Address the RB situation

[black]

Isn't Davenport the one who pooped in the closet?

 

[cgolden]

Isn't Davenport the one who pooped in the closet?

Yep, hence his nickname, "Dookie."

 

[black]

Yep, hence his nickname, "Dookie."

Is he a repeat offender? If not, screw him, I want news everyday.

 

[cgolden]

Is he a repeat offender? If not, screw him, I want news everyday.

Not a repeat "dookie" offender but he was arrested during the season last year for domestic violence. If I remember correctly the charged were dropped or he agreed to counseling or something. Not to mention he missed a game b/c of a botched acupuncture treatment.

 

[john h]

I am not upset that the CArds took DRC with the first pick when we could have taken Mendenhall. The backs remaining in the draft were really not "the answer" and by the 3rd round all the name rb's were gone.

This offense was great at times last year and adequate enough to be a playoff team and it's only going to get better this year with a full year of the system and philosophy under our collective belts. I really believe our running game will benefit too.

That being said, onre of my biggest concerns is just what the loss of James would mean to this offense. I know there is a lot of love for Hightower, but really, can we ask this kid to step in and fill the starting rb position?eally think ha can learn all the blitz responsibilities without getting our QB's killed in the process?

I think the FO would be very wise in picking up a back like Kevin Jones. At least his presence would be a nice insurance policy should anything happen to James.

Or how about this? Shaun Alexander. The Saints apparently think he is worthy of backing up McCallister. I don't know how much he would want but I know of another RB on this team that is going to make close to 2m this year. That money could be put to better use. Another bonus is how motivated he might be to prove the Seahawks wrong. That seems to be a battle cry on this team. The old "chip on the shoulder" and wanting to prove something.

We appear to be so close at turning this thing around. I just don't like the thought of our season hinging on Arrington, Shipp and Hightower.

You are preaching to the wrong guy here brother. This has been a big concern of mine since the draft. Due to his age James is not the guy he was and will likely suffer down time. To expect a 5th round draft pick to be an answer is like hoping to win the lottery. We know how Shipp and Arrington are and they are not regular everyday RB's. I guess we just pray that James stays healthy or else all the other teams will just gear up to stop the pass.

 

[cardsfanmd]

For the life of me, I just dont get all the hate for James. He is the mostdurable back in the NFL and is a fantstic blocker. How can you hate on a RB that has played in like 50+ straight games??

He may not be the superstar everyone around here seems to expect nowadays, but he is the best back to ever play in Arizona. I may be the only one on earth feeling this way, but I am not losing any sleep over the Edge/JJ/Breadtruck group.

Even if Edge did go down and JJ and Timmy sucked, we are still pretty damn well equipped to air it out.

 

[82CardsGrad]

For the life of me, I just dont get all the hate for James. He is the mostdurable back in the NFL and is a fantstic blocker. How can you hate on a RB that has played in like 50+ straight games??

He may not be the superstar everyone around here seems to expect nowadays, but he is the best back to ever play in Arizona. I may be the only one on earth feeling this way, but I am not losing any sleep over the Edge/JJ/Breadtruck group.

Even if Edge did go down and JJ and Timmy sucked, we are still pretty damn well equipped to air it out.

See... this is the kinda thinking that accepts 8 win seasons...

No, if Edge went down and JJ & Timmy sucked, we are NOT well equipped to "air it out" at all! Sure, we can have Matty toss up his jump balls to Fitz and every 1 ouot of 4 Fitz will out-leap the defender and come down with the ball, but we will NOT sustain winning if we can't run the ball - productively!!!

Edge was a great back. He isn't now... He's durable. So we have a back who knows how to avoid injuries...Big F'n Deal...

JJ sucks and always will... Maybe we catch lightening in a bottle with Timmy - though I doubt it...

 

[slanidrac16]

See... this is the kinda thinking that accepts 8 win seasons...

No, if Edge went down and JJ & Timmy sucked, we are NOT well equipped to "air it out" at all! Sure, we can have Matty toss up his jump balls to Fitz and every 1 ouot of 4 Fitz will out-leap the defender and come down with the ball, but we will NOT sustain winning if we can't run the ball - productively!!!

Edge was a great back. He isn't now... He's durable. So we have a back who knows how to avoid injuries...Big F'n Deal...

JJ sucks and always will... Maybe we catch lightening in a bottle with Timmy - though I doubt it...

I agree with everything except your description of Edge. Edge gets every inch from every run. Even after he is hit he has a nack for turning and falling forward. He is a tank and a very valuable part of this offense. He is the type of back every contending team needs.
Hightower is going to get every chance in the world to show his stuff in pre-season. That will determine whether or not we pick up another veteran bull type back. I just wish we wouldn't wait.

 

[cardsfanmd]

See... this is the kinda thinking that accepts 8 win seasons...

No, if Edge went down and JJ & Timmy sucked, we are NOT well equipped to "air it out" at all! Sure, we can have Matty toss up his jump balls to Fitz and every 1 ouot of 4 Fitz will out-leap the defender and come down with the ball, but we will NOT sustain winning if we can't run the ball - productively!!!

Edge was a great back. He isn't now... He's durable. So we have a back who knows how to avoid injuries...Big F'n Deal...

JJ sucks and always will... Maybe we catch lightening in a bottle with Timmy - though I doubt it...

I have never been accepting of this team's mediocrity. In fact his year I was chastised by practically the entire board for speaking out on how much damage the team took due to RG's ineffectiveness in the Fitz situation.

What I dont get is all of the people crying about us not having the backs they want after they repeatedly backed RG over the offseason. You can't praise the job done by Graves and then wonder why we dont have anything new at RB. Rod cost us the chance to pursue some speed in the offseason, plain and simple. Mwelde Moore would have fit our need perfectly.

Once you get to the drtaft, it is a crapshoot, and you get better by taking the BPA. Chris Johnson was gone, Matt Forte was gone and Deshaun Jackson went right before us. Personally, I think any of those three would have been our pick. I am not overly sold on Campbell (I liked Laws, but he was gone), but I dont ever watch the Hurricanes, so what do I know? The bottom line is that after Graves destroyed the offseason, the team did the best they could in the draft. We still have June 1st cuts, that will feature some decent RBs. There is nothing that can be done now, but wait, so why start worrying so early??

With a year of continuity on the line, just about any pro-level RB should be able to get the job done for us. Teams are unable to stack the box on us and Levi and Duece should be blowing their guys off the line.

 

[cgolden]

Mwelde Moore would have fit our need perfectly.

Don't look now but Moore is in the exact same situation that he was in during his time in Minny. He's buried on the depth chart again behind Parker and Mendenhall. I'd bet Pittsburgh would be willing to listen to some trade offers for him. I don't think they planned on paying their #3 back over a million per season.

 

[40yearfan]

Leinart went down with a season ending injury and our #2 back-up, Warner, played the rest of the season with a broken arm. Guess what? We still wound up 8 - 8. If any of you think one position on this team is going to make or break our season (RB), you have absolutely no faith in our coaching staff, FO or players. You can't expect this team to have every contingency covered. No team has that.

On good teams, others step forward when injuries occur. I expect that to happen with this team.

Can we at least wait until the season starts and we see what we have?

 

[cgolden]

Can we at least wait until the season starts and we see what we have?

What are we supposed to talk about until then? We have to come up with as many "what if" scenarios as we can for at least another month otherwise how are supposed to say "I told you so" when one of the random "what if" comes through.

 

[cardsfanmd]

Leinart went down with a season ending injury and our #2 back-up, Warner, played the rest of the season with a broken arm. Guess what? We still wound up 8 - 8. If any of you think one position on this team is going to make or break our season (RB), you have absolutely no faith in our coaching staff, FO or players. You can't expect this team to have every contingency covered. No team has that.

On good teams, others step forward when injuries occur. I expect that to happen with this team.

Can we at least wait until the season starts and we see what we have?

There must be mean blizzard in hell right now because I agree 100% with that.

 

[CardEd]

Even if Edge did go down and JJ and Timmy sucked, we are still pretty damn well equipped to air it out.

or just put Q in the backfield!

 

[vinnymac]

The Cardinals needed to address the running back position early in the offseason to keep momentum going. I don't have much faith in a 5th round back picking up where James left off. Shipp & Arrington have proven nothing when they had a chance to step in for James. The Cardinals have done nothing to give fans much faith that this season is going to be better than last season. I know the Cardinals can only do so much to improve, but Travis Laboy being your top free agent pick up. Not seeing the improvement.

 

[slanidrac16]

The Cardinals needed to address the running back position early in the offseason to keep momentum going. I don't have much faith in a 5th round back picking up where James left off. Shipp & Arrington have proven nothing when they had a chance to step in for James. The Cardinals have done nothing to give fans much faith that this season is going to be better than last season. I know the Cardinals can only do so much to improve, but Travis Laboy being your top free agent pick up. Not seeing the improvement.

Well. on the same hand , not too many people had faith in Terrell Davis and Tom Brady either.

 

[cardsfanmd]

The Cardinals needed to address the running back position early in the offseason to keep momentum going. I don't have much faith in a 5th round back picking up where James left off. Shipp & Arrington have proven nothing when they had a chance to step in for James. The Cardinals have done nothing to give fans much faith that this season is going to be better than last season. I know the Cardinals can only do so much to improve, but Travis Laboy being your top free agent pick up. Not seeing the improvement.

Agreed, but where were you during the "how inept is Graves" discussions? You guys cant support what he does and then wonder why we were unable to get better when all of the other teams did. RG destroyed us with the Fitz debacle, plain and simple.

 

[black]

Before Leinart went down EJ's numbers were up, then Warner stepped in and they went down. Must be the play calling I guess.

oops, I checked his numbers and he did well at the end of the season too.