The analysis on the Zona backfield has been so reactionary. When this thread started, Powell was a shark stash, based on how he looked in the preseason. Ryan Williams was then struggling to the point where Bloom basically said the running game in Zona would have no value. Then Williams breaks off a few good runs on a 4th quarter drive against Philly and Williams is suddenly a guy you would blow 50% or more of your blind bidding dollars on. I think Waldman mentioned in one of the podcasts that he basically traded Newton for Williams and Jerome Simpson or something like that.
Fast forward a week or two and Williams is out for the year, yet many of the people who were pimping Powell suddenly cool on him because of the terrible O-line play vs the Rams. No one is saying they weren't bad, but it was one game, Williams didn't look good either, and they just got dominated on both sides of the ball. Suddenly after that Rams game, all these experts on the Zona O-line come out of the woodwork and to read the comments here, you would think this is the worst run blocking line ever assembled in the history of the NFL and even Arian Foster would struggle to get 2 yards a carry playing in this offense. Because so many posters and analysts have basically said this over the last week, it has become accepted wisdom.
Not saying Powell is going to do anything necessarily, but he now has the opportunity we have been looking for at least in terms of workload, he really only has LSW as competition for carries, and he might be the unquestioned starter after this week. He is unproven and there are question marks, some of which will be answered this weekend, but he still seems to me like a better lottery ticket than some other backup RBs still being stashed.