The New York Giants will have a lot of decisions for this upcoming season: Does Victor Cruz come back at the same salary? How is the right tackle position addressed? What is the best way to fix the defense’s pass rush and coverage?
Another issue they might be considering is whether or not they need to upgrade at the running back position. Some experts, like NFL.com’s Charles Davis, have mocked Ohio State phenom Ezekiel Elliot to the G-MEN at 10th overall in the draft. While Elliot looks to be a great player, the Giants have an explosive player at the position already. They just need to utilize him more.
Who is this great back? None other than Rashad Jennings.
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In 2015 the Giants clearly didn’t know what to do with their running backs, and they decided to use a “running back by committee” approach, rotating Jennings with second year pro Andre Williams and newly signed free agent Shane Vereen. While Vereen was extremely useful in the passing game, the decision to bring Williams in to spell Jennings as much as New York did was detrimental to the run game.
On the year, Jennings rushed the ball 195 times for a total of 863 yards, which equaled a 4.43 YPC average. These numbers are fairly respectable, but could have been better if Jennings was given more opportunities due to his solid YPC. It did appear that the Giants realized this as the season wore on, as Jennings seemed to be getting the bulk of the rushing load during the last few weeks.
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This trend was proven statistically as well; Jennings had just 316 yards on just 71 carries in the first 8 weeks of the season, while racking up 547 yards on 124 carries during the second half of the season. Jennings truly seemed to get strong in both the second half of the season, and the second half in games. His per carry average in the fourth quarter of games was 4.7 yards (All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference).
If Jennings had been given the same work load in the first half of the season as he had in the second half he would likely have been the first 1,000 rusher for the Giants since Ahmad Bradshaw in 2012. And while the Giants offense played well overall in 2015, it was largely due to the passing game being so effective. If New York could add a potent rushing attack this year they’d be much harder to game plan against.
The Giants might have been trying to keep Jennings and the rest of the running back core fresh and injury free last season by rotating them, but it backfired. No single back ever got into a rhythm, and Jennings appears to be the kind of guy that heats up the more he get the ball.
Sure that brings an injury risk, but if you are playing to avoid injuries you are playing to lose. If you doubt that take a look at Adrian Peterson; you know, the guy that just completed a season where he rushed the ball 327 times, the second highest total of his career, at the age of 30.
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Jennings might not be Peterson in terms of talent or production, but he showed in 2015 he has the potential to give the Giants much more if given the chance. New York needs to skip the idea of drafting a running back high and give Jennings a chance to shine in 2016.