LeGarrette Blount Agrees To 2 Year Deal With Steelers

He has some speed for a big man the last TD was for over 70 yards untouched.

 

Deep breath. Channel your frustration. TAKE IT OUT ON THE RATS!

 

please dont get me wrong i LOVE the blount signing ... but can someone please tell me why he is with his third team since 2010.. i know the titans got chris johson but they draften him for some reason.. and the bucs had him then got doug martin... so i get that.. and i guess he thinks he will get more carries with the stelers than he did the pats but im not too sure about that... but to me he had a hell of a lot better chance of getting a ring with the pats than the steelers? i mean the pats were better than us last year and i think the pats were one of the top 3 teams to improve in FA.. so why didnt the pats try to keep him? or did they? i cant believe if we wanted him and the pats wanted him that we got him.. they have more cap space than we do ? just strange but i like it .... seems when we want a FA and another team wants the same guy they get him 90% of the time.. we finally got one ..

HINES

 

Sounds to me like he is a fumble machine..


Now for the real part. He is in good company with only 3 fumbles in 2013

I am not surprised to read a fan on this board questioning his ability to hang on to the ball.

The negs are the negs. They know who there are and they usually appear this time of year

Bman

 

well i think you need to check the good company hes in and see how many carries they all had to fumble 3 times compared to blount... i said im happy with the signing .. guess thats not good enough for you .. you want me to kiss him or something.. but if you are happy with a 8-8 team so be it .. glad you are content to be average.. glad most of us are NOT ..

HINES

 

I have a couple thoughts/comments about this signing.

First, I thought it was a bit pricey. Almost $1 million guaranteed? In a buyers market at RB? For a guy that arguably will only get 75-100 touches this year? Couldn't a rookie or minimum free agent be a better use of resources for those touches? I can't know for sure how the contract is structured. Is it really about $600k in first year salary (then about $1.5 million take home pay) and then a $2.4 million salary next year? That doesn't sound right. More likely you are looking at $1 million salary, $1 million SB (to round) and $2 million salary next year. $1.5 million cap hit this year and $2.5 million cap hit next year.

That's using up $1 million dollars of salary cap space for a guy that should only get 75-100 touches and probably costs us some dead money next year (not sure we can afford $2.5 million in salary cap space for that).

The thing about Blount is what he "does" is very easy to find. He's not a great pass protector (although he has tons of size). He's not a factor in the pass game or 3rd down game at all. He can't really replace Bell in the playbook if Bell gets injured because it's obvious Bell's real value is his ability to be a 3-down back in both the run game AND receiving game. If Bell goes down, Blount will be a 1st/2nd down back, but will be very limited with him on 3rd down and in the pass game. Doesn't that sound like 50% of scouting reports for rookie running backs?

My second point is about his character. Blount was NOT on our board in 2010 because Blount had and still has more talent than Dwyer. It appears to me as a layman that the only reason we took Dwyer over Blount was because of Blount's character issues. So now they are okay? Tomlin's his #1 fan, "recruited him" and all the character issues are forgotten? All I can say is it's an interesting development in the team's change of heart of a malcontent that can't seem to stick in every place he goes despite flashes of talent and production.

Is Blount a talent upgrade? Yes. We HAD to sign a RB this off-season. And Blount does have good enough qualities that we don't have to force RB in the draft (which is a good thing). I honestly thought the better move would have been to fill the stable of running backs with minimum salary guys and/or a rookie and roster cuts. We all know Bell is getting a majority of snaps around here and probably close to 375 touches (runs/receptions). I agree the threat of injury to Bell could be something that plan can't overcome, but I'm not sure Blount fixes that either.

It's an okay move. I just have some concerns with the money, resource usage and Blount's character questionmarks (and his ability never to stay in one play).

 

yeah the 3 teams in 4 years is odd.. and the number of fumbles to carry ratio is high... but his yards per carry is awesome.. so ya take the good with the bad i guess.. but its not like we have a ton of money tied up in him... so i like it .. and thats one less RB we have to draft so maybe we can use that pick on a D player? and i love that..

HINES

 

I think the fact no teams seem to want to keep him, even after he's productive for them is cause for concern. Not sure if that goes hand-in-hand with his previous off-field incidents or not, but anyone that tries to convince me Blount is part of the "better half" of NFL players has a pretty big hill to climb.

Again, it's just an observation and curiosity to me when the team decides to bend the "character/locker room/off-field risk" issue and for whom.

 

So how will you feel when we DO draft a RB? I mean, that's part of the problem. Was this position so much more important than an outside the numbers WR or a starting DE that we need to tie-up a pretty sizable and usable piece of cap space to fix BEFORE the draft?

And do you think Blount fixes the position so much the Steelers will downgrade RB's on their board for other needs?

I'm actually okay with this deal more than some. I'm just typing out loud to get my ideas and thought in order to fully evaluate the process and decision. I do agree it's better to pay $1.5 million on one good backup that $750k each on two poor backups. And maybe if this leads to one less running back on the roster (and thus allow a decent project prospect at another position to "stick") then maybe it's an okay use of resources.

But we shall see how it all plays out.

 

Maybe cus he's such a big boy and is hard to bring down, it allows the other teams to gang tackle him, maybe that's where the fumbles are happening, it probably takes 2 to 3 guys to rip it out.

 

@ some of you

 

It was being reported that the Pats did indeed want to re-sign him. And as for the character issues give me one example in the NFL where he's demonstrated a lack of character. He had the incident in college, and it was a high profile incident, but I think it was dobbler who said earlier that we've probably all lost our cool at least once in life, it just didn't make Sports Center. It appeared to me that the opposing player provoked him and he got his bell rung. His own coach was in the midst of chastising him when Blount cold cocked him. Any way you slice it, I think this was a very good signing.

 

By the way, all this Blount talk got me to thinking. Anybody seen blountforcetrauma? He has a new namesake to draw from now.

 

I was wondering the same thing yesterday haven't seen him in awhile.

 

im NOT saying it was more important to sign a RB than a WR or DE or any other position BEFORE the draft.. no where did i say or think that.. what i think is we had the money to tie up a RB but NOT a DE or WR as they are so much more expensive .. so we used the money we had on the best player available at any position we needed ot fill ..
and yes i think blount fixed the position so we can move RB wayyyyy down the draft board... potentially hes that good.. and again i agree with you i'd rather have one good back up than 2 crappy ones.. nice post ..

HINES

 

i think this is a great observation.. i would love to see video of his 3 fumbles.. to see .. is it as you say... he was fighting for extra yards and 3 guys ripped the ball out of his hand or was it where he was running open field and just got it ripped by one guy... that is a great point you bring up.. he is a big boy.. he goes for the short yards where hes gonna get a lot of guys ripping at the ball.. GREAT POST..

HINES

 

Was wondering much the same thing, he hasn't been around for a while.

 

I think he got the money because he is coming in to replace both Dwyer, Jones, and Howling ... all subpar veterans in my book. Our back up RBs last year were a weakness to me until we brought Dwyer back. Blount will take all their snaps and then some. And we still need another RB just for depth incase of injury so I can see a late round back, maybe even also a UDFA, to groom.

 

I'm in your camp Del, Lots of money for
a man that barring injuries will not see
the football that much. What about LSH touches?
We will also be drafting another RB.I agree
we needed a quality back up, But Bell is
the real deal and his workload should suggest that.

 

Oops you are right TTF, I hope he is healthy
and the Steelers and him can work something out.

 

1000% correct ..all god points.. he will get the same # of snaps as 3 guys last year if is is healthy.. but of course we still need a 3rd RB... i like howling before he got hurt.. he was good.. or jsut a 7th rounder or an UFA is fine for 3rd string i think