04-08-2021, 04:15 PM
(04-08-2021, 02:15 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: He's all but guaranteed to get at least a little hurt at some point. He's missed multiple games in 3 of his 4 seasons. Maybe all but guaranteed is a strong phrase, but it is highly likely that Mixon will miss at least a game or two.
I never expected that Gio could be a bellcow back or anything, but the Bengals did indeed fail to get the most out of Gio's skill set. I think Jay and Hue came the closest, and everyone after him just utterly failed outright.
With his pass blocking and pass receiving skills, he could have easily put up Sproles type receiving numbers, but with the size to handle the 150-170 rushes that Sproles couldn't.
I really do think that Gio's potential under a really good OC was just an ever so slightly worse Alvin Kamara, which is still a really good football player.
Gio under the only NFL-caliber OCs he has ever had (3 years):
492 rushes/2,105 yards (4.3 YPC)/12 TDs
148 catches/1,335 yards (9.0 AVG)/5 TDs
Alvin Kamara under Sean Payton (First 3 years):
485 rushes/2,408 yards (5.0 YPC)/27 TDs
243 catches/2,068 yards (8.5 YPC)/10 TDs
Can only wonder what kind of career Gio would have had if he had been drafted by someone like Payton or Reid.
I hate to insist on this, because it makes me look like a Gio hater - which I'm definitely not - but he was never on the level of Sproles or Kamara. Those guys were more explosive than Gio ever was. Gio rarely made splash plays.
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.