Bob Magaw said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			
	
		
			
				Bri said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			
	
		
			
				Bob Magaw said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			
	
		
			
				Bri said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			
	
		
			
				Bob Magaw said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			
	
		
			
				Carter_Can_Fly said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			No rb will look good until the Titans get that O line figured out and have a bit more consistency at the QB position. It is easy to beat up on Sankey for the year he had and no doubt he can get better himself, but that team and situation was a mess last year.  It is way to early to say I told you so one way or another on Sankey.
I am not worried about the success of Sankey coming down to a competition with him and Cobb. Cobb was a 5th round rookie pick for a reason. Those guys project as career back ups.  The success of Sankey will rely on improved O line play and QB play. A lot can be learned after a year of playing time and a full year to work on your weaknesses as a player. I think it would be foolish to say Sankey has no chance to be successful going forward.
		
		
	 
Sankey - 3.7 Y/C average
Greene - 4.2 Y/C average
Greene did better behind the same OL, though, which begs the question is OL than a legit excuse and justification for his decidedly underwhelming rookie campaign. Sankey's carries are a small sample group, so I don't want to overreach here, and I certainly wouldn't say he has no chance, but a possible interpretation of the evidence is Greene isn't very good, and Sankey couldn't even rise above that low bar. You could say he is a rookie, but RB is an instinctive position, that relative to QB, WR, TE and OL on offense, historically, good ones can excel from right away (of course we can look back and show RBs like Tomlinson that didn't light it up as rookies).
		
 
		
	 
Sankey had roughly 9 carries per game. Is that enough to judge a RB?
		
 
		
	 
Greene had 94 carries in 13 games. About 7 per game.
He has a career average of 4.1 Y/C in 993 career carries, so that's in line with last year's 4.2.
As I said, I wouldn't say he has no chance. Just to use OL as an excuse, if Shonn Greene is pretty mediocre, we have to explain why Sankey was worse behind the same OL.
The other main point, using the top 20 rushing leaders in 2014 as an example, I wouldn't completely exclude the possibility that a fifth rounder could emerge from the backfield, it has not only happened before, but quite a few times, and recently.
		
 
		
	 
That's not really the case or not really how it felt.
He did well in week one and week 17. In-between he averaged in the threes and that got progressively worse to two ypc and then a zero. He was inactive even.
You could pick a 5-6 week stretch where Greene didn't even get 15 carries total over that span.
		
 
		
	 
I'm not sure if I understand the point, we were talking about average (Y/C), not total carries. Didn't Sankey also have good and bad games?
After the first month: 3.38, 3.39, 3.50, 3.89, 3.44, 3.45, 3.70, 4.20, 2.78, 2.67, 3.14, 4.50.
Sankey was sub 4.0 in 10 of the last 12 games.
		
 
		
	 
Sankey would be better than Shonn in the middle 13-14 games in ypc. Not uncommon for a rook to not start week one or some week 17 unusual uptick for a player.
Sankey definitely supplanted Greene by like week 4. Green dropped to just 3 carries then.
Greene got some extra action against his former team. The Titans gave the Browns the best comeback in their history and he was part of the RB corps that couldn't run down the clock up 25 points or so. Average seems odd when you're going on 5 carries a game or less.
I'm not sure what the reasonable number is but something where it seems like the guy got some work.
I'm not even sure defenses react the same. Do you have any concern if Greene is in for one of his three carries? Would you bother having a LB shadow him?
Because of the negativity toward Greene people expected struggles, but any other week one starter going to 3,4,5 carries late in the season breeds this wow he's done feel, also when he's inactive too.
Sankey was not good-plenty of posts saying so. The only thing he did accomplish though is beat out Greene.
Most of all, besides Whisenhunt's poor decision to go single-back set (which Greene was not a part of) was that anyone watching could tell he had zero confidence in the run game. In time, he'd make comments like Leon Washington was the best back or most reliable and it was all part of a debacle.