Author: /u/y2kohlhagen

This is probably not a popular opinion, but here is my take on what to try and do for next year’s RB situation:

First off, we should not bring back Hyde nor Lamar Miller. They both put in the effort but neither was an ideal fit with the offense as a whole. They were effective at times and benefited from the willingness of BoB’s offense to focus on establishing the running game. And the primary reason I would not want to bring them back, is most likely, their value won’t reflect my previous feelings (per Sportrac, Hyde will be in the rang of 6.2m, 2 yr and nothing listed for Lamar, but I guess a 1 year prove it around 4-5m) . If they were an ideal fit, I would advocate paying the market value they will try to achieve.

That said, Duke Johnson is under contract for the next two years (4.1m and 5.1m cap hit) and he has shown burst running inside at times and is obviously extremely efficient in the passing game as well. I know the previous question mark on him has been, can he be a bell-cow back? Well, let’s find out but have something behind him. And that something would be Taiwan Jones. For his age, he still has an amazing burst and is someone that can be brought in to compete for the backup spot against potential draft picks and UDFA’s while knowing if he does get beat out, he has been a strong special teams contributor in the past. Also, his market value should be respectable based on his last year contract of 1 yr, 1m.

So in the end, do not sign back Hyde or Miller (unless extremely team friendly).
Give Duke a chance at lead back, bring back Taiwan Jones as backup, find depth from rookies or somewhere else value-friendly.

FTC