Freeman: Browns "Uncertain" on How to Handle Hillis

Third round.

Yeah. You can find legit RBs in later rounds. You can find Tom Brady in what, the 7th round? I’m not trying to say you can’t find RBs in the later rounds. I feel like everyone here is fundamentally against drafting a RB in the first round because it’s somehow virtually guaranteed that you will get a great RB in round 2-4 just for the simple fact that it’s not the 1st round. I just don’t get it. It’s almost like if you draft a QB in the first round and you don’t draft a RB in the first round then you are guaranteed to win a Super Bowl. Because no one who has won the Super Bowl has ever had a RB they took in the first round, and no team that has taken a RB in the first round ever makes it to the Super Bowl.

Come on. There are two teams that make the Super Bowl every year. One team that wins. There is absolutely nothing that guarantees a Super Bowl win, and there’s no way that picking an elite running back in the first round disqualifies you from ever winning a Super Bowl. Could we make better picks at #4 than Trent Richardson? Sure. Would it be sweet if we landed RGIII at #4 or #2? Yeah. Could we trade back for more picks and have a really nice draft? Yeah. But saying teams that draft RBs in the first round don’t win Super Bowls? Big deal. There are 30 teams that don’t make the Super Bowl each year, ones that have drafted RB in the first round and ones that have drafted QBs in the first round. Where you draft your RB isn’t the deciding factor on whether you make the SB.

If he keeps doing crack it will*

I would be fine with Hillis and Ogi. If Montario and BJax do anything its just a bonus.

right, the Texans, Denver, and Washington now are definitely not the models of overnight success. Of course Denver had Elway so it was less noticeable.

I really don’t believe this is the case.

I just read the article rufio suggested, so I’m by no means an expert- But it seems like it relies on smart linemen, not necessarily the most physically gifted. It seems like we would at least be able to run that system with most of the linemen we have.

The article said the reason it’s so hard to pull off is that it requires the entire team to be sold on it, so QB’s and WRs can’t just take the running plays off.

Yes:

But if it’s so good, why doesn’t every NFL team use it? The answer is the same reason that, despite his legendary status, Gibbs has never lasted too long in one job. Gibbs’ style of zone blocking requires total commitment by every offensive player — linemen must be perfect technicians, not just fat guys who push others around; runners must make reads and make “one-cut-and-go” plays rather than juke and tap dance like the next Barry Sanders; and quarterbacks and receivers can’t treat runs as mini-breaks because they’re expected to execute assignments and make blocks. The offense is also taxing on coaches. Gibbs will tell anyone willing to listen that if you want to be good at the wide zone and the tight zone, throw out all of your other run plays. All those wonderful Power O plays, Counter Trey plays, and whatever other fancy stuff you think you need — get rid of it. Instead, run two — yes, two — run plays, and run them against every defensive front you face until you get really good at them. To Gibbs, anything else is hubris.

There is more in there about the RB’s responsibilities and why they might not love running things:

This is often a point of contention: NFL running backs reach their position by being the best player on the field their entire lives. As kids and high school stars and often college stars, too, they really were given the ball and told to run like hell. If they miss their reads on a wide zone, the offense won’t work. The running creases may be there, but it won’t matter if the runner isn’t hitting them properly.

In Denver, Gibbs came up with an elegant solution to this problem. On most teams, each position is coached by direction position coaches. So on the wide zone, the running back was coached only by the running backs coach, and if a player made the wrong read, his teammates didn’t know. Instead, Gibbs taught the play to the entire team, so that even the linemen knew the running back’s reads. This way, if the runner made a bad read, the coach didn’t need to step in, because as soon as a play ended the linemen would turn around and yell at the running back.

I just completely disagree with the extent that teams can take this plug-n-play RB.

Mike Shanahan would like to trade you Clinton Portis.

god…really tempted to start a Jeremy Lin flame war here…

I agree, Foster has shown vision, acceleration and cutting ability that not everyone has. You have to open holes, but not every RB can find them or get to them. There is definitely skill involved with playing the position, and you need a good one, you just don’t need to use a top 20 pick to get it.