The New York Giants can stand to take away a laundry list of lessons learned from this season. Chief among them must be to drift away from the running back by committee and never, under any circumstance, go back to it. They must establish some semblance of a running game which starts with allowing one running back to establish himself.
Right now, the Giants are in flux. Tom Coughlin resigned and offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo has interviewed for the head coaching job for the Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles. And even if he isn’t named a head coach somewhere, he could find himself out of a job when the Giants name a new coach. No matter who is calling the shots for the Giants next year, they must stick with Rashad Jennings, or whoever is going to be the starting running back next year.
This season, for whatever reason, the Giants used Jennings sparingly and gave carries to Andre Williams, Shane Vereen and Orleans Darkwa. The only running back who earned carries, or even playing time, was Vereen. Darkwa had some moments, but the Giants were paying Jennings and Vereen to be the lead backs and the appearance of Darkwa was a bit strange. Even stranger was the obsession of the Giants to keep giving Williams carries when it was clear he was not effective.
Jennings didn’t reach 20 or more carries until Week 14 against the Miami Dolphins when he touched the football 22 times. The next time he carried the ball 20 or more times was Week 17 against the Eagles when he rushed 27 times for 170 yards. How can a running back expect to establish himself if he isn’t getting the football at least 15 times? In fact, Jennings only surpassed 15 carries three times, including the two aforementioned games. That is absolutely ridiculous on the part of Coughlin and McAdoo.
For what it’s worth, Jennings finished the season with 195 carries for 863 yards, a respectable 4.4 yards per carry average, and three touchdowns. Vereen finished second on the team in rushing with 61 carries for 260 yards. Williams somehow received 88 carries, rushing for 257 yards at a paltry 2.9 yards per carry average. Darkwa rounded out the group with 36 carries for 153 yards.
It was clear the Giants wanted to use Williams in short yardage situations, but all too often he made little or no progress. For someone who is billed as a power back, he certainly didn’t show much of that this past season. Yet the Giants still kept using him.
It wasn’t like the Giants were featuring Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward and a power running game. The Giants only rushed 403 times this season as a team which isn’t much, but they never established a running game until Week 17. That is inexcusable. We all get that Odell Beckham Jr. and Eli Manning are the cogs that drive the offense, but they could have used a reliable running game and were never given that.
No matter who is calling the shots they need to incorporate the running game more and allow one back, no matter who it is, to establish themselves. Hopefully next year Jennings, or whoever is handling the rushing duties, gets that chance.
