I'll need to see him touch the ball 25-30 times a week for a few weeks in a row to be positive, but I am leaning towards those sentiments
Due to his size he probably can't withstand 30 runs a game, but why does he need to if we have Barlow and a healthy Houston. Give him 16-17 carries, 3-4 catches, and the rest of the guys can pick up the slack.
he is a great change of pace 3rd down guy. He cant consistently take 20 carries and be effective. We need to get a power guy who can start for us and give us 20 carries
Leon not only is fast, but he is an extremely strong runner. I don't think he's a 30 carry guy, but I think he can be the main back here.
Agreed. Folks in todays nfl, you don't want to have to expose your back to 30+ carries a game. Let Leon get around 20 touches between the run and pass game, and you will probably see leon get over 100 all purpose yards. This kid looks real good, he has the instincts, lateral movement, burst.... etc....everything you need to produce even if the line isn't dominating. Mangini, make him the starter!!
People have said the same thing about Warrick Dunn and Brian Westbrook, and theyre fantastic players year in and year out. Keep a solid goalline/short yardage back around, and theres no reason why a guy that size cant be your every day starter. I dont know how excited we should really be about this, seeing as this was the Lions, and it wasnt even the healthy lions, as they were missing their two best defensive linemen. But Washington looked real, real good today. If the offensive line can play in the future against healthy defenses as well as they played today against the Lions depleted defensive line, this team could make some noise.
Have Washington and Houston (for now Barlow) split up about 30 carries per game... it would keep them fresh throughout the season, and keep defenses on their toes.
how do expect a rb to get in a rhythm splitting 30 carries a game.. at this point all u need is a goal line back. from barlow or houston.
It was against the lions without their best d-lineman in Rogers, when he does this on consistent basis then we could stop talikn about Peterson and Lynch.
First it was "He got junk yards against the Jacksonville blowout". Now its "It was against the lions without their best d-lineman in Rogers". Maybe Leon Washington is good.
You can't base how many carries a back gets just on his size. Some small backs are also tough enough to be feature backs, like Tiki and Dunn. Some physical backs don't have enough speed or stamina to be every down backs, like TJ Duckett. It's a case-by-case thing. Give the man his shot, see what he can do. Writing him off because he's small is silly.
Very True... people said the same thing about Tiki when he was coming into the NFL.. wouldn't it be nice to have the next tiki barber
Maybe he is. But he did get a lot of yards in garbage time against the Jags, and the Lions were without their best defensive lineman in Rogers (as well as their second best defensive lineman, Shaun Cody). So yeah, Leon may be good--I'm certainly loving what I'm seeing from him so far. But we need to see him do this more than twicw before we anoint him the successor to Curtis Martin.
I never said that , all im tryin to say is that he needs to do it on consistent basis before he starts to be tagged as the franchise.
All Leon's recent string of success is doing is allowing the front office draft options for the future. I am not as adamant that a running back is the lock first round pick for the Jets as I was when the season began. That said, I would be shocked if this team didn't take a running back on day one next year. Maybe a Michael Bush or Kenny Irons can into slip to the second round, where we do have two picks.
Michael Bush will slip into the 2nd round (With or without the injury); Kenny Irons will be a first rounder. How 'bout one of Michael Bush's back ups, Kolby Smith? He's 218 lbs right now and has good playing speed. He looks like a solid 4th rounder right now. This is not going to be a great draft for running backs after the first 2 rounds.
