Should we deal Ladell Betts???

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by T.O.Killa

Does anyone think we can get a second round pick for Betts? I think we should deal him if we can.

Absolutely no way in hell.

I'd be amazed if we could get higher than a 5th. He's coming off a very crappy season, one in which he was supposed to share a large part of the load. Did you notice, he got half the carries against the Dolphins in week 1? That same week, Jansen went down. The following week, Randy Thomas went down. After that, we started to switch entirely to Portis, because Betts wasn't doing squat.

Betts wasn't doing much because he's not a creative runner. He doesn't make guys miss like Portis can. He doesn't run guys over like Brandon Jacobs does. The only way a guy like Betts can carry you is if you have a stud line blocking for him. He's an average runner. The thing he's really good at is hitting holes decisively. But if holes are small, like they were when Thomas and Jansen went down, he can't create much for you. Hence, Portis got the ball. Betts needs a good line, and when he doesn't have it, he gets stopped.

The league knows this. They also know that teams are unearthing guys like Ryan Grant, Earnest Graham, and Ahmad Bradshaw - guys that can do all the same things Betts does - quite often. There's no reason to give up anything higher than a 5th for an average RB. They practically grow on trees (that's why Betts doesn't make much money).

And that's why it was so ridiculous to see someone bring up Julius Peppers or Chad Johnson in the same breath as Ladell Betts.