I was really hoping we landed Williams to be our backup last year. Williams is not a great player by any means, but is an excellent backup. There is literally not a weak part of his game. He exemplifies the term “jack of all trades, master of none”. His personality is the icing on the cake for me that I didn’t know much about before he got here.
You know exactly what your going to get from him every game, every play. Is he going to break a 40+ yard run? Not very likely. Will he get you 2 yards when you need it? More often than not. Will he fumble late in the 4th quarter when trying to run out the clock? Most likely no. He has literally fumbled ONCE in his entire career, and that was last year and we recovered. There is a lot of hidden value in a guy like Jamaal Williams.
I like swift he’s decent RB, but if he’s such a night mare , why has he been so avg ? I don’t see anyone being scared of any of our RBs they have to respect them all forsure. But I don’t think any coach is saying “oh shit we are facing swift” or JW. Seem like every player here is a star yet we are a 3 win team. If our QB is as great as some say and our RB are great and WR now too. I mean we should be in the playoffs no Question if all these players are as good as some say.
I think our RBs might be the weakest unit on Offense now.
We have gone stretches over the years when we passed on 3rd and 1 because we didn’t have a RB on the roster that could pick it up. He was the same player at Green Bay so when we got him yep, I was happy that he was here getting first downs and not there doing it. He averaged over 11 carries a game and 2 catches per game. He’s also good at pass blocking, he’s a piece of the puzzle for a team that is totally built to be running back by committee. Would I rather have a bunch of guys who are home run threats? Sure, as long as at least one of them could do what Williams does. I also wish we had a better DL, LB’s, secondary, Te’s and backup QB’s. The RB room is actually one of the few position groups that would rank at least average on this team.
Love this. That was one of my favorite things about Moore, that he was a willing and capable blocker.
Jamo seems like he has the dog in him to want to block. Not sure if he’s got the sand in his pants to do much, but maybe downfield blocking is more about effort than straight up strength.
I’d say Swift’s been much better than average. He’s got over 1900 yards from scrimmage and 17 TD’s in 2 seasons. Injuries have been an issue though and I think the main thing holding him back from top level status. He’s missed 7 full games and was forced out of 3 other games with injuries. So, that’s 10 games in 2 years. He’s never going to be the type of back to carry the ball 20 times per game.
I agree that RB could be the weakest overall unit on offense though. Need to see more of Jemar Jefferson. J-Will runs hard, and is a great teammate, but he’s not going to break off any long runs. Swift is the only home run hitter in the group, so if he gets injured, the RB group doesn’t have much juice all of sudden. We also got Reynolds, who in limited carries showed potential.
I think now that we have deep speed in Chark and J-Mo, the safeties gotta be real careful and we should be able to run against lighter boxes. That and getting Ragnow back and Sewell in year 2, the running game should be pretty good.
Yup - last yar, teams could just key on the run, because we had no WR threats. Make Goff and the 4th string wideouts beat you.
With more space, Swift will be better this year. He’s the only RB we have that can make you pay big…but he’s not a the type to take over a game either. I’d love to see us add another home run hitter at RB, if they decide to upgrade talent of JWill Love J-Will, but I feel like we can upgrade in the talent department so much, that even given the locker room presence, we should seriously consider it.
RB is easily the weak link on O now. We have decent depth, but can upgrade the top end of the roster there. I’d love to see someone so good that they move Swift to either 1/2 of a 2 headed monster…or even move him to a backup role.
yes to the entire post. Swift is a B+ RB. he’s not going to the over a lot of games, but he has the talent to make teams pay, and is a great pass catcher. If he stayed healthy, ppl would talk about him differently for sure.
I’m all about upgrading the RB room, next offseason.
Swift has that Jahvid Best thing happening. Really fast, good receiver, terrible blocker and is prone to injury. I’d love to see us take the best RB in next years draft to shore up that position
Yeah your right swift is above avg when he’s on the field saying avg was alittle off on my part, but he’s missed some time, Natty said it better ,he’s not a guy that will take over a game. And I think he makes some goods plays but I also think there’s time he leaves some plays on the field.
I totally agree with this. I love him in the 3rd down role with some limited usage in downs 1 and 2. But I think he is one of those that can be more electric in a limited role. BTW, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I’m in the give Amon-Ra the rock on the the ground, but not like Deebo group. I always want toget the ball into the hands of our best players.
By opening up his game it can open up the Lions offense as a whole. Players that have more flexibility with their abilities will in turn allow Ben to have more creativity with his offense.
Amon-Ra running set up this trick play and it fooled not only the players on the field, but the guys on their sidelines as well.
The thing about RB though is that you can win a Super Bowl with a B+ RB. Nobody in the Rams RB corps was better than a B+, at least not during their run last year (Akers may turn out that way but he’s got a long way to go). Fournette’s a B or B+. Damien Williams is probably a C-. CJ Anderson was bang-on average. The Eagles had Blount 2 years before he was out of the league. The Patriots won a bunch of Super Bowls with a pu pu platter of B+ - D+ RBs.
The last elite RB to win a Super Bowl was Marshawn Lynch, and they won because of their defense more than their running game.
Agreed, and most of the good teams rotate backs and have depth. It’s hard to be an “A” running back without huge production and big stats. And most teams rotate 2 to 3 backs, which leads to very few elite running backs from a numbers perspective. Not many Henry’s out there. The position sure has changed over the years. It used to be give Barry, Emmitt, Jamal Lewis , and AP the ball as much as physically possible.
