NFL Top 10 Rookies of 2008

[Carr Bombed]

Originally Posted by Texecutioner

Matt Ryan
Clady
Matt Forte
Joe Flacco
Chris Johnson
Steve Slaton
Eddie Royal
Mayo
Desean Jackson
Jake Long

I'll put Johnson over Slaton slightly, because many people forget that Chris Johnson had to be in a time share with Lendal White which made his stats a little less and no doubt in my mind that Johnson would have had at least 2 or 3 more TD's and maybe even 5 more had Lendale White not been there bruising in the red zone for them. It was harder on the Titans as well running the ball, because that is practically all they did since they didn't have a passing game and teams were stacking the box against them and they were still getting a lot of yards every week.

They both had great seasons for rookies, but I would have to slightly give the nod to Johnson, but Forte did more for his team than both of them did. Forte completely carried that entire offense for the Bears last season in the running game and in passing game as well practically. Slaton was great for us but he didn't carry our offense. He had a lot of help from Johnson, Daniels, and Walter which CJ and Forte didn't have.

It works both ways......CJ also played on a team that got teams off the field and in alot of games they played with leads so they were able to run the ball more. If Slaton played on that kinda team it wouldn't matter if he spit carries or not, beause there would've been alot more carries to go around and more favorable running situtations. (like getting TOs that allows short fields for more scoring opportunities). Tenn also had a bruising RB line.....how many times did we see last season (especially in short yardage situations) where the interior of the line were blown right off the ball and met Slaton in the backfield? that was a huge reason for our lack of success in that area. So while we had better offensive talent that helped keep defenses honest, Johnson had one of the best run blocking lines in the league that mauled people so it evens itself out.

[Bulluck53]

Originally Posted by infantrycak

Sure since they basically had identical ypc, given the same carries they would have had the same yards - that is kind of definitional.



Ummm, way backwards. Y'all went from having a good running game to having a great running game. We went from having no running game to a pretty good one and our O operates off having a running game. That was a tremendous help for us.



Didn't realize your VY comment was limited to the running game - of course he helps that. Overall I don't think the detriment to the passing game is worth the improvement to the running game, but that's another debate (which apparently Fisher agrees with me on).



Hard to tell, but while we are conjecturing, I don't think you would have been 13-3 last year with VY at the helm.



Not sure how splitting carries helps CJ. Either way they had similar carries and similar results. What someone else was doing with the ball, either handing off to Lenwhale or tossing to Daniels on the other plays is separate.



Agreed both are good and hopefully don't have careers shortened by injury.

I fail at the multiple quote thing so:

2. The Titan's struggled to score on offense in '07. I can't find a stat that will separate offensive and defensive tds but they had a ton that year, which helped their overall ranking in points scored. In '08, they averaged four more points a game jumping 8 spot in the overall NFL rankings, with the defense that is huge. Collins only had________ tds, which is aroudn the same number VY did the year before. The difference is the impact Johnson had.

3. We are a running team so when VY gets into the game, and this should improve even more with he and CJ in the backfield together, the running game improves. Collins in the passing game mostly performed on 3rd downs or long yardage. 1st downs and downs that are <5 yards is always almost going to be a run or play action with Fisher.

4. You may be right.

5. To me, CJ splitting carries makes his stats even more impressive because put up those numbers when he wasn't the full time starter. We'll see if he can do it as LenDale continues to get phased out of the offense as a whole.