Two-year extension for Jaylen Warren

Again with the total yards...

Also, if total yards if your favorite thing check out total yards from the RBs.

Warren will probably end up with about what Najee had last year. Najee had about 1300 total yards. Warren has about 1100 now.

Gainwell has about 900 now. Almost 100 more than Warren had last year.

I think someone told you last season that moving on from Najee would probably lead to more total production from the RB position even if no individual RB got more yards than he did (it was me).

We're going to be pretty close to that. Even though the O has run significantly fewer plays.

And it's because the RBs are more efficient. And they are better in the passing game. Another thing Najee wasn't bad at, but also not exactly good at either.

 

I also wanted to keep Pickens... To the end of the contract at least.

Worth more than a 3rd.

And again we went into a season with 1 NFL WR.

Makes us much easier to defend against.

And again, the one WR we have is going to miss significant time at the end of the season. And we have no real answer. Although I think AR has a better chance of not suckling without a real WR.

I like Kahn. He's good at putting a value on guys and not overpaying. But I think he needs to not make this same mistake for the 3rd year in a row.

Watt was going to get overpaid no matter what. They weren't going to trade the face of the franchise. This team isn't about even giving the appearance of tanking.

 

Thanks.

I'll try not to be too much of an ornery bastard.

Thought I was doing an OK job of that.. But probably failing at it in this thread.

 

Welp, you might be partially correct. Paying old guys on defense and sliding to #17 in the NFL looks like the wrong route. KP's record is mostly because he had a top 10 defense to rely on. Not the case this season for Rodgers. It's his play that gave us a winning season.

 

Note that not overpaying OK vets in favor of getting younger cheaper guys who have a good shot of being at least as good is the reason we let Najee walk.

Kenny lost his job to Mason, who isn't an NFL starter. Seems like there are credible reports that the locker room didn't have confidence in him anymore. Didn't leaders on D lobby Wilson to come play for us while Kenny was still on the team?

I don't think we'll ever find out, but it would be interesting to know why Najee lost his spot as a captain. My understanding is that these positions are voted on by the team. I think it was always odd that MT pushed so hard for Najee to be a leader. Saying he was going to take the reins from Cam. Except RBs aren't long for the league and it was basically a coin flip for which of those 2 guys was going to be on the team longer.

 

I think it was worth betting on Kenny with a draft pick. Bad class, but ranked first. Desperate need for a QB.

Glad we didn't keep throwing good money after bad once it was very clear he wasn't an NFL starter.

And while having a good young QB is the best thing in the NFL, churning old guys has been a reasonable strategy the last two years.

Even though it probably sacricea the potential for medium to long term success by staying in this ok but not good mode.

That's the business model for this team though.

 

I had more than 10k post on the old one at the beginning i tought my stories went gone

 

You mean those years when we had 3-4 people in the starting o-line? When, as they played together, got better as the season went on?

 

That position has already been filled

 

RB Comparison Final Total Production 2025 vs 2024

2025:

• Jaylen Warren: 958 rushing, 333 receiving. Total Yards: 1291. 8 total TDs. succ% 54.5. YPC 4.5. Long 45. YPR 8.3. Touches: 251
• Kenneth Gainwell: 537 rushing, 486 receiving. Total Yards: 1023. 8 total TDs. succ% 55.3%. YPC 4.7. Long 55. YPR 6.7. Touches: 187
• Total: 1395 rushing, 819 receiving. 2214 total yards. 16 TDs. 438 touches.

2024:

• Najee Harris: 1043 rushing, 283 receiving. Total Yards: 1326. 6 TDs. succ% 43.7. YPC 4.0. Long 36. YPR 7.9. Touches: 299
• Jaylen Warren: 511 rushing, 310 receiving. Total Yards: 821. 1 total TD. succ% 50.0. YPC 4.3. Long 22. YPR 8.2. Touches: 158
• Total: 1554 rushing. 593 receiving. 2147 total. 7 TDs. Touches: 457

So this year, we had (1) a little more total yardage (less rushing, more receiving), (2) way more TDs, (3) were significantly more efficient (both succ% and YPC), and (4) got longer runs (which is why YPC is much higher).

And we did all of that while getting 19 fewer touches. Which is almost a game's worth of work (~ 26-27 touches).

Pretty clear that getting rid of Najee didn't hurt us.

Likely made us (slightly) better.

Because it's not that hard to find RBs that can contribute. As we can tell from our roster (a UDFA and a UFA cast off with a cap hit of ~ $1.8MM).

 

Stop it. Getting Aaron Rodgers made us better. Point blank period.

Najee did not make Warren terrible at getting TD’s last year.

 

yes.. getting Rodgers was the answer. All it takes is a Hofer QB to make an offense better. Hopefully we can find another one if AR retires.

 

In some games they have been more efficient. In many others, they have not. The total yards are also inflated because Rodgers has had to rely so heavily on throwing to the backs, specifically Gainwell.

My primary concern was that Warren could not be a true lead back, and he isn't. Where I was mistaken was in underestimating Gainwell, who was not impressive last year despite running behind arguably the best offensive line in the league in Philadelphia.

One of the criticisms levied at Harris was that he would get all of his production in a couple of games, then do little otherwise, but Warren did the same thing as a running back. If you take the first game against a horrendous Bengals defense and the game against a Lions defense that had been devastated by injuries, he ran for 270 yards while averaging nine yards per carry. In the other 14 games, he averaged 3.8 per carry.

Don't get me wrong. They all count and his performance against the Lions was huge for the team, but it is still valid to look at the total yards because it helps illustrate his limitations.

 

As feltdeez pointed out, the offense got better because the quarterback play got better. Despite the improved passing game, the running game got worse. With more of a threat in the passing game, that should have created more room for the running backs. Were the backs better in the passing game? Yes. That's what happens when you replace a true lead back with a guy who does his best work as a third-down back (Gainwell). But the running game was far less productive.

 

I believe that's more on the OL.. than the RBs. The OL has modestly improved over the season with pass protection. It's regressed in run blocking.

 

They were a run first team last year with 4th in rushing attempts....it was not the case this year

 

I’m not sure the pass protection got any better, we just have a Hofer who gets the ball out much quicker. Also, he has a broken left hand because the protection was spotty for a while.

 

This is a bit of a pick your poison situation.

He's old and experienced, so he's good at presnap reads and getting the ball out early.

But he's also old and frail. Which means that he breaks easier than he would have a decade ago.

 

oh, when Harris was a 3 down back while Warren was out and put up stats they were quick to point out how it was against bad defenses.

I’m not sure how anyone can credit the RB’s when its mostly swing passes for production.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic we made the playoffs and get to host a game at home but I think we need a playoff run and some serious yards on the ground to convince me this couldn’t have happened with Aaron, Najee and Warren. We aren’t 13-4 with a serious ground game. We are 10-7 and needed a Catholic priest and some holy water to make the playoffs. We made it tho.. lol

 

I think a younger QB takes more sacks thinking they can beat the rush.

Aaron has a reminder in his left hand to get that ball out. Its the reason I think we lost the Stains game. He was so afraid of Garrett he was tossing ducks as soon as the ball touched his hands.