Revisting Detroit's RB Situation

Earlier this year I went though the Lions miserable Running Back situation. It looked dreadful at the time. I even went to far as to rank their running-corps as 39th in the NFL - not pretty at all.

Here was the projected Detroit Lions depth chart on that fateful day that I wrote the post:

1. Tatum Bell
2. Kevin Smith
3. Aveion Cason
4. Artose Pinner
5. Brian Calhoun
6. Ervin Allen (My personal favorite - his uniform number was 39B, yes, 39B)

As bleak as the season looked at that point, my tune has changed a bit after the end of training camp and the recent signing of former Bengal Rudi Johnson.

Kevin Smith has looked pretty good in preseason. Good enough to be a number one running back here in the NFL. I wasn't expecting much out of him this year after all of the draft reports I had read, but I guess that goes to show you. Players play, and Kevin Smith has turned into a player.

Rudi Johnson will be a welcome addition to this team. He was hurt last year, but all reports seem to lean towards him being in alright shape for the season. I'm shocked Cincy gave up on him as fast as they did, considering he used to be a lock for 1300 yards and 12 TDs per year. But their loss is the Lions gain.

No longer will fans have to deal with (ugh) Tatum Bell getting any carries for (double-ugh) Aveion Cason being the team's leading rusher. With the NFL quickly becoming a two-back league, both Johnson and Smith will have a fair workload, yet both will be fresh for when it counts later in the year.

After a more-than-abysmal start to the running game, I now have the confidence that the Detroit Lions will have an average-to-above-average running game. And that's something no fan in the D can argue with.