RB situation

[Patler]

Dang! That seems hard to argue against.

My eyes tell me that the holes aren't there. What none of us can know for sure is where the holes were designed to be.

What did Grant have that other guys don't have?

Patience? Vision? Speed? Strength? A shrine with dried chicken blood hidden in a locker?

Grant is willing to stick his head in whatever crease there is and get the 1, 2 or 3 yards that are there to be had. Even though he doesn't break a heck of a lot of tackles himself, he plants and runs forward. Jackson, on the other hand, spends too much time moving sideways and too little moving forward. When he is about to be hit, he often stops and tries to sidestep a tackler (seldom successfully), meaning he gets dropped in his tracks or even loses a yard that was there by moving forward. Grant moves forward, gets tripped up, falls forward and gets an extra yard or two that Jackson doesn't.

Nance runs more like Grant, and I hope he gets more opportunities. Jackson looks like a guy who doesn't want to be hit.

[denverYooper]

Dang! That seems hard to argue against.

My eyes tell me that the holes aren't there. What none of us can know for sure is where the holes were designed to be.

What did Grant have that other guys don't have?

Patience? Vision? Speed? Strength? A shrine with dried chicken blood hidden in a locker?

Faith that that O-line would have a lane there for him when he arrived where the play was designed to go and good burst to take advantage of even a small opening. He was a great fit with the O-line crew. Part of Jackson's problem is that he seems to need to see a hole open before he gets there otherwise he feels the need to bounce outside where he often gets into trouble because (surprise) his blockers are all somewhere else.

[swede]

Grant is willing to stick his head in whatever crease there is and get the 1, 2 or 3 yards that are there to be had. Even though he doesn't break a heck of a lot of tackles himself, he plants and runs forward. Jackson, on the other hand, spends too much time moving sideways and too little moving forward. When he is about to be hit, he often stops and tries to sidestep a tackler (seldom successfully), meaning he gets dropped in his tracks or even loses a yard that was there by moving forward. Grant moves forward, gets tripped up, falls forward and gets an extra yard or two that Jackson doesn't.

So you believe it comes down to economy and efficiency? You business guys!

[MichiganPackerFan]

...

Nance runs more like Grant, and I hope he gets more opportunities. Jackson looks like a guy who doesn't want to be hit.

Do you think so? I thought he was stockier and even more of a power straight ahead runner. My impression is that Grant runs north & south with some power but can make people miss (maybe in the jamal lewis mold?) and Nance is exclusively a power straight ahead runner (jerome bettis mold), What do you think?

[pbmax]

Grant is willing to stick his head in whatever crease there is and get the 1, 2 or 3 yards that are there to be had. Even though he doesn't break a heck of a lot of tackles himself, he plants and runs forward. Jackson, on the other hand, spends too much time moving sideways and too little moving forward. When he is about to be hit, he often stops and tries to sidestep a tackler (seldom successfully), meaning he gets dropped in his tracks or even loses a yard that was there by moving forward. Grant moves forward, gets tripped up, falls forward and gets an extra yard or two that Jackson doesn't.

Nance runs more like Grant, and I hope he gets more opportunities. Jackson looks like a guy who doesn't want to be hit.

Yes, Grant did not have the TFLs that Jackson has suffered. And when you delay in a zone play, pursuit catches up. And just as some holes close as the RB approaches the line, sometimes creases become holes. In a nutshell, Jackson does not hit fast not does he cutback early enough. When he does cut back, its too late or he is hesitating a bit. I am not sure if he doesn't want to be hit (he seems to have no problem running into or through contact in the open field) but its goes against instinct to head for a hole that isn't there.

Think of Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon escaping the asteroid as the monster closed its mouth. Nerve racking.

[Patler]

Nance runs more like Grant, and I hope he gets more opportunities. Jackson looks like a guy who doesn't want to be hit.

Do you think so? I thought he was stockier and even more of a power straight ahead runner. My impression is that Grant runs north & south with some power but can make people miss (maybe in the jamal lewis mold?) and Nance is exclusively a power straight ahead runner (jerome bettis mold), What do you think?

What I meant was that he is more like Grant than he is like Jackson. Not a sidestepper and dancer like Jackson tends to be. Hard to say what he will do on a regular basis, but he sure hits the holes hard.

[RashanGary]

Nance runs more like Grant, and I hope he gets more opportunities. Jackson looks like a guy who doesn't want to be hit.

I agree. Grant and Nance seem to have the same attitude when it comes to hitting the crease.

Physically the big knock on Grant was his lateral agility. The big knock on Nance is his top speed.


Looking at their running style's, both fit in this offense. Looking at their physical skills. . . The thing that I think prevented Grant from being elite was his inability to make that one guy miss. It seemed he never made that LB or S miss 6 yards down the field. Unless it was wide open, Grant was getting tackled. With Nance, he seems to have a little more agility. Just watching what I've seen of Nance, I think he could be the 4 yard, 3 yard, 1 yard, 5 yard, 3 yard, 4 yard kind of back the way Grant was. He seems to move ahead and play a tough brand of RB. What I think will separate them is Grant upped his average with 40, 50 and 60 yard runs a few times per year. He's fast so he isn't caught from behind. Nance on the other hand, I think will get more 10, 12, 14 yard runs because he's a little more agile.

At the end of the day, I like what I've seen from Nance. I think he's going to be a good player. Similar to Grant, not as fast but gets more mid-range runs because he can avoid tackles better, less long runs because he lacks the top end speed. Good runner though. Perfect fit for our offense. I think he's going to surprise people.

[sharpe1027]

Yes, Grant did not have the TFLs that Jackson has suffered. And when you delay in a zone play, pursuit catches up. And just as some holes close as the RB approaches the line, sometimes creases become holes. In a nutshell, Jackson does not hit fast not does he cutback early enough. When he does cut back, its too late or he is hesitating a bit. I am not sure if he doesn't want to be hit (he seems to have no problem running into or through contact in the open field) but its goes against instinct to head for a hole that isn't there.

Think of Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon escaping the asteroid as the monster closed its mouth. Nerve racking.

I may be repeating some of what you said in my own words, but I've seen way too many runs where the line gets some push on the cutback and BJ tries to bounce outside instead of cutting back. Maybe there wasn't a hole, but there was a few yards to be gained and all of the defenders were engaged. I thought a main tenant of the ZBS was to consistently get the short yardage and occasionally the big play happens. Grant would run right into the backs of his OL over if they couldn't make him a hole. BJ is no Grant.

[Tony Oday]

I cant believe people are pining for Grant...before the season started there were not many of us that wanted to keep him...

[MJZiggy]

I wanted to keep him but then again, I tend to get attached to our players. I want to keep them all and want them all to perform well.

[RashanGary]

I cant believe people are pining for Grant...before the season started there were not many of us that wanted to keep him...

I didn't really see it this way. Probably 90% of the fans thought Grant was solid. 50% thought he was good and 25% thought he was really good. Only maybe 10% didn't like him at all and even they thought he was serviceable. The big argument was, "how good is he" and the bottom 10% battled the top 10% and it always seemed louder than it really was.

[Cheesehead Craig]

I cant believe people are pining for Grant...before the season started there were not many of us that wanted to keep him...

I think he's a classic case of don't know what you got until it's gone.

[bobblehead]

IMO that would be a penny-wise, pound foolish decision on the part of an NFL team. NFL Teams spend over $100 million on player salaries alone! The Packers are the worst example of injuries this year, and it would cost them less than 1% of their salary to help fix that problem? Have at it!

The NFL could well be being a bunch of bullies, not willing to play by the UFL's rules. The thing is, the NFL has suffered in the past from not having a minor league to draw players from - they'd be idiots (well, they are NFL owners...) to not support this one. Right now, there's a pool of game ready players available, courtesy of the UFL. Something they wouldn't otherwise have.

I would be wrong, but don't MLB teams buy out minor league contracts before calling a player up?

The guys that would be signed from the UFL would generally be long shots to help a team THIS year. That being said, the teams are more likely to go to practice squads for in season help that will be minimum help anyway. Think NFL minimum salary and ask this...is there a player in the UFL who is 35% more valuable than guys on the practice squads throughout the NFL?

[retailguy]

IMO that would be a penny-wise, pound foolish decision on the part of an NFL team. NFL Teams spend over $100 million on player salaries alone! The Packers are the worst example of injuries this year, and it would cost them less than 1% of their salary to help fix that problem? Have at it!

The NFL could well be being a bunch of bullies, not willing to play by the UFL's rules. The thing is, the NFL has suffered in the past from not having a minor league to draw players from - they'd be idiots (well, they are NFL owners...) to not support this one. Right now, there's a pool of game ready players available, courtesy of the UFL. Something they wouldn't otherwise have.

I would be wrong, but don't MLB teams buy out minor league contracts before calling a player up?

I believe that most minor league teams are either owned by or affiliated with a major league team.

[Patler]

The guys that would be signed from the UFL would generally be long shots to help a team THIS year. That being said, the teams are more likely to go to practice squads for in season help that will be minimum help anyway. Think NFL minimum salary and ask this...is there a player in the UFL who is 35% more valuable than guys on the practice squads throughout the NFL?

Yes, there very well could be; because the UFL has players with NFL experience who don't qualify to be on a practice squad. It might actually be a preferable source for players who could actually help in a pinch.