NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?! - 08/09 Season

[ramseya]

Pacman... excuse me, Adam Jones, Terrence Newman, and Anthony Henry. That's a pretty good and deep cornerback squad. Almost as good as the Eagles' Asante Samual, Lito Shepherd, and Sheldon Brown.

We've seen runningback duos take over the NFL the last two seasons. Anybody think having 3 top corners will start to get en vogue or is it just a waste of money as its stupid to come out in the Nickel defense all the time? Or is this just the result of the NFL's movement toward pass-heavy shotgun spread offenses and it makes sense?

[snoopy369]

I think there is a fundamental difference between those two concepts.

"Runningback Duos" means "I have two runningbacks neither of which is that great, but together they are effective enough, and dang, are they cheap".

"Three Top Corners" means "I have three really good CBs, and I'm paying a lot for them, too". Rather different concept.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by snoopy369

"Runningback Duos" means "I have two runningbacks neither of which is that great, but together they are effective enough, and dang, are they cheap".

I disagree. Every team really should want two productive RBs. Even if one is great, you wouldn't want to give him a ton of carries. If he has over x carries (I forget what x is, 300? - my Pro Football Prospectus is at home), then his perfromance will decline the next season.

Edit:

A running back with 370 or more carries during the regular season will usually suffer either a major injury or a loss of effectiveness the following year, unless he is named Eric Dickerson.

[snoopy369]

Of course you're correct, in that every team should have a second RB who can take some carries from their first RB. However, the difference is that this particular strategy, essentially the Thunder/Lightening strategy (though not necessarily two RBs that match that particular split), is to have two RBs with nonidentical skill sets split the carries roughly evenly - maybe one gets a bit more than the other, but less than 70/30. The intent is both to gain from using more rested RBs, particularly late in the year, but also to benefit from having two solid options depending on what sort of defense you go against. You end up getting a higher YPC from two RBs of average quality than you might have by focusing on one RB of a higher quality - thus, cheaper for more production.

Teams like San Diego, for example, have two good RBs (three, last year!!); but they do not give the backup RB very many carries except in garbage time. Even if LT gets only 80% of the carries (say), he's getting 95% of the important carries. That is the one-RB strategy, and is still quite common.

[ramseya]

you're right that three corners is an expensive strategy but that doesn't mean it's not a strategy that could become popular. Like I said, the Cowboys and Eagles will be doing this this season. I mean it's a good strategy against shotgun spread offenses that are starting to get real popular what with the Patriots using it 80% of the time last year.

I mean it's expensive but teams could find ways to afford it by cutting back elsewhere on the defense (the Eagles linebacker corps is bad and not well-paid at all, for example). I don't know maybe just as the 3-4 has got more popular and teams invest less in DT's, the natural progression might be to then take out a linebacker or two and replace them with a corner. It makes sense if you're defending against a heavy passing attack out of the shotgun.

[snoopy369]

It can't be all that popular, because there aren't all that many great cornerbacks.

Strictly speaking, wouldn't the Rams of the late 90's be credited with the spread offense's popularity by the way...

[Lord Avalon]

You wouldn't credit Mouse Davis and the run 'n shoot?

[snoopy369]

Run + Shoot != Spread Offense, so no. Also, it had fallen into disuse to some extent prior to the Rams' run, while after their run several teams began using it (similar to the West Coast offense post-49ers Superbowl success).

[Ben Kenobi]

Pacman... excuse me, Adam Jones, Terrence Newman, and Anthony Henry. That's a pretty good and deep cornerback squad. Almost as good as the Eagles' Asante Samual, Lito Shepherd, and Sheldon Brown.

No love for the Chargers combo of Cromartie and Jammer?

[-Jrabbit]

I can tell people must be itchy to get the season started.

ONE MORE WEEK!!!

[Jaguar]

What the Patriots have pioneered is the use of the shotgun as the primary formation. They're the first team ever to use it on over 50% of snaps.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
I can tell people must be itchy to get the season started.

ONE MORE WEEK!!!

Im so itchy, Im trying to talk my fused wrist into coming off the IR to play MADDEN XX on 360... :desire: :desire:

[ColdWizard]

Originally posted by Jaguar
What the Patriots have pioneered is the use of the shotgun as the primary formation. They're the first team ever to use it on over 50% of snaps.

Was the Buffalo Bills' K-Gun offense not a shotgun formation that they ran most of the time?

[Jaguar]

Often when the Bills went into hurry-up they'd use a variety of formations.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Jaguar
Often when the Bills went into hurry-up they'd use a variety of formations.

One they used most successful as called exclusively from the line


B (Boy)
I (I)
L (Love)
L (Losing)
S (Superbowls


ran it to perfections

K-Gun was not firing hot loads