The Fumblerooski Podcast - Running Ragged -Ep 273 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Have the Patriots truly done anything meaningful to change their fortunes for the future? Is David Robinson’s career just another example of how far the running back position has fallen? What other running backs have had the one season wonder effect? Adam Wright, CJ Medeiros, and special guest Chris Hetu debate these topics and more!

the Patriots get a grade for their overall off season in 2024. And David Johnson retires at age 32. I'm Adam, right? You're listening to the fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the staff sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns.

Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie, truly a lose, lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ Medeiros. And as I said, we have a great episode planned for you guys tonight. So, the Patriots, their offseason was very interesting. So free agency was a little, what we would call it, uneventful.

Their draft was interesting, and they did address their biggest need in the draft, which was with the number three overall pick, the quarterback spot. Using it on one of the arguably, I it on one of the arguably i'd say one of the top prospects at the quarterback position in the 2024 draft um and joining us to cover all of these topics we have formerly of wusox productions and fans only sports network we have chris he too chris it's been a little while welcome back to to the show, dude. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, CJ and Adam, for having me back on the show. Always love talking football with you guys and

pretty good rundown that we have for today, so I'm excited to hop right into it. Absolutely. So yeah, this offseason has been interesting. So they brought back some pieces, Mike Onwenu and Kendrick Bourne most notably, and they addressed a couple of needs in the draft as well. But Chris, being a Patriots fan that you are, what are your overall thoughts of this offseason in its totality now that we're looking back at it and looking towards the 2024 season? So obviously the way we kind of look at this in New England is it's been a tough, tough, ever since the turn of the decade into the 2020s, Tom Brady leaving after the 2019 season, going to Tampa Bay and playing his career out there. New England looked like they had some type of talent going on with Mac Jones coming in as the starter and things just slowly progressively started to just fall downhill and for many Pats fans such as

myself we thought that there might be some new hope but obviously it was just the beginning of the end in terms of the dynasty we all grew up with. So now we're just in this weird period. Drake May, now the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots, Mac Jones shipped off to Jacksonville. And there's a lot in this off season to kind of unpack, but to keep it simple, do I like what the Patriots put together? Yes and no. Mostly because there really was no stars that this team went out and got. Changing of the guard in terms of head coach Gerard Mayo stepping up now after being an assistant behind Bill Belichick, now stepping up into that leading role and made some interesting acquisitions this offseason that I like and dislike, but for the most part, in terms of the depth they were trying to acquire, at least for a changing of the guard for now, was interesting.

And I think drafting Drake May, that was the biggest thing that this team needed to do. And that's probably the big exclamation point was the quarterback position. That was the position they struggled with for the past four seasons, was just trying to figure out to go from Cam Newton to Mac Jones, to just kind of get back to the ways that made the Patriots the Patriots. And a lot of people were nervous going into the draft that this team might trade down as they normally do. But thankfully, they kept the pick. They drafted Drake May.

And that is probably the reason why I'm going to say my draft grade early just to kind of get that out there. I'm going to give them a B minus. I don't think that there was anything awful that they made in terms of acquisitions, in terms of pieces to bring to this offense and the defense. I think what they did is a good starting position to transition a new franchise quarterback into this system. You get Jacoby Brissett there to be that veteran guy. I know Jordan, Gerard Mayo did say earlier on a few weeks ago that this is going to be a competitive QB battle between there's like what five or six QBs on this roster right now. There's a lot of quarterback.

There's four. Exactly. That's more than the Patriots are used to having. They usually only have two and that's what they roll with. But those were the days of Tom Brady. So at this point, it's going to be a QB battle. I still think at the end of the day, Jacoby Brissett will win that role and go into that veteran role of teaching Drake May in terms of kind of getting him comfortable and everything. And we'll probably see Drake May take the reins some way in the midpoint of the season, potentially. You never know. It could be next year.

But they did get him some help by re-signing Hunter Henry. I think that was a great move. He's been, in my opinion, the only consistent piece for this offense these past few years. Then you go out and get KJ Osborne. He's had a good track record with the Vikings in that slot position behind Jordan Addison and, of course, Justin Jefferson. And then also what I really like is they go out and they re-sign Kyle Duggar. They were going to franchise tag him. I believe they did, but the fact they got the extension done is huge because they need to keep that defense intact. There's still a lot of good pieces on that defense. You re-sign Uche at linebacker. That's great too. And then, like you said, re-signing tackles and going out and getting guards and tackles for this

team, that old line has just been so broken over the past few years that they needed somebody there. And the fact that they kept guys and went out and signed some guys was huge for this team. So overall, when you look at all the acquisitions as a whole, I'm definitely kind of skimming over some as we go. But at the end of the day, like I said from the beginning, you set up this team for the future to bring somebody in. Obviously, there was a lot of talk of them going out and saying, hey, there was a lot of circulation about training for Deandre Hopkins. That never happened. And that, and the thing is you want a

guy to come into this unit and be successful. They did that, but they did it in a way where there's not as much pressure. And I think that's the big thing here. The Patriots, I'm sorry for Pats fans. They're not winning the East. They're not. Honestly, the front runner right now, it's tough. It's a toss-up. But at this point, if I had to pick one who's going to win the East, and this is kind of going down the road, but I'd probably say it's probably going to be

either Buffalo or Miami, in my opinion. Jets, I would say the Jets, but I need to see how Aaron Rodgers performs. But right now, this is a transition period. The Patriots, as fans, we're going to just have to sit and wait and see how this thing unfolds. Drake May could be great, or he could just be one of those first-round quarterbacks that was like, hey, he looked great on paper, but when it came down to brass tacks, it just wasn't enough. So at the end of the day, the B- is definitely, I think, a fair grade of this offseason. The Patriots did what they needed to do in terms of preparing for the future,

and I think they're setting it up in a good spot right now. Okay, well said. cj what are your thoughts cj you're also muted uh please forgive me and so on and so forth so the off season's weird because you know we were told we're gonna go burn You know, we were promised big splashes. We were promised to finally get talent. And when you look at the roster at the end of the offseason, it's just there's just no names.

And I know at the end of the day, like, you know, a name is just that, a name. There's no guarantee of talent. But there's no stars. There's no names. There's no, like, highlight reel guys. There's no flash. There's just names. There's no highlight reel guys. There's no flash. There's just... I mean, they built a base.

I'll give them that. But that's pretty much it. This is like a depth retooling. And look, and I'm glad they got back Kendrick Bourne and Hunter Henry and Uche and Awenu and Duggar,

because those are like the guys that you probably needed the most. And a lot of things I will give New England credit for. New England also did a lot of addition by subtraction in the sense that guys like Miles Bryant and Devontae Parker were kind of given the heave-ho, you know what I mean? Trent Brown, too. Yeah, Trent Brown. Like I said, I don't know if I've ever said this on the podcast, kind of given the heave-ho you know what i mean trent brown too yeah trent brown like i said i

i don't know if i ever said this on the podcast but i happen to be a very firm believer in addition by subtraction and that's what we did we got rid of like a lot of the dead weight a lot like the underperforming guys so at least i would say that i was kind of pushing back on this narrative but if nothing else they've kind of maybe raised the floor of this team slightly. But just on paper, it's just not exciting. And I get that. Like I said, they're building a base. But the only saving grace this offseason was the draft.

Because Drake May, in my opinion, was the second-best quarterback outside of Caleb Williams, and you're able to land him. That is great. That's good. That's fine. You got two receivers in Jalen Polk and Javon Baker. I liked both of those pitch. Sure, you could argue for A.D. Mitchell,

but he's like a well-established locker room cancer, and he has well-documented character issues, and that's just something that would scare a straight-laced team like the patriots and like i said i love baker baker already looks like fun you address the o-line got guys like kate and wallace and layden robinson we even took flyers on late round guys like jaheim bell and the only defensive player we took which was a corner marcellus dial. I like that. Also, just for fun, they threw in a Joe Milton for viewing pleasure as well. Yeah. And there's one thing I do want to mention.

It's that I've heard rumors just on the interwebs that going into training camp, we're going to slim down from four quarterbacks, which for those keen track at home are Jacoby Bursette, Bailey Zappi, Drake May, and Joe Milton. We're going from four quarterbacks which for those keen track at home are jacoby bursette bailey zappy drake may and joe milton we're going from four to three and wonder who that will be i have a pretty solid idea of who the odd man out is i mean all right i'm not even gonna like just for the sake of the joke, keep the suspense going. It's obviously Zappy. And can the Zappy fans finally go away? God willing. God willing.

But above all else, I'm kind of in the line with Chris. I'd give it a high B-, maybe a low B, because this offseason, like I said, was just so weird, how you crushed the draft, but you just did like nothing else. I mean, like I said, you're trying to build a base, but I get that. And to be fair, I'm not going to say that I'm completely unsympathetic towards them because, look, New England's just not an attractive destination. It's not. The weather sucks. Massachusetts has an unreasonable tax rate. I mean, all jokes aside, there is no reason for the taxes to be the way they are.

It just doesn't add up. And the Patriots, they're in a rebuilding phase. You don't have Brady or even the greatest coach of all time, Belichick, to even lure someone in. So there's that. I get that. And so you don't want to be that team where the only way you have to get players in is to just grossly overpay. You know what I mean?

Because, look, we wanted Calvin Ridley, but $90 million for Calvin Ridley is a little much. Overall, I just, you can't really hate what they did. And then you also got to remember the Boston sports media and just the fan base here. How cutthroat everybody as fans is and what we expect from teams. And like, this is just every sport in new england so at the end of the day it's like if you don't perform get get the hell out that's just the way this media is and the way this fan base always has been so it's a lot of pressure yeah yeah so you got in my

opinion you guys have been very generous about this offseason i I think you're right to have some optimism. I did like the draft. I wasn't overly crazy about it, but I thought it was good that they addressed their number one need, which was the quarterback. And I'm fine with it because I believe that they're going to sit him, and I don't think that they should start I don't, and I don't think that they should start him for a couple of different reasons other than him not being

big league ready. Um, so I did, I, I liked the fact that they brought in, um, that they, they retained some of their free agents that were kind of, I wouldn't say must keeps, but they were, they were their bright spots on the team. Um, looking at their offensive line, it is still a problem. Not only is, has a core for their only left tackle left tackle on the roster. No, not only has he never played the position, but there's also on your interior offensive line, Cole Strange, your first round pick, is going to be out at least the first half of the season. Do you want to throw Drake May into that? Absolutely not. No.

So this kind of kills the possibility of them being ahead of schedule. They didn't build any sort of roster that was ready for a rookie quarterback to step in. So even if Drake May was ahead of schedule and pulls a C.J. Stroud, we'll never see it because he's not going to be ready because they off the the rest of the offense around them isn't ready for and to support that kind of a quarterback with the Houston Texans yeah they finished 313 and won the season prior but they had a really good offensive line they may have won three games that year but it was not because of their offensive line at all especially their bookend tackles.

Laramie Tunsell and Titus Howard are arguably the best bookend tackle duo in the league. And so looking at that, like, yeah, I like their other picks that they made in the draft, but it feels like they were high upside shot in the dark type picks where you hope to be pleasantly surprised rather than having expectations. I feel like if you were to, you were only a few picks away from being able to trade up and get Xavier Leggett, I would have been much happier with that pick over Jalen Polk in the second round to take a sec. I'm not saying I don't like Jalen Polk, but it feels like his ceiling is a little lower than Xavier Leguette

and other high-end prospects who went late in the first round that you only fell a few picks short of. Do we just love just stockpiling these wide receiver twos? Let's go get Devontae Parker. Let's grab Juju Smith-Schuster. Let's go get Kendrick Bourne, right? juju smith schuster let's go get kendrick bourne right let's go and grab uh what's his name uh kj osborne who i think can be a number two he's been a three all his career but i think he can be a lot better than he has been that's all fine and

good but you need that number one target as cj's been stressing all off season long we need that number one target somehow it's time to stop pussyfooting around and actually go and get that player I mean and that and that's the tough part because I mean they did try and make that move with Calvin Ridley and you look at the numbers in terms of the salary they were willing to give him and then what eventually what team ended up signing him I'm drawing a blank right now yeah the titans you look at the contract and it's similar numbers they just gave him a few million dollars more and he said yeah i'll take it and i mean honestly it was slim it was slim this team is doing what it takes to go ahead and get that number one guy but the end of the day right now the market's not attractive this team has to

show that there's an attraction want to be in new england that's just what another lot of people want to bash new england but ridley's wife just didn't want to be here and he had to listen to her let's let's be honest yeah also also i'll say this i like calvin ridley i don't think he's a one i think he's a lot i don't think he's as good as people try to say. He was a bit of a disappointment in Jacksonville. And outside of that one year in Atlanta where he had a 1,400-yard season, you know who else had a 1,400-yard season and everyone thought he was a number one? I'll give you a hint.

He's on the Patriots roster right now. You're going to say Juju, right? Yes. Juju, right? Yes. Juju Smith-Schuster. Hmm. Who's also, I'm pretty sure, still younger than Calvin Ridley, by the way. I mean... He's not even 30.

I almost kind of want to give a pass for Calvin Ridley in a way with that year with Jacksonville. Just because, quite simply, I mean... Are we going to sit here and say Trevor Lawrence is an elite quarterback he should be but I it's weird it's a red flag to me that the jury is still out he should have made that jump as long as they have pressed Taylor he will not be exactly because the point is is he no and thing is, that team's going into contract negotiations pretty soon with him. And to be honest, he doesn't deserve that because he did not perform to the highest of standards last year. He had some shining moments, but of course, and I mean,

you can't really put all of this on him because he got hurt. And then they rushed him back out onto the field to be like, hey, we got the number one seed right now in the AFC South. Go ahead and win it for us. And it's like, dude, you need him to rest. His injury was worse than you thought. So, I mean, Ridley had some good moments last year. Dude, I think he's a number one guy. I don't think he's a top, like, 10 wide receiver. Absolutely not.

He's at least fringe 15. But at the end of the day, I think he would have been a good number one piece for New England to at least target. Because at the end of the day, he's got the speed. He's got the agility. He's got all the things you need in a number one guy. So I'll do you one better. Justin Fields isn't an elite quarterback.

No. And DJ Moore had a 1,300-yard season. Fair enough. hundred yard season so like with truly elite wide receiver you get to a tongue of iloa is not an elite quarterback but he's but jalen waddle and tyree kale are still good enough wide receivers so they can overcome to a tongue of iloa's deficiencies that's kind of the way i look at it with a wide receiver one right um i with t higgins with calvin ridley i mean we could go all it's calvin ridley's kind of besides the point in this because he's still he's not either way we could go back and forth all we want he's not a patriot because yeah no because i was gonna he isn't i was gonna say

because i was like come on comparing calvin ridley to tyree kill like come on at that point i know one out of the two jaylen waddle i mean of course dude of course like i mean he's proven that he like honestly bro at this point jaylen waddle could go to any other team i'm like go ahead he's gonna be your number one he's just that good but andy fell into a good position in the draft with him and then being like hey why don't we just have two number ones for two to throw to that's why that production's so good there is because he's got two top wide receivers to throw to i mean it's just tough because i mean i can understand putting calvin ridley next to dj more in a way but honestly if i'm going to pick between the two

i'll take calvin ridley every day like come on man like DJ Moore DJ Moore solid but at the end of the day it's like he had that fluky 300 yard game and I want to take that away from him because that was a huge game he had because hey if we don't see that every day so at the end of the day you get two to three hundred yards in a game hey you may you had yourself quite a day go and get your bonus you're sitting pretty but no in terms of like kind of comparing the two i i see where you put that it's just when you said tyree kill jaylen wattle like man that's why i said jaylen that's why i mentioned jaylen wattle first because tyree kill is the best of the best but like i mean i could go down you know what i who i will settle for as a wide receiver one and he's he's still very young he's three years younger than than calvin ridley and he's still available via trade i know what

you're gonna say who he's he dresses in orange and he wears stripes yeah and he's the number two to tire to jamar chase another guy who's one of the best of the best however he's a number one somewhere which would be new england i've all either way i think we can all agree in this chat here they need a wide receiver one that's still a need and if javon baker and jalen polk step up and become that guy then that's great but it's still kind of a shot in the dark. Your second round pick was Washington's number two wide receiver, and the other wide receiver you got was a fourth rounder. That's just a shot in the dark.

And it's like just hoping one of those guys pans out. It's not a plan. You know, it would be a plan if you trade it up and you got Xavier Leggett, or if you trade it up further and you got Brian Thomas Jr. That would be a plan because you can actually have expectations for them with Javon Baker and Jalen Polk. It feels like most Patriots fans are just hoping they're pleasantly

surprised and they love, and they love the mouth that Javon Baker has. And I do too. He's, he's, he's going to be a shut up. He's, he's going to be a fan favorite here. Even if he ends up being another number two wide receiver, because he's just, he seems like a cool guy that just that one quote right after he got drafted saying he's going he seems like a cool guy but just that one quote right after he got drafted saying he's gonna make guys in wheelchairs stand that's pretty cool what is he jesus christ but uh to give it an to give this a grade i would have to say, I was very ready to say C minus before the draft. I'll bring it up to a C plus because I don't, I think you're putting expectations on this draft that aren't realistic expectations. And you're also basically guaranteeing this season is a lost season with how you didn't really, you didn't

really address, you had three big needs going into this off season with free agency in the draft and a lot of money in free agency, by the way, you address just one of those. So like address one of those seriously. Okorafor does not count as your left tackle. He's not your long-term answer. KJ Osborne obviously doesn't count. And I'm sorry, Javon Baker and Jalen Polk, as of right now, are not the answer. We just hope to be pleasantly surprised. And I don't think that's a plan to hope to be surprised by your picks. Go find someone who you actually believe can realistically be your guy so that's why i believe i give it a c plus i think they did the right things to further their to further their rebuild process but they did the bare minimum of it and i think that's the issue that i have

they could have done more and they didn't that's my issue yeah no no you're right you're right it's just i i don't know why they didn't do like why i just i don't know why they bucked conventional wisdom i don't know why they decided to pass on who they did at least in for agency i just i don't know like i said part of me feels like they're building a base but i want to draw more attention to something you said where and i agree with this when you say that it's a lost season like yeah it's kind of like i don't know remember the season before new england drafted mac jones and they thought he was the guy with cam i mean no one really expected them to do much of anything we went went to ourselves and we said, this is a rebuilding year.

This is a retooling year. You know, like this is like strictly for development. I mean, nobody wants to do those low ceiling, like moral victory development years, but you kind of have to, you know, because you didn't do nearly enough. And hopefully if they can play better than they're projected to, because New England's not favored to win a single game next season. Right.

So hopefully if you can beat any kind of expectations, you know, like what's the over-under for them, like three and a half, four and a half wins, something like that. So like, this just isn't the right roster to throw Drake May into. And even if he overcomes some of the things he needs to be coached out of this training camp and this preseason, we're not throwing him in like this. You could have done that with C.J. Stroud last year on the Texans, but that's because they had a roster with a good enough offensive line that you could do that with.

And then he could go and elevate some players like Nico Collins and Tank Dell. He can't do that with this offensive line. So there's the issue there. And that's why I can't – that's why I just can't look at this offseason as necessarily a win, but it's not a loss either. Fair. Fair. Yeah.

If you guys don't have any other thoughts, I did want to move on. David Johnson has just retired at age 32. Everyone remembers his electric season back in the late 2010s. Left fantasy owners very happy and fantasy owners very upset the very next year. I'll

leave it at that. That's next. This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns someone's got to get that six or seven spot he's an elite wide receiver as a rookie truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides welcome back to the fumble ruski podcast by power 88 and secret weapon consulting i'm adam wr with CJ Medeiros, special guest Chris Hitu. So David Johnson has retired officially at age 32 over this past offseason. Here's the thing with, this wouldn't be necessarily a story, but I just wanted to, to kind of bring attention to his career because during his sophomore, he didn't do too much his rookie season in 2015, but 2016, that's a year that everybody remembers and why everybody will remember David Johnson is for that one year in 2016 he was for first team all pro at age 25 this guy had 1239 yards

16 touchdowns this is just his rushing numbers 4.2 yards per attempt looking at his receiving yards those are impressive in itself 80 receptions on and 879 receiving yards. This guy had over 2,100 total scrimmage yards. Absolutely insane numbers. This guy became the slam-dunk consensus number one overall pick in the next year's fantasy football draft for fans around the league. The next year, the bottom fell off he was out for most of the year with a wrist injury and the next year he did come back but he wasn't quite the same he averaged under he had averaged under 300 under four yards a carry about 3.6 and he only had about 800 yards from there who got it just got

worse then he got traded to the houston texans for now the cardinals got a lot out of it they got deandre hopkins only problem is uh on houston's side they bet on a player who just did not pan out for them either. And it just got worse. Um, he retired, he finished his career and it was, he, he last played in 2022 as a new Orleans Saint where he only got 12 carries for the entire season. And I wanted to bring attention to his career, because this is obviously an extreme case, but it kind of shows a lot about the running back position in general, where not only is it a fragile position,

because these players are relying on their legs in a contact sport where they are trying to run through you and truck you. Look at Todd Gurley as well. It was trending for quite a while that this guy has been out of the league for years, and he's still in his 20s. Look at Dalvin Cook, a guy who's been in his late 20s, and it just felt like this guy was past his prime already. And I say this a lot.

The running back position is the only position in professional sports where you can still be in your 20s and be considered past your prime. If you're 28, 29, you're taking it year by year at that point. Every year that your team gets out of that running back is a blessing. And David Johnson is kind of the embodiment of that. He's the guy who was at one point at the top of the football world, and then he was just knocked off right away. To quote a famous man, only famous for this one quote, from ESPN First Take, he is not there anymore, he fell off a cliff.

But I wanted to get your guys' thoughts. I mean, like you said, you hit the nail on the head with that one about the running back position just being probably the most brutal position in all of football at the end of the day most of these backs now they don't make it into their mid to late 30s anymore I mean the last time I think we saw a running back this is the last running back I truly saw that could have gone into his 30s was Matt Forte Matt Forte was a in terms of I mean hey I see CJ's face right there on that one but for me yeah no I do I do but at the end of the day with Matt Forte what made him so electric was that rushing yardage that he could just carry up but then he was also receiving back which is

what David Johnson really brought to the table is the multilingual in terms of what you could get in terms of yards from scrimmage from him. Like you said, Adam, 20 touchdowns in 2016 total, and then over 2,100 yards from scrimmage. This guy proved to be a lot, but then that wrist injury is what set him up to basically end off his career on an unceremonious note. That was probably the only time he eclipsed a thousand yards, 2018, 940 rushing yards for David Johnson. And I mean, at the end of the day, he had that amazing season. He lit up the field every time he was on there, rushing for

over a hundred yards in several games in that year. He was just that guy that people are like, this is the running back of the future. This is one of the top guys that needs to be talked about. And slowly he dwindled into the air, and now he's just gone. He's gone. And I mean, hey, it's tough. His career was a pretty solid one from the start up until probably around the midway point.

It's just tough, man, to maintain that consistency when you go through so many brutal injuries and you're constantly being rushed up the gaps, taking it to the edge, getting pushed out of bounds. Just running backs get it the worst. The thing is, David Johnson, he was definitely a guy to remember in terms of these 2010s. I'm sure in the future, people will probably still remember his name to some extent because he did bring a lot to the

table in terms of what you expect from running backs. And that's how, like you said, we got the Dalvin cooks and some other names out there to kind of really just show that this still can be done. But the problem is, is these guys, they fall off. They do every year. Todd Gurley, it happened to him where he had, he had, he nearly had Eric Dickerson's record in terms of that, in terms of that rushing season he had. But the thing is it's, it's a brutal position. And I mean, David Johnson did set an example for what a running back should be in the modern day era of the NFL. It's just tough to maintain the consistency and stay healthy for the future. Yeah, and I'll do you one better.

Look at Dalvin Cook. In 2022, he was a pro bowler. Just under 1,200 rushing yards, eight touchdowns, 4.4 yards per carry. He goes to the Jets, and by the way, he touchdowns, 4.4 yards per carry. He goes to the jets. And by the way, he's, he was 27 in 2022, 20, his age 28 season. He just looked cooked. He was off for the New York jets. Then he, he didn't even make it through the season.

He went on to go and play for the Baltimore Ravens during their playoff run. And now I'm pretty sure he's on the couch right now. Looking at Ezekiel Elliott, in three of his first four years in the league, he eclipsed 1,300 yards. The only one where he didn't was 2017 where he got, I mean, that has nothing to do with his abilities. He just had some off-the-field issues, 2017. After that, he only had one season.

By the way, he was 24 during that stretch. 24 years old. After he turned 24, he was never the same player. Usually when you're 24 in any other position, in professional sports, I'm not even looking at just football, professional sports, if you're 24, you're so young, you have the rest of your life ahead of you. With Ezekiel Elliott, it was pretty much over. Look at Todd Gurley as well.

The guy, I'm pretty sure he just turned 30. And how long has he been out of the league? A while. Quite a while. It's very rare that you see the Adrian Petersons of the world and the Frank Gores where they're just workhorses. They can make it through season after season after season. It's rare.

When you're a Belcal back, you're not going to last very long. And that kind of also brings up in the discussion that kind of crossed my mind is what will we see in Derek Henry in a few years? What will we see out of a power back like him who's constantly being given the rock and being expected to break tackles? He's maintained that consistency. He's slowed down, obviously, in terms of the numbers over these past few years. But I feel like what we see in a lot of these trends is when these running backs change teams, their career plummets for some reason and that's why i think this year you just mentioned yeah exactly and that's why i think this year

will be interesting for derrick henry can his numbers stay consistent on the baltimore ravens because with him people have already i mean it obviously the niners are still the favorite to win the super bowl but the ras are right there with them. And that's the thing. That was the one thing that this Baltimore Ravens team really needed in terms of a piece to be like, okay, they can win the Super Bowl, was the running back. They had to go through tons of different backs because they were all getting hurt. Every single one of them.

And now we're expecting Derrick Henry to maintain that health moving forward. And he's had his health issues these past few seasons in Tennessee. So it's going to be one of those things, once again, where it's like the running back position, it's not friendly. It's really not. And I knew even, I mean, I'm not a small guy. I'm not a built guy like these guys are. But it's like at the end of the day, I wouldn't want to be a running back.

Absolutely not. No, of course you get the numbers from the rushing yards and the touchdowns. They probably score the most touchdowns out of most people on the field. But besides the quarterback, but at the end of the day, it's just, it's a grueling, tough position. So it's just so hard in today's league where everybody's getting faster and stronger season by season so at the end of the day it's like it's tough to see a career be maintained for the longevity

and we're seeing that every day with these backs and david johnson's a prime example of that yeah yeah no i was just gonna say that this goes further beyond guys, you know, like you said, like David Johnson. In fact, if you really wanted to, I think you could really go deeper in the bag here for these, like, one-year wonder type of guys. So we all know about David Johnson's one year.

I'll do you one. Do you remember Jordan Howard? Yes. Yeah. Uh-huh, yeah. That'll do you one. Do you remember Jordan Howard? Yes. Yeah. That's a good one. Fifth round, 1,300 yards, then 1,100, then 900, and then 500, and then he's out.

And then it's gone. It's literally gone. Or, okay, here's one for you. Jay Ajayi. Jay Ajayi. Wow. gone or or okay here's one for you jay a giant rattling off name jay a giant yeah years in 2016 traded to philly and then did nothing else so it's just you don't need an elite running back that's the thing i mean they're nice to have but at the end of the day let's speak the truth they're a luxury i mean look at all the

super bowl winners like in recent vintage i mean you could argue if the 2013 seahawks were the last team that had a truly like elite bell cow and that's good yeah not not even argue like that's who else that is the guy how could i forget that Wow. An elite, like a top five running back. Like it's just going to show you that you don't need one. Right. I don't think you can even argue that. I remember you mentioned that like last off season, you brought it up when you were, I even, it was, it was such a good take. I even made a reel about it the next day.

You said the last one was 2013. Everyone else since then. There's nobody else. No one. We're not arguing Leonard Fournette in 2020. He wasn't the same back. He wasn't a bell cow either. He was sharing carries with Ronald Jones.

So who else? Nobody. I mean, what's his name christian mccaffrey was close but even if he did was he even necessarily a bell cow because they had weapons all around they had a full arsenal and a lot of these guys you gotta remember that are in the super bowl were like either having career years or one year wonders like for example 2016 the patriots remember uh le garrett blund was like a beast that year if you remember you know and uh and even still he was sharing the backfield with james white and dion lewis so i mean you can point to like oh clyde edwards hilaire is really

good his rookie year it's like okay and he did win the super bowl his rookie year now what nothing clyde edwards hilaire wasn't that good his rookie year. I know. He was good, but then all of a sudden he was just gone. Oh, yeah. These guys that are getting rings in career years never keep that up. Yeah. The way I almost look at it is like the NFL is like a recycling plant in a way for half of

these running backs you you basically take them you use what you can get out of them you throw them in the bin and get the next one that's all it is it's just it's a constant circulation of new guys all the time to bring to your offense and that's just the way the league has realized that it needs or not even just the league what these teams what these GMs are realizing is these running backs can't keep up anymore they really can't and so the only success you can have at that position to maintain consistency is get a new one after the few years and then those other guys that were once stars or once consistent they become the death pieces at the end of the day and

that's why i think in a way i mean i i mean that's why running back by committee is now a huge thing with these teams you need to have two you can't just have the one you may have the one like of course i mean christian mcafree still keeping up but who knows what will happen with them they got to prepare for that. And I mean, that's why they probably kept Elijah Mitchell for the longest time at this point. I'm not going to sit here and say Elijah Mitchell is cream of the crop, but he's shown sparks.

And that's the thing. It's you need that guy that's got just, just enough to kind of show up one day and be like, holy crap. Well, we got to, we got to give this guy more carries because he's, he's hot. He's got the hot hand right now. That's why we see this all the time, because the NFL, it's just proven that as it's matured and as it's grown throughout the years, the running back position has just gone from so high up from the guys of the Walter Patons to the Emmitt Smiths, they've plummeted. They're gone, their history, and that's why they're the greats, because they were the ones who could do it the longest.

And now other guys are going to have to try and do that. But it's a difficult task at this point because you just don't see it anymore. You really don't. Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, you raise some good points there. It's, it sucks that it is this way because, I mean, these running backs, they work really hard, and I think they have to work the hardest

to stay healthy, but they're the ones who end up getting the shaft financially, which sucks because they work really hard. And I can see the argument from their side where it's like, well, we want to get paid because we have no idea when we're going to be out of the league, and we're making a living off this. Once we're out of the league, then we're screwed. So, David Johnson, congrats on an unbelievable year in 2016 and a very long career.

You did make it through the 2022 season, and I hope you saved up enough money to make a living. Or if you find work as an analyst somewhere or as a commentator doing something, some sort of work, you're still a former pro running back. It's got to get you some work out there. But, all right, that is all the scheduled content we have for today. Do we have anything else before we end the show? No, sir. All right. That is all the scheduled content we have for today. Do we have anything else before we end the show? No, sir. All right. Well, Chris, thank you so much again for joining the show. It's always a pleasure to have you on and get your perspective on the NFL. Absolutely. I appreciate it every time and

just coming on, talking the sport I love and hope, hopefully get to talk with you guys again soon. Absolutely. All right. Well, that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 7.30 PM Eastern Standard Time and Fridays at 5. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more. Also, be sure to follow our Instagram at FumbleRooski underscore podcast and our TikTok at FumbleRooski pod to keep up with our podcasts and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you on Friday. Over and out.