Andrea Hangst of the Bleacher Report wrote an article about the running back situation that missed. She's concerned about the new guys' lack of experience.
Safeties, cornerbacks, quarterbacks, etc. tend to need time to learn the pro ropes before they can stop thinking and be consistant players. They need to read opposing players, deployments, etc.
Running back, however, is THE most instinctive position in football. Rookie running backs must often learn to read pressures to block the right person, and to tighten up their route-running as recievers, but a talented running back can step right off a college football field onto an NFL field and run the ball, period.
If he has already learned to block and catch, so much the better.
Moving in one direction, forcing defenders to run at top speed, then changing directions to get behind them. Running right at a guy like you mean to run him over, then darting sideways when he anchors. Spinning into a different trajectory even as the defenders arms surround you. These are all instinctive, automatic skills for a Rainey or Johnson type running back.
This is why every season we see several rookie running backs tearing up the NFL; guys like Alfred Morris. It's not rocket science for a running back.
Ask the coaches. They'll tell you: I can tell him to commit to the hole faster and quit dancing in the backfield. I can make him block the right guy, and show him how to do that right. I can yell at him for a sloppy pass-route. But I can't teach him diddly about running with the ball. He can or he can't. That's all.
Rainey and Johnson aren't here to sit on the bench with little notebooks, studying Trent Richardson to learn how to be running backs. One or the other will be used to spell TRich, more and more often as the season progresses.
Will Burge wrote a better article about ten things we learned from preseason. As I said, it was a good article, but not perfect.
On the money about Weeden. He looks better overall, despite the Indi game--but we can't be count on anything yet. This system is much, much better for him, and gives him his best chance to succeed.
Gordon's suspension will definitely hurt. Gordon is a rare talent.
Benjamin is more than a speedster. But as Will fills this out, I disagreed with a few things. First, not many knowlegable people had him labelled as a track athlete who couldn't run routes. Benjamin could always get separation laterally as well as vertically, and was always elusive with the ball. He always had moves. The only concern with him was his size and durability.
The defense will be feast or famine. Good for Will here. Horton's defense is high risk. He's traded some muscle for speed, especially at ILB. The intent is to blow up more plays and get more turnovers than they give up in strafing yards and long runs.
As the Steelers' demonstrate, it is possible for an aggressive 3-4 with smaller ILB's to stop the run, but it takes a lot of time playing together as a unit. This year's Horton defense will get stung some. It should also score a few touchdowns, force a lot of 3-and-outs, and swipe a lot of balls.
Will astutely singles out TJ Ward as a critical piece. He's in the Polumalu role here. He has been injured too much, and it's doubtful that any replacement can be as effective. The SS here will have much to do with stopping the run, and neutralizing outlet recievers and screen passes. (Opposing offenses will try to beat pressure this way).
Craig Robertson may indeed be a star in the making. Another Heckert undrafted free agent. He's almost like a safety, excellent in coverage, and all over the field. Indeed, Jackson might be the guy that gets to take on the guards.
Although I spend a lot of time defending Tom Heckert, I can't refute anything Will said about his poor later-round draft picks. Truth is truth.
I must say a few things about this, however: James Micheal Johnson will end up playing somewhere in the NFL, and probably starting eventually. Emmanuel Acho remains a player. Trevin Wade probably will also; Wade was a dice-role move based on potential, and you take these risks later in the draft trying to find high round talent low.
I haven't done any research about this, but Will could probably have said the same thing about Bill Belichick's lower-round picks.
Will has the bar set a little high here. I would say that Heckert did about as well as any given personnel guy in the later rounds. Even without a regime and system change, guys you take a flyer on don't pan out, or are replaced by better players. Some guys down there are drafted more for special teams than for any other reason.
The real test of Tom Heckert's lower round draft picks will be how many of them remain in the NFL, and by that standard he's done pretty well. Check again in a couple years. You'll see.
Tom did exceptionally well with undrafted free agents. Does anybody expect LJ Fort to be stacking boxes? Josh Cooper just knocked Nelson off this roster. Gipson projects to be the starter, and I believe will be pretty good.
Schwartze is already a top ten right tackle. Yep. Deal with it.
Haslam not a distraction check.
You go, Will! No, here on this planet the front office isn't planning on instant playoffs in this tough division, with now perhaps the youngest team in the NFL, and with new offensive and defensive systems and a second-year quarterback.
...and so far weakness in the secondary and an issue at right guard...
People bashing the Browns for not spending every dime of their money on big-name aging veterans just can't comprehend this, and probably put cookies and milk out for Santa Claus every Xmas.
Last season they crawled, this season they walk, and next season they run for it. Duh.
I love that Joe Banner actually even comes out and admits it, rather than acting like a politician and promising a chicken in every pot and an end to poverty and crime.
Despite the little thing about Benjamin's scouting reports and the bigger thing about Heckert's calculated risk lower-round draft picks, I think this was a great article by a real smart guy.
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