I hate the signing of TJ Duckett. Hate it. Tell me what he brings to our team the Leonard Weaver doesn’t, other than less cap space to sign players we need. Julius Jones is now said to be visiting for a couple of days. The same Julius Jones who can’t play more than two games in a row without getting injured. The same Julius Jones who may be Shaun’s equal when it comes to catching the ball out of the backfield. He has never caught more than 35 balls, and has caught 23 and 9 the past two years. The 9 came in a year when he started the whole season, and he has never caught a TD pass.
Did someone forget how effective we became when we started passing out of the backfield last season? We don’t need a pure receiver like a Kevin Faulk, but we certainly need some balance and neither Duckett nor Jones will provide it. In fact, assuming Morris will be gone, we’ll have less balance in that regard.
We also need blocking from that position. Let’s assume they are thinking Duckett could provide that. That doesn’t really hold water because he’s a short yardage back, and so it would be a dead giveaway that it was a pass if he was in on 3rd and 4 or more, and it would also be certain that he was staying into block instead of going out in a pattern.
Ruskell is repeating history again. It’s frustratingly obvious. “I had Dunn and Duckett in Atlanta compliment each other. I’m going to do that again because it always pays off to do the same thing over and over and never innovate or adjust.” I still believe we’d be better off with Dunn who is cheaper, a better leader, more durable, a better runner and a Hall of Fame class receiver out of the backfield.
Don’t forget, we should expect to get a quality runner in the draft. This is not the position we should be blowing our cap space on.