Fios wrote: Also, Marcus Mason is on a practice squad for a team who is desperate to find depth at running back, he's not a viable NFL back at this point.
i'm not sure where you are located geographically, but i have the misfortune of being stuck in Raisins country. and while there is no doubt that their passing game is at least as woeful as ever, the one thing that has really shined in their offense is their surprisingly good results from their RB depth. they drafted ray rice and he was looking very promising in the preseason and ran well in the first game or two as they waited on mcgahee. but who came out of nowhere to run even better was laron mclain, who has been so good he is now a big part of the ground game (and the almost exclusive goal line option) regardless of the health of mcgahee.
the backups are doing so well that obviously they have much more faith in their #3RB to do well filling in than we do-- mcgahee is in and out of the lineup, but marcus mason just sits on the practice squad.
whereas for us, betts gets banged up and we are hitting the panic button for Shaun "Yes, i AM Completely Washed Up and Utterly Useless, and i Will Gladly Prove It If You Are Stupid Enough To Waste Your Time and Money by Giving Me a Chance" Alexander?????
sorry, i know that came out angry. obviously not mad at you, but i am just going to go INSANE if we do something this monumentally stupid. signing alexander would just prove that all the naysayers have been right all along and snyder has not learned anything and is just using the team as his Years-Out-of-Date Fantasy Football League team, and will never ever stop doing so.
why am i so against this? aside from the fact that he is a washed up veteran with absolutely no value whatsoever, compared to a sparkling young player who could be groomed into a real gem? because:
i have yet to see anyone acknowledge the fact that Shaun Alexander can not possibly be in anything remotely resembling "Football Shape", even if he is in good physical condition in general. it takes a MINIMUM of a few weeks of getting out on the field and getting hit before players get into football shape.
***if betts is only supposed to be out 1, 2, 3, even 4 or 5 games, Shaun Alexander will literally be able to contribute ABSOLUTELY NOTHING during that span.
marcus mason, on the other hand, has been practicing football against a tough defense (ours and the ravens) every week for months on end. he will be ready go get on the field the day he signs his contract.
not to mention, mason is a much better running back than alexander at this point in time. what's the knock on mason, that he can't block? can't play special teams? NEITHER CAN ALEXANDER!!!
if they sign him instead of mason i'm quite serious when i say there must, MUST, be an urgent rally of some sort around redskins park. if we let him get away with something like that now, it will never, ever stop.
i'm going to go ahead and assume that it is all just a crazy rumor, because it's just a decision that would be so insanely illogical it must be just another typical espn-style "dan snyder said to be offering New York to cover the 700 billion dollar wall street bail-out in exchange for the rights to michael strahan" type of rumor. [/b]