Originally Posted by RealSNR:
It's just really hard to see the development and where the path for CEH to grow is. More than other RBs, at least. It took Jamaal Charles at least a year or two to get his career going, but nobody ever said, "Man, **** Charles, what a bust" because he had flashes of what he could eventually be from day one. And you could easily attribute his slow cumulative stats to coaches not trusting him for some stupid ass reason. Probably blocking or some shit. I don't know.
CEH has had decent games, but it's rare to find his flashes. And we've just seen precisely ZERO use out of him in the passing game, which we thought we were going to get a ton of. One wonders why a player with the intelligence and leadership like him can't get his shit together and be a better weapon for Pat out of the backfield.
And there are plenty of possibilities, sure. The ones Chris Meck mentioned. Or maybe when we were still "throw deep all the goddamn time" he just got overlooked, only to get hurt for a bit and get overshadowed by Jet McKinnon in the passing game, so we just stuck with what was working at the time.
He can break out of the cycle of meh he's stuck in, but I think it's going to require the coaches to find a plan for him that will boost his confidence and eventually turn him back to what we thought we were getting. If they just kind of run him through the committee and say, "You get 5-10 carries a game and if you don't do something productive out of the backfield and make it easier on Pat, we're not coddling you" then I think he'll continue to be the meh player he's been, and we'll wind up moving on from him after year 4.
Still doesn't explain the rush to call him "done." Why not let it play out and see how he does? What's the downside?