Cedric Benson - A Packer?

[Brandon494]

Because every RB on every roster in the NFL is somewhere near the runner Starks is. He takes a lot of negative runs. He has 2 fumbles in 162 carries. That's good for 3 or 4 fumbles a year, that is if he could ever actually play a year. He has 578 career yards in three seasons. He fucking sucks.

But the real mother fucker for him, the reason he's going to be cut, is because he's a shit pass protector. There is zero room on this team for a RB who can't pass protect.



Now, there's a chance he makes it. I'm not certain of anything, but don't sit here and talk about James "turnstile" Starks like he's some sort of standout NFL RB, a guy heads and tails above Brandon Saine. Just a guy might be a compliment to James Starks. And as pedestrian as his shitty 3-year career has been, if he gets AR killed, everyone on the Packers who decided to keep him around would be shooting themselves in the foot, if not the head.

We have the reigning NFL MVP, the guy voted to be the best player in the NFL by his peers. He's 28 years old, in the prime of his career. WE're talking about putting a guy who can't pass protect on the field because he's such a dynamic (578 yards in 3 years) talent. You're retarded because you talk in such certainties about things you know nothing about.

And exactly what did I say again?

[Lurker64]

At this point in their careers, Benson is a much better inside zone runner than Starks is. Starks habitually tries to take everything outside even when the hole is, say, Between Sitton and Bulaga.


Compared to Grant, Benson is a lot tougher in between the tackles, and Grant's best aspect is his home run speed, something that Saine can probably manage if you get him in space, and let's be honest this team doesn't really need home runs from the running game. This team needs "keep the clock moving" and "convert short yardage" runs from its running game, which is something that Benson probably does better than Grant.

[RashanGary]

While I agree Starks is better than Saine or Green he has never consistently shown any thing to warrant being a starter.
Like other wonder is Benson better than Grant?

None of us have any clue if Starks is better than Saine or Green. We have one guy who's had a pedestrian 3 year career and two complete unknowns.

Late round draft picks/undrafted guys are a little like rolling dice. We rolled the Starks dice. He came up a 2. Now we have Green and Saine. We have no clue where the dice is going to fall with these guys.

If I had to put money on it, I'd bet both Green and Saine are better than Starks. Both are in developmental stages. Signing Benson shows they are not confident in Starks being their guy. A guy like Starks, he's no longer a "see what we might have" developmental guy. He is what he is. Either he's the guy or he's not.

Benson is already the guy they're hanging their hat on, as a starter. Now it's roll a couple dice on the developmental guys or roll one dice and keep the "2" with Starks. As far as I'm concerned, if Benson is the guy (and he's clearly better than Starks in every way imaginable) then I'd rather role two dice than have Starks in the way of a possible gem. To be honest, there aren't many running backs worse than James Starks, so why not roll a roll a couple dice and see what you might get.

Worst case, Green and Saine don't develop at all, and suck ass when the lights come on. What then, we lost the great James Starks. Well, go sign Ryan Fucking Grant or any number of so/so running backs who have been more productive than Starks.

Who knows. . . . But this idea that James Starks is anything better "just a guy" I don't know where it's coming from, or what games they're watching, but he's a JAG if there has ever been one.

[Guiness]

Did I miss something? Is he signed?

Looked around the sights, don't see anything yet, everyone here seems to acting like it's a done deal!

[MadtownPacker]

What's the worse that can happen and Benson should be motivated = great move by TT.

[Bossman641]

Because every RB on every roster in the NFL is somewhere near the runner Starks is. He takes a lot of negative runs. He has 2 fumbles in 162 carries. That's good for 3 or 4 fumbles a year, that is if he could ever actually play a year. He has 578 career yards in three seasons. He fucking sucks.

But the real mother fucker for him, the reason he's going to be cut, is because he's a shit pass protector. There is zero room on this team for a RB who can't pass protect.



Now, there's a chance he makes it. I'm not certain of anything, but don't sit here and talk about James "turnstile" Starks like he's some sort of standout NFL RB, a guy heads and tails above Brandon Saine. Just a guy might be a compliment to James Starks. And as pedestrian as his shitty 3-year career has been, if he gets AR killed, everyone on the Packers who decided to keep him around would be shooting themselves in the foot, if not the head.

We have the reigning NFL MVP, the guy voted to be the best player in the NFL by his peers. He's 28 years old, in the prime of his career. WE're talking about putting a guy who can't pass protect on the field because he's such a dynamic (578 yards in 3 years) talent. You're retarded because you talk in such certainties about things you know nothing about.

Benson isn't much of a pass blocker himself, has 12 fumbles the past 2 years on 594 carries (a much worse rate than Starks), and only has 43 catches over the past 2 years.

I'm not a fan

[OS PA]

I say we run with only three te's this year, 4 rb's, and 1 fb.

[pbmax]

I say we run with only three te's this year, 4 rb's, and 1 fb.

That's crazy talk right there. Who will play on mediocre special teams?

Back to Starks and CedBen. Let me play Nutz here for a moment. Everyone is selling Starks stock as fast as they can and pretending they weren't excited as children at Christmas when Starks went ProBowl versus the 49ers and had league high yardage through the playoffs. Everyone was eager to replace Grant (except maybe Harv?) because there was no high end with him. A running back who can go long is great unless he can only go long if he doesn't need to change course or make someone miss. When the best you can say about a running back is that he always falls forward, you are in AJ Hawk replaceable territory.

Starks was inconsistent last year and I think Lurker hit on the key point that he was mainly inconsistent inside, where some of his best runs came from the year before. Maddening. He has better hands and timing with the passing game than Grant did; he has the only screen plays you could be proud of as a Packer fan in the last two years.

But pass pro has never been his thing and it was obvious he would be a liability as a 3rd down back. So Starks seemed ticketed to do Grants job on first and second down. Fine and dandy. But Finley apparently unloaded his bad hands from last year on Starks over at Craig's List and he has developed a pattern of fumbling (though the first one versus SD was some other kind of mistake as he never got the ball cleanly-still could be his fault). What do you do to a player who has more to prove and is instead going backward (Daryn Colledge)?

You bench him and stick someone else in there. CedBen's numbers are worse than Grants, so I am not entirely clear on that choice. CedBen has more wear and does not have Grant's top gear, though he can shake one guy and still run someone over. Not sure about his pass pro, but the Packers were already working on a Green/Saine 3rd down contingency I would think. Grant was fine for a while and the Packers refused to use him as the 3rd down back.

So the Packers signed a guy who might be worse and more used up than the guy they refuse to resign (Grant) and whose only clear advantage is running between the tackles. So either M3 is planning on running a lot of inside running plays behind Jeff Saturday, or Starks hasn't been cut yet.

[Harlan Huckleby]

The GMs around the league don't think Ryan Grant is very good.

[mraynrand]

I don't even know why we signed Benson anyway, does TT not know Alex Green will go down as one of the best RBs in Green Bay history.

TT knows. Benson is insurance. How is Green's knee? Is he ready? How is his pass pro? Maybe he's just a bit too 'green'....

Starks is 'injury prone' LOL

[rbaloha1]

Starks is injury prone and inconsistent. Its tough to gauge Green since he runs behind a pathetic second team o-line. Saine is promising but hurt. Tyler is a practice squad candidate.

At first blush, the pick-up of CB is puzzling given the character issues. Its interesting that TT's protege at Oakland was also interested.

As mentioned previously is punishing between the tackle runner for first and second down. Green is the third down back. Should Saine improve quickly, Starks could be the odd man out.

Overall I like the move. TT is always look to improve the team's talent and has learned about being too passive with available players like Moss and Lynch.

[King Friday]

And exactly what did I say again?

You claimed Starks was "more than just a guy", which blew up in your face Thursday night.

[King Friday]

Starks is injury prone and inconsistent. Its tough to gauge Green since he runs behind a pathetic second team o-line. Saine is promising but hurt. Tyler is a practice squad candidate.

Overall I like the move. TT is always look to improve the team's talent and has learned about being too passive with available players like Moss and Lynch.

I like Green, but he has learning to do (since he played college ball in a spread offense) and he's coming off a major injury that will likely limit his chances to work on building his knowledge this preseason. He certainly looks to be someone who could develop into a very good 3rd down back, although I'm not sure if he will develop into an every down back in the NFL. Saine is a big question mark to me...he appears to have talent, but it doesn't seem to flash as often as Green by the accounts I've seen. Maybe if he ever gets healthy and has a chance with the first team, he'll look better. All the uncertainty really made it necessary to sign Benson.

By all accounts, Benson has kept quiet and been a good soldier the last 3-4 years...and was reasonably productive doing so. I highly doubt he will be an issue in Green Bay, where the offense has plenty of veteran leadership and where Benson should have an inside track to getting a lot of carries in 2012. He probably doesn't have a lot of tread left on his tires, but the Packers aren't counting on him long term anyway.

The signing does appear to suggest that TT is acknowledging his current strategy at RB isn't getting the job done. He got lucky with Grant being available and having a few nice seasons. Other than that, Thompson has yet to find a RB who is a legitimate starting caliber back during his tenure.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I remember the game that the Packers held Barry Sanders to 12 yards. On that basis, I'd say that James Starks had a Barry Sanders like performance Thursday.

I agree with I.M. Scott that people are overreacting to one bad game.

But I've also heard rumblings that Starks has had a slow training camp. That rumble came from a Tim Van Vooren radio inteview. Van Vooren compared Blaine to old Packer back Tony Fischer. He was a guy who could shine in spot play, but flopped as a starter. To paraphrase Van Vooren, the Packers have pretty crappy running backs.

[VegasPackFan]

I think I had a post last year that asked if anyone thought Starks had any kind of breakaway speed. I think it helps to have a Ahman Green/Ryan Grant type talent back there where they can break off a long one or take it all the way. Starks hasn't shown ANY of that. Saine definitely has that type of speed. I think Alex Green does. Benson just might be the good solid guy we need in order to either develop these tow further or find someone else next year.