Arizona RB Tim Hightower traded to Redskins.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

And the coaches deliberately decided to use him as the goal line back, thus giving him more opportunities to snatch touchdowns. The decision appears justified by his proficiency in said situations. The coaches could have used him in the goal line due to non-utilitarian reasons, such as personal preference or the like. Either way, his use as a goal line vulture would likely have given him a higher TD total for the season. Hence, his TD total is not particularly valuable in determining whether he's going to do well or suck.

Now, I probably should have worded the sentence a little better since the word inflate carries the connotation that the coaches were trying to make his numbers look good for no good reason.

So what is your argument exactly? His high touchdown totals aren't reflective of the player he is because he got a lot of goal-line touches? All that tells me is Wisenhunt gave the guy the ball in the redzone because he has a nose for paydirt. Is that somehow a bad thing?

His high touchdown total doesn't help in determining if he'll be good? Last time I checked, if you score a lot of touchdowns you're really helping the team, and thus pretty good. Pretty simple really. He's not Chris Johnson fast, but aside from that he really doesn't have any holes in his game.

I'm sure he won't be an every down back. The NFL is a committee game these days, not to mention that's not Shanahan's style and really never has been (Terrell Davis is an exception, and maybe Portis to a degree in his first two seasons). But to make a statement like "just because he scores TD in droves doesn't mean he's a good player" seems pretty silly to me.

It's really hard to argue that (if he stays healthy- and he's never missed a game in 3 seasons in the NFL) Tim Hightower will not make significant contributions to our offense this year.