DORIAN JOHNSON
NEW ORLEANS
Joseph Randle hasn't been terrible, but he hasn't been extremely effective either. To me he looks pretty average out there. McFadden has been ok when given the ball. Is this the week they insert Michael to see what he brings? I don't see how it would hurt.*
Nick: That sounds easy enough. Just add another player into the mix. But getting four running backs to a game is harder than you think. Someone has to sit and that someone is probably on special teams. So as long as one of these four backs is running down on special teams, maybe it can work. I agree that Michael could give the team a push and I'm like you, I want to see him. But to me, I don't know how they keep them all active. Unless they're going to sit McFadden, I don't see Michael active this week.
David:I'll preface this by saying that I'd also like to see Michael get a chance. But like Nick said, when you include Tyler Clutts, you've got five offensive backs active on a 46-man roster – that just doesn't seem very feasible. On top of that, both Jason Garrett and Jerry Jones said Thursday that the Cowboys are happy with their main trio of runners. I'm starting to think it might take an injury to get Christine Michael into a game, but we'll see.
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JOHNNY CRUZVISALIA, CA
Now that other teams are most definitely going to be stacking the box, are there going to be more deep opportunities for this offense?*
Nick: That could very well happen, and it's a good thing Weeden throws a nice deep ball. Terrance Williams is probably the best deep threat this team has, but that's only because we haven't seen Brice Butler yet. Butler has great speed and now that he's got another week under him, look for him to be an option for the long ball.
David:Simply put, there need to be. I don't think it'd be smart to have Weeden chuck the ball all over the stadium on Sunday, but he's going to need to convince the Falcons defense that he can hurt them through the air. Obviously the top priority is to avoid mistakes and turnovers, but if he can find Terrance Williams, Brice Butler or maybe even Gavin Escobar down the field on a few occasions, it could go a long way toward making life easier on the running backs.
