With the 2014 NFL Draft now in the rearview mirror, it’s time to take a look at some trends from this year. The biggest one has to be the fall of running backs in the draft. Coming into the 2014 draft, the lowest first time that a running back was selected was 37th when Giovani […] Read the whole post here.
Yes. All one has to do is look at the 2013 Atlanta Falcons. 68.3% of all plays run were passing plays. While they are the extreme, the trend is away from the running game. Another sign of the times was in this year's draft when Eric Ebron was drafted they commented to his less than optimal run blocking from the TE position and the consensus was "So what...he's one hell of a receiving TE". I think it will cycle around once colleges actually produce some Barry Sanders, Earl Campbells and Frank Gores, but as long as your Trent Richardsons and Mark Ingrams are the best of the talent pool RB entering the draft, the passing game will predominate.
and to piggyback what was said, actually typed, is that teams now are using two backs and in some cases three backs. Seems the league is getting more specialized in its players. Teams like the Saints like to use specific personnel groupings to dictate the role of the defense. Gone are the plethora of three down backs. Now it is speedy backs to get the defense tired from chasing them. Then the big back comes in and bruises the bodies and then back to the speedy back. Or bring in a rb that is a pass catching fool for the screens and passes to the flat. I miss the days that the same people played all the downs and didn't come out for situation football.
There's much more speed on the field and defenses are going to have to start moving side to side more which is why after a few days of thinking about it, I think the Steelers may have had their eyes on Shazier from the get go. I'm not buying that he was a back up plan to Fuller. Look at the Steelers draft and there's a whole lot ofmspeed in this class. More backs equal fresh legs. More packages. Speed packages.
As long as these rules are in place for WRs to do pretty much whatever they want, the pass will continue to be much more important.
