With the third pick....

[sherck]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

But the Pats have done it W/O a superstar RB (other than Corey Dillon), it been mostly a RB by committee. Even back in 2006, there were times that Dillon was a healthy scratch.

The Pats RB's have been Corey Dillon, Lawrence Maroney, Kevin Faulk, Sammy Morris, Green Ellis, Fred Taylor, Stevan Ridley, Danny Woodhead, Shane Vareen, Brandon Bolden, Jonas Gray, LaGarrette Blount, James White, Dion Lewis, Mike Gilesllee, Rex Burkhead.

Notice a trend? All role playing RB's for the most part.

Although, the Pats offense is labeled a Erhardt/Perkins scheme, essentially BB and McDaniels are running a Ted Marchibroda modified offense from the '70's.

The old timers here can back me up on this, but the Baltmore Colts under Marchibroda threw to the RB's a lot.

I can see a lot of what Brady does under center is very similar to what Bert Jones did.

So, in theory, we would not need a superstar RB.

I don't disagree with you; however....

The Cheats have had the luxury of having a top defense for the majority of their run since 2006. This contributes to....

An effective offense centered around a stud QB. Yeah, I hate Tommy Cheater but he is a stud. This is fueled by....

An offensive line that, while not top five, has been solidly good for a long time. I think that Tommy Cheater's quick release and intelligence game plan design does a lot of this but....

Leading to the fact that RB, while getting 63% of the touches, is RARELY the focus of opposing defenses or opposing game plans. Early on, folks game planned to score on the Pats defense. Later, they game planned to stop Tommy Cheater. Rarely, if ever, did they gameplan to stop the run.

The Colts do not have a top defense, they don't have a stud QB (that might change but currently, and they don't have a demonstrated good game plan. That means that running back by committee will probably not work out much better than it has over the past couple of years for the Colts.

Also, our owner wants Barkley. He wants his next Edge. Big factor there.

I am with you, brother. I want a complete team with studs at QB, O-line, and on Defense before I want a stud RB.

However, if McDaniels' is our next HC, I see all the factors coming together at Barkley at #3 overall.

Walk Worthy,