What is your feeling on Ellington's upcoming season

[SissyBoyFloyd]

Grade your optimism: A through F and explain the reasons.


B - I feel the same way I feel about fire. I like it but am a bit scared and leary of it too. I look forward to some exciting play by him, but with the Cards history of young RB injuries, and with him getting such a large workload, I really wonder how many games before he goes down and for how long.

I will be holding my breath every time he carries the ball. I sure hope someone rises up to be a very capable back up. I am expecting we will need him before the season is over. Hopefully, it won't be until near the end rather than the beginning of the season.

 

[Shaggy]

I agree. Scared that he maybe over used. I'm at a B+.

 

[seesred]

I'm at an A. The reason is if you watched him closely he knows how to and when he will get hit. He knows how to get outside and when to go out of bounds. He has been blessed with amazing football speed. But most of all he wild have a pretty good line in front of him. Anything can happen on any given play, but I'm putting my money that we will see him in the playoffs!

GBR
40

 

[Mulli]

Poll?

 

[Dan H]

B+

I'm going with ~1400 all purpose yards.

 

[Hollywood]

A-
He isnt a running back. He is a receiving back. Last year we all saw what he can do and the mail limitation was BA needed extra blockers but with a much improved line that wont be as much of an issue. Breakout year for Andre.

 

[kerouac9]

Poll?

5/5

 

[jbeecham]

I'm cautiously optimistic (B), I don't think his RB carries will go up a lot from last year... maybe 12-15/game (not 20+, he had only 8/game last year) and he'll probably be targeted for 5-8 passes a game (4/game last year).... so around 20 touches overall. I'm still expecting BA to put in the other backs for short yardage/goal line situations.

 

[Buckybird]

Ellington should be ok as a Cardinal long as long as Thesmel doesn't start using his grading system on him

 

[SeattleCard]

A++ and top 5 RB

 

[seesred]

Larry Centers returns only he now calls himself Ellington!

GBR
40

 

[cardncubfan]

Larry Centers returns only he now calls himself Ellington!

GBR
40

+1

 

[Buckybird]

+1

+2 but with more jets

 

[jbeecham]

http://www.azcardinals.com/news-and...Workload/bb97e63b-f2b3-4641-a703-cb462d2b818a

Looks like Darren Urban is expecting about 18-22 touches per game.

 

[Hollywood]

Larry Centers returns only he now calls himself Ellington!

GBR
40

+1

+2 but with more jets

+3

 

[Duckjake]

These are the Cardinals. He'll fracture a foot in the second preseason game and be out for the year.

 

[Mulli]

These are the Cardinals. He'll fracture a foot in the second preseason game and be out for the year.

I thought the exact same thing.

 

[kerouac9]

It's depressing to me that the best fans can come up with for a comparison to a guy who could be a top 10 running back in the NFL is a guy who averaged 4.3 attempts per game and 3.4 YPA during his time here.

 

[Cheesebeef]

http://www.azcardinals.com/news-and...Workload/bb97e63b-f2b3-4641-a703-cb462d2b818a

Looks like Darren Urban is expecting about 18-22 touches per game.

good. he's the most dynamic offensive player this team has had since Larry went Superman in the Super Bowl run.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Larry Centers returns only he now calls himself Ellington!

GBR
40

I loved larry, but Ellington has more talent in his pinky finger then Larry had in his entire body. if he has half of Larry's heart (which was always his biggest strength to me), he'll be one of the biggest difference makers in the league.

 

[Jay Cardinal]

These are the Cardinals. He'll fracture a foot in the second preseason game and be out for the year.

I am really worried about that. Perhaps more that he is overused and hurt running up the middle. Ellington was excellent in last year's role. He was a major mismatch when they motioned him out of the backfield. I hope that is still a big part of the offense.

He is an amazing talent, but the fact is he is a smaller guy. I am concerned with the depth behind him as Dwyer and Taylor do not present a similar speed threat. I hope one either Dwyer or Taylor will step up and take many of the carries in the fourth quarter when we are trying to hold a lead.

I think Ellington could easily rush for a 1000 plus yards, but will be best used if his carries are limited and he is a weapon in the receiving game. 200-240 carries max for 1100 yards and 45 receptions for 500 yards is my guess if he stays healthy all year.

 

[cardncubfan]

It's depressing to me that the best fans can come up with for a comparison to a guy who could be a top 10 running back in the NFL is a guy who averaged 4.3 attempts per game and 3.4 YPA during his time here.

Question: did you go & look up Larrys stats to come up with those #'s or did you know them off the top of your head? Because all I remember about Larry is how exciting he was to watch. Much like Ellington.

 

[Darkside]

Larry Centers gets shafted, every time. No respect. The dude had 100 receptions in 95 and 99 in 96. As a running back. He was a new-age RB in a 1995 league. He still owns records for passes caught and yardage for a RB. He was a better version of Roger Craig on a very bad, pathetically bad, team with no offensive line. Still owns records for most receptions by a RB and 2nd most by any non-WR in football. Caught passes in 128 consecutive games. The dude was a badass and was the best player on our team in those years by far. Today he would excel extremely well and be known as one of the best, most modern HB's/FB's in the game.

He was a joy to watch, and if you are a real Cardinal fan, at that time, he was the only thing to watch.

(Edit: And honestly, sometimes I wonder, when people throw out stats like his carries per game, or average per carry a game, whether they ever watched Cardinals football in those years. He wasn't used in that way, but what he was used for he excelled at exceptionally well)

 

[Cheesebeef]

Larry Centers gets shafted, every time. No respect. The dude had 100 receptions in 95 and 99 in 96. As a running back. He was a new-age RB in a 1995 league. He still owns records for passes caught and yardage for a RB. He was a better version of Roger Craig on a very bad, pathetically bad, team with no offensive line.

I loved Larry but he wasn't anything close to the running back Roger Craig was, IMO. We had lines good enough to for Hearst, Johnnie Johnson and Ronald freaking Moore to get 1,000 yards. Larry just wasn't an every down running back. He was a great 3rd down back and had the heart of a lion. But a better version of Roger Craig? No way.

 

[Jetstream Green]

It's depressing to me that the best fans can come up with for a comparison to a guy who could be a top 10 running back in the NFL is a guy who averaged 4.3 attempts per game and 3.4 YPA during his time here.

No, they just know that if they gave more reason to be optimistic about Ellington... you would knock their evaluation down for being so positive lol