mookie2001
06-07-2008, 06:33 PM
the future of texas running backs
http://www.denverpost.com/paige/ci_9470315
2000 for Young?, Don't laugh
Selvin Young will rush for 2,000 yards in 2008.
And nine days after his 26th birthday in October, I will win the Nobel peace prize.
Wanna laugh? Go right ahead. I'll wait.
* * *
Like Al Gore, I am from Tennessee, and he and I worked as reporters for newspapers in that state in the early 1970s, and both of us failed to become president. Gore was honored by the Nobel committee with its most esteemed award last year. My goal is to take the prize this year because I've strived to bring peace between Carmelo Anthony and George Karl.
Young's goal is 2,000 yards because he has become, in his words, "a beast." He wouldn't be the first Broncos running back to reach the magical 2,000. Terrell Davis did it in 1998. Davis was 26.
I and Young — ironically and ungrammatically — are linked as "Beauty & the Beast."
As Monsieur D'Arque said in the Broadway show: "I don't usually leave the asylum in the middle of the night . . ."
Call us crazy.
Two days ago I asked Mike Shanahan if Young's objective is realistic. "When he said that, it was the final proof I needed." The coach was talking about his decision to cut Travis Henry, but he was making a joke.
Shanahan is not joking about his belief in Young, who has committed to an arduous offseason program to gain weight, become stronger and tougher and expand his understanding of the Broncos' offensive system.
Young is the Broncos' first-string running back, and Oh-No Henry is out of string. For only the second time in Shanahan's coaching era, the 2007 Broncos didn't finish with a 1,000-yard rusher. (The other season was 2001, when Davis, on one knee, started only eight games and ended up with 701 yards.)
Last season Young started eight games and ended up with 729 yards. He had a 5.2- yard average per carry. In 1998, when Davis rushed for 2,008 yards, he averaged 5.1. If Young can keep up that average in 2008 and also dramatically increase his rushing attempts
to, say, 385 — Davis' number was 392 — guess what?
T.D., O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders and Jamal Lewis would be joined.
Of course, Young has to remain healthy — a problem he had in five seasons (one medical redshirt) at the University of Texas and last season with the Broncos, when he sustained separate minor knee and elbow injuries. And he will have to average 125 yards, although he has topped that only once (156 against Kansas City).
But if he could play against the Chiefs every week, Young certainly would rush for 2,000. He had 265 yards against them in two games as a rookie. An undrafted rookie.
Every team in the league passed on Young. He signed as a street free agent with the Broncos because he liked running backs coach Bobby Turner and believed he could stick as a special-teams player.
Eighteen running backs were chosen in the 2007 draft. Young outrushed 13 of them. Not impressed?
The 13 combined. The baker's dozen had a total of 716 yards for the teams that drafted them.
The young man who made $305,000 was third in rushing among rookie running backs and beat No. 4 by 322 yards. The two ahead of Young were Adrian Peterson (1,341) and Marshawn Lynch (1,115).
They were drafted in the first round at seventh and 12th overall. The Broncos picked 17th.
Of course, Peterson and Lynch are cinch stars, and there was serious discussion last season about Peterson surpassing 2,000 yards after he rushed for 296 in a game. However, he got hurt, missed two games and ran for 36 against the Broncos in the season finale.
Here's what happened to the rest, for whom Young was passed over (round, team, yardage): Kenny Irons, 2, Cincinnati, 0, tore an ACL before the season; (the other) Chris Henry, 2, Tennessee, 119; Brandon Jackson, 2, Green Bay, 267; Lorenzo Booker, 3, Miami, 125; Tony Hunt, 3, Philadelphia, 16; Garrett Wolfe, 3, Chicago, 85; Michael Bush, 4, Oakland, 0, out all year with rib injury; Antonio Pittman, 4, New Orleans (cut in camp and picked up by St. Louis), 139; Dwayne Wright, 4, Buffalo, 94; Kolby Smith, 5, Kansas City, 407; Thomas Clayton, 6, San Francisco, 0 (practice squad); Justise Hairston, 6, New England (cut by Patriots and signed by Indianapolis to practice squad), 0; DeShawn Wynn, 7, Green Bay, 203; Nate Ilaoa, 7, Philadelphia, 0 (cut and signed to play arena football); Kenneth Darby, 7, Tampa Bay, 9; Ahmad Bradshaw, 7, New York Giants, 190.
One so-called draft expert had rated Young 31st among available running backs in the draft. He finished No. 3 among first-year players in the NFL and now is No. 1 on the Broncos.
So, will The Beast run for 2,000 yards? It's more likely than Beauty winning any prize
http://www.denverpost.com/paige/ci_9470315
2000 for Young?, Don't laugh
Selvin Young will rush for 2,000 yards in 2008.
And nine days after his 26th birthday in October, I will win the Nobel peace prize.
Wanna laugh? Go right ahead. I'll wait.
* * *
Like Al Gore, I am from Tennessee, and he and I worked as reporters for newspapers in that state in the early 1970s, and both of us failed to become president. Gore was honored by the Nobel committee with its most esteemed award last year. My goal is to take the prize this year because I've strived to bring peace between Carmelo Anthony and George Karl.
Young's goal is 2,000 yards because he has become, in his words, "a beast." He wouldn't be the first Broncos running back to reach the magical 2,000. Terrell Davis did it in 1998. Davis was 26.
I and Young — ironically and ungrammatically — are linked as "Beauty & the Beast."
As Monsieur D'Arque said in the Broadway show: "I don't usually leave the asylum in the middle of the night . . ."
Call us crazy.
Two days ago I asked Mike Shanahan if Young's objective is realistic. "When he said that, it was the final proof I needed." The coach was talking about his decision to cut Travis Henry, but he was making a joke.
Shanahan is not joking about his belief in Young, who has committed to an arduous offseason program to gain weight, become stronger and tougher and expand his understanding of the Broncos' offensive system.
Young is the Broncos' first-string running back, and Oh-No Henry is out of string. For only the second time in Shanahan's coaching era, the 2007 Broncos didn't finish with a 1,000-yard rusher. (The other season was 2001, when Davis, on one knee, started only eight games and ended up with 701 yards.)
Last season Young started eight games and ended up with 729 yards. He had a 5.2- yard average per carry. In 1998, when Davis rushed for 2,008 yards, he averaged 5.1. If Young can keep up that average in 2008 and also dramatically increase his rushing attempts
to, say, 385 — Davis' number was 392 — guess what?
T.D., O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders and Jamal Lewis would be joined.
Of course, Young has to remain healthy — a problem he had in five seasons (one medical redshirt) at the University of Texas and last season with the Broncos, when he sustained separate minor knee and elbow injuries. And he will have to average 125 yards, although he has topped that only once (156 against Kansas City).
But if he could play against the Chiefs every week, Young certainly would rush for 2,000. He had 265 yards against them in two games as a rookie. An undrafted rookie.
Every team in the league passed on Young. He signed as a street free agent with the Broncos because he liked running backs coach Bobby Turner and believed he could stick as a special-teams player.
Eighteen running backs were chosen in the 2007 draft. Young outrushed 13 of them. Not impressed?
The 13 combined. The baker's dozen had a total of 716 yards for the teams that drafted them.
The young man who made $305,000 was third in rushing among rookie running backs and beat No. 4 by 322 yards. The two ahead of Young were Adrian Peterson (1,341) and Marshawn Lynch (1,115).
They were drafted in the first round at seventh and 12th overall. The Broncos picked 17th.
Of course, Peterson and Lynch are cinch stars, and there was serious discussion last season about Peterson surpassing 2,000 yards after he rushed for 296 in a game. However, he got hurt, missed two games and ran for 36 against the Broncos in the season finale.
Here's what happened to the rest, for whom Young was passed over (round, team, yardage): Kenny Irons, 2, Cincinnati, 0, tore an ACL before the season; (the other) Chris Henry, 2, Tennessee, 119; Brandon Jackson, 2, Green Bay, 267; Lorenzo Booker, 3, Miami, 125; Tony Hunt, 3, Philadelphia, 16; Garrett Wolfe, 3, Chicago, 85; Michael Bush, 4, Oakland, 0, out all year with rib injury; Antonio Pittman, 4, New Orleans (cut in camp and picked up by St. Louis), 139; Dwayne Wright, 4, Buffalo, 94; Kolby Smith, 5, Kansas City, 407; Thomas Clayton, 6, San Francisco, 0 (practice squad); Justise Hairston, 6, New England (cut by Patriots and signed by Indianapolis to practice squad), 0; DeShawn Wynn, 7, Green Bay, 203; Nate Ilaoa, 7, Philadelphia, 0 (cut and signed to play arena football); Kenneth Darby, 7, Tampa Bay, 9; Ahmad Bradshaw, 7, New York Giants, 190.
One so-called draft expert had rated Young 31st among available running backs in the draft. He finished No. 3 among first-year players in the NFL and now is No. 1 on the Broncos.
So, will The Beast run for 2,000 yards? It's more likely than Beauty winning any prize