the position. He's not special and he didn't get that many carries last year because he didn't earn them. For every nice run he had there were another nine where he didn't make good decisions and got negligible gains which was absolutely crushing on a team that didn't have the ability to convert third and long.

There's scarcely a team out there that doesn't have a guy or two in camp that can make some big plays like Drake. It's not that he's not useful, but being useful and being a legitimate starter are two different things.

Dating back to the start of 2017, Kenyan Drake is near the tops in the NFL in yards after contact and yards per carry.
 
Dating back to the start of 2017, Kenyan Drake is near the tops in the NFL in yards after contact and yards per carry.

Yards per carry can be a bit misleading as to a running back's consistency as it is easily inflated by big runs. Drake and Gore had extremely similar yards per carry but Gore got the rock more regularly because his average carry was far closer to that four and a half yards than Drake.

Nobody has ever trusted this guy to take the lion's share of carries week in and week out and it probably has a lot to do with what I'm describing above.
 
Yards per carry can be a bit misleading as to a running back's consistency as it is easily inflated by big runs. Drake and Gore had extremely similar yards per carry but Gore got the rock more regularly because his average carry was far closer to that four and a half yards than Drake.

Nobody has ever trusted this guy to take the lion's share of carries week in and week out and it probably has a lot to do with what I'm describing above.

That was my argument last offseason, that Drake had never been trusted as full timer, and there were reasons for it. This was when we had a thread projecting Drake to receive 2-3 times as many carries at Gore. Made zero sense, given their respective careers and skill sets.

I can't get invested in Drake opinion either way. As soon as you overstate him, his weaknesses are on display. Once he's dismissed as vastly overrated then the big plays show up. I can't hate a player who scores points out of nowhere. That's the Bill Polian philosophy.

The problem is the other guy. Instead of finding a semblance of a younger Gore we've got pitiful traffic instincts in Ballage. As j-off-her-doll posted, it's a weird group.

BTW, I'm glad I was around to appreciate all the years in which running back was the most coveted player on the field. Literally every season from the late '60s through the early to mid '80s the first thing everyone did while following college football was to isolate the freak running backs, and salivate at the prospect of them completely transforming the NFL team lucky enough to have that first pick. You can see how coveted the position was based on that desperate 4-for-1 trade that Shula made in 1978 --- Freddie Solomon and a #1 draft and #5 draft pick, along with lanky safety Vern Roberson -- in exchange for Delvin Williams, a good gliding running back but who was already 27 years old and had a knee injury in his background.

My friends and I hated that trade for a basic reason: Solomon was a better player than Williams. It was clear cut. Shula overreacted to positional need. Besides, Williams was not one of those ultra elite collegians. He was fairly well known in college but a second round pick out of Kansas, and always described as basically a second round caliber back.

As always, the explanation was situational influence. So often that is lost to history. Shula months earlier had just witnessed the Cowboys win the Super Bowl with rookie running back Tony Dorsett, after making a bold move to jump up in the prior draft and grab Dorsett. Shula knew that another freak back Earl Campbell would be entering the league in two weeks, and drafted by a fellow AFC team. He didn't think he could afford to fall behind at that critical position, especially with Griese at the tail end of his career.
 
Everyone loves to hate Drake because there were tons of questions coming out of college....
He has missed no time
He has done well at yards after first contact
He has made big plays in the passing game
... inflated ypc because of big gains?!? Wtf.. scat style backs lose yards... thats known, they also create big plays.. he has done so.. all behind a trash line and a coach who did not trust him..
The kid fumbled at the one vs the bears, thats the worst thing he has on his resume and we won that game.
I honestly can not understand the hate on a kid who has lived up to draft status and put the ball in the endzone every year
 
Everyone loves to hate Drake because there were tons of questions coming out of college....
He has missed no time
He has done well at yards after first contact
He has made big plays in the passing game
... inflated ypc because of big gains?!? Wtf.. scat style backs lose yards... thats known, they also create big plays.. he has done so.. all behind a trash line and a coach who did not trust him..
The kid fumbled at the one vs the bears, thats the worst thing he has on his resume and we won that game.
I honestly can not understand the hate on a kid who has lived up to draft status and put the ball in the endzone every year

Wow, you unintentionally hit the nail on the head while trying to make the opposite point. Drake is a scat back. He makes big plays. He also makes negative plays. That's why offenses don't run a large majority of their carries through guys like that. Their negative carries trying to make big plays are drive killers, especially when you're a team with a weak offensive line, shaky QB's, a receiving corps of diminutive receivers whose skill isn't going downfield for the big contested catch on 3rd and 12, and no identity. Yes, they have the ability to make big, sometimes game-changing plays. That's why you give these guys 10-12 carries a game. But there's time when you need to know a guy is gonna get three yards even if the blocks suck, and maybe 10-12 if there's a hole. Because its so, so crucial to gain positive yardage to keep a defense honest and keep the drive moving.

I fault Adam Gase a lot, but he divided up his carries the right way last year.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but Drake strikes me more as a scat-back who needs a hole to get initial penetration, and once he gets past the line, he can be dangerous. Contrast that to a more physical, downhill runner who may be able to get that initial penetration on their own, but will have a hard time getting defenders to miss in open space.
Fix the O-line, and would Drake be a decent compliment to Ballage?
 
A former player and new media head who is searching for relevancy …. physical power running back who doesn't respect a finesse speed back. …….. Shocker.
 
Wow, you unintentionally hit the nail on the head while trying to make the opposite point. Drake is a scat back. He makes big plays. He also makes negative plays. That's why offenses don't run a large majority of their carries through guys like that. Their negative carries trying to make big plays are drive killers, especially when you're a team with a weak offensive line, shaky QB's, a receiving corps of diminutive receivers whose skill isn't going downfield for the big contested catch on 3rd and 12, and no identity. Yes, they have the ability to make big, sometimes game-changing plays. That's why you give these guys 10-12 carries a game. But there's time when you need to know a guy is gonna get three yards even if the blocks suck, and maybe 10-12 if there's a hole. Because its so, so crucial to gain positive yardage to keep a defense honest and keep the drive moving.

I fault Adam Gase a lot, but he divided up his carries the right way last year.
What point was I trying to make??
I gave reasons I like the player.. did I miss the part where I said he deserved to be the hands down starter? Did I say I think he is top 5..
I said I dont understand the hate he gets around here.
Other than that I agree with you.
 
I may be in the minority, but I like our RB by committee approach. If we are going to vary our offense based on our weekly matchup then each of our guys are going to play a role. It may be more one week and less the next, but it makes us hard to prepare for and it also might help keeps guys healthy and fresh.
 
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