Cardinals Release RB James

[MTK]

I'm not sure how much of Betts' lack of carries last year was on him or just a bad coaching decision on Zorn. Betts has proven in the past that he's certainly a more than capable backup. If Betts was viewed as a poor backup why not ship him out? It's not like his cap number makes that an unreasonable thing to do.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I'm not sure how much of Betts' lack of carries last year was on him or just a bad coaching decision on Zorn. Betts has proven in the past that he's certainly a more than capable backup. If Betts was viewed as a poor backup why not ship him out? It's not like his cap number makes that an unreasonable thing to do.

I don't think Betts was viewed as a poor backup, but that's because even though his 2006 season looks completely out of character for the rest of his career, it was reasonable to expect that type of production to show up again in the future.

But now we are two years and a coaching change removed from the last time he's been effective, and he's since crossed the threshold of 30. Betts was never as good as he showed in 2006 to begin with, and when you add the fact that he's got no future or added value outside of the skills he's already bringing in pass blocking and 4 usually unproductive carries a game, it's hard to see him as worth keeping around much longer.

I think he'll be back this year and gone by this time next year, but if we want to rely on our running game, I think we should pursue other complementary options for this year. We know what we have in Betts, and it's not totally valueless considering he's good in the open field, but I think we can do better with no significant investment.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I'm not sure how much of Betts' lack of carries last year was on him or just a bad coaching decision on Zorn. Betts has proven in the past that he's certainly a more than capable backup. If Betts was viewed as a poor backup why not ship him out? It's not like his cap number makes that an unreasonable thing to do.

Well it's been a couple years since Betts' big "year" so who knows if he's still the same guy? Maybe we should've given him the shot to be, but I think a lot goes on saying hey we're paying Portis to play full games and that's what's going to happen, whether that's the stubborn way to do it or what.