Raheem Blackshear Overreaction/Hype

[BillsFanForever19]

Just now, BADOLBILZ said:

The route to making this opening week 53 man roster for Ekeler and Duke Johnson is to not only produce at RB but to push Taiwan Jones off the roster with their special teams play.

 

Not going to happen. Taiwan is a lock. McDermott sat him to protect him all Pre-Season. He doesn't do that if a player is even remotely on the bubble. Never has he protected a player and then released them.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

We all know that productive RB's can be found anywhere (though Beane has expended early draft picks on 3 of them).

 

Are you predicting that Blackshear is another Austin Ekeler? 

 

Ekeler earned his job on a lesser roster than the one the Bills have now but more importantly he excelled both at RB and on special teams.

 

The route to making this opening week 53 man roster for Blackshear and Duke Johnson is to not only produce at RB but to push Taiwan Jones off the roster with their special teams play.

Nah— not necessarily saying Blackshear is the next Eckler. I just don’t know. But RB is such a weird position where these diamonds in the rough can easily be found.

 

Just wish that sometimes these teams (not just the Bills) trust their eyes at the RB position, and not just go with the higher drafted guys. 
 

But we all know how this ends for Blackshear. Taiwan is not going anywhere. 

 

[BADOLBILZ]

7 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

Nah— not necessarily saying Blackshear is the next Eckler. I just don’t know. But RB is such a weird position where these diamonds in the rough can easily be found.

 

Just wish that sometimes these teams (not just the Bills) trust their eyes at the RB position, and not just go with the higher drafted guys. 
 

But we all know how this ends for Blackshear. Taiwan is not going anywhere. 

 

 

 

Who has Blackshear even outplayed though?   All the backs have looked good.    

 

The solution to your concern is for the team to not use so many high picks on RB's..........but that toothpaste is out of the tube and it's not like Blackshear has blown away the competition anyway.

 

And much like Antonio Williams before him, any production Blackshear has had needs to be weighed against the fact that he was pretty much "just a guy" over a 5 year college career.    

[benderbender]

Love the constant refrain about how RBs are a dime a dozen from the team whose struggles rushing is well known. 

[CountDorkula]

5 minutes ago, benderbender said:

Love the constant refrain about how RBs are a dime a dozen from the team whose struggles rushing is well known. 

They are.

 

Devin Singletary had 870 yards rushing last year on 188 att. 4.6 Yards per attempt.

 

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2021/rushing.htm

[mrags]

3 minutes ago, CountDorkula said:

They are.

 

Devin Singletary had 870 yards rushing last year on 188 att. 4.6 Yards per attempt.

 

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2021/rushing.htm

You’re really going to say 51 yards a game is good for a RB? 
 

🤦‍♂️

[CountDorkula]

1 hour ago, mrags said:

You’re really going to say 51 yards a game is good for a RB? 
 

🤦‍♂️

In limited number of attempts.

 

Give Singletary the Taylor workload of 332 carries.

 

I'll even rd down his YPC to 4 which hes never been below 4.5. 

 

332 X 4 YPC = 1328 yards, which would have been second in the league.

 

The Bills do not run the ball a lot, because they dont need to.

[mrags]

3 minutes ago, CountDorkula said:

In limited number of attempts.

 

Give Singletary the Taylor workload of 332 carries.

 

I'll even rd down his YPC to 4 which hes never been below 4.5. 

 

332 X 4 YPC = 1328 yards, which would have been second in the league.

 

The Bills do not run the ball a lot, because they dont need to.

Or….

 

they don’t run it a lot because Singletary isn’t that good and can’t be counted on.
 

He Never has been. 

 

it’s funny all this talk about RBs and yet here we are, talking about a 4th or 5th RB that likely is a PS candidate, making argument for keeping in the team because he could be a Diamond. Or because Jones isn’t worth it on STs. Regardless the arguments. If we all went back to the spring pre draft and asked if it was worth it to pick up an every down back that can do it all so that we could keep a bunch of STers I wonder what the argument would be. 

[Patrick Duffy]

13 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Who has Blackshear even outplayed though?   All the backs have looked good.    

 

The solution to your concern is for the team to not use so many high picks on RB's..........but that toothpaste is out of the tube and it's not like Blackshear has blown away the competition anyway.

 

And much like Antonio Williams before him, any production Blackshear has had needs to be weighed against the fact that he was pretty much "just a guy" over a 5 year college career.    

 

Fully agree all the backs have done well thus far. As for Blackshear, while he has gained attention, to me it's fairly clear the top 3 RB's locked in are Devin, Moss, Cook, and T. Jones (obviously for ST more than RB). Depending if they decide to keep 1 more RB then it's between him and Duke.

 

But if I'm not mistaken it's been 4 RBs that's usually kept on the roster past couple seasons? Anyways, my point is Blackshear is on the outside looking in and also another point of view one could have is while Blackshear has no question looked good, but against defenses 3rd stringers, how much stock can be put in it.

[Airseven]

There will always be young players who excel in the pre-season against fringe roster competition. These backs are a dime-a-dozen. Hopefully Blackshear lands on the practice squad. 

[ChicagoRic]

I actually took the time to watch Blackshear's college highlights and came away with a few things.

 

1) Runs well between the tackles. Follows his block, makes the cut and gets upfield quick.

 

2) Does not give up on plays. Saw quite a few examples where he was able to bounce out and finish a play when the initial hole was plugged.

 

3) Very natural catching the ball. Soft hands and catches in stride. Saw a few where he plucked low throws from inches off the turf transitoned smoothly North-South again.

 

4) Made lots of chunk plays. Plenty of 10-15 yarders... but is not a home run threat as he does not have the hyperdrive gear when he gets loose.

 

Also noticed in the preseason games that he is actually pretty active on special teams.

 

Very much doubt he makes the cut, but it would be nice to see him on the practice squad as a sorta of poor man's James Cook.  If Cook were injured he could fill the role.

[BigDingus]

On 8/22/2022 at 7:13 AM, jwhit34 said:

In terms of running ability:

• He is not a more accomplished runner than Devin Singletary
• He is not a more powerful or effective short yardage runner than Zack Moss
• He is not faster or a better pass catching back than James Cook

 

In terms of special teams:

• He is not better than Taiwan Jones
• He is at best in the mix in terms of kick returner but one cannot make a case that he is by far the best return man

 

I agree with your overall point about him likely headed to the PS, but how can you make all these assumptions with so few snaps in the NFL yet?

 

For all we know, you could be 100% right or completely wrong. We should know from experience being passed in the draft doesn't mean much, especially for RB's... Most of us would agree Fred Jackson, a guy passed over by everyone, contributed more to the offense than CJ Spiller, a guy we spent a 1st round pick on.

 

He only had one year as one of the 2 main guys splitting carries at Virginia Tech, & even then he only averaged about 9 carries a game... Yet the guy ended up with 760 yards & 5.7 ypc, as well as 250 receiving yards & 10 ypr in that single year.

 

MAYBE he's great. We don't know. What we do know is he won't be given the same benefit of the doubt due to his draft status, even if he plays extremely well. An UDFA rookie basically has to massively overperform to push out one of the incumbents (in our case 2 incumbents), & it's even harder for him as he's competing for a spot on a team that just used a high round pick on another RB...

 

So the odds are stacked against him, and I don't foresee him making the 53 man roster. I personally don't think Moss has shown enough during his time here that I'd be upset in any way to see him released/traded in favor of giving Blackshear a shot, but doubt that'll happen.

 

**TL;DR** - All I'm saying is I don't see any way we can assume any of the bullet points listed above are accurate. The closest being James Cook ran a slightly faster 40 time, so sure, Cook is faster. 

 

13 hours ago, benderbender said:

Love the constant refrain about how RBs are a dime a dozen from the team whose struggles rushing is well known. 

 

Seriously... oh the irony 😅

Edited August 25, 2022 by BigDingus

[LeGOATski]

19 hours ago, benderbender said:

Love the constant refrain about how RBs are a dime a dozen from the team whose struggles rushing is well known. 

You get a great QB or a great RB. You don't get both. The Bills are in the dime-a-dozen business. Cook may end up being an exception, as far as paying a RB bigger money, but that will likely depend on his contributions in the passing game.

[BillsFanForever19]

 

[NastyNateSoldiers]

On 8/22/2022 at 8:13 AM, jwhit34 said:

Underdog stories, especially RBs and WRs, seem to be a tradition unlike any other for Bills fans, and probably fans of most other teams. 

 

This year is no different. In the tradition of Da'Rick Rogers, Naaman Roosevelt, Brandon Reilly, Dez Lewis, Joique Bell, Cierre Wood, Christian Wade, Antonio Williams and of course Duke Williams, this year we have Raheem Blackshear.

 

Raheem Blackshear is a nice story. UDFA, comes in and does well in the first two preseason games, doing a lot to at least make it a tough decision on cutdown day for the Bills. But this is a story we see almost every year. 

 

Let's look at this objectively in terms of making the roster and what he could potentially provide to the team:

 

In terms of running ability:

• He is not a more accomplished runner than Devin Singletary
• He is not a more powerful or effective short yardage runner than Zack Moss
• He is not faster or a better pass catching back than James Cook

 

In terms of special teams:

• He is not better than Taiwan Jones
• He is at best in the mix in terms of kick returner but one cannot make a case that he is by far the best return man

 

If all of that is accurate, then he is perfect for the practice squad. Remember, every team in the NFL passed on him for all 7 rounds. Sure, there are UDFAs that make it, but a good showing in preseason games vs. 2nd, 3rd and 4th stringers will not change the minds of many (any?) NFL GMs. Go to the ESPN Scores page and scroll through and see who led each game in rushing. There were a lot of Blackshear-esque performances by guys you never heard of. 

 

Blackshear is a nice story, but I expect him to be on the practice squad.

 

 

 

He did show better vision then Moss has ever shown for this team. 

[ChicagoRic]

Calling it now. Blackshear is gonna "feature back" it tonight while also returning kicks and playing gunner. He may get cut, but he'll go out in style. 

[hemma]

8 minutes ago, ChicagoRic said:

Calling it now. Blackshear is gonna "feature back" it tonight while also returning kicks and playing gunner. He may get cut, but he'll go out in style. 

 

I hope so.  No guts no glory.

[Warriorspikes51]

If he performs very well tonight, they should really consider keeping him. 

He has an "it" factor to me

Edited August 26, 2022 by Warriorspikes51

[Warcodered]

Can he punt?

[ColoradoBills]

On 8/24/2022 at 12:41 PM, Airseven said:

There will always be young players who excel in the pre-season against fringe roster competition. These backs are a dime-a-dozen. Hopefully Blackshear lands on the practice squad. 

 

While there is merit in this, I do have a comment as so many fans feel this way.

 

During the draft players are evaluated against other college players.  They compete against the good and bad college players.

When these UDFAs get on teams playing against other non-starters they seem to be harshly judged.

I mean they at least are playing against the remaining non-drafted college elite, correct?

I feel the ones that excel in this situation at least have a chance to continue while the ones that don't probably never will.

 

That being said, I also hope Blackshear makes to PS and can continue to develop.  A few of these guys can succeed.