05-21-2019, 08:10 PM
(05-21-2019, 06:14 PM)fredtoast Wrote: It is smarter to get fewer carries every game than 25 a game for the first half and nothing in the second.
Mixon has never played a full 16 game schedule. They better limit his workload throughout the entire season.
Averaging 20 carries a game for a full season is rare these days. Only 4 RBs have had 320 carries in a season over the last 6 years (Bell '17, Elliott '16, Peterson '15, DeMarco Murray '14). In fact only 6 RBs have had as many as 300 carries in the last 5 seasons.
Given the fact that Mixon has gone down with injury each of his first two seasons, I'd like to see them keep him at about 17-18 carries a game.
In today's NFL, it's pretty stupid to give a huge contract to a RB because a good chunk of the time they'll break down on you and RB isn't a high value position anyways. The Rams put themselves in the position where they have to care about stuff like this by giving him a huge contract... we don't have that issue. Ride his ass into the ground for the next few years and then draft his replacement in the 2nd or 3rd round. Maybe that's cold, but I don't care.
If he gets hurt at some point during the season (which could just as easily happen on 1 carry let alone 20) you've got Gio ready to go, plus two rookies a lot of people are high on. Take your chances.
It honestly reminds me of how the Washington Nationals treated Stephen Strasburg a few years ago - "yeah we're having a pretty good year, but we need to shut him down early so we can use him when we're *really* good in the future". I don't think they've done squat since.
