Blount out.. Get ready for a lot of GRAY

Gray showed his true worth today....a practice squad player. If you watch the tape on INdy those holes you could drive an 18 wheeler through and RB worth his salt would have had 150yds. Since then he hasnt done much but then again our oline is garbage in the run game making him and Blount look pretty poor. We dont have a RB that can really create when nothing is there.

Dagg said:

Gray showed his true worth today....a practice squad player. If you watch the tape on INdy those holes you could drive an 18 wheeler through and RB worth his salt would have had 150yds. Since then he hasnt done much but then again our oline is garbage in the run game making him and Blount look pretty poor. We dont have a RB that can really create when nothing is there.

Click to expand...

Evidently you completely missed his performance in last week's game against the Dolphins and the Bears game also, for that matter.

Way to cherry pick a 6 carry game.

Way to Cherry pick my comments. The point of the post still stands:

"our oline is garbage in the run game making him and Blount look pretty poor. We dont have a RB that can really create when nothing is there"

Dagg said:

Way to Cherry pick my comments. The point of the post still stands:

"our oline is garbage in the run game making him and Blount look pretty poor. We dont have a RB that can really create when nothing is there"

Click to expand...

You're the only one cherry picking. I quoted your entire post. Now you are quoting only half of your post.

#Unintentional Irony.

In the meantime, Gray has had more than just one good game. I pointed out to you that he has had 2 others. He tends to play well when given more than 10 carries. Yesterday he had 6. One of which was a goal line TD.

I have been a proponent of making him the starter, and Gray was disappointing in that role. He also got dinged up and had to have his ankle taped up on the sideline not far into the game. He did return, but maybe that is why we saw more of Bolden, who did a good job, especially at the end getting that crucial first down. However, I still think the Pats did not stick with the run enough, and it was galling to see on one series Brady get sacked twice, and then line up again empty backfield. Hello, Josh? It's not working and Brady is getting killed. How about changing it up a little? So what if we aren't getting much for yards. We're losing them with sacks, and risking Brady's health. Also, putting in Tyms for one play and then having Brady wait back there for him to get open is a play I guessed from my seat in bleachers. Predictable big sack on 1st down. You've got to put him in for a few plays and do some subterfuge, Josh. I know we all talk about the Jets and Rex Ryan being dumb, but really they are not THAT dumb.

I think Gray is WWWWAAAAAAAYYYYY overrated on this board, but I don't put the blame for his performance yesterday on him. He is a guy who can hit the hole fast and hard when it is there, but when there is no hole he is not the back you want on the field. This game was better suited for Vereen who is shifty.

I still think Blount is a better RB than Gray, but I am not blaming him for his inability to run yesterday. And I don't think Blount would have done any better. Not a day for a bigger RB. It was a small shifty RB day.

Blount would have been just as ineffective yesterday.....you're not going to run it much between the tackles against the Jets.......at least not the pats with how pumped up the Jets get to play

that said, running outside worked well......if only they realized that in the first half....the Jets are slow to recover if they don't set the edge fast enough......both pace and coples are good at that, but the only guy with top speed pursuit in the front 7 is davis.

Jury is still out, but none of the RB's have proven any consistency

letekro said:

Saying he should get carries over a career journeyman like Blount is far from saying that he's a star.

Click to expand...

A career journeyman who has averaged 4.6 yard per carry over his journeyman career, coincidently, exactly the same average yard per carry that Gray is averaging over his (very much shorter) career.

letekro said:

Saying he should get carries over a career journeyman like Blount is far from saying that he's a star.

Click to expand...

I know you didn't specifically say this in this post but it has been said and implied many times that Blount is a journeyman and Gray is not. Blount has had a much better career to this point and is less of a journeyman than Gray career-wise.

PatsDeb said:

I have been a proponent of making him the starter, and Gray was disappointing in that role. He also got dinged up and had to have his ankle taped up on the sideline not far into the game. He did return, but maybe that is why we saw more of Bolden, who did a good job, especially at the end getting that crucial first down. However, I still think the Pats did not stick with the run enough, and it was galling to see on one series Brady get sacked twice, and then line up again empty backfield. Hello, Josh? It's not working and Brady is getting killed. How about changing it up a little? So what if we aren't getting much for yards. We're losing them with sacks, and risking Brady's health. Also, putting in Tyms for one play and then having Brady wait back there for him to get open is a play I guessed from my seat in bleachers. Predictable big sack on 1st down. You've got to put him in for a few plays and do some subterfuge, Josh. I know we all talk about the Jets and Rex Ryan being dumb, but really they are not THAT dumb.

Click to expand...

I agree with everything in your post, except Gray was not the starter yesterday.

mosey threetupu said:

I know you didn't specifically say this in this post but it has been said and implied many times that Blount is a journeyman and Gray is not. Blount has had a much better career to this point and is less of a journeyman than Gray career-wise.

Click to expand...

Respectfully, I don't think anyone is looking at career production. It's just that, to some people, Gray seems to hit the hole quicker and lower than Blount does. Blount definitely has better long speed and I think he is clearly a threat late in the game to break a big one, but I just prefer Gray's style to Blount's and would prefer that he gets a chance to do his thing, meaning at least splitting carries with Blount, meaning more than 3 or 4 carries a game.

mosey threetupu said:

I know you didn't specifically say this in this post but it has been said and implied many times that Blount is a journeyman and Gray is not. Blount has had a much better career to this point and is less of a journeyman than Gray career-wise.

Click to expand...

Roman Phifer, Joe Andruzzi, Mike Compton, Antowain Smith, Mark Edwards, David Patten, Bobby Hamilton, Anthony Pleasant, Mike Vrabel, Otis Smith, Terrell Buckley, Bryan Cox, Jermaine , Larry centers, Christian Fauria, Tyrone Poole, Ted Washington, Roosevelt Colvin, Tom Ashworth, Russ Hochstein, Earthwind Moreland, Hank Poteat, Keith Traylor............

.......I forgot, what is so bad about being a "journeyman"?

IllegalContact said:

Blount would have been just as ineffective yesterday.....you're not going to run it much between the tackles against the Jets.......at least not the pats with how pumped up the Jets get to play

that said, running outside worked well......if only they realized that in the first half....the Jets are slow to recover if they don't set the edge fast enough......both pace and coples are good at that, but the only guy with top speed pursuit in the front 7 is davis.

Jury is still out, but none of the RB's have proven any consistency

Click to expand...

How come when Blount doesn't do well you say, they should have played Gray, but when Gray doesn't do well you say well Blount would have sucked too.

Gray is a young running back who had an amazing game and has had some nice runs since, and some very poor ones. He has not been given many chances by the coaching staff, who sees him every day in practice, which has led some people to think that BB is punishing him, at the detriment of the team, which is of course completely idiotic. It has also led some posters to completely overrate him.

Right now the coaching staff thinks Blount is better. They are not punishing Gray, and you people who keep thinking Gray is better are simply wrong. For some unknown reason, there is a large group of posters here who have spent the last two years ripping Blount. Last year Ridley was better, this year Gray is better. Last year the idiotic coaching staff wasn't playing Ridley, once again to the detriment of the team, to punish him for his fumbles. Of course Blount had a higher YPC than Ridley did, but that didn't really count. This year Gray is better. Perhaps one day you all will wake up and realize that he is pretty good.

Just for comparison, out of the all time top 20 running backs to play in the NFL, based on total yards carried, only three of them, #3 Barry Sanders, 5.0, #9 Jim Brown 5.2, and #19 OJ Simpson, 4.7 have a higher average YPC than Blount does.

shmessy said:

I agree with everything in your post, except Gray was not the starter yesterday.

Click to expand...

Who started? Thought it was Gray. Vereen?

PatsDeb said:

Who started? Thought it was Gray. Vereen?

Click to expand...

I was watching at a restaurant yesterday, and I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Vereen and Bolden were out there and getting handoffs before Gray got even his first.

That being said, I could care less who is a "starter". This ain't MLB or the NBA.

I think the Patriots are better when they use BOTH Blount and Gray, and I don't care which one is "better" - - they offer complementary benefits. So does Vereen and Bolden. I thought it did not help the team to keep Gray completely out in Siberia for 2 and 1/2 games.

shmessy said:

Roman Phifer, Joe Andruzzi, Mike Compton, Antowain Smith, Mark Edwards, David Patten, Bobby Hamilton, Anthony Pleasant, Mike Vrabel, Otis Smith, Terrell Buckley, Bryan Cox, Jermaine , Larry centers, Christian Fauria, Tyrone Poole, Ted Washington, Roosevelt Colvin, Tom Ashworth, Russ Hochstein, Earthwind Moreland, Hank Poteat, Keith Traylor............

.......I forgot, what is so bad about being a "journeyman"?

Click to expand...

At the very least, out of that list, Roman Phifer, Antowain Smith, Bryan Cox, Ted Washington, Rosevelt Colvin and Mike Vrable are /anything/ but journeymen.

rochrist said:

At the very least, out of that list, Roman Phifer, Antowain Smith, Bryan Cox, Ted Washington, Rosevelt Colvin and Mike Vrable are /anything/ but journeymen.

Click to expand...

Really? What was Vrabel when the Patriots picked him up?

Cox was considered washed up.

Pokey Smith was sloppy seconds from the Bills.

I'll agree Phifer, Ted W and Rosie were at the top of their games.

shmessy said:

Really? What was Vrabel when the Patriots picked him up?

Cox was considered washed up.

Pokey Smith was sloppy seconds from the Bills.

I'll agree Phifer, Ted W and Rosie were at the top of their games.

Click to expand...

What was Vrabel when they let him go. Or, more properly, for the years before that. It doesn't matter what he was when they got him. He was somebody Pitts didn't know how to use and Bill did. What was Welker before the Pats got him?

I don't even know who Pokey Smith is.

rochrist said:

What was Vrabel when they let him go. Or, more properly, for the years before that. It doesn't matter what he was when they got him. He was somebody Pitts didn't know how to use and Bill did. What was Welker before the Pats got him?

I don't even know who Pokey Smith is.

Click to expand...

You are completely missing the point (and making my argument for me, thank you very much).

The point is they were all "journeymen" when the Patriots got them. And they worked out pretty well, didn't they?

So I don't understand why it is such an automatic pejorative to label Gray or Blount "journeymen".

Belichick has done far better with "journeymen" FA pickups than he has done with draftees.

---And if you don't understand who "Pokey" Smith was, then you are a new fan, welcome aboard!

shmessy said:

Really? What was Vrabel when the Patriots picked him up?

Cox was considered washed up.

Pokey Smith was sloppy seconds from the Bills.

I'll agree Phifer, Ted W and Rosie were at the top of their games.

Click to expand...

I'd dispute that Mt Washington was considered at "The TOP of his game" when added.
He was on the downhill side, but still at the top of the slope. IIRC he got released [by prev team] because he wasnt a 3-down player anymore; but BB figured he could get 1-2 years out of him. It worked out great; but the wheels were definitely coming off after carrying a heavy load for too long.