Portis vs. Betts

Fact: regardless of rushing yardage last season, the few games that CP did play in, he was in the top three in the league in scoring and they almos all came on the big play. He is still the man. Betts has had 1 count it 1 healthy season. He is nothing more than a breath of fresh air for CP until he can prove that he can do it week in and week out, season in and season out.

Yeah, it is a total crap shoot. I hope I am wrong about CP and the week 10-11 thing, but I just see him getting brutally punished this season. I mean we do play 9 playoff teams this year, and the prognosticators aren't showing any love. I just got a look at Lindy's Pro Football preseason issue.. WE get 3rd in the division. Street and Smith also has us 3rd. Sporting News and Athlons both have us last. I sure hope Saunders offense clicks with our guys, so we can show all these sportswriters up.

why is that a big if.

Cause his knee is already bothering him and it's not even training camp. I don't think CP is going to play all 16 games and that is why I am sooooo glad we hung on to Betts.

Just joined the board. Good to be here.

CP is one of the five best backs in the league IMO. He was a slasher in Denver, and then he basically reinvented himself when he arrived in Washington. He became a power back who still has the speed to get to the outside. Clinton will have a monster season this year. I'm guessing he and Ladell will be used much like Holmes and Johnson were. Clinton gets two series, then Ladell gets one.

Alot of what happens with CP and LB will depend on Jason Campbell. People talk about how great Betts was last year, but the running game didn't really take off until Gibbs put Campbell in. Nobody respected Brunell's ability to push the ball downfield, and as a result neither Portis nor Betts really put up great numbers behind him. (Except for CP's dominance against Jacksonville.) Campbell comes in, they're going deep four or five times a game, and all of a sudden Betts is running wild. I get goosebumps when I think of the kind of numbers a healthy Clinton Portis could have put up in the 2nd half last year. Here's to him doing it in 07.

Welcome to the board and you bring up a great point. Did anyone else notice that once JC took over the running game just totally took off? I think some of it was better blocking but I would bet that we no longer had 9 guys lurking around the LOS. I can remember very well the 1st games against Dallas, NYG and Philly and we just could not back guys off the line. The defenses just did not respect our deep passing game and would just dare us to throw it deep. I think if CP had been healthy he would have just exploded towards the end of last year.

Did I miss something? When did Portis become brittle?

I guess that everyone has forgotten that a freak hand injury ended Portis' season. I don't label someone as injury prone when they were extremely productive with a bad shoulder and were shut down because their hand was broken.

Clinton Portis is by far the best runningback on the team. He runs harder than Betts and he holds onto the ball.

Case closed.

I always liked how Betts ran but he just seems to be one of those guys that will never get his big chance.

Did I miss something? When did Portis become brittle?

I guess that everyone has forgotten that a freak hand injury ended Portis' season. I don't label someone as injury prone when they were extremely productive with a bad shoulder and were shut down because their hand was broken.

Clinton Portis is by far the best runningback on the team. He runs harder than Betts and he holds onto the ball.

Case closed.


Thank you Grim.

Portis is definitely the number one back and should get majority of the carries and touchdowns. But Sanders needs to find a way to allow Betts to contribute to the offense. He is a very good back and can exploit the opponent in ways Portis cannot. Betts is a better receiver than Portis and runs some of the power running plays better than Portis.

Hopefully they complement each other, Betts is quicker to the hole and hits it with more power, Portis is more of a finesse type back, and a home run hitter, Portis needs to shed some weight and get back the agility he has lost since he decieded to bulk up he will never be a power back.

I could see at some point Betts becoming a first and second down back depending on what we do first down, and allow Portis to be more of a third down back, although he would be more than your usual third down type back because his running abilities are better than the usual 3rd down speedster. Perhaps the sharing of the work load will serve to keep the both of them healthy, remember Betts has had a history of injuries before last season, which is IMO opinion the only thing that has held him back from being a top back in the league.

All said and done, I feel Betts will get more yards I believe the coaches will stick with Portis early, but Betts will eventually force their hand for his ability to move the chains on a cinsistant basis.

Although i hate the problem of having countless number of threads about which of our talented RBs is better, it is still a very good problem to have.