Tampa Bay drafted Charles Sims in the third round, adding him into a backfield that already included Doug Martin, Mike James and Bobby Rainey.
Rainey I think we can dismiss. The size/speed/talent simply aren’t there.
James runs hard and bangs out the yards. I think he could be included for some work. Remember the 158-yard game at Seattle. With his size and playing style, I think he’ll be their goal-line back.
Martin should be the main runner, but he won’t carry the kind of workload he did two years ago, when he was a one-man show.
Sims, I think, can be a change-of-pace back, but I believe he’ll be their main running back on third downs. I think he catches a lot better than Martin. In four years of college ball, Sims caught 203 passes, and averaged 10.4 yards on those receptions. He’s good.
Martin tends to be regarded as a good pass catching back. He’s not hapless. But he’s not at that level. His hands aren’t as good.
In the last two years, 26 running backs have been the intended target on at least 80 passes. Of that group, Martin has the highest drop percentage of all of them.
| RUNNING BACKS, DROPPED PASSES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Team | Player | Drops | Att | Pct |
| 1. | NE-SD | Danny Woodhead | 1 | 142 | 0.7% |
| 2. | Buf | C.J. Spiller | 2 | 97 | 2.1% |
| 3. | NO | Pierre Thomas | 3 | 137 | 2.2% |
| 4. | Atl | Jacquizz Rodgers | 3 | 121 | 2.5% |
| 5. | NO | Darren Sproles | 6 | 193 | 3.1% |
| 6. | Chi | Matt Forte | 5 | 154 | 3.2% |
| 7. | Phi | LeSean McCoy | 5 | 131 | 3.8% |
| 8. | Bal | Ray Rice | 6 | 156 | 3.8% |
| 9. | Min | Adrian Peterson | 4 | 91 | 4.4% |
| 10. | SD | Ryan Mathews | 4 | 89 | 4.5% |
| 11. | Cle-Ind | Trent Richardson | 6 | 122 | 4.9% |
| 12. | Oak | Marcel Reece | 7 | 127 | 5.5% |
| 13. | Dal | DeMarco Murray | 6 | 108 | 5.6% |
| 14. | StL-Atl | Steven Jackson | 6 | 102 | 5.9% |
| 15. | Ten | Chris Johnson | 6 | 101 | 5.9% |
| 16. | Den | Knowshon Moreno | 6 | 100 | 6.0% |
| 17. | NYJ | Bilal Powell | 6 | 94 | 6.4% |
| 18. | Buf | Fred Jackson | 7 | 108 | 6.5% |
| 19. | Det | Joique Bell | 9 | 138 | 6.5% |
| 20. | KC | Jamaal Charles | 11 | 152 | 7.2% |
| 21. | Cle | Chris Ogbonnaya | 8 | 107 | 7.5% |
| 22. | Oak | Darren McFadden | 8 | 88 | 9.1% |
| 23. | NE | Shane Vereen | 8 | 82 | 9.8% |
| 24. | Hou | Arian Foster | 10 | 93 | 10.8% |
| 25. | Mia-Det | Reggie Bush | 15 | 132 | 11.4% |
| 26. | TB | Doug Martin | 13 | 94 | 13.8% |
—Ian Allan