He's Ryan Grant, not Barry Sanders, lol.

Grants to the outside, sees a defender, speeds up, tries to stiff arm the guy and he goes low at Grant's legs and stumbles out of bounds.

I've watched it about 7 times now and I just don't think he has the balance or center of gravity to make a cut like that while off balance. Not many in the NFL could. Grant did turn it up field a lil bit after contact, but just ran out of real estate.

Now, if you want to say he should have ran straight at the guy, well, then the argument would be why didn't he bounce to the outside where it was open?

I just see it differently that is all. The best thing he could have done was drop his hips an lean to the right and try to gain more yards, but again, off balance that's not the easiest thing to do.

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So why not get a guy more like Barry Sanders and less like Ryan Grant? Look we opened up big holes for guys like Verrand Morrency, Samkon Gado, DeShawn Wynn and gave them all big games, why do we decide to give a guy who we picked up as a UFA a big contract because he did the same as the three guys before him, he just stayed healthy while doing it? Grant is not an NFL-caliber starting RB and apparently a lot of people don't agree with me, which is fine.

Zero you ask how many guys exist that can make plays on their own out of nothing. All I say is look to the successful running teams in the league, not only do they usually have one guy like that, but a second guy that can come in and switch up the pace with his running style. Grant is fine for a shared carry situation because he has his own style, but his style is just running straight forward. Have you seen the pitches we run to him? It's great for the ZBS, run to the side, make one cut and go north-south but we've already learned the ZBS doesn't work with our line, so why do we have a back whose only running strength is in that system?

I guess I may have just conceded my point a bit by pointing out the o-line but I'm saying backs like you've mentioned do exist, we just have made no effort in getting them. I so wish we could have kept Sutton, I think he would have been a great boost to our offense. Our dump-off pass game would look a lot better with a speedy guy that can slash instead of a guy like Grant who gets the ball and just runs straight.

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Here's a highlight video all from '07. Look at his style, he runs STRAIGHT. He makes a few moves on some of the plays but it's basically all running straight through holes. We have no holes now so he's completely ineffective as a RB. Now your point about the OL not making holes makes sense but if you give me the ball I can run through a damn hole. A RB has GOT TO make plays on his own. He's a skill player, that's his job. I'm not saying he has to do it all the time but making a few plays a game is what starting RB's do in the NFL.


[youtube]3-JdoWHgVEk[/youtube]
Now here's a highlight video with some highlights fro m 2008. Notice he runs slower, straighter and tends to fall down. Sure, blame it on the hamstring but don't tell me you think he looks more like the '07 Grant--he doesn't. I mean look at the run against the Vikings around :30 seconds. At the end of the run he just goes right into the safety and falls over. At 1:03 in the same video he does the same thing running right into a Bears safety. I mean both of those runs could have been TD's if he made a move.

LoL, you and about two dozen GM's are looking for the same thing. 🙂

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I don't know, I think a lot of teams are looking for players that are more like Barry Sanders and less like their starting RB which is a lot smaller of a gap than Barry Sanders and Ryan Grant. Plus I'd appreciate you'd respond to my entire post and not the first thing I wrote, it makes a lot more sense after I explain how Ryan Grant isn't a starting caliber RB 😉

lol sorry bud trying to do 52 things at once here... I'll make it a point to go through it though for sure.

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I disagree that you'd be able to run through the hole. You have to have speed to get to the hole and get out of the hole. It's not as easy as you are implying. Unless you can hump it at a sub 4.6 in the 40, I doubt you could. Nothing personal.



To my knowledge Grant has a heavy incentive based contract, not really a big one. Gado couldn't handle the zone blocking scheme that was implemented during his stay here, hence why he was sent away. Morency couldn't stay healthy and same thing with Wynn. Of the RB's we have, I think Wynn is the most talented and although he's had a chance, I'd like to see him get some more touches.

I know backs who can make more out of nothing are out there. But there on other teams already. The best chance we have at getting a good RB would be to pluck one from Dallas. Which, will not happen.

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Wow Grant ran like a mad man in 07. He looked like a totally different grant then what we see now. But if you watch that video just look at the holes he had.

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Nice videos. Although any player is going to appear faster when your video is 17 frames per second compared to a video of 29.97 frames per second.

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As someone who deals with video on a daily basis this is an excellent and very valid point but that's not what I was basing his speed on. His explosiveness is more of what I referring to. He's lost a lot of it and now that he doesn't have the benefit of a good line he's kind of rendered useless unlike a gadget-style back which we clearly are lacking. My concern is mostly in the depth at the RB position and the fact that we lack a compliment to Grant in the run game. I still stand by the fact that Grant is not a starting-caliber back but it doesn't mean he's not successful and can't get the job done. I feel that he would be better in a platoon situation and the fact that we only have 2 RB's at our disposal is a concern. Yes, Jackson can change that when he's healthy, which is actually a problem considering his history with GB.


LOL I disagree with myself too because that was an excessive comparison. My point is most NFL RB's have played enough football to know how to properly recognize an opening and run through it. A good RB can do much more than that and all I'm saying is Ryan Grant hasn't shown that he's capable of that type of big-play ability.


I'm just saying has Grant really proven he's a starting caliber RB--he's beat out RB's that put up the same kind of production who were no where near the NFL level either--Morrency hasn't done anything in the NFL, Gado was a Nigerian Doctor we got lucky with and hasn't done anything since then as well. Compare that to Grant who sat at third on a Notre Dame depth chart throughout college and was cut by the Giants. We haven't really had a chance to make a decent comparison because every since Grant signed that contract he's basically been handed the starting job. Maybe if we had kept Sutton we could see whether or not Grant is as bad or as good as we think he is. My issue also wasn't with the money given to him because Ted Thompson knows how to do contracts, it's just that we were ready to hand the job to a one-year wonder that came out of literally nowhere without any proven history of success (not even in college).


There's not much we can do about it now, I agree. We could try and finagle a trade with a team but that would cost us plenty and the money is already given to Grant meaning we won't make that move. That's kind of where my issue with Grant is--he hasn't looked that great after the contract and because we signed him to the deal we haven't been able to see what could have been at the RB position.