Here, look forward to this.....

[San Jose Bills Fan]

I know lots of people are expecting CJ to have a great year this because Chan won't be under-utilizing him anymore. But I'm not convinced CJ was significantly underutilized by Chan.

 

CJ had 1244 yards rushing last year and 459 receiving. With 1700 yards from the LOS, Spiller was highly productive in Chan's offense. And the Bills finished 6th in the league in rushing. None of these stats scream COACHING FAILURE.

 

And it's not like Freddy is chopped liver. Obviously, Freddy was hurt last year and there were times when Tashard Choice was in for CJ and those moments were hard to understand. But if Marrone or Hackett pulls CJ out for a breather to let Freddy play, I won't cry. Freddy is a great back, too.

 

I generally agree with you that (IMO) CJ wasn't dramatically underutilized last season and I know this is not a popular viewpoint.

 

I'm skeptical of CJ's ability to shoulder a large burden and keep in mind he did get injured in the first quarter of the Cleveland game last year, even while being "underutilized." As a result of that injury, he only got a total of 16 touches in the games against Cleveland and New England.

 

What this means is that in the other 14 games, CJ got 234 touches (195 rushes, 39 receptions) for a true average of 16.7 touches per game. I would like to see this number increased to about 18-20 touches per game.

 

I will agree with the criticism of when he was taken out of games more than the criticism that he didn't get enough touches.

Edited July 9, 2013 by San Jose Bills Fan

[Big C]

I generally agree with you that (IMO) CJ wasn't dramatically underutilized last season and I know this is not a popular viewpoint.

 

I'm skeptical of CJ's ability to shoulder a large burden and keep in mind he did get injured in the first quarter of the Cleveland game last year, even while being "underutilized." As a result of that injury, he only got a total of 16 touches in the games against Cleveland and New England.

 

What this means is that in the other 14 games, CJ got 234 touches (195 rushes, 39 receptions) for a true average of 16.7 touches per game. I would like to see this number increased to about 18-20 touches per game.

 

I will agree with the criticism of when he was taken out of games more than the criticism that he didn't get enough touches.

 

I do agree that the issue is more of when he was taken out than how often. But I still think that CJ has proven his ability to take 20+ touches/game.

 

The injury agaisnt Cleveland was nearly devastating, but I don't know how much of it had to do with him being overworked. I mean, look at the two games against Miami. He touched the ball over 25 times in each, and it seemed to work out just fine. His numbers weren't always spectacular when he got a lot of carries (the closer against NYJ comes to mind), but for the most part, he seemed like a capable featured back.

 

If Freddy is healthy, I see no reason why they can't work out the right split. Teams have made good use of their backup RBs (the Ravens' Pierce comes to mind), but when you need the big plays, you have to have the right man out there.

[Orton's Arm]

I'm one of them.

 

I still don't think it was the choice to make at that time, or given the guys we had.

 

But, as others have said, Lynch was likely on his way out regardless. That's something I don't *know*, and hence I think it's a "wasted" pick when we already had two pro bowl RBs.

 

That all being said, I like CJ and hopefully our new coaching staff can use him to his potential.

 

Around the time Spiller was drafted, I wrote something along the following lines. "The Bills should have a bias against taking RBs. It's a less valuable position than many others. RBs tend to have shorter careers. And they have plenty of talent at RB already. In order to be considered successful, Spiller doesn't just need to be as good as whichever other player the Bills would have taken. He needs to be considerably better."

 

I don't know which player the Bills would have selected, had Spiller not been there. But if you look at the ten players drafted after Spiller, none have shown anything near what Spiller has shown, except for JPP. JPP was a one year wonder in college: there just wasn't enough data to justify taking him early in the first round. Buddy Nix had also indicated a strong preference for using first round picks on players who'd produced multiple seasons of high level college play. The next one year wonder + great combine player could be the next JPP--or the next Aaron Maybin.

 

With the exception of JPP, Spiller has greatly outperformed the other players who went in that part of the draft. As far as I'm concerned, Spiller has justified his draft selection; despite my anti-RB bias.