Redskins hope their older running backs can defy age, odds
02:05 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 24, 2010
You have to like Washington’s chances of running the football in 2010.
On paper, few NFL teams can match the three-deep at halfback new head coach Mike Shanahan has assembled in Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker. All have been to the Pro Bowl. All have been 1,000-yard rushers.
Johnson led the AFC in rushing in 2005 and finished second in the NFL in 2006. Parker was leading the NFL in rushing in 2007 when his season ended in the 15th game with a broken leg. Portis has finished in the NFL’s top 5 in rushing four times.
But the game isn’t played on paper. It’s played on the field.
Historically, the wall for running backs is 29 years of age. As the carries mount, the bodies of runners start showing wear and tear. Injuries mount, and legs that were once fast begin to slow. Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Jerome Bettis and Edgerrin James all rushed for 1,000 yards at 29 years of age – but never again.
Johnson and Parker are 30 years of age this season, and Portis turns 29 in September.
Johnson, Portis and Parker appeared to hit the wall together in 2009, combining to rush for only one touchdown. They started a combined 18 games and carried the ball 400 times for 1,464 yards, averaging a paltry 3.3 yards per carry.
Johnson had the heaviest workload of the three backs in 2009, carrying 178 times for 581 yards but no touchdowns with Kansas City and Cincinnati. He thinks he can be an exception to the wall.
“Guys come to the NFL after having started 3 to 4 years in college,” Johnson said. “I only started one year in college [Penn State]. Guys come to this league and started in their rookie seasons. I didn’t start until well into my third season. There isn’t as much wear and tear on my body.
“It’s all about taking care of your body. I’ve been blessed. I haven’t had many major injuries – no hamstring, ankle or knee problems. You last longer when you’re the hammer and not the nail.”
Parker is another low mileage back who thinks he can be an exception to the wall. He didn’t start in college at North Carolina and amassed only 1,253 carries by the time he reached age 30. Bettis carried the ball 2,686 times before the age of 30, and Dickerson had 2,450 carries. Parker believes he is much wiser at 30 than he was at 22.
“When you’re younger, you run the ball differently,” Parker said. “You run recklessly. When you see a hole, you go. When you’re older, you run the ball smarter. When you see a hole now, you might hesitate a bit because you know what could be in that hole. You’re out there thinking. When you’re young, you don’t think. You’re more reckless.”
The Redskins ranked 27th in the NFL in rushing last season. By using all three backs instead of relying on just one, Johnson thinks the Redskins can mount a rushing attack that can be the backbone of a playoff contender.
“Everyone has their own style, and we all fit in our niches,” Johnson said. “It can work. We can be a three-headed monster.”
Here’s a career stats for the backfield triumvirate of the Redskins (including the number of 1,000-yard seasons, 100-yard games and Pro Bowls):
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Quarterback Jim Sorgi enters his seventh NFL season with his second NFL team in 2010. He has backed up a Manning every season of his NFL career – Peyton with the Colts from 2004-09 and now Eli with the Giants in 2010.
“It’s ironic,” said Sorgi of his career behind the Mannings. “There are 30 other teams I could have gone to and not backed up a Manning. It was coincidence I ended up here.”
Both Mannings have won NFL championships, and both have been a Super Bowl MVP. But they have reached the height of their profession two different ways on the field.
“You can tell Peyton’s a 13-year vet,” Sorgi said. “Eli’s a 6-year vet. Peyton has everything down. He runs the show. He tells everyone where to go. Peyton is like a player-coach on the field. Eli lets the coaches coach, and he plays.
“Peyton would try to get into the perfect play for every defense. Eli is of the mindset I’m going to make a play no matter what they do.”
Sorgi didn’t start any games for the Colts. Peyton Manning started 96 in a row. But Sorgi did play, usually in the worst possible scenarios.
Sorgi took an abundance of snaps in the preseason when the Colts were resting the regulars, and he usually played the final game or two of seasons after the Colts had wrapped up a playoff spot. Again, he was playing with the reserves against the opposition’s starters. And Sorgi got knocked around pretty good.
“You try to stay in the league as long as you can,” Sorgi said. “But I’ve had problems with my shoulder. I have an older shoulder than I should have.
“The hits I’ve taken in the preseason and in the games I’ve played have taken a toll on me. You feel it when you wake up in the morning. Your shoulder is sore. You get out there, and it takes a little longer to warm up than it should for a 7-year guy. But you keep plugging away until the day you wake up and the shoulder tells you that you can’t do it any more.”
Sorgi entered New York’s preseason opener against the Jets again in garbage time and again absorbed some punishment. He was slammed to the ground by linebacker Lance Laury after throwing a touchdown pass to Victor Cruz, suffering a torn shoulder capsule that will sideline him the remainder of August and possibly longer.
Danny Amendola, WR, St. Louis. Rams quarterback Sam Bradford is going to love this Wes Welker starter kit.
Like Welker, the NFL showed no love for Amendola coming out of Texas Tech. Both went undrafted and, like Welker, Amendola was cut from his first NFL team – Welker by the Chargers and Amendola the Cowboys.
Like Welker, Amendola hit with his second team. Welker became the primary kick returner for the Miami Dolphins in his rookie season and a contributing member of the offense his second season with 29 catches. He caught 67 passes in his third year and was traded to New England, where he developed into a Pro Bowl receiver with three consecutive 100-catch seasons.
After the Cowboys cut Amendola, he signed with the Philadelphia practice squad. Two weeks later, the Rams signed him to their active roster. Amendola went on to catch 43 passes as a rookie in addition to returning punts and kickoffs for the Rams.
Donnie Avery and Laurent Robinson figure to start for the Rams at wideout but, like Welker, Amendola will work out of the slot in the three-receiver packages. Neither Avery or Laurent is a true lead receiver, and the Rams don’t have a proven tight end, so Amendola is going to get plenty of attention from Bradford on third downs on the inside routes.
A lesson should be learned from the Green Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon and the rush to immortalize its heroes.
Relying on the coaching of Mike Holmgren and the passing of Brett Favre, the Packers won their first Super Bowl since the Vince Lombardi era in 1996. Ashwaubenon honored the coach that off-season by naming a street that runs a block south of Lambeau Field “Holmgren Way.” A few years later, Ashwaubenon also honored the quarterback by naming a street that intersects Holmgren Way “Brett Favre Pass.”
But Holmgren bolted Green Bay for Seattle in 1999, becoming general manager and coach. He took the Seahawks to a Super Bowl in 2006 and is now the president of the Cleveland Browns.
Favre retired from the Packers after the 2007 season, then changed his mind and forced a trade that summer to the New York Jets. After another retirement following the 2008 season, Favre resurfaced as a free agent in 2009 with Green Bay’s bitter NFC North rival the Minnesota Vikings. Favre led the Vikings to a sweep of the Packers in 2009.
Both Holmgren and Favre are long gone, but the street signs have remained. Maybe if the Packers reach the Super Bowl next February, Ashwaubenon will rename the streets (Mike) McCarthy Way and Aaron Rodgers Pass.
The New York Jets have the best pass defenders in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers have the best ballhawks and the Indianapolis Colts the cleanest pass defenders.
The Jets led the NFL in pass defense in 2009, allowing league lows of 153.7 yards per game and eight touchdowns. The Packers intercepted a league-best 30 passes and the Colts were flagged a mere seven times in the traditional pass-coverage penalties – pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holding.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Detroit Lions had the worst pass defense in 2009, allowing league highs of 265.6 yards per game and 35 touchdowns. The Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams intercepted the fewest passes at eight apiece and the Baltimore Ravens and Packers were the most penalized teams in pass coverage with 24 apiece.
Here’s the chart for the 2009 season, listing the NFL rank in pass defense, the number of interceptions plus the number of pass interference, illegal contact and defensive holdings penalties:
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San Francisco’s Anthony Dixon leads the NFL in rushing this preseason, and Victor Cruz of the New York Giants is the preseason leader in receiving. Dixon has 151 yards and a touchdown, and Cruz is averaging 21.9 yards per catch with three scores. But let’s not get too excited about what we see in August. Last preseason, Tyrell Sutton led the NFL in rushing for the Packers, Todd Bouman led in passing for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Ronald Curry led in receiving for the Rams. All three players were released last September in the final roster cuts. Preseason football is nothing more than a reality game show with far more losers in the end than winners.
• The Minnesota Vikings swept Green Bay in 2009, a decisive two-game swing that gave the Vikings the NFC North title with a 12-4 record and the Packers a wild-card playoff berth at 11-5. But both of those games were played in the first eight weeks of the season. New defensive coordinator Dom Capers was incorporating a new 3-4 scheme in Green Bay in 2009, and the Packers didn’t become dominant until the second half of the season, finishing second in the NFL in defense. Look for Green Bay to provide a little stiffer challenge defensively to Favre and the Vikings in 2010.
• Speaking of the Packers, for decades they played a small portion of their schedule in Milwaukee and a larger portion in Green Bay. In the 1990s, they moved their entire home schedule to Green Bay but still set aside three games for their Milwaukee season-ticket holders, called the “Gold Package.” It includes the preseason opener, plus the second and fifth home games of the season. It’s luck of the draw which opponents the Milwaukee and Green Bay season ticket holders see. This season the Gold Package for the Milwaukee ticket holders includes the Cowboys game.
• The St. Louis Rams, in dire need of a pass rush, are asking newly-acquired Bobby Carpenter to put his hand on the ground and rush from an end spot. He played a stand-up outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme for the Cowboys but could never work his way into the starting lineup and was dealt to the Rams in the off-season.
• After seeing the brutal pass-rush hits on Eli Manning and Brett Favre in the first two weeks of the preseason, I think you’re going to see even less than usual of the NFL’s franchise quarterbacks in the final two weeks of the August. Lose your quarterback in August, and your season goes down the drain.
Interesting that the Washington Redskins would fire public relations director Zack Bolno midway through the preseason. Redskins owner Dan Snyder has long believed his P.R. person should be able to control what the media writes and reports. If Richard Nixon couldn’t control The Washington Post, how was Bolno supposed to control the Post? I’ve always found Bolno efficient in my dealings with the Redskins, a credit to his profession and his employer. Sad that Snyder keeps blaming the little people for the on-the-field failures of his football team.