New York Jets: Is Bilal Powell an every-down back?
It’s finally time for the New York Jets to do the right thing and make Bilal Powell the man in the backfield in 2018.
In 2017, Bilal Powell had his best season for the New York Jets. He set career highs in carries, yards, and touchdowns, and he had 4.3 yards per carry.
In addition to the standard stats, he did well on the advanced metrics. Even though his pass blocking was limited to 30 snaps as a blocker, according to Pro Football Focus, he didn’t allow a single pressure (sack, hurry, or hit). That gave him a Pass Block Efficiency of 100. His career PBE is 94.0 ,which is good for a running back.
When it comes to breakaway gains, again he only had nine rune of 15 or more yards, but he did the most in the NFL with his breakaways. According to PFF, he was fourth in the league — among running backs with at least 80 carries — in breakaway percentage (45.1).
Also, despite having the 17th most runs of 15 yards or more, he was seventh in the NFL in total yards gained on runs of 15 or more yards.
In terms of catching the football, he’s put up some decent numbers from a standard stat perspective. However, when you look at the PFF advanced stats, they tell a different story. He’s been somewhat pedestrian when it comes to catching the football, and somewhat unreliable.
His 1.12 yards per route run in his career is mediocre, and his career drop percentage of 8.09 percent (17 drops on 210 catchable balls) isn’t horrible, but not great either.
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So, when assessing his game as a whole, it’s apparent that he still has deficiencies in his game. He’s a good runner and blocker, but he’s an average receiver at best. In the end that means he’s not a prototypical three-down running back, but for the 2018 Jets he should be the man.