Meanwhile, McCoy missed an entire year and is going to be a first rounder at corner.
Willis McGahee, a RB, tore every ligament in his leg and was still drafted in the first round.
If he was such an incredible talent he would have been drafted higher.
He had holes in his game and he fell to a 7th with those holes and the injury.
Don’t believe Bill had an injury?
You still want him even though we have Chenal, Luvu, and Magee?
Luvu’s on the last year of his deal and Magee is still a bit of a projection/question mark. Don’t know that Styles is the best choice when you account for positional value and team need, but he’d be a heck of an addition IMO.
I paid a lot of attention to Croskey-Merritt because this team was linked to him, so I dove in. The idea that he only played one game was a big part of the narrative for his fall in the draft but the other part was the mystery about whether he can catch the ball. It was a narrative, too.
In today's NFL, its important. It's like being a good pass rusher who can't stop the run -- unless you are elite at pass rushing, you are likely going to be a rotational player versus the edges who can do it all. Same idea with running back.
All told, Bill had 1 year of legit production, played at New Mexico State, hadn’t proven himself in the pass game, was a bit on the older side, essentially didn’t play his last year, and it was a really deep rb draft.
For me, I agree that I don’t love him as our defacto number 1 back because I think he needs to show a fair bit of progress in the passing game. He also really needs to work on ball security… for the sake of my heart if nothing else.
With that said, it’s true that a lot of backs (if not most or even all) come into the league needing to improve their pass pro. It’s not an easy thing, and certainly not automatic, but it also seems a fairly standard progression point.
I’m not sure I totally agree that Bill being in the lineup telegraphs run. He played 406 snaps and touched the ball 184 times (along with a handful of incompletions going his way). Now, maybe Kliff regrets that point, and maybe Blough sees it as a real problem. Who knows. The bottom line is that he needs to prove himself, so Peters adding two backs that have proven their versatility was a smart move IMO. I think it’ll be good for him to have adept pass catchers/blockers in the fold as examples - Ekeler was lost early, so I think Bill (maybe?) missed out on that mentorship.
It does feel that while no one is “hating” on Bill, some are maybe underselling him a little? I mean, if we just look at these 3 points:
(Fact): We had a very questionable pass game (injured qbs and injured/terrible receivers).
(Opinion): Bill being in the game telegraphed a run.
(Opinion): His vision isn’t good.
The obvious question becomes, how the heck did he produce like he did then? Because it wasn’t just “good for a 7th rounder”, he put up some serious numbers (as a runner).
A theory of mine, separate from the stuff above - I think his early success (and fame/recognition) caused his game to change slightly. I think he got into his head a bit and starting looking for the big play. It showed some patience on his end, but also lead to not taking the easy yardage at times, the yards the play was blocked for. I think this lead to a reduction in his carries for a stretch. It did feel to me that he kind of got back to his early play style late in the year, which gave me more hope for him going forward.
Not directing any of that at you SIP, just saw your post as a jumping off point.
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