12-07-2018, 01:41 PM
Well, we have Scarlett, Speights, and Maddox, plus Woods redshirting and Jones coming in. So there is no lack of bodies at RB; the question is how confident we can be that one of those bodies will produce next year. When Love became the running back in 2017, it had been on the tail of a 783 yard campaign in 2016 backing up McCaffrey. When McCaffrey became the starter in 2015, he had 300 yards and 7.1 ypc the year before (most of it coming towards the end of the season). And when Gaffney came back from a year in he minor leagues in 2013, he had 449 yards and 6.1 ypc backing up Stepfan Taylor two years before that.
By those metrics, there is reasonable confidence that Scarlett could be a credible starter; he's been our second leading rusher the last two years, and though his 236 yards on 57 carries are less than any of the prior successful incumbents, they are more than what we had in 2014, the only time in recent memory when we truly struggled to identify a primary RB (Remound Wright, our putative starter and leading rusher, had 102 yards on 20 carries in 2013). Plus Scarlett has 389 yards on 91 carries last year. He has been a solid, if not spectacular backup running back. Also, Scarlett has had a decent showing the last two years catching the ball out of the backfield, and that adds an element to his game (to be fair, we'd expect Wedington to be an excellent receiver out of the backfield as well).
Nor is there a lot of proven returning talent at WR (Irwin and, almost certainly, JJAW will be gone). Wilson and OSB (and perhaps Fehoko) are promising, but Weddington had comparable production last year, and in limited action this year. Weddington has a chance to be a starter at WR next year, and he would almost certainly be in the two-deep barring any surprises. At running back, while there is always a chance that Weddington could supplant Scarlett, the baseline assumption is that he is less likely to compete to start at RB than he is to compete to start at WR.
Put it all together, and I think your WR corps looks like: Wilson/Weddington/St Brown/Fehoko, (plus perhaps Bowman) and the RB rotation looks like Scarlett/Speights/Maddox/Woods (plus perhaps Jones).
BC
By those metrics, there is reasonable confidence that Scarlett could be a credible starter; he's been our second leading rusher the last two years, and though his 236 yards on 57 carries are less than any of the prior successful incumbents, they are more than what we had in 2014, the only time in recent memory when we truly struggled to identify a primary RB (Remound Wright, our putative starter and leading rusher, had 102 yards on 20 carries in 2013). Plus Scarlett has 389 yards on 91 carries last year. He has been a solid, if not spectacular backup running back. Also, Scarlett has had a decent showing the last two years catching the ball out of the backfield, and that adds an element to his game (to be fair, we'd expect Wedington to be an excellent receiver out of the backfield as well).
Nor is there a lot of proven returning talent at WR (Irwin and, almost certainly, JJAW will be gone). Wilson and OSB (and perhaps Fehoko) are promising, but Weddington had comparable production last year, and in limited action this year. Weddington has a chance to be a starter at WR next year, and he would almost certainly be in the two-deep barring any surprises. At running back, while there is always a chance that Weddington could supplant Scarlett, the baseline assumption is that he is less likely to compete to start at RB than he is to compete to start at WR.
Put it all together, and I think your WR corps looks like: Wilson/Weddington/St Brown/Fehoko, (plus perhaps Bowman) and the RB rotation looks like Scarlett/Speights/Maddox/Woods (plus perhaps Jones).
BC