Using RBs elsewhere (1 Viewer)

[Bri]

Running backs are often some of the best players, the best athletes, toughest and fastest.

Since the market is so bad that they get signed for the veteran minimum (and possibly not too 51) how about teams sign several for camp?

Remove the RBs are too valuable and don't play special teams stigma.

Maybe try them at WR or LB if feeling frisky, but I don't think it's much of a stretch that some could play gunner or other ST roles.

The NFL has tons of ST players that are like safeties or linebackers that don't really contribute on defense. A RB wouldn't be a better option? 

Nick Dzubnar for example. Lining up for a kickoff, do you think he or Josh Jackson (for example) gets to the return guy first? Gets past a block?

Shouldn't the NFL try these RBs elsewhere?

 

[higgins]

Everyone’s too specialized into roles these days? It’s not like the “playin’ both ways” old days. How many RB’s would have the necessary D instincts w/o a huge learning curve?  

 

[BINGBING]

99.9% of the time college sorts out which side of the ball they should be on.  However, the RB life in the NFL is short and I feel like these guys are run through harder than a $10 fill in the blank.

 

[Bri]

Everyone’s too specialized into roles these days? It’s not like the “playin’ both ways” old days. How many RB’s would have the necessary D instincts w/o a huge learning curve?  

What if we just talk special teams? Skip defense. Just a kickoff, go tackle the ball carrier or gunner? Return or block for a return? 

 

[Bri]

99.9% of the time college sorts out which side of the ball they should be on.  However, the RB life in the NFL is short and I feel like these guys are run through harder than a $10 fill in the blank.

They spoil them too. Most college backs do not play ST 

 

[BINGBING]

They spoil them too. Most college backs do not play ST 

One injury away in college from being a top 3 RB in the draft to not knowing how to play special teams and going 5th round and never sticking on a roster. 

 

[Biabreakable]

The Vikings have 2 RB who play special teams. I don't think it's that unusual?

 

[Obie Wan]

The Vikings have 2 RB who play special teams. I don't think it's that unusual?

Bills have kept Taiwan Jones just for special teams.

Although fantasy guys still pine for the bell cow back, well built NFL teams are going to a committee of cheaper, younger guys with different skill levels, including the desire, skills and willingness to play special teams.

 

[BoltBacker]

The Vikings have 2 RB who play special teams. I don't think it's that unusual?

Maybe I haven't been playing close enough attention but it hasn't been all that unusual in the past for a backup RB to be kick/punt returner has it? There have also been rarer examples of a taller TE coming into the game to block a FG attempt. Or an offensive guy to stand in the endzone to return a long FG attempts at the end of a half. Or even a tall WR to knock down a hail-mary attempt.

As far as a RB ever playing offense AND defense I think it's much less likely to happen because there is so much less practice time especially before the season in the summer. Wouldn't it be next to impossible to sit in on both offense/defensive meetings to prep each week for an opponent?

Honestly, for awhile now I've been kind of surprised if you were an uber athlete in HS/College that you didn't make the switch to CB(maybe FS) if you had NFL dreams. The league constantly needs more of them and if you are great you will likely make more over your career than if you were a great RB. It's kind of basic math: there are 5-6 DB's on the field for most of the game. There are MAYBE 2 RB's on the field in SOME offenses where almost every team runs some sets where there is an empty backfield. Being the star RB may make you the big man on campus in HS/College but it dooms you to much lower career earnings(and overall more physical abuse) in the NFL.

 

[BoltBacker]

Bills have kept Taiwan Jones just for special teams.

NE usually has multiple offensive players that are only on the roster because BB loves them on ST's.

 

[rockaction]

Being the star RB may make you the big man on campus in HS/College but it dooms you to much lower career earnings(and overall more physical abuse) in the NFL.

You've already started to see the shift in talent that you've alluded to. RBs are actually worse now than they were back in the aughts, at least to my eyes. I mean, you didn't have 4.65 guys starting anywhere, really. And if they were 4.65, the rest of the positions were similarly situated along the speed chain. Running backs are no longer the top athletes on the team. They're between 5'9"-6'0" for the most part, with a BMI from 27-31. It's a pretty narrow range of athlete right now. The shortest and squattest on the football team. Thick as bricks but can run and take punishment. 

I think we're going to continue to see the position devalued both in importance and talent. You can't let your team depend on a guy you're sending into a car crash fifteen times a game, and you don't want your best athletes doing that. 

 

[Anarchy99]

Centerfield? Point guard? Second line defenseman? Striker? By the time a player makes the NFL, he had any number of opportunities to find a better paying sport or better paying position in football to play.

I still think someone like BB could decide not to pay WR's and instead roster a boatload of pass catching RB. That way, he could have 6 guys that can catch passes for the cost of half of one WR.

 

[Bri]

This question worked out to be like a prediction as this summer lots of depth RBs played STs.

I noticed it often for backup RBs. Some of them look like darn good tacklers too.

When Vrabel was asked about Chestnut and Haskins, he discussed Haskins ability on ST.

We'll have to watch this in season. Was this just "show me you're committed" while there's 90 players in the roster or will they continue in season?

 

[Deamon]

Running backs are often some of the best players, the best athletes, toughest and fastest.

Since the market is so bad that they get signed for the veteran minimum (and possibly not too 51) how about teams sign several for camp?

Remove the RBs are too valuable and don't play special teams stigma.

Maybe try them at WR or LB if feeling frisky, but I don't think it's much of a stretch that some could play gunner or other ST roles.

The NFL has tons of ST players that are like safeties or linebackers that don't really contribute on defense. A RB wouldn't be a better option?

Nick Dzubnar for example. Lining up for a kickoff, do you think he or Josh Jackson (for example) gets to the return guy first? Gets past a block?

Shouldn't the NFL try these RBs elsewhere?

They should put your boy Henry at Left Tackle

 

[Chaka]

Everyone’s too specialized into roles these days? It’s not like the “playin’ both ways” old days. How many RB’s would have the necessary D instincts w/o a huge learning curve?

According to everything I have learned from movies it happens 100% of the time.

And supermodel are excellent kickers too.

 

[Chaka]

Backup RBs play special teams all the time. That's how they earn roster spots. That's been the norm for a long time.

That applies to backup players at every position.

 

[brun]

I remember Tebuckey Jones converting from RB to DB his senior year and having a decent pro career at Safety. I don't recall any real conversions like that in the pros.

 

[socrates]

RB is the fruit of football formations. You can run up the middle with ‘em, run outside the tackles, pass to them, keep them inside to block, fake it to ‘em. Dey’s uh, RBs in the backfield, RBs in the slot, RBs out wide. Punt returns, kick returns, gunners, field goal units. There’s RBs who can play at WR, RBs who play h-back, fullbacks, scatbacks, goal-line backs, widcat. That- that’s about it.

 

[ConnSKINS26]

I remember Tebuckey Jones converting from RB to DB his senior year and having a decent pro career at Safety. I don't recall any real conversions like that in the pros.

Quinton Dunbar played WR in college and moved to CB in the NFL with Washington, made a nice little career for himself and got traded to Seattle before off-field issued derailed him.