Originally Posted by BossChief:
He’s not terrible.
He’s limited in awareness, in what we saw last year as a rookie. At times, he looked completely lost. He was solid running the ball and even flashed the ability to be a pretty good runner, but he is mentally absent as a receiver out of the backfield. Washington is a good back as a receiver and a runner and they decided to keep Thompson on the 53 over him. The RB coach loves him.
Thompson is a scrub. Washington is just a worse scrub.
Not sure why we have to build these legends around guys that are role-players at best. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
Thompson is a scrub. Washington is just a worse scrub.
Not sure why we have to build these legends around guys that are role-players at best.
I don’t think anyone objectively believes Darwin will ever be a “legend”, but in college he had good “contact balance” and broke a lot of tackles. I think he can be the role player we need at the position if the coaches can get him up to speed.
I have full confidence in the coaches and they decided to keep him. He must have shown them some improvement in practice, or he’d be gone. [Reply]
Michael Warren II was a guy I pimped all draft season, so I'm definitely with Wilson on that poach.
The other I'm high on would be Jonathan Ward off Arizona's PS (He played at Central Michigan).
Otherwise, not sure about Freeman. He turned down the Seahawks, so he clearly wants a prominent role and money. Not sure he'd get either here. Supposedly has 4 offers he's considering right now.
I guess another option is giving Trey Edmunds another shot to ignite his career off PITs PS. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BossChief:
I don’t think anyone objectively believes Darwin will ever be a “legend”, but in college he had good “contact balance” and broke a lot of tackles. I think he can be the role player we need at the position if the coaches can get him up to speed.
I have full confidence in the coaches and they decided to keep him. He must have shown them some improvement in practice, or he’d be gone.
Thompson is pretty strong on special teams. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Even if they reduced his work load by 7 touches a game, you're looking at 7 touches more by either Williams or Thompson, neither of whom have shown they can even average more 3.5 yards per touch.
Andy is a 60-40 pass to run guy. We ran more than we passed last Thursday. Without looking, I think I heard it was 34 carries to 32 passes. With Mahomes as his QB, I doubt Andy is going to abandon his 60-40 ratio. Those 7 (or more) touches don't automatically have to go to the backup RB's. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It wasn't about signing Fournette. It was about Fournette wanting to sign.
He wanted to get back as much of his $4M base as possible and have the ability to get plenty of carries.
He wasn't ever coming to KC because KC couldn't him give him either of those things.
He signed for 2 mil though and the argument about getting as many carries as possible doesnt make alot of sense since they also have Jones and McCoy. Plus his numbers would be more inflated in this offense and play with a better offensive line thus giving him a better chance at signing a better deal next year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Titty Meat:
He signed for 2 mil though and the argument about getting as many carries as possible doesnt make alot of sense since they also have Jones and McCoy. Plus his numbers would be more inflated in this offense and play with a better offensive line thus giving him a better chance at signing a better deal next year.
He signed for $2M plus incentives that could earn him up to $3.5M.
The Bucs gave him lip service, he accepted it at face value. The Chiefs weren't going to do that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BossChief:
I don’t think anyone objectively believes Darwin will ever be a “legend”, but in college he had good “contact balance” and broke a lot of tackles. I think he can be the role player we need at the position if the coaches can get him up to speed.
I have full confidence in the coaches and they decided to keep him. He must have shown them some improvement in practice, or he’d be gone.
He played in the Mountain West. It's not like he showed good "contact balance" and broke a lot of tackles against the kind of competition CEH did.
The reason they kept him on the roster is because they didn't have anybody else. Washington going to the PS just shows you how poor the depth chart is at RB. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KC_Connection:
They’ll sign one eventually I’m sure. A bigger goal line back would be useful.
I think so too and said as much before the Texans game. Forget the thread it was in but it's here somewhere. I was reminded how Williams came up big against the Ravens last year. While true, it wasn't near the goal line that I can recall. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BossChief:
I don’t think anyone objectively believes Darwin will ever be a “legend”, but in college he had good “contact balance” and broke a lot of tackles. I think he can be the role player we need at the position if the coaches can get him up to speed.
Dude, if Thompson isn't "up to speed" after going through Minicamps, OTA's, two training camps, 24 games (including last year's preseason), he'll never be up to speed.
If the guy was a sub 4.5 guy, his lack of vision may be less apparent but at 4.55, it's like he needs lines drawn on the field to direct him where to go because you can see him thinking in real-time, which makes him even slower. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Dude, if Thompson isn't "up to speed" after going through Minicamps, OTA's, two training camps, 24 games (including last year's preseason), he'll never be up to speed.
If the guy was a sub 4.5 guy, his lack of vision may be less apparent but at 4.55, it's like he needs lines drawn on the field to direct him where to go because you can see him thinking in real-time, which makes him even slower.
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Dude, if Thompson isn't "up to speed" after going through Minicamps, OTA's, two training camps, 24 games (including last year's preseason), he'll never be up to speed.
If the guy was a sub 4.5 guy, his lack of vision may be less apparent but at 4.55, it's like he needs lines drawn on the field to direct him where to go because you can see him thinking in real-time, which makes him even slower.
I don't think his vision is THAT bad. He's not Knile Davis back there.
I think his biggest issue is that the Chiefs just don't trust him in pass pro. Getting absolutely flattened by Derron Lee in camp last season was an ominous sign - Lee ain't exactly a mauler out there.
So they won't use him in 'regular' situations. Even when he got his carries last season, it was largely in 'work the clock' situations where stacked boxes will make anyone's vision look spotty.
He needs to be a guy that you can have on the field in situations where 6 or 7 man boxes will allow him to pick his way forward a bit. But he can't BE that guy if he can't pass protect. I think ultimately the Chiefs thought he'd demonstrate the skills to be a dynamic 3rd down back with some wiggle in early down situations if need be. But he's just such a liability in pass protection that you can't use him in those roles.
So he's shoehorned into obvious run situations and he's neither fast enough or powerful enough to be effective there.
If he can't get to at least average in pass pro, he's on his way out of the league. I don't think his vision is so poor as to be a deal breaker for him, but his weaknesses all dovetail into a foundation that you just can't really build on. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I don't think his vision is THAT bad. He's not Knile Davis back there.
I think his biggest issue is that the Chiefs just don't trust him in pass pro. Getting absolutely flattened by Derron Lee in camp last season was an ominous sign - Lee ain't exactly a mauler out there.
So they won't use him in 'regular' situations. Even when he got his carries last season, it was largely in 'work the clock' situations where stacked boxes will make anyone's vision look spotty.
He needs to be a guy that you can have on the field in situations where 6 or 7 man boxes will allow him to pick his way forward a bit. But he can't BE that guy if he can't pass protect. I think ultimately the Chiefs thought he'd demonstrate the skills to be a dynamic 3rd down back with some wiggle in early down situations if need be. But he's just such a liability in pass protection that you can't use him in those roles.
So he's shoehorned into obvious run situations and he's neither fast enough or powerful enough to be effective there.
If he can't get to at least average in pass pro, he's on his way out of the league. I don't think his vision is so poor as to be a deal breaker for him, but his weaknesses all dovetail into a foundation that you just can't really build on.