Article: Montrell Johnson Discusses Florida’s RB Room & Their Utilization In The Passing Game

The mentality of not being the number one back but just a team player is the new way to go. The NFL is showing that RB's are being undervalued so no sense in getting yourself destroyed every game with 30-40 carries. Take advantage of the reps you get and don't beat yourself up. Get drafted 3-4 rd with plenty in the tank.

 

Wow...you have a guy like AR who needed a few easy passes to get a good rhythm and you had very capable backs at receiving and taking it to the house but our play calling (or the QB) failed to use this all damn year. AR getting overloaded and blitzed every play with no outlet pass to keep the defense honest unless you want to call the wr screen for minus 3 yards effective. Why it took a year to see they needed to add this to the play book...not a game...or two. Its infuriating!...I hope we give Johnson and Etienne 4 passes a game this year...maybe the offense will click a bit more.

 

It was all year long not just against mighty Vandy. Common sense is if theyre coming every play make them have second thoughts by having a quick outlet. Hell call the RB pass as the primary play without delay and make them think twice about knowing where the ball is at al times. What I saw they kept rushing AR against his right side roll outs and held him in the pocket this way all game and we never forced them to think about committing so many players to one location. Outlet the RB right behind this area and it goes to the house...outlet to left and its 30 yards. Easy pass that even if the QB has accuracy issues will eventually bust the defense big time. The defense will think twice about that level of overload next series and that in turn will lessen the pressure to run an offense the way you wish. With a talent like AR the defense (other than maybe Georgia) should never be dictating what our offense is doing...yet we didnt adapt all year despite having great receiving RBs like ETN and Montrell. Big screw up...cant paint it differently.

 

When I was playing football in my youth the running back was always a safety valve receiver after any back field blocking duties were done with or in any pass play where I was not asked to block a blitzing defender.

 

There is a reason the head coach is the head coach...the blame of why special teams, defense, offense, player performance etc falls on one well paid guy. His job is to make these deficiencies become strong points. Im not sure any aspect of the team got better as the year went on. We can blame assistants, players and some clown throwing a shoe but inevitably it falls on one guy to make it better...and by the way Id let your 10 year old grandson call the offense over Doug Nussmeyer...and if you have a 6 month old grand kid Id let him call 3rd down coverage over Grantham. Dont get me wrong Im on board with Napier but there is a list of deficiencies 2 miles long on offense, defense, 2 minute offense/defense and oh good god special teams that needs to be corrected which by the way got substantially worse every game of the year until the Vandy debacle. No way no how is it anyone other than the head coaches job to make sure the team improves over last year.

 

New players, old players, disgruntled players, some bought in, some not at all. Dissention in the troops. Inconsistent QB play. Roster issues all over the place. The "D" was dreadful. NIL. New coach(s). Pretty tough year, all in all. One great win: LSU, Tenn, Fla State very close-all very good teams.

With team chemistry, a year under their belt, everybody settling in, it should be improved. Some people have said 2025 will be the year. I'd have to agree with that. But I'm willing to bet we'll surprise some folks along the way. These kids want to win. If they're working as hard as the coach says, they'll create some luck too. Special teams should be at least a bit more special...

I like our chances to have a better season than last year. Napier is changing kids lives. He is building the dream. And the last time I looked their coming...

Go Gators.

 

Last year's QB play was like a box of chocolates.

Here's hoping we got one that can make one of the easiest and smartest plays in the game and dump it off.

 

Two good take-aways from this article.

1. The Running Backs have a team attitude. It appears that they will be pushing and pulling for each other in multiple ways. This bodes well for the confidence and the attitude of the individual players.
2. Having the Running Backs as a pass threat divides the attention of the opposing defenses. Last season this item should of been given a higher priority. In defense of the HBC, Napier had a hell of a job in getting 100 plus players and coaches on the same page. At this time, it appears he has the entire team on the same page and hopefully on the same line item.

 

I agree. I saw a quarterback that just wasn't very good at reading defenses, and had below-average accuracy and touch.

 

I agree. I think we'll see definite improvement over last season on both sides of the ball, even without a top-flight quarterback.

 

Did you watch AR try to execute a five yard slant? Really?

 

The slow as f db’s did go in the right direction , boy 4.8 wont get you in position in any scheme. If you cant complete a swing pas to a b? What gives. You call the plays.

 

He just got picked #4 in the NFL draft...I (and the Colts) think its teachable. Were not talking a 4th round pick either which is still pretty damn good...were talking 4th overall pick. Ill bet he "is coached" to make those short routes just fine against NFL talent. Quite frankly though I wasn't referring to the 5 yard slant...just a simple floater to the rb over the rush...all day all year it was there and it wasn't executed. Dont know who had the issue...but quite frankly its the coaches job to make sure by the next game it is executed flawlessly....and it never happened from what I saw.

 

Nope, it never happened. AR was 33% on passes less than 10 yards. Maybe there wasn’t a coach capable of teaching him that during his three years at Florida and maybe Indy has someone who has already taught him to execute the short passing game flawlessly. Getting picked 4th won’t help him execute.

 

"...we don nee no stinking QB!" Actually, let's hope our guys, Mertz especially, are good enough game managers to distribute the ball around accurately. There is reason for optimism.

Go Gators.

 

Yes, and later in the season... I hope Mertz becomes a full fledged field-general.

 

Maybe Mertz got picked because he can successfully throw a five-yard pass?