Eddie George
Eddie George was good, right? I mean, everyone respected him for the first 8 years of his career, despite the fact that his rushing average hovered at 3.x every year. He's my argument, that I can't back up b/c I'm not that savvy. His mean was low, but his median was probably in the same range. That is, he never busted out for huge gains. But you were guaranteed three ypc every time. Any thoughts? I'm sure my brother will make an argument that he's no Chris Perry or A-Train. But that's because my brother is an idiot. zing.
posted by aaron @ 3:16 PM
2 Comments:
Eddie George was ok as a pro. Yes he didn't have the Barry Sanders variance, which made Barry's avg yards per carry misleading, but a guaranteed 3 yards per carry is that great either. Of course much of rushing is o-line dependent, but he did play on a number of good teams including the super bowl losers in 2000(?). Eddie was just too tall to be a pro runner. Also, he didn't have the shiftyness/moves or explosiveness. The reason he dominated in college was due to his good/solid ability and ridiculous team (o-line, Terry Glenn, Bobby Hoying-good in college, David Boston, also a solid defense). College running (hit the hole, turn the corner toss plays, and breakaways) is much easier than pro running (have to make a move before getting into a hole) where defenses are bigger and faster.
Eddie was good, but not spectacular. Here's the thing- he beat the crap out of defenses. He carried the ball 25 times per game, and each time, at least two guys had to hit him to take him down. That wears on defenses, and while I don't have the time to look it up, I bet his 4th Quarter numbers are better than his 1st three. Also, I've never seen mean/mode used in a football discussion, but it's valid. By not losing yards, George was almost a given on 3rd and short situations. It would be interesting to see a stat that measured percentage of first downs converted when given the ball with less than, say, three yards to go. If that were a category, it would be overblown, like the save in baseball, but still be useful in evaluating Eddie George type runners.
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