clearing space for shockey *rubs hands together*

 

You hang out on a Panthers board, do they think Shockey will sign there?

 

I'm kind of surprised honestly. Polite's play last year warrants competition, and Anderson has been a quality starter before. Keeping multiple fullbacks ain't exactly an extraordinary measure either.

 

This annoys me more than anything. How so? Everyone brings up the fact that he was awful at run blocking, which is complete BS. He also had 26 carries, with 15 first downs and 1 TD. I could care less if he was the worst run blocking FB in the NFL if he gets a first down or touchdown on 62% of his carries. I would also like to find out how many 1st and 2nd down rushes he had this year. I think he was stopped twice all year on 3rd and short.

Once again, Fin fans just giving up on players.

 

I do not agree, he was pretty bad at run blocking last year

 

That makes no sense honestly. a FBs #1 job is to block. if he was bad at it, then he shouldnt be starting. regardless whether he gets the 1st down or not. Its likely we could find someone else to convert at a close rate, and if the new guy is good at run blocking. it helps open up the entire running game. which helps a lot more then getting a couple first downs.

 

Again though. It's complete BS that he was "awful at run blocking this year". He was solid enough to get the job done most of the time. Why don't we worry about how bad our offensive line was in the run blocking this season?

 

We are worried about both.

But your exact qoute of "could care less if he was the worst run blocking FB in the NFL if he gets a first down or touchdown on 62% of his carries", just doesnt make much sense. Run blocking from your FB is a huge part of success in running the ball in the NFL.

 

He had a bad year as a run blocker. I can show you his PFF stats, I can show you where they signed Anderson to compete when Polite was healthy, them subbing Polite out to give Hilliard fullback snaps, etc.

I think there's a pretty good chance his issues were circumstancial though. Fullbacks are essentially second level blockers, and if the offensive line is not doing a great job opening holes to the second level a fullback is going suffer just like the back he is blocking for. I think if our line does a better job in interior blocking(or finds a good pulling guard) Polite will spend less time wading around looking for targets or having to sustain blocks rather than just blast a guy with a full head of steam he'll be back to '09 form.

 

Same here, to me he was a nice piece that could have given Polite a run for his job and Anderson played ST's as well.

Perhaps Hilliard will take over Daboll's Fb role making Anderson unneeded?

 

A run blocking FB should not be our biggest focus with our run game. It should be upgrading our interior offensive line and upgrading our RB position. It's not like having a bad or average run blocking FB would make or break our entire run game. And like I said before...he was solid this past year. He was even better the year before.

Eh, I'm still not convinced. Not only did I watch him a lot this year, but I've also read things on how he was extremely underrated in the run block game. I also don't like to really look at stats like that for OL, DL, or FB, because they are so off base and odds are none of the stats are correct.

I think what it is, is a lot of you assume that everyone that participated in the run blocking game was awful, because our run game was simply awful. Polite is still hands down a top 5 FB in the game, without a doubt, because of his versatility. He is one of our few grinders on offense.

 

I do not. I think his run blocking was bad because I watched him miss a lot of blocks and I saw a lot of players that were his player to block making the tackle.

 

It's kind of conjecture at this point, but signs point to them wanting a receiving fullback. Moving Lex Hilliard to fullback last year seems like an attempt, he's probably not spontaneously going to turn into a devastating lead blocker. They've had interest in Charles Clay in the upcoming draft, and Daboll while he hasn't really had one himself, that was surely part of the WCO "schooling" Holmgren shoe-horned in.

Or of course you can say the opposite for you, considering you're one of the few who claims otherwise, and once again PFF isn't really all that assailable a source when you've got players interviewed saying that their grades are pretty spot on to what their positional coaches will give them.

 

while i agree regarding a multi-purpose FB .... Anderson's release 'could' also be health related ....

 

Problem is, in this offense, the FBs ability to block for the featured guys is paramount to it's success. Polite didn't get the job done in that part of his responsibilities... It does matter that he was not doing his job as a blocker...