hobojoe2131 wrote:cgf wrote:I'm pretty sure Beckum's going to replace Bushpenis in the not to distant future. Hedgecock used to be a great blocker but he's looked washed up throughout the preseason and wasn't very effective against Carolina. Given that we're becoming more of a passing team it also makes sense that we update some our positions and replace the pure blocking FB that we have used for a while now with a versatile receiving FB. It's not like we can't teach Beckum to block better, Pope is probably the best TE coach in the league at teaching TEs how to block, he turned Shockey into a dominant blocker after he came in raw and clueless and he has turned Boss into a very good blocker when he was quite god awful when he got here.
Beckum is not a fullback. He is too tall and doesn't use enough leverage to lead block. He also isn't strong enough and is too injury prone.
Using leverage is something young players get taught all of the time, Boss had that problem big time and Shockey had that problem to, Pope does a great job at getting guys to improve their blocking technique. Plus we wouldn't be using the FB exclusively like a lead blocker with Beckum there. We're becoming more of a passing team anyway and having Beckum at FB lets us use the I, which we probably use more than any other team in the league, to not just run but also have a bunch of passing options. Nicks and Smith outside, Boss at TE, Beckum and Bradshaw in the backfield, that's 5 guys that we can use to spread the field out of a formation that usually left us with two backs who were useless in the passing game, Bushpenis and Jacobs.
