re: Latavius Murray Ran a 4.38 at UCF's Pro Day in 2014

I'm a little nervous that the one consistent criticism is that he struggles after contact... I mean that's literally what he was brought in to do. That combined with some new instability on the line worries me. That said, I'm in the camp of guys who don't know anything about Murray except what I read so I'm optimistic that the front office knows what it's doing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If there's any fricking position that Payton & Co. have proven to me that they're able to scout, develop, and use well, its got to be running back. Think about the guys that have come thru here. Mostly no names who did great and got paid elsewhere and didnt do crap. Sproles, Bush, and Ingram obviously had names but there were alot of guys that produced big here like Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory, Cadet looked decent, Khiry Robinson looked decent, among others. And everyone wants an Alvin Kamara now.
I think the whole Adrian Peterson deal was just a square peg and a round hole and was clearly the outlier with this staff.

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they're not infallible

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Well who is? Besides Belichick with short wide receivers?

Well, Gillislee only ran the ball like 16 times total in those 4 games, while AK ran it 56 times (for 275 yards). They didn't run nearly as much in the first 2 weeks as they did in week 3 and on into the season. Gillislee was just a guy to take up Mark's spot. No one expected him to produce near to the level of #22. So the guy they got to fill in for Ingram really didn't even run the ball, they just gave it to Kamara more in the 3rd and 4th weeks, and it worked.

Murray is a starting back in this league, and has ran behind sub par O-lines for the majority of his career. This will be by far the best group of blockers he's ever had in front of him. I've talked to Minny and Oakland fans about this, and they all say he's going to play better because of the line he'll have and the passing offense that defenses will have to respect.

And if you were talking about Peterson, the Saints never gave him the rock more than 9 times in a game, and he didn't exactly play well after he left New Orleans that year either.

I'm pretty confident in this signing. Murray has shown he can catch the ball in the same way Ingram has. They both have catch rates of 79% out of the backfield. He's also the same age but has run the ball fewer times, isn't as injury prone, and doesn't fumble as much.

Dwayne Washington had 27 carries for almost 6 yards a pop off the street

Either way the past successes of those guys isn’t really a predicator to what Murray will do

At the end of the day we are talking a complimentary role. We had success last year with Ingram’s suspension and tbh, he wasn’t that great last year outside of 2-3 games. It’s gonna be the Kamara show with Murray sprinkled in as well as another possible versatile RB in the draft

New offensive line?
If one new starter is a new line I guess your right.

thaT was an awful angle by Berry but still

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People need to keep in mind that both Oakland AND Minnesota have had offensive lines near the bottom of the league during his time with those teams

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Oakland had a pretty damn good offensive line in 2015 and 2016

I owned him in fantasy a few years ago when he got a shot, so I watched quite a few of his games. Kid is extremely talented. I'm excited to see what he can do in our offense.