Gonna guess yes. Yet another free agency waste.

 

Waste? What was wasted?

 

He'll make it and been productive considering he's a 3rd string RB. I predict he runs for 350 yrds and 3 tds on the season. Ill take it.

 

He'll not only make the roster, I believe we'll end up relying on him to carry the bulk of the load sometime this season unfortunately.

 

I think he will see alot of playing time Thursday. Also, I hope we stash Grigsby on PS, I really like his game.

 

Pretty sure he doesn't even get paid if he does not make the roster so why is this a free agency waste again?

 

Here is here until Thomas shows something .From what we have seen so far with the other RBs he may be around the whole year.

 

I hope not. What a waste of a roster spot he would be.

 

I disagree, I think if we get some o-line play Johnson could be quite valuable to us and a bargain. It's impossible to tell what we have with him right now because the o-liine was so bad against the Bucs.

 

I hope this panic on Thomas is overblown....just feed the kid the rock, and lets go......

Not to mention Henne has found his inner-Marino now, and without the restrictions....I believe they will need only 70-90 yards on the ground.....live or die by Henne's cannon....

 

I think Johnson will carry the load and produce a solid season with maybe 7-8 TDs.

 

He's got instincts you can't teach and he doesn't fumble. We'll see what he's got in Dallas but a pretty safe roll of the dice IMO.

 

Who's carrying the load if Thomas goes down or surprises everyone and isn't a true #1? Larry Johnson? Reggie Bush (carrying a heavy load ?)

Grigsby Hilliard............

Come on people we needed to get a dependable FA RB for insurance... I mean how can you not see that and wrost yet how can Ireland not have seen that......

Damn, imagine Henne without a ground game..........you watch at some point the FO will be scrambling to find some hasbeen during the season to fill the mistake they made by not having minimum insight to understand that need........(unless johnson is actually legit ?)

 

We saw it last year when he didn't have a ground game.

 

I'm scrambling for a napkin b/c I just spit water all over my keyboard. Very funny post.

 

Why? Talented dependable runningbacks are a dime a dozen in the nfl.

 

Since starters typically don't play the 4th preseason game, he will get plenty of looks to determine if he's worthy of a roster spot.

 

totally disagree.

Ask Dan Marino through most of his career if dependable RB's were a dime a doz. Shula didn't seem to find it so easy to find and he was actually a real talent evaluator

 

I would think a normal FO would want to see what they have to evaluate before the season and would have LJ on the field for a significant amount of plays. But then I don't have a clue what the FO is thinking....

You'd also think that our 1st squad after some questionable playing through the preseason and not really showing a gel may be on the field a little more than usual..it's not like they looked ready for the start of the real season. This is an unusual year with the strike.......

 

Don't have to imagine, we all saw that last year...

We won't know about LJ just yet. If he can rekindle some of the mojo he's had in the past, great. Bottom line, he can't or doesn't, we haven't spent much. If he can supply 10-12 carries a game from the Bush/Thomas duo we're in fat city. Thomas may need more time to develop. LJ may be the guy to give us that time... If he's still got some juice left, he may even eat into Bush's carries, which is the best of all worlds...

One other thing, it appears that in this scheme, we won't have to run the rock 35 times a game. It would be great if Bush gets 20 touches in any combination (15 runs-5 passes, 10 runs-10 passes, 5 runs-15 passes). We can tailor the attack to the team we play and those teams' strengths and weaknesses. Then Thomas and/or LJ get the other 10-20 runs...sprinkle in a little sexy-Lexy and we're good to go.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over this decision. Of course these guys' success has much more to do with the OL than the guys who's numbers are in the 20's and 30's....

 

Stopped losing sleep over the Fins 10 years ago when Shula left.... Your scenario sounds good to me although i wish their wasn't so many "if's" in the statement....Agree about the OL for the basis of success..... But still going to have to see them (OL) successful before I give them the benefit of doubt, and Carolina doesn't count.... just been burned to often........

 

After a close call with Jake Long in the 4th game last year, doubt it. But who knows. As you said, with the shortened offseason, maybe teams decide to play their starters a couple series.

 

Well, to me, he and Thomas are in a legit fight for playing time in the offense, Thomas needs to be pushed, Johnson needs to prove he is still hungry, that is the essence of competition fellas.

If it were me, I'd try to see both of them have 10 carries each v the Cowboys and see what they each offer.

 

Lets see how he does tomorrow.

 

3 tds? we only had 8 total last season
Don't see it

 

We get four TD's out of DT this season. Maybe more. They are pushing that kid.
He is taking the heat.

Back to Larry....

 

Waste of a roster spot. Could have given it to someone who deserved it like Grigsby or whoever gets cut.

 

You mean like Ricky Williams? or Ronnie Brown?

 

Yeah, until Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, the best RB we had during those 20 years or so was probably Abdul Jabar or one of the other "dime a dozen" running backs.

 

Never coould lock one down when Marino was here, but I agree with the former, Good RB's are a plentiful item these days. The other thing is, don't buy on that Shula was a great talent evaluator nonsense. The fact is we never had any success after he took over in that capacity. Those great early 70's Dolphins teams he was not in charge of personnel and most of the pieces were in place before he got here.

 

Personally, I thought Mark Higgs, Terry Kirby and Bernie Parmalee were all better than Karim Abdul-Jabbar. Yeah he got over 1k, but his avg was mediocre and he only got it because JJ ran him to death.

 

Not a damned thing was wasted. LJ was probably about as risk free a signing as one could have. They only thing that could possibly be considered a waste was the time spent working with him, if he ends up cut, and heck that is what the coaches are there for anyway.

 

Thing with LJ is you know he can line up in the backfield and handle blitz pickups and catch passes out of the backfield, that is his real value to us as Bush is not really suited to it, and DT is unproven, and they just do not seem to like Lexxy.

It is also my view that our leading rusher maybe has 600-800 yds max, or about 50 ypg.

 

I just think its a waste of time when we could have had other more viable options in camp. There's a reason he was just sitting around. JMO.

 

Thing is, unless he was brought in, you do not know if he was sitting around due to a lack of talent issue, or attitude issues, and tbh, the whole "the NFL didn't want him" line of thinking is sort of weak GF as this is an imperfect system to say the least, Vick of the 35 millie guaranteed was unwanted by 31 teams, Cam Wake was passed on by all 32 team back in the day.

 

I stand corrected...agree Shula expertise was as a coach and not a GM.......

Just wondering, if their are so many good RB's out there were do you put LJ in that group........And is this the best the FO can do, or does it get easier farther into the season ?

 

I think the feeling is not that there are so many good backs out there, but rather that with a decent OL and scheme you can get 90% of the production from most any of them including a platoon of a rookie DT, Hilliard and LJ. (And Bush to a lesser extent, I just saw this conversation as focusing on the shorter yardage backs).

 

You're right, I forgot about all of those other average running backs that we had--there were so many. I think Jabar was the only 1000k rusher for one season--I think he was the only running back that had a jersey for sale. Keith Byars was pretty decent for about a year or so. We've never had good RB and QB at the same time since the 70s (Greise days).

 

We must only have a penny!

Agreed with this. Frustrating that we have an OL specialist for a coach, yet we can't seem to get the OL down right.