Hello all - Portugal has made it through to the quarterfinals, and I'm ecstatic!! So I'm taking the time to do another position analysis...I was going to put off the RBs for awhile, but the reports of Peterson's progress have been so good, I decided to go ahead and write it up.
Currently on our roster are:
Derrick Coleman, 6'1", 240 lbs, age 21, 0 years experience
Toby Gerhart, 6'0", 231 lbs, age 25, 3 years experience
Lex Hilliard, 5'11", 240 lbs, age 27, 4 years experience
Adrian Peterson, 6'1", 217 lbs, age 27, 6 years experience
Jordan Todmann, 5'9", 193 lbs, age 22, 1 years experience
I had to look up Derrick Coleman, who doesn't have his own wikipedia page (although it seems there was a rather famous basketball player with exactly the same name), but looking at the 2011 UCLA Bruins football wiki, I could see he was particularly valuable to them in short-yardage situations, and scored quite frequently. Of course, I can't really make any predictions about his longevity with the Vikings since I've never seen him play (barely paid any attention to Pac10 games last year, even though I live in Pac10 country now), but I like short-yardage guys, especially when they're unselfish about blocking the rest of the time.
Toby Gerhart is something of a pet of mine - I really want him to do well, particularly in those short-yardage situations that we really brought him in for, considering his size and the dogged persistence he showed at Stanford. People keep hating on him, but I'd love for him to stick in tandem with Peterson and really show the world what he's got going on.
Lex Hilliard I also had to look up, because I particularly hate the Miami Tuna and only pay attention when they're losing so I can laugh at them. He looks quite stable, but considering the fact we're probably going to have 5-6 WRs on roster, I can't see us having more than 2-3 RBs, and I don't know if he'll make our #3 slot behind Peterson and Gerhart. Maybe he'll be practice squad, as he was the #3 RB for Miami until Williams came back into the picture.
Adrian Peterson - he needs no introduction! I've been following twitter breathlessly, but he really seems to be healing at an incredible pace, although I'll bet good money he's held out of all of the preseason and a few of the first regular season games. No sense in jeopardizing his recovery for meaningless games! I read that he was doing sprints before some of the OTAs for the media...just a few months into recovery! Now THAT is dedication and perseverance! I am so glad and proud that he's a Viking!!
Jordan Todman was another wikipedia trip - it seems that he finished his collegiate career third on the Huskies all-time rushing list before being drafted in the sixth round last year by the Chargers, was waived in late October and resigned to the practice squad before we signed him off their squad in late December.
I'm convinced we're going to keep three runningbacks on the active roster and one or two on the practice squad.
Naturally, Adrian Peterson will be our #1 and Toby Gerhart our #2. HOWEVER, if Frazier thinks like I do, he could keep Peterson on the PUP list for a couple weeks into the season with Gerhart as #1, and two of the remaining three RBs duking it out for active roster and practice squad once Peterson returns. Since I've not seen any of the remaining three play, I'll go purely by size and guess that perhaps Todman will be dropped off first, and it'll be a race between Hilliard and Coleman.
Who knows though, Todman may be a Maurice Jones-Drew in disguise, and he'll race up and become our #3! As long as Frazier&co pick a good one, I don't care what his name is.
Skol!
No comments:
Post a Comment