The RB Conundumb Article - A Rebuttal

[LA Rampant]

Rams RB Todd Gurley Shows Why Ezekiel Elliott Pick Can't Succeed
http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2016/5...rb-todd-gurley-shows-why-ezekiel-elliott-pick

On Confirmation Bias - remembering examples that fit a profile and conveniently forgetting or ignoring contra-indicators.

Re: Turf Show Times hatchet job on high pedigree RBs being a poor investment and form of draft capital resource allocation.

Super Bowl Contestants with first round RBs (few that were close, such as 2004 NE Corey Dillon (2.13), 2002 TB Mike Alstott (2.5), 2002 OAK Charlie Garner (2.13 - missed being the third 1,000/1,000 club RB after Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk by just 38 rushing and 59 receiving yards)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_champions

2015 - CAR Jonathan Stewart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Carolina_Panthers_season
2014 - SEA Marshawn Lynch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Seattle_Seahawks_season
2013 - SEA Marshawn Lynch & DEN Knowshon Moreno
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Seattle_Seahawks_season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Denver_Broncos_season
2010 - PIT Rashard Mendenhall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Pittsburgh_Steelers_season
2009 - NO Reggie Bush & IND Joseph Addai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_New_Orleans_Saints_season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Indianapolis_Colts_season
2008 - ARI Edgerrin James
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Arizona_Cardinals_season
2007 - NE Laurence Maroney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_England_Patriots_season
2006 - IND Joseph Addai & CHI Thomas Jones (also rookie Cedric Benson)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Indianapolis_Colts_season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Chicago_Bears_season
2005 - PIT Jerome Bettis & SEA Shaun Alexander
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Pittsburgh_Steelers_season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Seattle_Seahawks_season
2002 OAK Tyrone Wheatley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Oakland_Raiders_season
2001 NE Robert Edwards & STL Marshall Faulk (also Trung Canidate)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_New_England_Patriots_season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_St._Louis_Rams_season

First installment 15 years - at least one first round RB in 11/15 Super Bowls, total number of first round RBs 17/15


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtNHuqHWefU


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6WHBO_Qc-Q

 

[tempests]

TST's material is often unreadable, and '3K' is the worst. Once a regular poster there, haven't been back in years.

Goes without saying that the value of a good RB should be obvious to just about everyone.

 

[KNUCKLEHEAD]

Wait... What?

 

[jrry32]

Typical media-driven narrative that comes purely from stupidity and ignorance. The whole "HBs are devalued" position is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's the same sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that makes people believe that LTs are uber important when that is anything but the case in today's NFL.

There isn't a player on the field that has a greater impact than a HB, other than the QB. Where the devaluation comes in is the abundance of supply of middle of the pack backs that can replace each other with little drop off and the relatively short useful life of HBs. However, these notions ignore two things:
1. Middle of the pack HBs being replaceable doesn't say anything about top tier HBs. They are not replaceable;
and
2. While HBs have a relatively short useful life, the impact they have during that useful life more than makes up for it.

 

[-X-]

His whole point (I'm told) in that article was that the Rams 'wasted' a draft pick on a guy who didn't appreciably improve the Rams' record despite the numbers he put up. I asked him if it would be a better approach for the Rams to fill the position with a bunch of Kenneth Darbys and Tre Masons for eternity without ever trying to secure the best player for the position for the next 10+ years with a guy like Gurley. He never answered that one, so I guess it resonated a little. Once Goff gets his feet under him, the symbiotic relationship between RB and QB will benefit both in a HUGE way. They'll both make each others' jobs so much easier, because they're both (potentially) top 5 talents. That's not something you can achieve with a RB by committee or an average back or with backup QBs/journeymen.

 

[LA Rampant]

Kind of like the old canard and tired, hackneyed cliché that two of the best RBs of their respective generations, Barry Sanders and Adrian Peterson, never winning (or even appearing in, for that matter) a Super Bowl in some way constitutes "proof" that RB isn't an important position.

Agree with jrry32, it is like a complete non sequitur, might as well bark out randomly - mandarin, Sasquatch, Marty Feldman, it has as much relevance to the issue.

Brian Billick was commenting on the decision of the new TB HC to hire a game and clock management assistant (great idea, more HCs should follow suit, long overdue). JUST IN THE LAST FEW MINUTES, with all the possible permutations due to down and distance, remaining time, field position, score (a thousand things), the math was computed at something like SEVERAL BILLIONS of possible permutations in the "play call space". IMO it is incredibly limiting, narrowly circumscribed/restrictive and colossally dunderhead to conflate several isolated instances (the plural of anecdote is not rule) with some kind of iron clad law. As if Peterson might not have done better if complemented by a better QB and defense, etc (again, a finite, but massively large number of variables - kajillion/bajillion ). As with the above example of the mind boggling sheer volume of alternative play permutations, the possibility space of different ways to succeed (many including first round RBs (Franco Harris 1.13, Emmitt Smith 1.17, etc., etc., etc.) is so immense it dwarfs the occasional and few examples to the contrary, it is frighteningly narrow minded to isolate, lift those out and cherry pick them - especially given that even all the Super Bowls together don't comprise an especially significant or relevant sample group in a probability sense - my above examples were intended more as representative and suggestive than exhaustive or definitive.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-AxgueBRk