I’d take Slaton being like any of the 3, as it relates to what they did in this offense. Griffin is the only one who didn’t do as well over his tenure, but he did have like 230 yards in that Sunday or Monday night game, and looked poised to have a spectacular year. He just couldn’t stand up to the beating. Slaton’s a little bigger than Griffin, though. Bell was pretty damn good in it, and Portis went freaky with it.

Not to get all Napoleon Dynamite or anything but –
He’s a weapon that the coaches are going to have to learn to use – sorta like the nunchucks. It can be a quick striking and deadly weapon – if used correctly. If not, the weapon can injure the person weilding it. Accuracy and precision are key to the successful mastery of the nunchucks.

The landthief had at least one ACL reconstruction, if I remember correctly, right when he hit the pros. Also, Griffin really wasn’t a physical specimen. He was a product of the system.

Bell is more accurate. Small, but quick and explosive. I pushed for us to sign Bell in the off-season due to his familiarity with the system and his home run ability, but Slaton gives us the same thing.

As far as the fumbling issue, I always point to proven asswipe Tiki Barber as someone who can overcome such a problem. Fumbling is almost always more about ball placement than it is about tendency or strength.

First off, Bell and Portis were NOT zoneblocking backs. They had different skillsets, with Portis being the more all around back. Portis can be successful in almost any scheme. Bell was a very fast, but impatient rusher. He relied on open field moves to breakaway, but his impatience and inability to read a line made him very ineffective for the Broncos. But speed kills and the few times he got out of the mess he created at the line, he could take it all the way. He was completely wrong for the ZB system. His biggest problem was his patience. He would run up into the backs of his lineman’s blocks, long before there were any lanes to read. When Kubes and Bobby Turner coached him to slow down and let the play develop, he was unable to choose a hole quickly enough, and was always getting stuck between the blockers at the line. His talent of being able to make somebody miss behind the line or to set up open field runs were never able to be utilized in the ZB scheme, so his days were numbered. Add in his “I’m the man” attitude and his chronic turf-toe (no doubt from having to try so hard to accelerate at the right time) and he is better off in detroit or CHI.

I second bigfatdrunk’s assessment of Griffin. Griffin, Gary and Droughns are all one cut runners with decent vision, who can produce in a ZB but almost nowhere else. Nothing to see here…

With all that, I agree with those who say he reminds them of T.Bell, sadly. He is not an ideal, all around ZB back, but he has two things that will make him emminently coachable by the Gibbiak: good vision, good feel for the cutback lane. Fumblitis can be coached up, and durabiltiy shouldn’t be a problem if he is used as the change of pace back for around 10-15 carries a game. What really, REALLY bothers me is how he danced around in the backfield last season and his lack of patience. He MUST learn to be patient because he has the ability to read the line and pick the right crease, but if he is bouncing back or sidestepping when that crease appears, it will be long gone before he can accelerate through it.

I don’t think Slaton is as talented as T.Bell, and I think they share some fundamental flaws within the ZB system, but there is hope: he runs much lower than T.Bell ever did and seems to be much more coachable than Bell was. Gibbiak has seen this player before, and I will always bet on Kubes when he thinks he has figured something out.

in the article by SOLIS that was linked above (the WVU interview) I’ll put the props for him in here. That article was absolutely top-shelf. Great work!!