Hmmm. How do I feel about this trade?
Confused. I’m not sure I see the point.
You bring in a guy like TJ Duckett. A big bruising back, just like Gibbs likes. Which is extremely ironic in my opinion. If you remember back to when Gibbs first took over, he already had a big back named Ladell Betts and he was relegated to the bench by the smaller, shifty, quick, slashing runner Portis who the ‘Skins traded 47 draft picks, a starting cornerback, and a roast beef sandwich to get. Two years and 2800+ yards later, you go and get a big bruising running back. Yep.
OK, so now what does this do to the backfield? Well, Duckett is as good if not better running back than Betts, and he’s proven more durable. And Duckett is clearly a better running back than Rock. I see a couple of scenarios here.
- Duck take Betts place on the roster and push Betts to #3? (Alternatively, Ducks takes the #3 spot straightup) Then Rock clearly becomes expendable as he is more expensive than either of the two young guys behind him. As long as those guys can come close to his special teams ability. That leaves three running backs to run the ball only (Betts may or may not have kickoff return duties this year). All three of these guys make a decent bit of coin, and Duck being a free agent at the end of the year is a good thing?
- Duck takes Betts spot straightup, and Betts is cut or traded. This seems to me the most likely as Betts makes more than Rock, and even if Duck has a higher salary, they just brought him in so I don’t think they would cut/trade him right away. Betts also has real value on the market and we can get something for him (unless we are dumb about it).
- They keep all of them. I think this is the most unlikely. No way Rock gets a carry unless the team bus is hit by a meteor, knocking the other 3 backs in front of him out of commission.
Let’s see how this plays out.