I've always been of the belief that rb's shouldn't be drafted in the first round. I know that's somewhat polarizing, but the shelf life is just to short and the position is to injury prone. Age probably effects them more then any other position. When they lose a step they fall off the cliff fast.
I like Duke and I think hes underutilized. I'm not sure we know how to scheme him correctly. He's not a better wr then a guy like stills but the matchup between him and a lb should favor us 90% of the time. We just don't seem to go after that matchup like we should. The drawback to Duke is he doesn't block well and has trouble running up the middle.
This offense would be best served with a power rb who can run up the middle. We should be looking for a guy who gets great yardage after contact even if he runs a 4.6 40.
Problem is, ob wants that speed ,but he cant scheme it effectively.
Prior to Duke’s arrival, our 3rd down back was Alfred Blue. That dude didn’t even see more than 30 targets in any 1 season he was here and the only reason he saw more that 100 carries in any 1 season is b/c he always wound up having to start at least 2 games for us b/c Miller was out hurt.
But even with him getting more carries than Duke, Duke’s production in the run game is still on par with Blue’s and Duke has had nearly 40 more targets than Blue ever had in any 1 year he was here.
Now what that says aside from the fact that Blue wasn’t that good....which we all knew, is that Duke is getting many more touches and looks than any 3rd down back prior under BoB and there has CLEARLY been a concerted effort to get him touches.
He is not being underutilized & the only reason his number “appear” to be down compared to his numbers in previous years is b/c in Cleveland he was higher in the pecking order in the passing game there...at least in his 1st few years. His last year there, he saw the same amount of targets there that he got here this year.