Washington Redskins: Position battles creating a bubble that won’t burst
By Craig Stofko
RUNNING BACK
Many thought that the season-ending injury to Derrius Guice all but insured Rob Kelley of a roster spot. With Guice’s heroics postponed until next year, most assumed that along with Chris Thompson, Samaje Perine and Rob Kelley would be locks to make the team with Kapri Bibbs and Byron Marshall fighting it out for the fourth running back spot.
Not so fast.
With two weeks of practices and two preseason games left to evaluate the team’s talent, it appears the position of running back is as unclear as any position group on the team.
Chris Thompson is the only absolutely sure thing. Although, I would add Samaje Perine to the short list of done deals. Perine did not get the credit he deserved for leading the team in rushing last year behind a broken and ineffective offensive line.
Perine, the all-time leading rusher for the Oklahoma Sooners, has way too much potential to be overlooked. He could, in fact, be the answer to the Redskins beleaguered rushing attack. With a healthy offensive line, Perine could again lead Washington in rushing yards by a wide margin.
One more fumble however and it may be the former Sooner who is shown the door.
The real dilemma is choosing between Byron Marshall and Kapri Bibbs. At 5’9″ 225 pounds and 5’11” 212 pounds respectively, both running backs bring vastly different and desperately needed skill sets to the Redskins offense.
Neither would be relegated to being solely Thompson’s back up. If that were the case, then just flip a coin and pick one. But alas, that is not the case. Not by a long shot.
Bibbs is the best pure running back on the team. If the offensive line can open even small holes it is Bibbs that will hit that hole the fastest and get north/south for some big gains. Marshall, on the other hand, is the team’s most versatile running back.
Marshall, while playing for Oregon when they were one of the best teams in the country, posted 1,000-yard seasons as a running back and as a wide receiver.
It is not difficult to imagine Marshall backing up Thompson and Bibbs backing up Perine. And thus the first real bubble bust shocker- Rob Kelley is the odd man out.
I realize that Jay Gruden loves ‘Fat Rob’. I love ‘Fat Rob’. Heck, everybody loves ‘Fat Rob’! But, we all love winning more and a backfield consisting of Bibbs, Marshall, Perine and Thompson would give the Redskins their most formidable running back group since Gruden took the reigns.