Barlow out of the running as rotation cut to 2 backs. - Merged

BARLOW out of running back rotation...

From today's Newark Star Ledger....and I like it..............

"Two days after saying he'll stick with his three-running back rotation, coach Eric Mangini has downsized the rotation to two. Rookie Leon Washington and Cedric Houston are in and veteran Kevan Barlow is out, a member of the organization told The Star-Ledger yesterday afternoon.

That person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of Mangini's policy of not announcing lineup changes."

 

Wooooooooooooooo!

Finally! No more barlow having more carries than yards, he is trash. Let Leon and Cedric lead the way.

 

Woooooooo! :beer:

And the trash is now out of our backfield, let Leon and Cedric run wild!

 

So Barlow is just going to ride the bench?

I still think Barlow should be the Goal-Line/Red Zone RB.

 

finally barlow was worthless

 

The last thing Barlow is is worthless. He's our best goalline back by far. I can guarantee you this has a lot to do with incentives... both to Barlow and to the 49ers in the trade based on playing time.

 

great move! I was hoping for this

 

yeah, barlow is just as impressive as houston. i dont know what the manlove for one or the other is though. we all tend to play favorites but the most impressive back on the roster is Washington considering hes a rookie.

other than that Barlow is a demon in the red zone. something I cant say for any of our backs. Houston is a good chain mover but I think he runs standing up straight and will take too many big blows, and considering hes no Eddie George or Earl Campbell, that doesnt make much sense.

we'll see.

 

If Barlow was that good and valuable to the team, incentives would not keep him on the bench. I understand you only said he wasn't worthless, but with Houston back I'm guessing Mangini thinks he can do whatever Barlow was doing as good if not better.

 

I think also that if we are going to continue with our running back by commitee cutting it down to two players is by far the best option. And we knew that houston could do the goaline runs from last season so it makes no sense to keep Barlow in the rotation.

 

I agree with the move, but for some reason i feel bad for barlow, and i am never the kind of guy who feels bad for a player who lost his job, but i feel bad for barlow because when we got him all you heard was about his attitude. He has taken this RBBC role in stride and has even helped the other backs. I dont think we should abandon him completely, use him on the 2 yd line or something, the guy can rack up TD's

 

I support the move, but do not be surprized to see Brad Smith have a couple of series designed around him this week at running back. This is the time of the year when you start playing all your trump cards.

 

I don't get what all of the Barlow hate is about. He's been serviceable, and hasn't had that bad of a season when you consider his PT. He can do something that Washington can't do, and Houston can sometimes do, get decent yards up the middle when it counts.

I'd cut the guy some slack...

 

This is a game by game decision. Obviously Mangenous picked the two backs that are best for "this game". This won't be a "mud game in NE against a stiff front 8".

 

If this is based on last week's performance, it is a rash decision. All the backs looked awful against the Texans.


TBTF

 

i had high hopes for barlow but he can only run between the tackles and that isn't our strength -- huston and washington haver a better first step and can get outside -- barlow goes north and south and rarely gets through first contact

they will use him on the goal line though since his is great for 1.6 yards per carry

 

Barlow will be gone at the end of the year. I still like the idea of a Brandon Jacobs prototype as an alternative to Neon Leon, but I'm not ready to give up on Houston yet.

I think Mangini knows Barlow is history around here and wants to give the extra carries to Houston to see what he does with more touches. Then we'll see where we're going for next year. Whatever we do, we really need to step up the running attack next year.

 

Chad has been very good this year, but he and the whole offense could be so much better if we had a dangerous running back. I'm not saying Leon and Cedric will never become feature backs, but we need that legit threat to make the next step. I seriously wonder what would have happpened if we could have kept Jordan. Who knows.

 

Barlow gave up the block that had Chad trapped by the legs only to be flattened by Super Mario. His blocking hasn't been great lately, but either have the others guys so I believe there is more to this....