FanPost

TWO HEADED MONSTER

1st and Goal at the Broncos 20 yard line. Carson Palmer lines up under center with Darren McFadden and Marcel Reece in a split formation behind him. Palmer flaps his arms up and down quieting the roaring sold out crowd at the O.co coliseum. Wisniewski snaps the ball, Palmer goes play action fake to McFadden with Reece leading the way. The Broncos defense bites and tackles McFadden. Scrambling when they realize he does not have the ball. Palmer looks to the back of the end zone, Moore and Streater are both covered tight. His gunslinger mentality tells him he could make that throw. Through the corner of his eye he sees Reece with Champ Bailey covering him and through the other corner he sees McFadden covered by Rahim Moore. He checks it down to Marcel Reece who has some separation from Bailey. Reece catches the ball and Bailey squares up to make the tackle. Reece bulldozes all 255 pounds through Baileys 190 pound body. Before the rest of the Denver defense can react, Reece is gone for a 20 yard TOUCHDOWN! The crowd goes nuts Reece jumps into the Black Hole.

Why look for a second running back to share snaps with McFadden when we have Marcel Reece already on the depth chart? We could run multiple formations with Reece and McFadden in the backfield. Constantly motioning either one out of the backfield looking for that mismatch. Anyone who has seen Reece play knows he is something special and is more than just a fullback. If Reece stays labeled a "fullback" he will be cheaper to resign due to the price tag for the position. The "top" FB in the NFL Vonte Leach (Reece is IMO) runs a $3 million base in 2013. This may seem high for a fullback but not if he is a hybrid fullback like Reece. Label and pay him as a "hybrid" fullback and play him as a second running back.
Last season when McFadden was out with injury Reece stepped up and played the position quite well mixing it up with catches and rushes. He obviously does not possess the break away speed that McFadden has but he is no slouch either running a 4.42 40 yard dash weighing in at 255 pounds. I see him as a better version of Michael Bush who can catch and can break away from any linebacker. When we had a McFadden/Bush combo in 2011 we had 2,110 total rushing yards giving us one of the most potent rushing attacks the Raiders had seen in a while. Bush alone had 977 yards rushing and 7 rushing TDS and 37 REC for 418 yards receiving and 1 TD. McFadden was hurt most of that season but imagine the numbers Reece would have put up. He may not have had as many rushing yards but his receiving yards would have probably been double the number of Bush.
Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson says he wants to utilize Marcel Reece betters this season. Well this may be an option... The money we would spend for a second running back could better be used for other positions of greater need like the offensive line or secondary. Of course picking up a running back in the draft for security would not be a bad idea, but the options would be endless with a two headed monster like DMAC and Reece...