If there's anything I learned in the 3 picks after our first rounder, it's that Rex wants us to be a running team. Forget the Santonio Holmes trade. Forget the talk of spreading out more since we have more passing weapons. If there's anything about this draft, we took 3 guys that are going to help our running game. 1. Vladimir Ducasse - road-grating guard/tackle that will just maul people. Yes, Faneca's strength was run blocking, but this guy is going to move guys back a few yards. If he plays LG, I can see us running that direction a lot more often. 2. Joe McKnight - shifty runner that complements the other two backs very well. Ask any defender and one of the trickiest things is remembering the tendencies of each runner. We have 3 bona-fide runners (maybe 4) that will make it hard for defenders and have someone fresh all the time. I honestly think we can run the ball 550 times this year. 3. John Conner - Am I the only one that thinks he'll get used this year? We can line him up in the slot, motion him and have him block like a TE while T-Rich blows up a linebacker. He can also carry the ball near the goal line while T-Rich blocks for him. Rex is going to keep this a running and defense team. Mark Sanchez won't be asked to do that much more than last year.
I agree with what you said except for the last sentence. If you look at last year towards the end when we were successful, we played extremely conservative and it seemed a lot that we were intentionally trying to take the game out of mark's hands. So we would run more on 3rd down, etc. That worked well with the team we had and mark still needed to learn to cut down on mistakes. But...with Sanchez's maturation over the last few games particularly and the addition of the weapons we have (LT as a receiving threat out of the backfield, santonio and better chemistry with braylon edwards), I think we're really going to make teams fear our offense overall. A lot of our passing will come off play action of course, but i think you'll see more trust in sanchez. in my estimation, this will be a more gradual transition from the start of the season to the end. We're going to be highly adaptive to the personel of the opposing defense based on their scheme. While I still think we'll run when they have 8 or 9 in the box just to show them we dont fuck around, we're going to make them pay for that..perhaps to the point where teams will be scared to bring up their safeties at all. We're going to see more big plays, even if sanchez only throws the ball 20-22 something times...i think the times we do throw, we're going to make people pay. you don't have a zillion playmakers on a team just as decoys. However i also think the extent of which sanchez will throw will be directly based on the number of turnovers he has. If you see him making more than a few bad decisions, we're gonna lean heavily on the run even in situations on 3rd down.
i couldn't agree more. plus, with homes and edwards on a one year rent-to-own program, no way rex trys to create a pass happy identity for us that evaporates in 2011 with one or both of them sail away. our running game will be #1 again and used to open up some nice, long passes here and there.
I feel like we're going to see a much more balanced attack, as opposed to last year where the heavy majority of offensive plays were running the ball. This year I see the ratio being somewhere like 65:35 or 60:40 pass:run ratio, which should make for an offense much more difficult to stop.
I agree that we will be a running team overall, but how I think this will differ is that we won't only be looking to pass on 3rd and medium or longer, we will be mixing up when we pass more effectively. Also with the insane amount of play makers we have on offense, we will be throwing more screens and short passes and letting our guys make something happen. Can't Wait for this season!
We are running team with an extremely tenuous situation at the position of running back. Shonn Greene was hurt numerous times last season, I anticipate he will continue that trend which started back in college. The guy just can't stay healthy. LT is no shoe-in for being healthy for an entire season, chances are extremely likely he won't last 10 games this year. Joe McKnight is NOT an every down back, will be used sparingly and he replaces a big question mark in Leon Washington just coming off a horrific injury. That leaves the The Terminator and Chauncy Washington. We could be in a similar situation as the 2008 Broncos, where they were picking guys up off the street.
I don't think we're going to be 32nd in passing attempts next year, but we will probably #1 in Rush attempts again, though by not as wide a margin. We will throw much more often (Similar to the Houston and NE weeks 1 and 2 last year), but obviously it won't effect the running game that Rex loves. I expect us to have the ball and dominate TOP even more this year. If we manage Darren Sharper (I love Pool, but Sharper is just better), and manage to get a few nice rotational guys from UDFA for the DL, this Defense is going to be elite, and that will help the offense. McKnight is going to be a really solid recieving option for us out of the backfield
Rex said what he planned to do yesterday. Force teams to put an 8th man in the box and then let Sanchez air it out when they do. So yeah, they will keep running as much as they can but if you think they aren't going to open up the passing game you are totally wrong.
Oh shut up! 1) Shonne Greene wasn't injury prone in college. You cannot say he he just can't stay healthy based on 1 year in the NFL. 2) LT won't be asked to do what he was asked to do in SD (get the tough yards) + he has a much better OL in front of him 3) We won't use McKnight as an every down back and (injury-wise) who cares if the guy he replaced was injured. 4) I anticipate having both T-rich and Conner so this year "Terminator" will prob be used as a short-yardage back also. So with 3-4 guys sharing the load why are you so negative!? Sure, prob non of them could handle 300 plus carries a season for a prolonged period of time... but no one is asking them to do that!
While I appreciate your enthusiasm (OH SHUT UP!) I think I'll continue posting regardless of your anger issues. On the other hand, I hope things get better for you. Greene was injured from day one, that's one of the reasons he didn't show up till half way through the season. If you wanna trust that he's fine go right ahead. I truly wish for that to be the case but I don't see it. I was under the impression for some reason he was injury prone in college, could not find the facts to support that statement so...my bad.
He missed time due to injury in both 2005 and 2006, then of course missed the 2007 season which was NOT injury related. You could call him a bit injury prone, but he did make it through all of 2008.
I'm just trying to wonder how are teams going to be able to match-up with 4 WR sets which can create match-up problems for LBs, and still have the ability to hand off to a RB. If they bring in their Nickel or Dime packages, we can still run in some formations where it looks like pass.
I'm a bit concerned with the role shonn greene is taking on. He played great once Leon went down, but he did have some fumbleitis issues. Jones carried the load, even though his runs were not as flashy as greene, he protected the football very well. Greene has the vision and we all know if he gets to the 2nd phase he will run you over. I have a lot of hope for Greene, just not sure if we're are asking too much of him. I think LT will do fine though, especially behind our o-line. I'm excited about McKnight as well. Good draft.
I still think we will be in the top 3 for rushing, but I do agree our passing is going to open up. Our passing wont be 31rst again.
Thats a line you have to balance with Greene. I feel like the reason he fumbles is that he fights for yards. When you got 3-4 guys trying to get you down someones going to get a hand in there. In the case of Jones its pretty hard to fumble when you drop to the ground after first contact.
Forget all of the evidence! That's how you do great things like let OJ Simpson walk free after his murder trial! Other things to forget: Rex Ryan explicitly saying that he wanted the offense to open up more and feature a lot more throws. You are forgetting the fact that McKnight is one of the better receiving backs in this draft. He has better hands than a lot of the WRs. He's a flexible player who is probably going to see a lot of time in the slot early this season. He also has a lot of experience with Sanchez so he'll probably be used frequently as a check down option as well. McKnight is more likely to get the ball in his hands from the passing game than the running game this year. No, he'll definitely see the field as a special teamer. As Mr E has continuously pointed out, he has a chance to be active for every game because he was partly chosen to replace Izzo or Trusnik. He can also pass block. He actually missed 4 games in college due to injury and had to leave 2 others as well
I agree mark wont have to do as much this year as people think but I feel like we will pass atleast a little more often. Lik 22 passes a game instead of the 16 mark did some games. I think we will see more big plays out of our passing game this season once Santonio comes back.
something funny is that defenses played on us assuming we would run, they stacked the line, they defended the best they could against our run neglecting our passing game... and yet we were the #1 run offense. What are defenses going to do now that we have serious threats on the passing game as well?
We're going to re-sign the core players - guys like Ferguson, Mangold, Harris, and Revis. I honestly feel like our front office and coaching staff could care less about Edwards and even Holmes. I'm willing to bet we'll keep the cheaper of the two. Our focus on offense is running the football and that's not changing. We can win without elite receivers. Sanchez just needs reliable options. It was a really smart move to go out and get him to proven wideouts to help him develop and boost him confidence, but once he gets a feel for this game, he won't need much help anymore.
