It's kinda nice to see us being considered, again, as a team on the rise who could contend next year. Reminds me of some of the articles and talk about this team coming off of our 7-9 season. I think how this team responds to the expectations will be different than last time.
It's interesting to consider the health status of our running backs when you put it into context relative to the rest of the league and the nature of the position itself. No doubt, we have two guys who have major, consistent medical problems, and a third coming off of a knee injury. But then again, these are running backs, they have one of the shortest life spans in the NFL of any position for a reason. They take a beating game in and game out for their entire career, it's not surprising to see them hobbled so often. Look at all of the teams in the NFL, you won't be hard pressed to find 2/3's+ of them have primary backs, or backs who are intended to play a major part in their rotation, who have chronic injury concerns or a history of a significant injury. It's the nature of the position. That said, I do believe we need to acquire a young healthy back in the draft to fill out our rotation.
As to the one pick away, what would get us over the hump... I don't think we're 1 solid
pick away, I think we're 1 good
draft away from contending. We desperately need a corner, a LT, and a play maker to help out in the backfield, IMO. I think unless a real stud RB falls to 18 we should take the best LT, CB, or if the value for those positions is not there take BPA. I feel like LT and CB are two premium positions who give us the biggest bang for our buck based on our needs and draft position. We have Kubiak and Gibbs running our offense now. One of the benefits to a guy like Gibbs and the zone blocking scheme is you can go find guys, who aren't worth as much to traditional style running teams, who fit your scheme later in the draft and get big production from them. That's an advantage to us because it allows us to take other needs earlier in the draft, IMO. Granted, you can make the case that Gibbs should be able to make a player out of a later round tackle just as I expect him to do with a RB, but I like the top talent at tackle this year. I think RB is deep enough where we can still find a player in the 3rd, 4th, or later who can produce for us.
The bottom line is it's tough to come by premium tackles and CB's in free agency, and there's a decent 1st round crop for both of those positions this year. If we get a little luck and get some help at tackle, CB, and RB I think we could make some noise this year. Can't wait for draft day......