2010 Draft Prospect - CJ Spiller, RB

I saw no reason to put any words above the video for this blog entry.  There's a LOT of good players in the 2010 draft.  Suh, Berry, McCoy, Okung, Bulaga, etc, I could name twenty or more who fit the top 10 mold.  But as far as an offensive threat goes, Spiller trumps all of them.  He could be the only running back taken in the 1st round this year.  He could be the only skill player chosen in the top 15.  Truth is, he could go anywhere in that Top 15, including Miami.

I know what most Dolfans think when they think of Spiller at #12.  We don't need a running back.  We have Ronnie Brown.  We have Ricky Williams.  We have Lex Hilliard.  We have Patrick Cobbs.  Well it's at about this point I'd slap these fans in the face and shout, "Wake up!  You're living in a fantasy world!"

Truth is, Ronnie is coming off a major injury, again.  Ricky is aging and never quite stable enough in his commitment to football.  Lex Hilliard?  riiight.  Cobbs?  riiight.  The reality is we're currently an injury, a CBA, a retirement, a suspension, a roster cut away from being very thin at running back, an arguably most-important position to focus on considering we'd like to run the ball more than pass.

But it's not just about bodies.  If Spiller were available at #12, he'd be the best player available, most likely.  He would immediately contribute - think Percy Harvin in 2009 - and probably take over a role in the Wildcat as well as show our slew of slot receivers how to get YAC.

But there's always going to be some fans who say, we simply have too many holes to fill to draft a running back.  To which I say this, "Isn't an offensive play-maker the biggest hole we have?"  Sure we didn't have too many issues scoring points last year and our defense had too many issues stopping the other team from scoring.  I get that.  I shed tears over that in 2009 like the rest of you.  But every time someone asked who our best player was for the last 3 years, I always said Ronnie Brown and said it with a conviction so strong that suggested I didn't even have to think about it.  Truth is, I didn't.   Brown not only was the cog that kept the offense turning, he was the offense.  

Things went very smoothly on both sides of the ball when Ronnie was the focus of the play-callers.  After he went down to injury or during games where they struggled to get him the ball, we looked inconsistent, panicked, desperate, and tired.  Ricky Williams had a nice 2nd half of the season, but it was hardly good enough to save our season.  We lost something when Ronnie went down.  We lost that threat.  We only ever really had the one.  I would really like to have to think about it harder next time someone asks me who the best player or biggest offensive threat on the team is.