The Fumblerooski Podcast
Running Ragged -Ep 273 The Fumblerooski Podcast
The Patriots get a grade for their overall off-season in 2024, and David Johnson retires at age 32. I'm Adam Wright, you're listening to the Fumblerooski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's gotta get that 6 or 7 spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumblerooski podcast by Power88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ Madeeros and as I said, we have a great episode planned for you guys tonight. So the Patriots, their off-season was very interesting. So it free agency was a little, what we would call it, uneventful. Their draft was interesting and they did address their biggest need in the draft, which was with the number three overall pick, the quarterback spot. Using it on one of the arguably, I'd say one of the top prospects at the quarterback position in the 2024 draft. And joining us to cover all of these topics, we have formerly of WUSOC's productions and fans-only sports network. We have Chris He too. Chris, it's been a little while, welcome back to the show, dude. Yeah, thank you. Thank you CJ and Adam for having me back on the show. Always love talking football with you guys and pretty good rundown that we have for today, so I'm excited to hop right into it. Absolutely. So yeah, this off-season has been interesting. So they brought back some pieces. Mike Onwanyu and Kendrick Bourne, most notably, and they addressed a couple of needs in the draft as well, but Chris, being a Patriots fan that you are, what are your overall thoughts of this off-season in its totality now that we're looking back at it and looking towards the 2024 season? So obviously, the way we kind of look at this in New England is, it's been a tough, tough, ever since the turn of the decade into the 2020s. Tom Brady leaving after the 2019 season going to Tampa Bay and playing his career out there. New England looked like they had some type of talent going on with Mac Jones coming in as the starter, and things just slowly, progressively started to just fall downhill. And for many Pat's fans, such as myself, we thought that there might be some new hope, but obviously, it was just the beginning of the end in terms of the dynasty we all grew up with. So now we're just in this weird period, Drake May. Now the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots, Mac Jones shipped off the Jacksonville. And there's a lot in this off-season to kind of unpack, but to keep it simple, do I like what the Patriots put together? Yes and no, mostly because there really was no stars that this team went out and got. Changing of the guard in terms of head coach, Gerard Mayo stepping up now after being an assistant behind Bill Belichick, now stepping up into that leading role, and made some interesting acquisitions this off-season that I like and dislike, but for the most part, in terms of the depth they were trying to acquire, at least for a changing of the guard for now, was interesting. And I think drafting Drake May, that was the biggest thing that this team needed to do, and that's probably the big exclamation point was the quarterback position. That was the position they struggled with for the past four seasons, was just trying to figure out to go from Cam Newton to Mac Jones to just kind of get back to the ways that made the Patriots the Patriots. And a lot of people were nervous going into the draft that this team might trade down as they normally do, but thankfully they kept the pick, they drafted Drake May, and that is probably the reason why I'm going to say my draft grade early, just to kind of get that out there. I'm going to give them a B-minus, I don't think that there was anything awful that they made in terms of acquisitions, in terms of pieces to bring to this offense and the defense. I think what they did is a good starting position to transition a new franchise quarterback into this system. You get Jacobi Percette there to be that veteran guy. I know Gerard Mayo did say earlier on a few weeks ago that this is going to be a competitive QB battle between, there's like what, five or six QBs on this roster right now, there's a lot of quarterback, there's four, exactly. That's more than the Patriots are used to having, they usually only have two and that's what they roll with, but those are the days of Tom Brady. So at this point, it's going to be a QB battle. I still think at the end of the day, Jacobi Percette will win that role and go into that veteran role of teaching. Drake May in terms of kind of getting him comfortable and everything and we'll probably see Drake May take the reins some way in the midpoint of the season, potentially. You never know, it could be next year, but they did get him some help by resigning Hunter Henry. I think that was a great move. He's been, in my opinion, the only consistent piece for this offense these past few years. Then you go out and get KJ Osborne, he's had a good track record with the Vikings in that slot position, behind Jordan Addison, of course, Justin Jefferson. And then also, what I really like is they go out and they resign Kyle Dugger. They were going to franchise tag him, I believe they did, but the fact they got the extension Doug has done is huge because they need to keep that defense intact. There's still a lot of good pieces on that defense. You resign Uche at linebacker, that's great too. And then like you said, resigning tackles and going out and getting guards and tackles for this team, that old line has just been so broken over the past few years that they needed somebody there. And the fact that they kept guys and went out and signed some guys was huge for this team. So overall, when you look at all the acquisitions as a whole, I'm definitely kind of skimming over some as we go, but at the end of the day, like I said from the beginning, you set up this team for the future to bring somebody in. Obviously, there was a lot of talk of them going out and saying, hey, there was a lot of circulation about training for DeAndre Hopkins. That never happened. And the thing is, you want a guy to come into this unit and be successful. They did that, but they did it in a way where there's not as much pressure. And I think that's the big thing here. The Patriots, I'm sorry for Pat's fans. They're not winning the East. They're not. Honestly, the front runner right now, it's tough. It's a toss up. At this point, if I had to pick one who's going to win the East and this is kind of going down the road, but I probably say it's probably going to be either Buffalo or Miami, in my opinion. Jets, I wouldn't say the Jets, but I need to see how Aaron Rodgers performs. But right now, this is a transition period. The Patriots as fans, we're going to just have to sit and wait and see how this thing unfolds. Drake made could be great or he could be the, he could just be one of those first round quarterbacks that was like, hey, he looks great on paper, but when it came down the brass tax, just wasn't enough. So at the end of the day, the B minus is definitely, I think, a fair grade of this off season. The Patriots did what they needed to do in terms of preparing for the future. And I think they're setting it up in a good spot right now. Okay. Well said, CJ, what are your thoughts? CJ, you're also muted. Please forgive me and so on and so forth. So the off season's weird because, you know, we were totally ever going to go burn cash. You know, we were promised big splashes, you're promised to finally get talent. And when you look at the roster at the end of the off season, it's just, there's just no names. And I know at the end of the day, like, you know, a name is just that, a name, there's no guarantee of talent, but there's no stars, there's no names, there's no like highlight real guys, there's no flash, there's just, I mean, they, they built a base, I'll give them that. But that's pretty much it. This is like a depth like retooling and look, and I'm glad they got that Kendrick born and Hunter Henry and Uche and Alwano and Duggar because those are like the guys that you probably needed the most. And a lot of things I will give New England credit for, New England also did a lot of addition by subtraction in the sense that guys like Miles Bryant and Devontay Parker were kind of given the heap ho, you know what I mean? Trent Brown too. Yeah, Trent Brown. Like I said, I, I don't know if I ever saw this on the podcast, but I happen to be a very firm believer in addition by subtraction. And that's what we did. We got rid of like a lot of the dead weight, a lot like the underperforming guys. So at least I would say that I was kind of pushing back on this narrative. But if nothing else, they've kind of maybe raised the floor of this team slightly. But just on paper, it's just not exciting. And I get that, you know, like I said, they're building a base. But the only saving grace this offseason was the draft, because Drake Mary, in my opinion, was the second best quarterback, you know, inside of Caleb Williams. And you're able to land him. That is great. That's good. You got two receivers and Jalen Polk and Javon Baker. I liked both of those pitch. Sure, you could argue for AD Mitchell, but he's like a well established locker room cancer. And he has well documented character issues. And that's just something that would scare a straight lace team like the Patriots. And like I said, and I love Baker, Baker already looks like fun. You address the O line. You guys like Kate and Wallace and Leiden Robinson, we even took flyers on late round, guys like Jeheem Bell and the only defensive player we took, which was a corner Marcellus dial. I like that. Also, just for fun, they threw in a Joe Milton for viewing pleasure as well. Yeah. And there's one thing I do want to mention, it's that I've heard rumors just on the interwebs that going into training camp, we're going to slim down. We're going from four quarterbacks, which for those key and track at home are Jacobi Bursett, Bailey Zappy, Drake May and Joe Milton. We're going from four to three. And wonder who that will be. I have a pretty solid idea of who the odd man out is. I mean, all right. I'm not even going to like just for the sake of the Joe keeps it spends going. It's obviously zappy. And can the zappy fans finally go away? God willing. But above all else, I'm kind of in the line with Chris. I'd give it like a high B minus maybe a low B because just the this off season, and like I said, it was just so weird, like how you knock, how you crush the draft, but, but you just did like nothing else. I mean, like I said, you're trying to build a base. But I get that and to be fair, I'm not going to say that I'm completely unsympathetic towards them. Because look, New England's just not an attractive destination. It's not the weather sucks, Massachusetts, it has like an unreasonable tax rate. I mean, all jokes aside, there is no reason for the taxes to be the way they are. That I mean, just doesn't add up. And you know, the Patriots, you know, they're in a rebuilding phase and you know, they don't have Brady or even like the greatest coach of all time ballot check to even like were someone in. So there's that. And I get that. And so you don't want to be that team or the only way you have to call players in is to just grossly overpay. I mean, we want to Calvin Ridley, but like 90 million for Calvin Ridley is a little much overall. I just you can't really hate what they did. And then you also got to remember the Boston sports media and just the fan base here. You know, how cutthroat everybody as fans is and what we expect from teams. And like, this is just every sport in New England. So at the end of the day, it's like, if you don't perform, get to get the hell out. That's just the way this media is and the way this fan base always has been. So it's a lot of pressure. Yeah. Yeah. So you got, in my opinion, you guys have been very generous about this off season. I think I think you're right. To be, to have some optimism, I think I did like the draft. I wasn't overly crazy about it, but I thought it was good that they addressed their number one need, which was the quarterback. And I'm fine with it because I believe that they're going to sit him. And I don't think that I don't, and I don't think that they should start him for a couple different reasons, other than him not being vaguely ready. So I did, I liked the fact that they brought in, that they, they retained some of their free agents that were kind of, I wouldn't say must keeps, but they were, they were their bright spots on the team. Looking at their offensive line, it is still a problem. Not only has a core for their only left tackle, left tackle on the roster, not only has he never played the position, but there's also on your interior offensive line, Cole Strange, your first round pick is going to be out at least halfway through, at least the first half of the season. Do you want to throw Drake May into that? Absolutely not. So like this kind of kills, this kind of kills the possibility of them being ahead of schedule. They didn't build any sort of, any sort of roster that was ready for a rookie quarterback to step in. So even if Drake May was ahead of schedule and pulls a CJ Stroud, we'll never see it because he's not going to be ready because the rest of the offense around him isn't ready for, to support that kind of a quarterback. With the Houston Texans, yeah, they finished 3-13 and won the season prior, but they had a really good offensive line. They may have won three games that year, but it was not because of their offensive line at all, especially their bookend tackles. Laramie Tunsel and Titus Howard are arguably the best bookend tackle duo in the league. And so looking at that, like yeah, I like their other picks that they made in the draft, but it feels like they were high upside shot in the dark type picks where you hope to be pleasantly surprised rather than having expectations. I feel like if you were to, you were only a few picks away from being able to trade up and get Xavier Laguette, I would have been much happier with that pick over Jalen Polk in the second round. To take a second, I'm not saying I don't like Jalen Polk, but it feels like his ceiling is a little lower than Xavier Laguette and other high end prospects who went late in the first round that you only fell a few picks short of. Do we just love just stockpiling these wide receiver twos? Let's go get Vivante Parker. Let's grab Juju Smith-Shuster. Let's go get Kendrick Bourne, right? Let's go and grab, what's his name, KJ Osborn, who I think can be a number two. He's been a three all his career, but I think he can be a lot better than he has been. That's all fine and good, but you need that number one target. I see he's been stressing all off season long. We need that number one target somehow. It's time to stop pussy footing around and actually go and get that player. I mean, and that's the tough part because I mean, they did try and make that move with Calvin Ridley and you look at the numbers in terms of the salary they were willing to give him and then what eventually what team ended up signing him I'm drawing a blank right now. Yeah, the Titans. You look at the contract and it's similar numbers. They just gave him a few million dollars more and he said, yeah, I'll take it. I mean, honestly, it was slim. It was slim. This team is doing what it takes to go ahead and get that number one guy. But the end of the day, right now the market's not attractive. The steam has to show that there's an attraction want to be in New England. That's just what a lot of people want to bash New England, but Ridley's wife just didn't want to be here and he had to listen to her. Let's be honest. Yeah. Also, also I'll say this, I'd like Calvin Ridley. I don't think he's a one. I think he's a lot. I don't think he's as good as people try to say he was a bit of a disappointment in Jacksonville and outside of that one year in Atlanta, where he had a 1400 yard season, you know, who else had a 1400 yard season and everyone thought he was a number one? I'll give you a hint. He's on the Patriots roster right now, you're going to say Juju, right? Yes. Juju Smith Schuster, who's also I'm pretty sure still younger than Calvin Ridley, by the way, I mean, he's not even 30. I almost kind of want to give a pass for Calvin Ridley in a way with that year with Jacksonville, just because quite simply, I mean, are we going to sit here and say Trevor Lawrence is an elite quarterback? He should be, but it's weird. It's a red flag to me that the jury is still out. He should have made that job this year. As long as they have parts tailored, he will not be. Exactly. Because the point is, is he? No. The thing is that team's going into contract negotiations pretty soon with them. And to be honest, he doesn't deserve that because he did not perform to the highest of standards last year. He had some shining moments, but of course, and I mean, you can't really put all of this on him because he got hurt and then they rushed him back out onto the field to be like, hey, we got the number one seed right now in the AFC South, go ahead and win it for us. And it's like, dude, you need him to rest. His injury was worse than you thought. So I mean, Ridley had some good moments last year, dude, I think he's a number one guy. I don't think he's a top like 10 wide receiver. Absolutely not. He's at the least French 15, but at the end of the day, I think he would have been a good number one piece for New England or at least target because at the end of the day, he's got the speed. He's got the agility. He's got all the things you need in the number one guy. So I'll do you one better. Justin Fields is an elite isn't an elite quarterback. No. DJ Moore had a 1,300 yard season, so like with truly elite wide receiver, you get to a tongue of I low is not an elite quarterback, but he's but Jalen Waddle and Tyree Kail are still good enough wide receivers so they can overcome to a tongue of I low as deficiencies. That's kind of the way I look at it with a wide receiver one, right? With T. Higgett with Calvin Ridley, I mean, we could go all it's Calvin Ridley's kind of besides the point in this because he's still he's not either way. We could go back and forth all we want. He's not a patriot because I know I was going to say because I was like, come on, comparing Calvin Ridley to Tyree Kail, like, come on at that point, I know I'm out of the two. Well, I mean, of course, dude, of course, like, I mean, he's proven that he like honestly bro, at this point, Jalen Waddle could go to any other team. I'm like, go ahead, he's going to be your number one. He's just that good. But Andy fell into a good position in the draft with him and then be like, hey, why don't we just have two number ones for two to throw to that's why that production so good there is because he's got two top wide receivers to throw to. I mean, it's just tough because I mean, I can understand putting Calvin Ridley next to DJ Moore in a way. But honestly, if I want to pick between the two, I'll take Calvin Ridley every day, like come on and like DJ Moore, DJ Moore solid, but at the end of the day, it's like, he had that flooky 300 yard game and I want to take that away from him because that was a huge game he had because hey, we don't see that every day. So at the end of the day, you get two to 300 yards in a game. Hey, you may, you had yourself quite a day, go and get your bonus, you're sitting pretty. But no, in terms of like kind of comparing the two, I see where you put that. It's just when you said Tyree Kail, Jalen, while I'm like, man, that's why I said Jalen, that's why I mentioned Jalen Waddle first because Tyree Kail is the best of the best. But like, I mean, I could go down, you know what I, who I will settle for as a wide receiver one. And he's, he's still very young. He's three years younger than, than Calvin Ridley, and he's still available via trade. I know what you're going to say. Oh, he's, he dresses in orange and he wears stripes. Yeah. And he's the number two to tie to Jamar Chase, another guy who's one of the best of the best. However, he's a number one somewhere, which would be New England, I've, I've either way, I think we can all agree in this chat here. They need a wide receiver one. That's still a need. And if Javan Baker and Jalen Polk step up and become that guy, then that's great. But it's still kind of a shot in the dark that you, your number, your second overall pet, your second round pick was the Washington's number two wide receiver. And the other wide receiver you got was a fourth rounder. That's just a shot in the dark. And it's like just making the, just hoping one of those guys pans out, it's not a plan. You know, it would be a plan if you trade it up and you got Xavier Laguette, or if you trade it up further, you got Brian Thomas Jr. That would be a plan because you can actually have expectations for them. With Javan Baker and Jalen Polk, it feels like most Patriots fans are just hoping they're pleasantly surprised. And they love, and they love the mouth that Javan Baker has. And I do too. He's, he's, he's going to be a shut up. He's going to be, he's, he's going to be a fan favorite here. Even if he ends up being another number two wide receiver because he's just, he seems like a cool guy, that just that one quote right after he got drafted saying he's going to make guys in wheelchairs stand. That's pretty cool. What is he? Jesus Christ. But to give it an, to give this a grade, I would have to say, I was very ready to say C minus before the draft. I'll bring it up to a C plus because I don't, I think you're putting expectations on this draft that aren't realistic expectations. And you're also basically guaranteeing this season is a lost season with how you didn't really, you didn't really, you had three big needs going into the soft season with free agency in the draft and a lot of money and free agency, by the way, you addressed just one of those. So like, address one of those seriously, a core effort does not count as your left tackle. He's not your long term answer. KJ Osborne obviously doesn't count and I'm sorry, Jevon Baker and Jalen Polk, as of right now, we're not the answer. We just hope to be pleasantly surprised. And I don't think that's a plan to hope to be surprised by your picks. Go find someone who you actually believe can realistically be your guy. So that's why I believe I gave it a C plus, I think they did the right things to further, to further their rebuild process, but they did the bare minimum of it. And I think that's the issue that I have. They could have done more and they didn't. That's my issue. Yeah, no, no, you're right. You're right. It's just, I don't know why they didn't do like why I just, I don't know why they bucked conventional wisdom. I don't know why they decided to pass on who they did, at least in for agency. I just, I don't know, like I said, part of me feels like they're building a base boat. I want to draw more attention to something you said where, and I agree with this when you say that it's a lost season. Like, yeah, it's kind of like, I don't know, remember the season before New England drafted Mac Jones and they thought he was the guy with Cam. I mean, no one really directed them to do much of anything. We went to ourselves and we said, this is a rebuilding year, this is a retooling year. You know, like this is, this is like strictly for development. I mean, nobody wants to do those low ceiling, like moral victory development years, but you kind of have to, you know, because into nearly enough and hopefully if they can play better than they're projected to because New England was not favored to win a single game next season. Right. And hopefully if you can beat any kind of expectations, you know, like what's the over under for them? Like three and a half, four and a half wins, something like that. So like, this isn't the, this just isn't the right roster to throw Drake May into. And even if he comes, some of the things he needs to be coached out of this training camp in this preseason, we're not throwing him in like this. I mean, you could, like, you could have done that, like, you could have done that with CJ Stroud last year with on the Texans, but that's because they had a roster with a good enough offensive line that you could do that with. And then he could go and elevate some players like Nico Collins and Tank Dell. He can't do that with this offensive line. So there's the issue there. And that's why I can't, that's why I just can't look at this off season as necessarily a win, but it's not a loss either. Yeah, if you guys don't have any other thoughts, did want to move on. David Johnson has just retired at age 32. Everyone remembers his electric season back in the late 2010s, left fantasy owners very happy and fantasy owners very upset the very next year, I'll, I'll leave it at that. That's next. This is the Fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spots. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie, truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Ruski podcast by power 88 and secret weapon consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ material, special gas, Chris, he too. So David Johnson has retired officially at age 32 over this past off season. Here's the thing with, I, I, this wouldn't be necessarily a story, but I just wanted to, kind of bring attention to his career because during his sophomore, he didn't do too much his rookie season in 2015, but 2016, that's a year that everybody remembers and why everybody will remember David Johnson is for that one year in 2016. He was first team all pro at age 25. This guy had 1239 yards, 16 touchdowns. This is just his rushing numbers, 4.2 yards per attempt, looking at his receiving yards. Those are impressive in itself, 80 receptions on and 879 receiving yards. This guy had over, he had over 2,200 total scrimmage yards, absolutely insane numbers. This guy became the slam dunk consensus number one overall pick in the next year's fantasy football draft for everybody around the, for fans around the league. The next year, the bottom fell off. He was out for most of the year with a wrist injury and the next year he did come back, but he wasn't quite the same. He averaged under, he had averaged under 300, under four yards a carry about 3.6 and he only had about 800 yards from there who got, it just got worse. Then he got traded to the Houston Texans for, now the Cardinals got a lot out of it. They got DeAndre Hopkins. Only problem is on Houston side, they bet on a player who just did not pan out for them either. It just got worse, he finished his career and it was, he last played in 2022 as a New Orleans Saint where he only got 12 carries for the entire season. I wanted to bring attention to his career because it kind of, this is obviously an extreme case, but it kind of shows a lot about the running back position in general where it is not only it's a fragile position because these players are relying on their legs in a contact sport where they are trying to run through you and truck you. Look at Todd Gurley as well. It was pending for quite a while that this guy has been out of the league for years and he's still in his 20s. Look at Dalvin Cook, a guy who's been in his late 20s and it just felt like this guy was past his prime already. I say this a lot. The running back position is the only position in professional sports where you can still be in your 20s and be considered past your prime. If you're 28, 29, you're taking it year by year at that point. You're just every year that your team gets out of that running back is a blessing and David Johnson is kind of the embodiment of that. He's the guy who was at one point at the top of the football world and then he was just knocked off right away to quote a famous man, only famous for this one quote from ESPN first take. He is not there anymore. He fell off a cliff. But I wanted to get your guys thoughts. I mean, like you said, you hit the nail on the head with that one about the running back position just being probably the most brutal position in all of football. At the end of the day, most of these backs now, they don't make it into their mid to late thirties anymore. I mean, the last time I think we saw a running back, this is the last running back I truly saw that could have gone into his thirties was Matt Forte. Matt Forte was in terms of, I mean, hey, I see CJ's face right there on that one. But for me, yeah, no, I do, I do. But the end of the day with Matt Forte, what made him so electric was that rushing yardage that he could just carry up. But then he was also receiving back, which is what David Johnson really brought to the tables, the multilingual in terms of what you could get in terms of yards from scrimmage from him. And Adam, 20 touchdowns in 2016 total, and then over 2100 scrimmage yards from scrimmage. This guy proved to be a lot, but then that wrist injury is what set him up to basically end off his career on an unceremonious note. That was probably, that was the only time he eclipsed a thousand yards 2018, 940 rushing yards for David Johnson. And I mean, at the end of the day, he had that amazing season. He lit up the field every time he was on there, rushing for over 100 yards in several games in that year. He was just that guy that people are like, this is the running back of the future. This is the one of the top guys that needs to be talked about and slowly he dwindled into the air. And now he's just gone, he's gone. And I mean, hey, it's tough. His career was a pretty solid one from the start up until probably around the midway point. It's just tough man to maintain that consistency when you go through so many brutal injuries and you're constantly being rushed up the gaps, taking it to the edge, getting pushed out of bounds, just running backs, get it the worst. The thing is David Johnson, he was definitely a guy to remember in terms of these 2010s. I'm sure in the future, people will probably still remember his name to some extent because he did bring a lot to the table in terms of what you expect from running backs. And that's how, like you said, we got the Dalvin Cooks and some other names out there to kind of really just show that this still can be done. But the problem is, is these guys, they fall off. They do every year, Todd Gurley, it happened to him where he had, he nearly had Eric Dickerson's record in terms of that rushing season he had. But the thing is, it's a brutal position. I mean, David Johnson did send an example for what a running back should be in the modern day era of the NFL. It's just tough to maintain the consistency and stay healthy for the future. Yeah. And I'll do you one better. Look at Dalvin Cook. Just this path in 2022, he was, he was a pro bowler. Just under 1200 rushing yards, eight touchdowns, 4.4 yards per carry. He goes to the jets. And by the way, he's, he was 27 in 2022, 20, his age 28 season. He just looked cooked. He was off for the New York Jets. Then he bit, he didn't even make it through the season. He went on to go and play for the Baltimore Ravens during their playoff run. And now I'm pretty sure he's on the couch right now looking at Ezekiel Elliott in three of his first four years in the league, he eclipsed 1300 yards. The only one where he didn't was 2017 where he got, I mean, that has nothing to do with his abilities. He just had some off the field issues, 2017. After that, he only had one season. By the way, he was 24 during that stretch, 24 years old. After he turned 24, he was never the same player. Usually when you're 24 in any other position in professional sports, I'm not even looking at just football, professional sports, you're 24, you're so young, you have the rest of your life ahead of you. With Ezekiel Elliott, it was pretty much over. Look, it's Todd Gurley as well. The guy, I'm pretty sure he'd just turned 30. And how long has he been out of the league? A while, quite a while. It's very rare that you see the Adrian Peterson's of the world and the Frank Gores where they're just able, they're just work horses. They can make it through season after season after season. It's rare. When you're a bell cow back, you're not going to last very long. And that kind of also brings up in the discussion that kind of crossed my mind is what will we see in Derek Henry in a few years? What will we see out of a power back like him who's constantly being given the rock and being expected to break tackles? He's maintained that consistency. He's slowed down, obviously, in terms of the numbers over these past few years. But I feel like what we see in a lot of these trends is when these running backs change teams, their career plummets for some reason. And that's why I think this year-- That's very rare, if you just mentioned. Yeah, exactly. And that's why I think this year will be interesting for Derek Henry. Can his numbers stay consistent on the Baltimore Ravens? Because with him, people have already, I mean, obviously the Niners are still the favorite to win the Super Bowl. But the Ravens are right there with them. And that's the thing. That was the one thing that this Baltimore Ravens team really needed in terms of eight piece to be like, OK, they can win the Super Bowl was the running back. They had to go through tons of different backs because they were all getting hurt every single one of them. And now we're expecting Derek Henry to maintain that health moving forward. And he's had his health issues these past few seasons in Tennessee. So it's going to be one of those things, once again, where it's like the running back position, it's not friendly, it's really not. And I knew even-- I mean, I'm not a small guy, I'm not a built guy like these guys are, but it's like, at the end of the day, I wouldn't want to be running back. Absolutely not. No, of course, you get the numbers from the rushing yards and the touchdowns. They probably score the most touchdowns out of most people on the field, but besides the quarterback, but at the end of the day, it's just, it's a grueling, tough position. So it's just so hard in today's league where everybody's getting faster and stronger season by season. So at the end of the day, it's like, it's tough to see a career be maintained for the longevity. And we're seeing that every day with these backs. And David Johnson's a prime example of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm just going to say that this goes further beyond guys, like you said, like David Johnson. In fact, if you really wanted to, I think you could really go deeper in the bag here for these like one year wonder type of guys. So we all though about David Johnson's one year, I'll do you one. Do you remember Jordan Howard? Yes. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah. That's a good one. Thirteen hundred yards, then eleven hundred, then nine hundred and then, then five hundred, then he's out and then it's gone that's literally gone or, or, okay, here's one for you. Jay a giant. It's rattling off me. Jay a giant. Wow. Yeah. Four hundred years in 2016 traded to Philly and then did nothing else. So it's just, you don't need an elite running bag. That's the thing. I mean, they're nice to have. But at the end of the day, what's speak the truth? They're a luxury. Mm hmm. I mean, look at all the Super Bowl winners like in recent vintage. I mean, you could argue at the 2013 Seahawks or the last team that had a truly like elite bell cow and beast. That's good. Yep. Not even argue like that's who else. That is the guy. How could I forget that? I mean, like a top by running back like it's just going to show you that you don't need one. Right. I don't think you can even argue that. I remember you mentioned that during like last off season, you brought it up. When you were I even it was it was such a good take. I even made a reel about it the next day. You said the last one was 20 was 2013 everyone else in there. There's nobody else. No one. I were not arguing Leonard for net on in 2020 wasn't the same back. He wasn't a bell cow either. He was sharing carries with Ronald Jones. So who else nobody I mean, see what's his name Christian McCaffrey was close. But even if he didn't necessarily a bell cow because they had weapons all around they had a full arsenal and a lot of these guys you got to remember that are in the Super Bowl were like either having career years or one year wonders like for example, 2016 the Patriots remember what I'll get one was like a beast that year if you remember, you know, and and even still he was sharing the backfield with James Wayne D on Lewis. So I mean, you can point to like, Oh, Clyde Edwards a layer is really good as rookie year. It's like, okay. And he did win the server was working here. And now what nothing Clyde Edwards layer wasn't that good as rookie year. All right. Yeah, but he was I mean, he was good, but then all of a sudden he was just gone. So yeah, he's getting rings in career years, never keep that up. Yeah, the way I almost look at it is like the NFL is like a recycling plant in a way for half of these running backs you you basically take them, you use what you can get out of them, you throw them in the bin and get the next one. That's all it is. It's just it's a constant circulation of new guys all the time to bring to your offense. And that's just the way the league has realized that it needs or not even just the league with these teams with these GMs are realizing is these running backs can't keep up anymore. They really can't. And so the only success you can have at that position to maintain consistency is get a new one after a few years. And then those other guys that were once stars or once consistent, they become the death pieces at the end of the day. And that's why I think in a way. I mean, I mean, I mean, that's why running back by committee is now a huge thing with these teams. You need to have two. You can't just have the one. You may have the one. Like of course, I mean, Christian McCaffrey still keeping up, but who knows what will happen with them? They got to prepare for that. And I mean, that's why they probably kept Elijah Mitchell for the longest time at this point. I'm not going to sit here and say Elijah Mitchell is cream of the crop, but he's shown sparks. And that's the thing. You need that guy that's just enough to kind of show up one day and be like, holy crap, well, we got to give this guy more carries because he's got the hot hand right now. That's why we see this all the time, because the NFL, it's just proven that as it's matured and as it's grown throughout the years, the running back position has just gone from so high up from the guys of the Walter Payton's to the Emmett Smiths. They've plummeted. They're gone. They're history. They're the greats because they were the ones who could do it the longest. And now other guys are going to have to try and do that. But it's a difficult task at this point because you just don't see it anymore. You really don't. Yeah. Yeah. That's I mean, you raise some good points there. It sucks that it is this way because I mean, these running backs, they work really hard. And I think they have to work the hardest to stay healthy, but they're the ones who end up getting the shaft financially, which sucks because they work really hard. And I can see the argument from their side where it's like, well, we want to get paid because we have no idea when we're going to be out of the league and we're making a living off this. Once we're out of the league, then we're screwed. So David Johnson, congrats on an unbelievable year in 2016 and a very long career. You did make it through the age, through the 2022 season. And I hope you saved up enough money to make a living or if you find work as an analyst somewhere or as a commentator doing something, some sort of work, you're still a former pro running back. Let's got to get you some work out there. But all right, that is all the scheduled content we have for today. Do we have anything else before we end the show? No, sir. No. All right. Well, thank you so much again for joining the show. It's always a pleasure to have you on and get your perspective on the NFL. Absolutely. I appreciate it every time and just coming on talking the sport I love and hopefully get to talk with you guys again soon. Absolutely. All right. Well, that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 730 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and Fridays at five. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple podcast, iHeartRadio, Google podcast and so much more. Also be sure to follow our Instagram @FumbleRuskey_podcast and our TikTok @FumbleRuskeyPod to keep up with our podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise we'll see you on Friday over and out. [ Silence ]