I agree with Andrew Fisher of Rant Sports that the way talks between Ben Tate and the Browns have dragged out so long might well be because Tate is asking for too much money.
Andrew is another guy who is desperately overusing the word "desperate" in his deperation to make an impression. The Browns are not desperately in need of a franchise back.
But I digress: Bill Polian and others aren't that thrilled by Ben. They describe a good, physical back who, because of his physical running style, will probably have a short career with periodic injuries.
I do think that Bill is selling the guy a little short in regards to what he could accomplish in this particular system. Here, he wouldn't be trying to ram the ball forward between the tackles against stacked fronts. Safeties wouldn't be knifing in at full speed going for his legs, and big unblocked linebackers wouldn't be meeting him in the hole.
In Shanahan's system, the whole idea is to force defenders out of position to create almost random gaps, trusting the back's natural instincts to choose the most daylight and cut into it hard and decisively.
Defenders who seek penetration to stop it can blow it up or reroute the back laterally, but they more often miss than hit, taking themselves out of the play and freeing blockers to target defenders downfield. Gap integrity isn't even a realistic consideration, since the blockers and front seven are moving sideways.
Because they are moving sideways, their feet are not planted, they're not as well balanced as they want to be, and when the back does make his cut (always against this grain), some have to try to reverse their momentum (pointless if there's a guard following you) and dive at him.
Even the guy who is in position to make a play is also moving sideways, and has to to try to stop dead--and almost always there's a blocker there to say "Wait where are you going? Move along move along!"; using his own momentum to push him out of the way.
A good disciplined strong safety or backside linebacker can sometimes be there to intercept the back, but this happens less often than you'd think.
The net result is the running back in this system faces fewer violent collisions than backs in man-blocking sytems. Most aspiring tacklers are diving and trying to arm-tackle him, or are smaller guys pursuing him.
Tate would fit in here quite well because he's hard to take down, and quite strong.
However, all of what I just described could make Baker or (especially) Obgannaya, or Gerhardt or half a dozen backs in this draft class, for that matter, look really good too.
Ben and his agent should be smart enough to see that here he has the opportunity not only to get ungodly numbers, but also to prolong his career. Instead, apparently, they're crawling around under Jimmy's desk looking for spare change.
If Ben Tate is that dumb, who needs him?
I personally have high hopes for Rodney Obgannayafield. His only problem has been ball security. His 5-plus yard per carry are no mirage. He's big and strong, with underrated speed.
It's still quite possible that Tate will see the light and only get overpaid a little to sign here. The Browns are doing a great job of investing their cap surplus into front-loaded contracts that other teams can't match.
Players will always prefer as much guaranteed money up front as they can get, and will often turn down even better overall offers for this. This also mimimizes the cap hit if players are released after one season, which is why it's downright dumb to say that Dansby was overpaid.
It even makes any player more tradeable, because the trade partner after the first season could be getting a low-risk bargain.
Do the MATH.
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