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By Mike Watkins
(Twitter: Merk256)
One of the interesting things to follow this year with the upcoming season is going to be the backfield situation in Buffalo. You have a now proven veteran and fan favorite in Fred Jackson paired with a young explosive player in CJ Spiller. Jackson has been and is the more accomplished of the two but CJ Spiller finally showed at the end of last year what type of player he can be when given a proper amount of carries to showcase his skills. The issue becomes how to get both of these players the right amount of carries to maximize their play making ability. The Bills have yet to figure out the right ratio.
The first and foremost reason the Bills need to figure this out is Jackson’s age. He is on the wrong side of 30 and while he has not shown signs of slowing down nor taken the number of hits that a RB of his age has normally taken he still isn’t getting any younger. To reduce the wear and tear on him and increase the likely hood of him making it through the season and extending his productive years the Bills would be wise to start giving some carries to Spiller. This does the aforementioned but also gives Spiller a chance to get into the flow of the game. Up until he became the starter at the end of last year, due to an injury to Jackson, he had only seen on average 5 carries a game. This is not enough for him to get into any type of flow. It also leads to him pressing to make a big play because of limited opportunities. So it results in him extending out a play by taking it wide or “dancing” behind the line of scrimmage. Obviously this is not what the Bills want out of him or any player
If Spiller gets more carries it can also have an impact on how DC’s prepare for the Bills. Now instead of having to mostly just prepare for Jackson they have to be aware of Spiller. This is an advantage for a couple reasons.
Spiller is an explosive player with game breaking speed that can be a threat to score from anywhere on the field. This can be a nightmare for opposing DC’s to game plan for because you always have to note where he is and not allow him to get into the open field. When Spiller gets into the second and third level of a defense the odds are with him that he is about to break off a big play. If he does it once early in a game, for the rest of it he will be in the back of the defensive coordinator and defensive player’s mind. This can be an advantage because once you get defensive players thinking rather than reacting, that’s when the mistakes pile up in your favor.
Another reason is Jackson and Spiller have different running styles. Jackson is the more between the tackles elusive runner who defenders have a hard time getting clean shots on and Spiller is the burner who once he gets into the open field is extremely hard to catch and bring down. It’s tough enough preparing to stop one type of effective RB let alone two. This also allows the Bills to put them on the field at the same time leading to yet another situation that the opposing teams have to spend time prepping for.
The next reason we need to see a better distribution of carries is that the Bills used the 9th pick in the draft in 2010 on Spiller. They did so with two quality running backs on the roster already in Lynch and Jackson. They sold and justified taking a RB with the 9th pick as taking the best player available and one that had game breaking ability. Well it’s time for Gailey and company to justify using such a high pick on Spiller. It’s one thing to take a player that high at a position of non need, it’s another whole thing to take him and not use that player properly to get the most out of him......
Great read overall but I think this is a great point
People have penciled in Mark Anderson as the likely DE to start opposite Mario Williams this year. I however wouldn’t count out Kelsay or Merriman. Both are better against the run than Anderson and Anderson is at his best when you limit his snaps as much as you can to obvious pass rushing situations. The Patriots figured this out last year and they basically mimicked what the Bears did with him his rookie year and kept him under 50% of the defense snaps for the year, right around 47%. The result is Anderson did what he hadn't done since his rookie year and recorded double digit sacks. I’m assuming, hoping, the Bills have taken note of this and plan on doing near the same thing.
It will be interesting to see how the staff uses him
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