Pretend you are the Skins' GM...

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

You may want to check the notebook, the Play-by-Play numbers come from Yahoo's game logs. I reviewed each game for 2010. Portis was 54/227/4.2 with 6 neg runs (11%), KW was 65/261/4.0 with 9 neg runs (13.8%).

While RT's neg run % is slightly higher, his higher YPC justifies the neg runs. Keep in mind last year was RT's first season of action and I expect improvement not only in his performance, but in that of the OL. You can't ignore one stat (YPC) and then rely completely on neg run %. RT isn't Chris Johnson with absurd breakaway speed and long runs of 50+, or Barry Sanders who would get neg runs all the time. RT can be a primary back and in his second year in the system, he'll improve.

Until someone steps up and takes the primary RB role (or RT can't stay healthy) it is RT's to lose.

Okay, I probably just have my baselines wildly wrong. I said 3/10 carries lost yards. That was factually incorrect. It was much closer to 2/10.

It doesn't change my argument any: it's still an obscenely high amount compared to the team average. Torain still is nothing if inconsistent from carry to carry and even from quarter to quarter. But it's still a pretty inexcusable error on my part to miss by 10%.

I am not ignoring his high YPC average, I am just pointing out that the distribution of his runs leans heavily towards ineffectiveness. And it's telling to me that a vocal minority has been unwilling to accept that point while most of the people reading this thread are thinking to themselves "yeah, Torain is pretty boom-or-bust from what I remember."

I'm surprised that no one has tried to piggyback on JR's argument that chain moving RBs are valuable. I know you mentioned it, but if I was trying to build the case for Torain as a starting NFL RB, that's where I'd begin.