A little ray rice/Gary Kubiak tidbit

Told someone yesterday I hope he turns out to be the steal of the draft for me.

for where people are drafting him, I think he's a damn steal

people saying pierce will steal that job while ray is out are crazy.

Thinking about offering a guy Miller and Gerhart for Rice. His RBs are Gore and Tate. Would give me Forte, Martin and Rice.

I've taken him in 3 leagues so far all in the 5th round. Yahoo's ADP has him pretty low in the 7th/8th round range.

He's definitely a lotto ticket worth taking.

i got him pretty easily last night in an auction draft.

i was surprised really, figured people could look past the 2 game suspension.

i feel like he was my best bargain last night. Last year I got Josh Gordon for very cheap and he was going to miss his first 2 games as well.

hope this is another good omen.

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Pierce was supposed to steal the job last year too and couldn't break 3 yards per. As bad as rice was, he was worse

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Yeah but Pierce isn't going anywhere. I think the point is that Harbaugh doesn't believe in feeding Rice 20-25 touches a game. So even if Pierce is averaging negative yards, he's still going to spell Rice a good bit, potentially at the GL.

I still think he'll be a solid back in PPR though

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This and pierce was being worked in the last 2 years

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and he has done what with that so far?

Kubiak and Mike Shannahan run similar offenses (and worked together for a decade) and have shown that they're not afraid to pound a rookie to a 1,000+ yard season a la Alfred Morris, Terrell Davis, Mike Anderson...

What separates Taliaferro from the other Ravens RBs is he's Kubiak's pick. Kubiak wanted him. With Rice being out and like you said Pierce having concussion issues I wouldn't be surprised if Taliaferro emerges as the main guy in this backfield. Rice wasn't all that last year either.

It's a long shot, I'll admit, but it wouldn't be totally new if Kubiak decides to just gun his rookie. Doesn't hurt that he gets 2 weeks as a test run. If I don't get him in drafts I'm definitely keeping my eye on him on the wire.

I agree, LT poses the biggest threat to Rice. But I still think they are going to ride Rice hard this year.


- We forget Rice was nursing injuries last season (hip and thigh)

- We forget BAL is paying Rice $7m per (to be a backup?)

- He is down from 225 lbs to his rookie weight

- Rice scored 374 points in PPR leagues in 2011, a year in which BAL employed the zone block scheme, which Kubiak will bring there this season. For reference, Jam Charles scored 378 last season.

- Coach Harbaugh on Ray Rice at the end of 2013 season:

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"My expectation for Ray Rice is to be one of the very best running backs in the National Football League," Harbaugh said Tuesday at his end-of-the-season news conference.

"That's the standard for Ray. The great thing about Ray is -- I just had this conversation with him this morning -- that's his standard for himself. The thing I love about him is he has a plan to make sure as his career extends here that he is that guy for a long period of time."

"Ray Rice fought through some things," Harbaugh said. "There were some issues he had with his legs that other players wouldn't have even played with. It's not who Ray is. I think he fought through it and did the best he could with where he was at. I'm very confident, when he says he's going to come back in the best shape of his life and be better than ever, I'm confident he's going to do exactly that."

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- Gary Kubiak's RBs

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Kubiak churns out 1,000-yard rushers out of his behind. Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson and Travis Henry are lesser known names that have accomplished the feat. Clinton Portis, Arian Foster and the great Terrell Davis have smashed 1,000 yards, and have done it multiple times with Davis topping 2,000. Neither of those were first round picks. Portis was the highest drafted and that in the second round. It proves that the system does not necessarily need the greatest talent to be successful.

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