I don't know that they can cut BJGE. He tries HARD...he does what they ask, hits the hole hard, runs hard, doesn't go down easy.
How you going to cut him and keep Maroney who falls down when someone breathes on him. Or even breathes nearby.
Ever notice Maroney will come to the line kind of hop to the line with both feet spread wide...he then sees DL on both sides of his peripheral vision and hesitates. Then he just falls down basically. It's kind of comical.
Maybe the play calling is bad...whenever Maroney is single set back it's always Maroney up the middle, not a lot of guess work there for hte defense. Maybe swing him out wide or have him in as a blocker. Maroney should never EVER be running it up the middle.
Can they cut Taylor? He's washed up...great signing.
Career Attempts, Yards, YPC
Maroney: 388, 1673, 4.3
Green-Ellis: 74, 275, 3.7
Please, try to explain to me how BJGE, who "runs hard, hits the hole hard, and doesn't go down easy" can get 3.7 YPC, while Maroney, who apparently falls down whenever he sees a defensive lineman, manages 4.3. By the way, Maroney is also stopped for a loss on a significantly smaller percentage of his carries than Morris. I'm not sure about BJGE, but one of these days I'll run the numbers on him (although his sample size is small enough that I wouldn't put too much stock in whatever came out) and see how he stacks up.
And those are only the most basic statistics. I'd drag out some of the more advanced statistics that further show that Maroney is light-years better than BJGE, but a) it's already been done a dozen times here, and b) you wouldn't understand them anyways.
Overall, I think whatever problems Maroney has had have been mostly a product of injury. When healthy, he's been a highly productive back for the Pats (and one of the most efficient in the NFL). He's just rarely healthy, which is admittedly a problem. Still, considering that it's been shoulder problems that have done him in, and his shoulder is apparently fully healthy after the long layoff, I'm pretty optimistic.
I do agree with you to an extent re: playcalling, though, in that Maroney in space is explosive as hell. I think that we'll see him getting the ball in more creative ways this season.
EDIT: Just ran the numbers on BJGE, and as I said before, the sample size is small enough that I'm a little suspicious of the conclusions, but I will admit that they have an interesting wrinkle. I'd also qualify the numbers by saying that in 3 of the games (Broncos, Dolphins, Steelers) he got carries in blowout situations, but stats are stats, so take em or leave em.
When I did Maroney and Morris, by comparison, I found that they both got stopped for a loss a little over 10% of the time (around 11% actually, IIRC). For each game that BJGE played in, I broke runs down into 3 categories, as follows: (Gain, No Gain, Loss):
Broncos: (11, 1, 1)
Rams: (7, 2, 0)
Colts: (12, 3, 0)
Bills: (24, 1, 1)
Jets: (3, 0, 0)
Dolphins
7, 0, 0)
Steelers: (2, 0, 0)
So ultimately, you have a guy who, in 66 carries, only lost yardage twice. That's not totally surprising, given GE's running style, but it's awfully impressive. I'm not willing to read much into it, once again because the sample size is too small, but it's interesting.
Of course, there's a catch, which, once again, isn't really a surprise: how does a guy who almost never loses yards still end up with only 3.7 YPC? Well... by rarely gaining very much. While I didn't break down gains by number of yards, I can say anecdotally that a ton of them were for 1 or 2 yards.
So I dunno, go ahead and read something into those numbers if you want, though I wouldn't recommend it. Doesn't really do anything to dispel the notion that BJGE is a dependably sorta decent runner. If the sample size is an accurate representation of what he can do, then he'll lose yards less than Maroney and Morris, but will put up carries of 4+ yards far less than either of them, as well.