The thing that really has me concerned about McGahee, is not his current injury alone as most are concerned about, but rather, the fact that he's sustained a serious enough injury in each of his last 3 seasons played to have to miss very significant playing time or end his season. This past injury, had it happened earlier in the season, would have ended it.
So it's not the recovery from this surgery that has me concerned, it's his overall ability to stay healthy. I mean we all clamored about RJ, but at least most of his injuries were only of the "game or two" variety. Heck, McGahee is making RJ look like a poster boy for health in a sense.
I'm not going to be sold on McGahee until he actually plays out a full season of 350+ carries w/o getting hurt at all! If/when that happens, I'll then be somewhat less concerned going into the following season. Two such seasons will alleviate my concerns for good.
But if Henry even plays the way he did this year as last, assuming he gets more carries, I'm not so sure that he should go. We'd be getting rid of a top NFL RB in the hopes and w/o any proof, that McGahee does several things:
A. Doesn't reinjure his current injury
B. Doesn't continue his current streak of very significant injuries at the rate of one/year over his last three years started, and in far tougher competition and physical stress
C. Plays at a level for which he was drafted and better than that of Henry, quite frankly, a level at which he played only for one season.
Quite honestly, McGahee wasn't having the best game prior to his getting injured. He had 20 carries for 67 yards, less than a 3.5 YPC avg. and only 3 catches for 5 yards in the CG v. OSU.
So while everyone is all but penciling in his greatness as an NFL RB, I really think we need to be cautious before trading away one of the top, if not the top, RB in the NFL for a bucket full of hopes.
The Canes also didn't play the toughest schedule over this past season. They played absolutely not top 10 ranked teams. The best team they played was probably WV and McGahee didn't even average 4 YPC then. 3.5 YPC. The next best team was probably FSU and McG only had a 3.7 YPC avg.
While they played some ranked teams during the season, 13, 16, 19, 20, and 23, they only played teams with final rankings of 14, 20, 23, and 24.
So they didn't have a tough schedule at all w/ only 2 teams finally ranked in the top 20, bottom half at that. They played absolutely no teams in the top 10 except for OSU in the CG and they lost and McG did not have the kind of game worthy of all of the current hoopla in that game prior to getting injured.
The championship game speaks more loudly than playing against a bunch of scrub teams IMO. 3.4 YPC isn't good and McG simply didn't have the type of game that screams out that he'll be the next Walter Payton. The best game, and an outstanding one, that McG played this season was against an overrated VA Tech team. Nevertheless, McG shone. But one game does not greatness make and I think we should look a little closer at why so many think he'll be "the next Walter Payton." I'm a little more skeptical, especially at all the talk about possibly blindly trading what has become one of the league's best RBs in Henry!
I'm quite sure he'd be good, McG that is, but there is no guarantee of that. But I think we need to proceed with caution and not send Henry packing before this season. If he's not happy, he may well say that he wants a trade and given the above, I'm not so sure that would be wise.
So it's not the recovery from this surgery that has me concerned, it's his overall ability to stay healthy. I mean we all clamored about RJ, but at least most of his injuries were only of the "game or two" variety. Heck, McGahee is making RJ look like a poster boy for health in a sense.
I'm not going to be sold on McGahee until he actually plays out a full season of 350+ carries w/o getting hurt at all! If/when that happens, I'll then be somewhat less concerned going into the following season. Two such seasons will alleviate my concerns for good.
But if Henry even plays the way he did this year as last, assuming he gets more carries, I'm not so sure that he should go. We'd be getting rid of a top NFL RB in the hopes and w/o any proof, that McGahee does several things:
A. Doesn't reinjure his current injury
B. Doesn't continue his current streak of very significant injuries at the rate of one/year over his last three years started, and in far tougher competition and physical stress
C. Plays at a level for which he was drafted and better than that of Henry, quite frankly, a level at which he played only for one season.
Quite honestly, McGahee wasn't having the best game prior to his getting injured. He had 20 carries for 67 yards, less than a 3.5 YPC avg. and only 3 catches for 5 yards in the CG v. OSU.
So while everyone is all but penciling in his greatness as an NFL RB, I really think we need to be cautious before trading away one of the top, if not the top, RB in the NFL for a bucket full of hopes.
The Canes also didn't play the toughest schedule over this past season. They played absolutely not top 10 ranked teams. The best team they played was probably WV and McGahee didn't even average 4 YPC then. 3.5 YPC. The next best team was probably FSU and McG only had a 3.7 YPC avg.
While they played some ranked teams during the season, 13, 16, 19, 20, and 23, they only played teams with final rankings of 14, 20, 23, and 24.
So they didn't have a tough schedule at all w/ only 2 teams finally ranked in the top 20, bottom half at that. They played absolutely no teams in the top 10 except for OSU in the CG and they lost and McG did not have the kind of game worthy of all of the current hoopla in that game prior to getting injured.
The championship game speaks more loudly than playing against a bunch of scrub teams IMO. 3.4 YPC isn't good and McG simply didn't have the type of game that screams out that he'll be the next Walter Payton. The best game, and an outstanding one, that McG played this season was against an overrated VA Tech team. Nevertheless, McG shone. But one game does not greatness make and I think we should look a little closer at why so many think he'll be "the next Walter Payton." I'm a little more skeptical, especially at all the talk about possibly blindly trading what has become one of the league's best RBs in Henry!
I'm quite sure he'd be good, McG that is, but there is no guarantee of that. But I think we need to proceed with caution and not send Henry packing before this season. If he's not happy, he may well say that he wants a trade and given the above, I'm not so sure that would be wise.
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