The Lions continue to spend draft capital on RBs like no other team

Surprising, but then again injuries cut short Kerryon My Wayward Son Johnson’s career, injuries robbed Swift of his effectiveness, and the other guys were all late round picks.

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If they didn’t keep getting injured, we wouldn’t have to keep drafting them. All the injuries also kinda supports the don’t draft RB’s early crowd.

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an NFL Offense needs the ability to run and pass well , behind a proper o-line-for it to be as productive as possible . off the top of my head I cannot remember all the 1,000-yard rushers this team has had…say since Barry’s days. maybe a handful? at a guess, WE haven’t had many BEAST RB’s, and as you mentioned like last season…injuries can kill all the hope we have in a given season.

I so love the depth that Camp Holmes is assembling. Yes, a handful of studs but a 53 man roster to back it up.

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that’s another thing, you can talk all the smack you want, but you have to back it up, this 2023 team has to PROVE IT, that they are a powerful , highly productive force that can work together and shut The damn League up, show all the doubter’s WE REAL in 23 ! , not talk it…DO IT.

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Seattle Seahawks:

2023: 2nd Round, 7th Round
2022: 2nd Round
2020: 4th Round
2019: 6th Round
2018: 1st Round

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2000 - James Stewart
2002 - James Stewart
2004 - Kevin Jones
2013 - Reggie Bush
2022 - Jamaal Williams

Kevin Smith was 24 yards short of 1,000 in 2008.

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Leading rushers since Barry retired 1999- 2022

Kevin Jones 3067
James Stewart 2890
Kevin Smith 2376
Joique 2235
Best and LeShoure combined 1785
Swift 1680
Swaggy 1667
Bush 1303
Amir Abdullah 1251
Kerryon 1225
Riddick 1021
Minimum 10 starts or 1000 yards.

Number of RBs with 3100+ career yards since 1999 w 1 team.

Bernard, I Crowell, P Thomas, J Taylor, A Thomas, Cadillac Williams, M. Anderson, D Johnson, Saquon, J Howard, J Addai, L Fournette, D Freeman, CMC, J Jacobs, M Barbor, A Bradshaw, B.Jacobs, Julius Jones, Kamara, Ryan Matthews, A. Jones, D. Martin, Willie Parker FFS, Mixon, McFadden, Fred Jackson, D Staley, Rudi Johnson, D Cook, Ced Benson, Gurley, Travis Henry, Deuce McCallister, Alfred Morris, Ray Rice, Larry Johnson, Lat Murray, L Blount, B Westbrook, N Chubb, M Gordon, A Foster, L Bell, D Murray, Jo Stewart, Burner Turber, JCharles, DeAngelo Williams, Ingram, MJD, Priest Holmes, Zeke, Henry, W McGahee, A Green, S Alexander, CJ2k, Forte, Portis, Rickey Williams, Beast Mode, Eddie George, Tiki Barber, Thomas Jones J Lewis W Dunn, Shady McCoy, C Dillon, S Jackson, F Taylor, Edge, Faulk, LT, CMart, AP, Gore.

Lions 0

With 2 teams-J Connor, J Forsett, K Drake, B-J Green-Ellis, K. Barlow, K Hunt, Shonn Greene, Ryan Grant, R Mendenhall, C Hyde, C Ivory,Ronnie Brown, Michael Pittman,L Miller,

Lions- 1.5 J Stewart, Reggie Bush as his 2nd place team.

Its not that 24 years of RBs are worse than the top list of NINETY GUYS…(79 above and I assume another 11 since my list omly goes down to 3800 career rushing yards, and I know Ekeler is in there and other currents…)

Its that they are worse than the bottom list of FOURTEEN which has some real broken down plowhouse nobodies…

TL;DR

Our best running back in the last quarter century is worse than 110 other guys in that time frame.

Eric Wareheim Mind Blown GIF by Tim and Eric

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I don’t see what the big deal is. If they don’t spend it on running backs, they’re just going to use it on hookers.

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so I was being kind saying “since Barry” I could have made it much earlier say Reggie Bush era, and it would have been uglier .

Still…fine work Weas !

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Yeah BH isn’t the gm we thought he was

What matters is what the current FO Does

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So 4 in 22 years. Not a great track record forsure.

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Last year was by far the Lions best rushing season since 1997 when Barry got 2,053 yards. Both RBs responsible for the majority of those yards are now gone. To me that speaks volumes about the confidence the FO and coaches have in this OL and scheme with these 2 new guys at the position. Hopefully they stay healthy.

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Hate to say it but it kind of adds fuel to the SOL fire when you see the long list of failed RB picks. Going back to before 2018 since 2000 you have Reuben Droughns (Oregon has been particularly cruel to us), Artose Pinner, Kevin Jones (who I loved at VT), Keith Smith, Brian Calhoun, Javid Best, Mikel LeShoure, and the great Ameer Abdullah.

So…when they exhaust their top draft pick on another RB, and I know it’s a different regime and I do think Gibbs is a different type of dude than those other guys, he’s like a healthy Javid Best, and this offensive line is better than any other Lions offensive line ever really but skepticism is warranted based on history.
Also, Jamyhr rhymes with Ameer :astonished:

Well considering this is the first time the Lions have had over 4000 yds passing and 2000 yds rushing in a season I’m good with whatever BH and DC go with in the draft. Not to mention we just broke Barry Sanders team TDs in a season record. This offense is built around the OL….I have no doubt Gibbs and Montgomery are setup for success. Could care less what we did before this regime took over.

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bickering about our RB’s is so damn boring , why don’t we wait and see what each of them do …before passing judgement?

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Jesus christ dude. Noce, but depressing post lol. The curse of Barry Sanders.

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The original article is basically just bitching about taking Gibbs at 12, as I suspect the “total value of picks” on the x-axis is one of those things that biases really hard to the top handful of picks in the draft.

As @Mr.Peabody pointed out, the Seahawks have a similar investment in RB in the same time period (which I suspect is also cherry-picked), yet their “total value of picks” is far less than the Lions.

I also cannot for the life of me figure out what they’re using for a scale for the x-axis.

The numbers (250ish for a high) don’t correlate to any of the typical draft pick values (Jimmy Johnson, Rich Hill, or Fitzgerald-Spielberger).

This is another case where people throw “data” in a chart, and it gets posted widely without anyone questioning it.

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I really don’t give a shit who was drafted before Holmes/Campbell got here. The reason why past regimes got fired is because they sucked at drafting players.

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