Ron Rivera is proving he doesn’t care about what the old regime had in place in Washington before he arrived. The team has been adding just about every former Carolina Panther that’s available, they’ve floated the idea of drafting a quarterback, and they keep adding more “depth” to an already crowded backfield.
The latter happened when the team added JD McKissic prior to free agency, who looks like a Chris Thompson replacement, and Peyton Barber, who is known as one of fantasy’s great plodders. Those two have been added to a very crowded running back group that already has Derrius Guice, Adrian Peterson, and Bryce Love.
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With Derrius Guice coming off a roughly 50 injuries, it makes sense to have solid depth behind him. But, isn’t that what Peterson and Love will be paid to do in 2020? What’s the point of adding Barber, who brings next to nothing to the table, outside of stealing touches from two young and talented backs?
Guice has yet to been able to stay on the field, but in the five games that he was active in 2019, he went off for 245 yards and two touchdowns, highlighted by a 129 yd, two touchdown performance against the Panthers. With a healthy offseason finally under his belt, 2020 was supposed to be the year to finally live up to his full potential. But now, it looks like he’s going to be pronged into the league’s most disgusting committee.
Then there’s Bryce Love, the former Stanford RB who had one of the most electric season’s in recent college football history, who basically took a redshirt rookie season while he recovered from a ACL injury that he suffered his senior season. As a junior in 2017, Love rushed for more than 2,100 yards and 19 touchdowns, with an obscene 8.1 yards per carry. Like Guice, he has been able to have a full offseason to get back to normal.
With all FIVE running backs now at their disposal, JD McKissic is the only true pass-catcher, meaning he’ll likely be the only one with a clarified role in Scott Turner’s offense.
Following these additions, Guice has fallen to The Wolf’s RB35, six spots lower than his current ECR.
