cooley and white

[joecrisp]

Originally Posted by JWsleep

I don't think he's the kind of blocker that Gibbs likes at TE--Gibbs kinda likes an extra tackle out there at times. I bet we'll see more traditional FB play down at the goal line this year. We had such trouble punching it in last year, it was pathetic. Cooley will start at H-back, no doubt.

I think you're dead-on with that assessment, JW. The two fullback draft picks make sense if you're planning on adding the traditional fullback role to your offense, particularly when you consider the kinds of fullbacks the Redskins picked: guys that can lead-block, but that are also very adept ballcarriers themselves.

When you have so much money invested in a smallish, slashing primary back like Clinton Portis, you don't try to reinvent him as a short-yardage, grind-it-out kind of back, and you don't invest a lot more money in adding that kind of bruising runningback to your roster. You just grab a couple of cheap bulldozers in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft, and throw them in there when you need to plow across the goalline.

It looks to me like Gibbs is trying to find his latter-day Gerald Riggs. I'm sure those guys will also study and practice the H-back role so that they can backup Cooley, but these guys definitely look like short-yardage specialists to me.