Quote:Although a big Toby Gerhart fan, I'd like to see the Jags release him based solely on the fact we have an offensive line that is one of the worst I've ever seen. Not only are they mediocre in run blocking, their pass protection all but guarantess that Blake Bortles will retire early due to injuries. That said, Toby has not shown me his ability to make something out of nothing as he so often did while at Stanford. He relies on his blockers way too much and with this team's lack of blockers (or hole openers) Toby better learn real fast to see the field better than he has and adopt a mindset that he needs to find his own holes rather than sit around and wait for them to open up. I have seen way too many times that he hesitates in the backfield and waits for an opening and they have come few and far between. DRob, on the other hand, has that vision to burst thru even when there is sometimes just a crack of open field. Besides, If Fisch continues to seem "bent" on running outside  plays a majority of the itme, DR (and even Todman) are better suited for this kind of game plan. (IF) the OL ever decides to grow a pair and somehow become dominate run blockers, then a RB like Toby's style of running will be just the ticket to make alot of noise in the NFL. Frankly, I don't see that next year and maybe not the year after.............so it might be better for Toby Gerhart to go somewhere (anywhere) where the OL run blocking is already top notch.

I have to agree with much of what your saying. Our offensive line is currently poor at run blocking and (unless something miraculous occurs to change that over the off season) is likely to only slightly improve next season. Toby has a penchant to want to wait for holes to open and follow blocking. Needless to say, what we have on our line and what Toby does isn't a good mix. Add to that the amount of runs we 'attempt' outside and again, Toby just isn't the best fit our needs. We've had several other backs who have the speed to do outside runs better than Toby.

 

I have a hard time seeing us keeping him beyond his current contract. But who knows? Things do change and it could happen that the stars align for Toby here at some point. But for Toby to realize much success running for the Jags, either our o-line is going to have to dramatically improve or he (Toby) is going to have to alter his running style. Neither of those alternatives seem likely in the near future...

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