What would you do if Jevon Ringer blows CJ out of the water?

At least 8 of them were splitting carries.

 

That would be good.

That would mean he's better than White and we won't have a severe drop-off in production if CJ goes down like we did against the Ravens.

 

so what are you saying? Eddie "the workhorse" George is better because Jeff Fisher was foolish enough to hand him the rock 350-400 times a season?

 

Personally, I feel this stat doesn't work unless you also list the number of carries next to it.

I had a guy on Madden who was at 45.7 ypc... but, that's because he broke 2 big runs for almost 50 yards each. Granted, he only had the 2 carries all season...

 

Rushing Att/Season
Michael Turner / 376
Adrian Peterson / 363
Clinton Portis / 342
Matt Forte / 316
Ryan Grant / 312
LaDainian Tomlinson / 292
Thomas Jones / 290
Jamal Lewis / 279
DeAngelo Williams / 273
Steve Slaton / 268


Yds/Rushing Att
Derrick Ward /5.6
DeAngelo Williams /5.5
Brandon Jacobs /5.0
Chris Johnson /4.9
Adrian Peterson/4.8
Pierre Thomas /4.8
Steve Slaton /4.8
Sammy Morris /4.7
Jonathan Stewart /4.5
Larry Johnson /4.5
Thomas Jones /4.5
Michael Turner /4.5

ok then man... above is the same list of averages that are better than Eddie George's typical sub 4/yd carry average... Highlighted in red are the names of guys who were top 10 in attempts and top 10 in carry average... that's just last season...

Turner and Peterson are both better than Eddie George... or at least should prove to be better... They have enough carries to make a valid comparison.

 

You said Eddie was never good enough to reach the averages of the running backs you listed.
It's pretty well known that backs that split carries have higher averages in most cases, I guarantee you that if DeAngelo Williams or Derrick Ward were feature backs carrying the load they wouldn't have such an average.

Now in saying that, I don't think Eddie would have averaged 4.6 - 4.7 yards per carry but I think he would have been a 4.2 - 4.3 back average wise.

 

not with that foot.

 

Not to dispute the YPC point you bring up, but I think it is rare to have a back like Eddie who has the physical toughness couple with his run ability. I think his 3.7 YPC total over his carreer is respectable especially when you consider his last 3 years he was injured and on the decline. It is a testimate to the old school running backs that I dont think we will see much of anymore in this 2-HB era we are currently in.

For the era Eddie played in you couldnt ask from a much better HB than him. Especially since we (Titans era) have been a run first oriented team.

Eddie also never had less than 310 carries until his final season. And also stared every game from his rookie season, until his year with the Cowboys.

 

so? All of this is only to underscore RollTides assertion that we are far better off using Chris Johnson more sparingly. I am convinced had we a better one-two punch; not Robert Holcombe, Skip Hicks, Chris Brown, Mike Green, Rodney Thomas... guys like that... Eddie wouldn't be #5 on the all-time carries per season list either... likely wouldn't have had the injury situation... Probably never would have gone to Dallas on us... But he was run into the ground.. all it does is prove that a two back system in a run oriented offense is superior to the alternative of giving a guy 350 or more carries a year... and my examples above.. well, Eddie George and history says that approaching 400 carries a year is career suicide. Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner can't keep that up. It will catch up to them.

 

Actually eddie's career average was 3.6 and during his prime years 1996-2000 he only averaged 3.85 per carry.

The bottom line is that several average backs could have averaged that over that time. I guess we have to weigh the value of having that one iconic type back vs simple production.

I know this never have we had that type of RB production that we had last year. 2001 yards 24 Tds and a 4.43 ypc will make us forget eddie george pretty damn quick. That's what CJ and lendale combined for..