Are the Tennessee Titans happy at running back?
By Will Lomas
Greg Cosell was on the Midday 180 in Nashville today and had a lot of things to say about what he saw around the league. However, one of his most obvious and yet insightful comments was about the running backs.
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While I can’t quote him directly, he said that you could tell that the Tennessee Titans weren’t happy about Bishop Sankey as a “foundation back” by the way that they are playing him. For those that don’t know what that means, Cosell has two-tier system for running backs. You either are a complete running back that an offense can rely on like anyone from an Adrian Peterson to someone like Karlos Williams. Or, you are someone who can’t play full time regardless of talent level, like a Giovanni Bernard.
So, what Cosell is saying is that a running back by committee standpoint only comes from a place of weakness at the running back position. So, let’s take a quick look at the stats to figure out just how the committee backfield is balancing out:
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Dexter McCluster: 97 snaps
Bishop Sankey: 73 snaps
Running back #3 (Terrance West/Antonio Andrews combined): 61 snaps
So roughly a 45%/30%/25% split between those three running backs. That strongly agrees with what Greg Cosell is saying. It is fair at this point in time to say that while there hasn’t been a huge deficiency in talent at the running back position for the Titans, there is obviously not a standout candidate.
While the running back position has been devalued in the NFL, there is no doubt that it is a very effective tool at helping the growth of a young quarterback. So the question is now, are the Tennessee Titans happy at the running back position? I would have to say, no.
I think that this offseason will be a very important one for the Tennessee Titans, but that doesn’t mean that the team will have to wait that long to get a proven running back. I am going to write something later today following up on how the Titans can make a huge shift in personnel with minimum effort at any time in the next few weeks.
It will be a speculative post, so I will redirect back to this page to even explain why I am talking about it. However, I think the need is there for a running back who can stay on the field on all three downs and give you significant help in both the running game and the passing game.