Hell Yeah. He was tearing it up before the ACL injury.

 

Finally.

 

I second this.

Say whatever you want about Ronnie as a runner through his career. He's hesitated at times, waited too long for holes, whatever. As a pass catcher there has NEVER been any question about what he can do for your team. It would be nice to see him be given a chance to actually do it.

 

One of the very few things Cammy did right while he was here was show case Brown's talents....

RB was blowing up before he got injured....;[

 

ohh you mean after the moron had him returning kicks :no:

 

Not that I agree with it, but it's not an uncommon practice in the league.

 

I can't wait to see this in action. He is going to be killing defenses. Run or catch, don't matter. He is going to kill it. No doubt you can add his 2nd Pro Bowl selection to his resume.

 

to have your starting rb returning kicks when you have someone like ted ginn on your team?!

 

really.. I can't remember other number one running backs taking kicks.. doesn't mean they didn't, means I can't recall.

 

I think RB has been hurt by all the staff turnover early in his career. It usually takes a couple of off seasons to install and practice the whole playbook. Throw in a couple of injuries and the fact that his skill set is somewhat unique in a big back and you can see why his hands have been under used.

I personally couldn't be more excited to hear this. I love watching RB flatten DBs.

 

He has been underutilized as a receiver especially last year although he did catch a long pass from Penny last season for a taste of what he can do.

Hopefully Henning will not make the same mistake this year.

 

Well, Ronnie B is on the brink of doing something special for us, for that matter so is Ricky Williams, keep in mind at this time last season Ronnie B was coming off an ACL, Ricky had not played 16 games in 5 years.

A year later, a complete training cycle, and both guys are primed to play to their maximum potential, the Pete Prisco's of the world are not seeing that one coming around the bend, PhinFans should be, and things such as Ronnie B catching 50 balls, or Ricky averaging 5 ypc, are large parts of our "X" factors this season.

We've been compared to the 07 Browns, that is a false comparison, Penny is a proven Qb, Ronnie is in yr #2 after the ACL and Ricky perhaps could be compared to the Brown's Lewis, but he never blew out a knee like Lewis has.

We are primed to have a top 10 offense even with the stronger Defenses we will face this season, we have a ton of unused capacity.

 

Adrian Peterson would probably be the most notable.

 

I think we are going to see a lot more from Henning this season in the way of utilizing the talent on this team. Last year Henning was just trying to get these guys to understand his schemes. This season, I expect we will see a LOT of our players utilized far better, such as Ronnie's pass catching abilities, and more.

All the key play-makers now have a year and an offseason with 2 TC's under their belts in Henning's schemes, expect a lot more from this offense this season. Henning is smart as a fox.

 

I think its a great idea to get ronnie the ball more with passes. Hell, even Cameron had that figured out. The more this guy gets the ball in his hands, the more we win i think.

 

get him the ball

 

In Carolina, it took Dan Henning 2 season to really get that offense on track, and they had less talent than we have, Delhomme v Pennington?

Davis was a stud Rb for Carolina but blew out a knee and their offense just never recovered.

 

He had one return last year.

 

He def had more than that in 07 and that was after he already exploded.

16 to be exact.

MJD is another guy who's had quite a few in his 3 years and he's the only player worth mentioning in his offense.

 

He also wasn't the starting tailback for the whole year in 2007. Marty said he can't remember number one backs, which Peterson is, returning kicks and when Peterson became the number one option in Minnesota, he stopped returning kicks. Not to mention, if he continued to return kicks, he would be in the trainers room more often.

 

MJD had 31 and 31 in 06 and 07. You can say he may have not been listed as a number 1 but he was still obviously their most talented back.

He still returned 13 last year as well.

I'm just saying, it does happen.

 

Most talented on the roster? Sure. Primary back on the roster? No.

It does happen but not often with primary or "number one" backs. The top five rushers last year had I believe 1 return taken total.

 

If I had a top 5 rusher on my team then I wouldn't put him on returns either.

I'm just saying that talented RBs do take returns at times.

Hell, Reggie Bush is a #2 overall pick, knees made of jello, and NO still insists on having him return punts.

 

The bold is what stands out to me. Talented and primary backs are two different things.

That's because he's useless as a running back. He's also not their primary back. ;)

 

I would, simply because you want the ball in the hands of your playmakers, but not every "top 5 rusher" is suited to pulling double duty.

And it worked for Ronnie Brown...Cam's time with Ronnie has made him into a better running back, his YPC avg was up in 07, in 08 he made the P Bowl.

Does that mean Ronnie B should return kicks for us this season?

No way, we have Ted Ginn, if his problem is dealing with contact and acceleration, returning kick offs will allow him to shine or hide.

But I'd prefer if Chris Williams made the team and gave us a home run threat in punt and kick returns.

 

I'd say he was until he got hurt and Pierre Thomas blew up.

 

I feel like the more we can get the ball to him the better we are.

 

Depends on the situation for me.

If you're down late in a playoff game then sure you pull out all the stops.

But if its the beginning of a winnable game then I wouldn't.


Ted Ginn on kick offs :no:

I'd rather let Cobbs and Bess have at it if Ginn isn't showing improvement.

 

I would have to agree with both statements alen

 

cobbs, imo.

 

That's what s/he said. :shifty:

 

I don't think so. Bush was forced into the starting role in '07 when Deuce blew out his knee and he still only averaged 13 carries per game, which isn't much higher than he had in his other two years (about ten) with Deuce as the main guy. Not to mention, Pierre Thomas outplayed Reggie Bush in week one of last year. After week one, the Saints kind of forced the ball to Bush as a ball carrier and he struggled for the next eight or so weeks, so they went to Pierre Thomas and that was that.

 

I would, but I'd do it at the beginning of the game if the Rb had the right style.

AP could do it, a Clinton Portis could not.

Now if you have a top kick return unit, keep the guy who brought you there, if you are mediocre than why not?

Disagree, seriously, if Channing Crowder now has to make plays at ILB, if the scheme is designed for him to make plays, than he'd better make plays.

ditto Ted Ginn Jr. returning kicks is not building space shuttles out of beer cans, his problem is contact and being physical, well step up cowboy and make some plays.

IMHO, I'm not down on Ginn, I do think he should be held to the same standard as everyone else, he must perform, he is the fastest player on the roster and a pro bowl alternate as a Rook, there is no way he should be given a pass on under performing.

If everyone is accountable, than Ginn is as well, if he ***** on kick offs, he will be ***** on playing Wr.

 

Remember though that RB wasn't necessarily going to be the primary back for Cam. Cam seemed to feel that Chatman was just as good and they would split 50/50. Cam didn't wise up until game 3.

 

I really don't think they took Bush at 2 to just keep as a compliment to Deuce (who was already beat up even before that 2nd knee injury). They drafted Bush as their future franchise RB and still used him as a return man.

 

Definitely. IIRC, Cam also had Cobbs still in the mix as well.

 

They did draft as their future franchise RB but when he doesn't work out there, what do you do? You're not going to keep stuffing him in there and trying to force it to work. You find other ways to use his talents and that's what they are doing now. He struggled to run in between the tackles as a running back and now he's often used as a pass catcher.

Correct.

 

I think we're going in circles here. My point is only that some teams do use RBs (sometimes their best or most valuable RB) on returns. I'd use the term #1 back but it's rapidly becoming non-existent these days, or at least not at all clear cut.

 

Wasn't that during the preseason? I know it was to aid Ronnie's vision and help teach him to "hit the hole" instead of dancing around.

Seems like an understandable reason, but because Cam did it... it gets flamed.

AD did it, MJD did it... I don't see a big deal with it.