Willis Is Going To Have A 1000+ Season

[Slim]

I really think Willis is going to have a great season, with opponents defenses having more respect for Joe Cool, and the acquisition of Birk and Oher, i really believe he's going to have a "elite rb" season. I also think Leron will have a lot of carries but i don't see him having more carries than Willis this year. For me Willis is and has always been a beast i love the way he uses his feet in little space, and what about his right stiff arm ! but the thing i like most about that guy is that he never gave up, had many injuries, he has been criticized a lot of times in his career but he's still here !
I think he'll have around 1100+ yards this season, some will probably think i'm silly because of injuries and stuff but it's just my opinion !

so here's my question, do you guys think he's going to step up and become a real key in our offense, or do you think he'll just have some good plays in each game and will still have less carries than McClain ? (let's just imagine Lorenzo Neal would be still on the team)

[ROH522155]

i agree

[mhead66]

I don't think he'll have an "elite RB" season, because there's too much team talent at the position. 1000 yards is possible, he'd need 67 yards/game, but he'd need to be the featured back 80% of the time to have a huge year. McClain, Rice and Peerman will get too many carries to allow that.

[ROH522155]

i see willis returning to his 07 form

[MKdave]

Can't see him getting real close to 1k.
He'd do well to get up past 700. He we'll probably get around 50% of the carries if he's lucky and stays healthy. And hey, if he gets half the totes and racks up 700 yards, he's had a really good year. Maybe gets his YPC back above 4.0 and finds pay dirt 5 or 6 times. That's really the best we can expect out of Willis this year.

[Canes21]

amen

[kze]

I agree.

[BmoreRav]

I think it's possible if McClain moves back to FB and McGahee stays healthy!! But if we resign Neal we'll probably have a running back by committee again which would limit his carries and make it tough to achieve.

[justifythegame]

McClain was moved to Rb only because willis was injured. he had surgery and missed training camp. if you're recovering obviously you're going to be out of shape (and it doesnt help that he was out of shape last year anyway). but he should be back into football shape, better than he has ever been on the ravens thing coming year. McClain was sucking towards the end of the season. He can't carry the load, he is nice change of pace guy but he is a pro bowl FB not HB. With McGahee we could see some big 10 to 20 yard runs. Unless we are at the goal line it would be dumb to give mcclain all the carries. when mcgahee is healthy, he is a pro bowler. but the key is health and fitness.

[bigZ2222]

sorry just dont see it. hes good but so are the others on the team and as soon as one of them are being more effective then his amount of carries will get smaller and smaller.TO MUCH TALENT WONT HAPPEN!!

[Sizzle]

Of course willis is a probowl kind of guy who had 1 bad season.

[Ravens52]

I believe it, I think Willis will split carries with Rice and McClain but see him starting off games strong.

[theFRANCHISE]

I can see McGahee having a 1,000 yard season, but I don't see him going much further past that mark.

Even though we'd like to think defenses will have more respect for Joe Flacco (and they will), it's not as if they won't continue to stack the box. Teams will still underestimate Flacco because of how pedestrian his numbers were last season (even though they were great for a rookie, first-time starter), and they will look to pressure the hell out of him by rushing five or six men; best believe that if those blitzes come on a rushing down, McGahee (or any other ballcarrier in the backfield, for that matter) will get shut down.

With that said, if Flacco continues to develop as he had last season, he'll take advantage of that initial pressure and force the defense to eventually play the offense honest -- which will [i]then[/i] allow McGahee to rack up his 1,000 yards. At that point in the season, however, it'll be hard for McGahee to touch, say, the 1,200 or 1,500 mark that we consider elite these days.

[DocMartin]

Well, yes, McGahee is very much capable of having 1,000 or 1,100 yards rushing season. If, he stays healthy, it's possible, he could get close to 1,300 yards. But a lot of it will depend on his blocking fullback, if it's McClain or Neal. It also depends on the opposing defenses, they do like to stack the box, with no respect for our passing game. Just look at our 3 games against the Steelers, they stacked 8 people in the box for almost all game, just showing disrespect to our passing game and our receivers. Just basically showing them, Hey we aren't afraid of you, beating us deep.!!! In the games like these, there is not much running room, and yards per carry are low.

[lowrider]

Willis needs to make sure he is in shape this year at training camp. But if he gets enough looks I could see him having a good year

[Numatic]

I really doubt he gets a 1,000 yards because we have three backs and a quarterback now

[theFRANCHISE]

[quote name='lowrider' post='189467' date='May 3 2009, 12:49 PM']Willis needs to make sure he is in shape this year at training camp. But if he gets enough looks I could see him having a good year[/quote]
That's the other key, staying in shape. I know that there was a huge debate last year as to whether his being 10 pounds overweight really mattered, but at the end of the day, when you're paid to play a game for a living, something minor for the average person is major for an athlete.

In retrospect, conditioning was the difference between Le'Ron McClain and Willis McGahee -- had McGahee already been in shape, and had McClain not lost the weight that he was told to lose, their positions on the depth chart may have been reversed last year. Remember, McClain also showed up to training camp out of shape; the difference was, McClain did what he needed to do, and as a result, he was given the starting job even after McGahee returned from injury.

Am I looking too much into it? Sure. But, if McGahee wants his job back, he needs to show the coaching staff how serious he is. It's not about proving his toughness (that's unquestioned) -- it's about proving his work ethic even when all eyes aren't on him.

The best players in the history of the league are legendary in their offseason training habits.

[DocMartin]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' post='189471' date='May 3 2009, 12:56 PM']That's the other key, staying in shape. I know that there was a huge debate last year as to whether his being 10 pounds overweight really mattered, but at the end of the day, when you're paid to play a game for a living, something minor for the average person is major for an athlete.

In retrospect, conditioning was the difference between Le'Ron McClain and Willis McGahee -- had McGahee already been in shape, and had McClain not lost the weight that he was told to lose, their positions on the depth chart may have been reversed last year. Remember, McClain also showed up to training camp out of shape; the difference was, McClain did what he needed to do, and as a result, he was given the starting job even after McGahee returned from injury.

Am I looking too much into it? Sure. But, if McGahee wants his job back, he needs to show the coaching staff how serious he is. It's not about proving his toughness (that's unquestioned) -- it's about proving his work ethic even when all eyes aren't on him.

The best players in the history of the league are legendary in their offseason training habits.[/quote]

Yes, agreed. That was last season. This season, we don't have Lorenzo Neal, so who is doing the blocking? We have to use McClain as fullback., with McGahee being No. 1 running back. And Rice as No 2, using him on third downs, and No. 3 the tookie Peerman, maybe? Or who else we have, Daniels? I'm little bit concerned, I think we would be better if we sign Neal, for at least a year.

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[lowrider]

[quote name='DocMartin' post='189482' date='May 3 2009, 01:28 PM']Yes, agreed. That was last season. This season, we don't have Lorenzo Neal, so who is doing the blocking? We have to use McClain as fullback., with McGahee being No. 1 running back. And Rice as No 2, using him on third downs, and No. 3 the tookie Peerman, maybe? Or who else we have, Daniels? I'm little bit concerned, I think we would be better if we sign Neal, for at least a year.[/quote]
Jason Cook, the rookie fullback from Ole Miss. He is a blocking back. I hope he can do the job Neal did. Neal did a great job last year and was an important piece that helped our running game a lot.

[mhead66]

[quote name='justifythegame' post='189431' date='May 3 2009, 10:27 AM']McClain was moved to Rb only because willis was injured. he had surgery and missed training camp. if you're recovering obviously you're going to be out of shape (and it doesnt help that he was out of shape last year anyway). but he should be back into football shape, better than he has ever been on the ravens thing coming year. [b]McClain was sucking towards the end of the season. He can't carry the load, he is nice change of pace guy but he is a pro bowl FB not HB[/b]. With McGahee we could see some big 10 to 20 yard runs. Unless we are at the goal line it would be dumb to give mcclain all the carries. when mcgahee is healthy, he is a pro bowler. but the key is health and fitness.[/quote]
McClain [b]can[/b] carry the load, he had 902 yds rushing (3.9 avg) & 10 TDs, McGahee had 671 yds rushing (3.9 avg) and 7 TDs. Yes, I know McGahee was injured - but he has [b]never[/b] played 16 games in a season, in his 6 game career. This shows that McGahee can't handle 300+ carries - and that's okay, because there's plenty of talent to back him up.

[MKdave]

[quote name='mhead66' post='189487' date='May 3 2009, 06:40 PM']Yes, I know McGahee was injured - but he has [b]never[/b] played 16 games in a season, in his 6 game career.[/quote]

That's quite simply untrue. he's played 16 games twice in his career.

[mhead66]

[quote name='MKdave' post='189493' date='May 3 2009, 02:02 PM']That's quite simply untrue. he's played 16 games twice in his career.[/quote]
I stand corrected - in '05, he started 15 of 16, but played in the 16th. Same in '04, he started 11, played in 16...

[url="http://www.nfl.com/players/willismcgahee/profile?id=MCG001995"]http://www.nfl.com/players/willismcgahee/p...le?id=MCG001995[/url]

[CP`C-Pain`CP]

I hope he does, but I want to see Ray Rice get some more carries aswell.

Now if he can get 1000 and Ray Rice see some carries, Oh baby lets roll =)

[Corvus]

I love Willis but there's no way we go away from the running back by committee, which means he won't top 1,000 yards this year unless he is dynamite and averaging 6+ yards a carry (that would be great though!). Most of the league has embraced "running back by committee" because IT WORKS. We ended the season 4th in the league in rushing yards per game last year because it works. The 3 teams ahead of us? The Giants (Jacobs, Ward, and Bradshaw), the Panthers (Williams and Stewart) and the Falcons who are an exception because they ran Turner into the ground last year (led the league in carries if I'm not mistakened, 350+ carries) and he was obviously not close to 100% in their wild card game because of it, definitely hurt their chances to win that game.

Other teams who didn't utilize a committee didn't fare as well throughout the season in their running game. Look at the Redskins, Portis was a beast for the first 8-9 weeks of the season but by then he was running out of steam because he had no solid runners to give him time to rest, and it obviously showed. For the first 8 games, he averaged a great 5.1 yards per carry and had 5 100+yard games. The last 8 games: 3.4 yards per carry and 1 100+ yard game. Who else could they have turned to though? Ladell Betts? Rock Cartwright? Yeah, sure...

The point is, you cannot expect your team to do too well in the running game for an entire season unless you have 2-3 reliable runners who can spell each other throughout the season. We have that right now in Willis, Ray, Le'Ron, and perhaps even Peerman can help us as well, he was great for the Cavaliers when he wasn't hurt...

[smashmouth]

McGahee should have 1200+ yards and 12 TD's, 325 yards recieving and 2tds. Rice will have 400 Yards rushing 3 TD's, 545 yards recieving with 5 TD's. You heard it here first!

[MagicianCamille]

If Willis stays healthy and still doesn't get much past the 1000 mark, it'll be because he's splitting carries with another RB who's also putting up a good chunk of yardage, and that'd be better to me than Willis doing it all himself. Two is better than one, especially in a game like football where fatigue can be the difference.

[jezzy]

im exspecting willis to have a great year as he will be our featured back n getting most carries but he should be totally healthy and run more powerful then last year even though mcclain n rice will get there touches also

[52Kia Kaha92]

I actually believe McGahee might be in MVP race this year
Hear me out, This guy is pretty much playing for his contract with us this year. If he under perfomrs i doubt we keep him so he has to prove he is worth the money.

He also has a chip on his shoulder about last year and will want to prove the doubters wrong

When healthy McGahee is a top 5 back and shows the speed, strength and quick feet aswell as his scary stiff arm to break every tackle. With a reliable Quarterback now teams wont stack the box and McGahee can easily get 4 yards a carry and more.

Willis McGahee is easilty our best back and carried this team in 07 and i beleieve he will do the same this year. Yes i know we run the running back by commitee thing but if Willis plays like a monster (which he will, wacth out KC, McGahee coming at ya) there will be none of that, Rice mught get a carry or two to spell Willis now and than but this is McGahees offense when he is healthy and he will have a monster year, i believe he will lead the AFC in rushing, make the Pro Bowl and be in serious consideration for MVP.

I have very high expectations on McGahee.
1500 yards, 18 TDS, 5.5 ypc
I know they are great stats but i know McGahee can do this as he is a monster and will be the best running back in the NFL this year. Especially after we get The mauler Yanda back and the other Mauler Oher on the line.

Go ahead and rip it

[cityboy02]

I agree he will have a money season because over our stacked offence now

[Alexir]

[quote name='Slim' post='189415' date='May 3 2009, 08:59 AM']I really think Willis is going to have a great season, with opponents defenses having more respect for Joe Cool, and the acquisition of Birk and Oher, i really believe he's going to have a "elite rb" season. I also think Leron will have a lot of carries but i don't see him having more carries than Willis this year. For me Willis is and has always been a beast i love the way he uses his feet in little space, and what about his right stiff arm ! but the thing i like most about that guy is that he never gave up, had many injuries, he has been criticized a lot of times in his career but he's still here !
I think he'll have around 1100+ yards this season, some will probably think i'm silly because of injuries and stuff but it's just my opinion !

so here's my question, do you guys think he's going to step up and become a real key in our offense, or do you think he'll just have some good plays in each game and will still have less carries than McClain ? (let's just imagine Lorenzo Neal would be still on the team)[/quote]

I made a bet with my buddy that Willis will have 1500 all purpose yards.