(05-15-2012 12:57 PM)cajunhawk Wrote: (05-15-2012 10:38 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote: (05-15-2012 08:12 AM)cajunhawk Wrote: Ray Rice better watch himself...Bobby Rainey could take his job easily.
I watched Ray Rice run in college...I watched Bobby Rainey run in college. I saw nothing to make me believe Bobby Rainey cannot do it just as good if not better than Ray Rice...call me crazy all you want.
It's not the idea of Bobby Rainey being an NFL starter that's crazy, personally I don't believe he will be a NFL starter, but I wouldn't say it's a crazy thought.
What is crazy is to say that an UFA from a non-AQ school is going to "easily" take the job of a two time pro-bowler and one of the best young running backs in the game who finished 2nd in rushing yards last season.
You can say whatever you want about "it doesn't matter where you went to college" and "it doesn't matter whether or not you got drafted" and "if you can play, you can play" and I agree with that mentality, having said that, there are reasons guys are passed over both coming into college, and in the draft. There's a reason guys aren't recruited to AQ schools and there's a reason guys go undrafted.
Of the top 30 rushers in the NFL last year. The only guys who are non-AQ guys are:
3. Michael Turner
10. Ryan Mathews
14. Chris Johnson
16. Matt Forte
20. Fred Jackson
23. Deangelo Williams
29. Ahmad Bradshaw
The only guys of the top 30 who were undrafted are:
5. Arian Foster
20. Fred Jackson
24. LaGarrette Blount(who likely only went undrafted due to character issues)
27. BenJarvus Green-Ellis
So clearly it's not easy making it coming from a non-AQ school and it's even more difficult making it being undrafted, the subset of undrafted non-AQ guys is even smaller.
Fred Jackson
He's the only one. There are two other guys who are sort of close Michael Turner(5th Round out of NIU) and Ahmad Bradshaw(7th round out of Marshall).
On top of all that, he's undersized. He's about four inches and 10 pounds under the average NFL running back. The weight is probably not an issue as 205-210 is only slightly undersized, the height is a bit more of an issue as there aren't a ton of guys under 5'9 making it as NFL running backs, but the combination of the two are the big problem and even that is not a deal breaker, Maurice Jones-Drew is pretty much the exact height and weight as Bobby Rainey(but in fairness it bares mentioning that MJD was both an AQ player as well as a 2nd round draft pick) and the one guy who is notably smaller than Rainey, Darren Sproles, is an inch shorter and 10-15lbs lighter(but again AQ guy and 4th round draft pick).
I just think the fact that Rainey is undersized, undrafted and a non-AQ guy has the chips stacked against him pretty high. And again, I will certainly agree that "if you can play you can play" and Bobby certainly played very well up in Bowling Green, so maybe he'll make it, but it's much more likely that he's the next in a long line of fantastic Sun Belt backs who do little to nothing in the NFL i.e. Dwone Hicks, Tyrell Fenroy, Patrick Cobbs, Jamario Thomas, Reggie Arnold etc.
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WKU' Bobby Rainey signs contract with
