rodell330
Cheesehead
A running back who can catch out of the backfield and is explosive being able to cut and plant on a dime?? or a pounder who will pick up the tough yards and wear out the defense??
There are 4 attributes that make a great RB (Vision, Speed, Power, & Desire). I wanted GB to grab Emmitt Smith when he came out of Florida, but the Cowboys traded up right before us and took him and we got stuck with Micheal Thompson out of the Univ. of Minnesota.
I would say that before you worry about the type of RB you have in the backfield you need an offensive line that is not offensive when it comes to run blocking. Am I wrong or did I see somewhere that the Packers O-line did not do so well in that area the last few years? It doesn't matter how good of a back you have if the holes aren't there for him to run through.
Correct me if I am wrong on the o-line blocking.
Lions had a crappy O line while Barry Sanders tore up the league. Sometimes the great backs make the line, sometimes a great line makes the back. Same with quarterbacks and wide receivers. So, all the Packers need is for one of their guys to be the next Barry Sanders and voila!I would say that before you worry about the type of RB you have in the backfield you need an offensive line that is not offensive when it comes to run blocking. Am I wrong or did I see somewhere that the Packers O-line did not do so well in that area the last few years? It doesn't matter how good of a back you have if the holes aren't there for him to run through.
Correct me if I am wrong on the o-line blocking.
Micheal Thompson? Or Darrell?
The best recipe for success in the running game, would be to just use the best back for the best situation. Franklin looks like he's got some burst to him, and would be dangerous catching passes on screens or in the flat, out of the backfield. Drop the ZBS nonsense and go back to the bread and butter Ahman Green play with him. Then use Lacy up the gut. That's been my biggest beef with McCarthy, is his silly insistence that the ZBS is the way to go. Um, no, it isn't. The ZBS sucks, and it's prototype track star offensive linemen experiment has been a disaster. The Packers won a Super Bowl in spite of it, sure as hell not because of it!
You know something, Raptor?, you're on the money here. However, the proverbial devil is in the details. I've always been a fan of "line play", if you will. I've always admired the big fat guys up front. I'm one of those guys who has been known to miss plays because I really don't pay primary attention to which back gets the ball. So...in the case of the Vikings for example, #28 could be scooting for a 30 yard run and I'll be talking about the blocking that allowed him to do so. I'll maintain, as you do and rightly so, that the Green Bay Packers could have #28 in its backfield and he'd be an 'average back'.
Now... is that because the Pack and McCarthy are 'pass first', or, McCarthy abandons the run too quickly; or, the Packers' offense is geared toward moving the chains in larger increments, or, James Campen doesn't know how to coach up his guys, or, the ZBS-flavored blocking schemes (the Packers and their media downplay the actual usage of the ZBS-that's why I use the qualifier "flavored"); or, our OL are too 'athletic' for a power running game ... I don't know. What I do know, based on my own bias confirmation, is that by-and-large, the holes aren't there. I get tired of watching Green Bay running backs running head first into the *** of a GB lineman who has been "stood up".
I find it interesting when someone like Slaughter25 clicks on "disagree" as was the case with Weed's followup to Raptorman, but then doesn't even bother to post their thoughts. I couldn't agree more with Raptorman and Weeds. We can talk all day about style of back. We've had every style of back in Green Bay during the MM/TT era. Granted they haven't been elite backs but we've had the guys. We just have been stuck with mediocre backs running behind offensive lines that were better at pass blocking than run blocking.
I'm also with fanindaup on this one, that only a greatest-of-all-time back like Barry Sanders could gain yards behind a bad O-line. We aren't going to get that type of back if we keep winning the division or get lucky, so we better work on our run blocking a lot more
I hope you're right, realcal.