Thread: Running Back Controversy

Hey, i was just wondering who you guys think should get the majority of the carries, this year (the whizzinator, MEMO, or Chester?) also i was wonderin if you think we should have a featured back, or have a running back by committee again

Give Chester the shots and see what he can do, IMO

Th at is what training camp is for.. To see what players excell at what position, especially with this new offense coming in. I personally think that it is Chester Taylor's position to lose. I think that Childress already has him down as the starter, and just waiting to see if anyone steps up and takes it from him.

In the end I think it will be Chester getting the call.

Childress already said he will develop the playbook based on the strenghs of the personnel (sounds rather obvious, but I'm sure most of us can think of at least one coach that didn't have a keen sense for the obvious). I just don't see Childress giving the job to anyone and letting them keep it if they aren't doing their homework and playing with fire in their eyes for the team. Based on what I've seen of the three RBs you mentioned it appears Chester has the most fire at this point in time. The Whizzinator has proven over and over again that he has other priorities and MeMo had a few glimpses of greatness, but overall he looked very average.

Sure, there are all kinds of reasons we could easily come up with related to MeMos weaknesses, shitty o-line, horrible coaching, injuries, blah, blah, blah, blah. Base on limited information and the current roster, I'm willing to put money down in Vegas that the depth chart on opening day for RBs will be:

Chester
Memo
Fason
Echemandu
Whizzinator

Butchie Wallace is still on the practice squad as far as I know. Even though Childress said he believes in second chances regarding the Whizzinator situation, I'm banking on the Vikings letting him walk. An excerpt from KFFL:

Vikings head coach Brad Childress acknowledged Friday, Feb. 24, that the team is thin in terms of numbers, and the Vikings are not assuming that RB Onterrio Smith, who is serving a one-year suspension, will be back with them in 2006.

I'm fairly confident that the Whizzinator will walk and the Vikings will pick up another RB in FA or in the draft. So, my final vegas-ready depth chart for opening day of '06 is:

Chester
Memo
Fason
A newbie (you can speculate who this will be, I don't feel like it)
Echemandu
Butchie Wallace

I don't see any of the Vikings breaking 1000 yds at this point. I'm guessing they will get 25 carries a game. Call it 'runningback by committee' if you want. I'll call it Childress' version of the WCO based on who we have. I think it will be rare for any one RB to get a 20+ on-the-ground carry game.

i bet they will be splitting the runs between chester and onterio w memo doing punt/kckoff and k.rob taking a bigger role at reciever

"VikesfaninWis" wrote:

Th at is what training camp is for.. To see what players excell at what position, especially with this new offense coming in. I personally think that it is Chester Taylor's position to lose. I think that Childress already has him down as the starter, and just waiting to see if anyone steps up and takes it from him.

That's whats awesome! he has to keep the job, so hell have to work hard to prove he deserves it!

If it's true that Childress and Wilf are cleaning up the team and looking for great "character" players, I agree that Onterrio will be looking for a new zipcode to smoke his bud.

"gdavikes84" wrote:

, I agree that Onterrio will be looking for a new zipcode to smoke his bud.

^ I don't agree with that.

I think the Vikings will give Onterrio Smith another chance and hope he comes back with a new attitude.

If it was up to me, Onterrio Smith would be our starting running back.

You may not agree, but if the Vikings agreed they wouldn't have called the current stable "subpar" and they wouldn't have gotten Chester. These aren't Tice's Vikings anymore......