Chris Rodriguez Deserves More Opportunities
Rookie Running Back Chris Rodriguez Jr. deserves more chances than he’s being given at at this time. The Kentucky product has 14 rushing attempts for 61 yard, or 4.4 yards per carry, through eight weeks of the season. Normally at this point I would include a highlight clip to demonstrate how good he’s looked when given the opportunities, but I’m running into technical difficulties so the best I have is stats and, “trust me, bro.”
Every time Rodriguez gets in the game I see a kid who runs with purpose and bad intentions. It might be because he’s a rookie, but I don’t worry about any tendencies towards turning the ball over either. I mean no offense to someone like Antonio Gibson, who leads the team with 4.5 ypc, but every time he takes a handoff I’m worried he’s going to put the ball on the turf. If all you’re losing is 0.1 yards per attempt, maybe the young buck should get more action in the #2 role.
I don’t know how Rodriguez is in pass protection or in the passing game, but the kid has shown an ability to get yards whether he proves to be a one-trick pony or something more. From the small sample size I’ve seen out of Rodriguez he deserved to have more than the ZERO attempts he got on Sunday against Philadelphia. The team needs to run the ball more in general, and giving the rock to Rodriguez would be a great excuse to balance the offense some more.
