We need 3 good running backs to make it through an NFL season.
If DJ was a f/a signing Drake wouldn’t be a problem. Signing Drake isn’t the problem, DJ’s contract is.
with the whispers of DJ being dealt it looks like we will still be on the hook for 10m, EVEN IF HE IS GONE saving us around 6 m which could make signing Drake a wash. We would still have to draft a RB.
Drake had one run against the 49ers that reminded me of how a running back should run. It was a td run to the right side. He met contact at about the 4 yard line. He not only took on the contact but ran over the defender and dove into the end zone. If that was DJ I guarantee he would have tried to juke, eventually put his head down and came up short.
I think Drake was third in the league with yards after contact. That means something. It means making the first down to keep a drive going. A td instead of a fg. It means turning a 1 yard loss into a 3 yard gain.
I can not justify ( as a fan) letting Drake walk base on the idea we can’t keep him because we’re paying DJ to much. In no way am I saying we should pay him 8-10 mil per year. But a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. There is no way you can guarantee production from the rb position simply by just “ get a guy in the 5th round”. It’s not just running the ball . It’s blocking, receiving and picking up the offense. On top of that you don’t know if ‘ your guy’ is going to be there when we’re at the podium.
And finally if DJ is dealt and Drake walks we are left with Edmonds. I like him too but now we’ll need two running backs. I like what Drake brings. He’s an Experience, hard nose, low milage, yards after contact guy.
Listen, if we trade DJ, a concept I'm taking with a huge grain of salt, and in most structures proposed seems like a poor idea (giving up a draft pick to save $6M in cap space or whatever seems bonkers), sure. I guess.
Drake's yards after contact have been great in the NFL. His yards per attempt are solid. So why does he just vanish? Why are guys like Mark Walton and Karen Ballage taking snaps over him? That's not an Adam Gase problem, either.
He comes in, has one unexpectedly strong game against SF where they're completely ignoring he exists, and then disappears for four games straight. I'm talking bad enough to get cut from your fantasy football bench in 12 team leagues disappears.
Then in Seattle, the difference between him having a decent-ish game and the strong game he had is one 80-yard TD that he goes untouched on. Any NFL back with decent speed should take that to the house. 3.73 YPC in that game without the big run.
So I sit here and I look at what is more likely to happen - that Drake is going to be the guy we got for four games, which looks very similar to the rest of his career, or the kinda-flukey three-four games we got guy? I know fans want to bet high, but we have a large sample size.
For the record, I've never said to replace him with a 5th round pick. Of course that's not that easy to do. But in the third round, maybe 4th round, we can draft a guy who can come in and compete with Edmonds, DJ, and maybe even a cheap guy like DeAndre Washington, who has played with Kliff.
If we sign Drake for some astronomically low number or can wash our hands of him in 2021 with no worries, I can only complain so much. But if this guy is making $7M per year, and comes out and puts up 700 yards all season, I'm going to be miserable.
This fanbase is expecting lightning to strike or for guys to be guys they have never shown to be
way too much.
