DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Cleveland Browns Daily grades Ray Farmer’s offseason moves

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I don't think anyone is saying that any player should be handed a job..

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Don't you think that the best guy should be named the starter? They'll have competitions for the job. If Tate earns it then he should have it but he shouldn't have it handed to him because he was brought in as a free agent. I would say the same thing for any player, free agent or not, first round draft pick or not.

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Absolutely. And Tate's said that he understands that people are trying to get that job and he is going to have to work hard, as he's always done. He specifically said that getting complacent is how you lose your job.

But all I'm saying is, that I'd be surprised if Tate is not named the starter at the beginning of the season, and sees the bulk of reps at the beginning. I expect that depending on how much we use him, he will also see the bulk at the end (barring an injury).

I hope for the best from Terrance West, but I'm more excited about Tate. He's the one I expect bigger things from. No doubt about it. The guy's hungry, he's been waiting for this opportunity for awhile. I just hope he comes here and busts out the way that Michael Turner did when he came to the Falcons. It would take a lot of pressure off our QBs and offense in general.

The only thing I noticed, which made me nervous, while looking for stats about fumbles (comparing him to Ogbunaya who had two fumbles at the worst times last year), I noticed that Ben Tate seemed to fumble a lot. Four fumbles last season (rushing the ball) and then NFL.com showed a fumble in his receiving stats. So I don't know if that's 4 or 5 (if they're counting the one in his receiving stats in his rushing stats as well). Either way, it's a concern. 180 carries or so and 4 fumbles. That's like 1 every 45 or one every other game if we run him an average of 22 times a game (which would be optimal, means the offense isn't down by much, lol......)

So while West as a rookie needs to show he can reliably block and protect the football, Tate needs to show that he can protect the ball as well.


But Terrance West doesn't look as big as the Bus for me. He reminds me of a slower Jamal Lewis if anything. And that's not bad, Jamal was a great RB, powerful one cut guy with breakaway speed. I'd take Jamal, in his prime over anybody we've had since coming back. Heck, I'd take Jamal in 2007 over anyone since we've come back. But that's what I see, a guy who reminds me a bit of Jamal Lewis (size wise, one cut, runs forward with some power) without the breakaway speed Lewis had. And that's just based on what I've seen from videos. But it's hard to say because you're analyzing him against D2 talent, especially in the one on one situations (as I understand he also has D2 talent on his side, and these defenses do understand he's going to be getting a ton of carries).

My biggest thing is that I hope we have a good running back this year, be it Tate or West. But I'm definitely putting much more stock into what Ben Tate will do vs what Terrance West will do. At this point. Tate knows he'll have to work hard. He understands that where you were picked doesn't mean that much, after-all he got beat out by an UDFA in Houston. But I'd love to be surprised, and see that Terrance West is the next coming of Jamal Lewis or Jerome Bettis or any top-notch RB.

That's just it though, there's definitely a competition. But I would be surprised, barring injury, if West takes Tate's job at any point this season.

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That's fine. What I think we'll agree on is that we expect the Browns to run the ball a lot and win more consistently than they have over the past 14 years.

With that said, I would love to have the problem of two 1200 yard rushers with each having 10-15 TDs. With how our backfield is shaped, I think that we could see a running game by committee with Tate, West and Crowell all getting carries. I can see instances where we have two of the RBs in the backfield at the same time.