justin forsett bounced around for a couple of years before becoming a starter. could be a similar path for c-mike. i don't think this is the end
We've been told for years the guys in front of him have been turds, even gotten lots of cute nicknames for them all.Maybe he isn't done, but the fact that so many supporters can call all these guys who have been standing in his way terrible and yet he continually gets buried on depth charts, held inactive, traded for peanuts and cut despite a slew of injuries to guys in front of him has to leave you thinking he's just not that good.
Michael ended up being a turd himself, but that doesn't mean that all the reasons for hanging on to him were off base. This is a prime example, IMO. Let's look at the guys he has been behind for any length of time:
Lynch is obviously not a turd, and nobody ever said that he was.
The Seahawks preferred Turbin to Michael in passing situations, and he's subsequently been cut by two teams.
Randle was given his shot as the incumbent, but everyone knew that he was a headcase and he was subsequently cut.
That just leaves McFadden, who is averaging 3.8 YPC this year after averaging less than 3.5 YPC the previous three years. Hardly the stuff of legend.
Michael has a career 4.6 YPC, so it seems fair to assume that it's not his actual running of the football that's the main hangup that the coaches have with him. Given that nobody here knows what's going on behind the scenes, it wasn't unreasonable based on what we do know to think that Michael could do more than any of those guys if given a shot.
Maybe he's just too dumb to get down the offense/protections. Maybe he's a goofball, or a trouble maker, or simply not committed to his job. Whatever the reason, it's obvious now that it's serious enough that he'll likely never get that shot.
What I don't get is all the people playing the "It should have been obvious he was a bust." card. How obvious could it be if
not a single person here knew what the
actual problem with Michael was? There was speculation based on inference, but it is still just speculation and having one's speculation be better than another's doesn't really make for great chest-thumping material.
Anyway, I'm glad this is over.