T master Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 With all of the talk this past year that CJ was to small to handle the load of 30 + carries which coach Gailey seemingly thought by not running him as the first back while Fred was healthy & playing. I looked at my Thurman Thomas rookie card he measures 5' 10 " tall & 198 lbs when he came into the league & his YPC avg was 4.9 & is now known to be one of if not the best all purpose backs the Bills have had & is in the HOF for his accomplishments while with the Bills. Then i looked up CJ on the Bills roster 5' 11" tall 200 lbs not a lot bigger but still bigger than Thurman & his YPG avg at one point this year was 7.1 ypc & wound up over 6 for the year. This guy is going to be very special !! I just hope we can keep him here . OH & for all you Bills fans that were on the CJ is a bust band wagon, in the words of a famous country singer HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW ?? I just love it when players make some people eat their words !! If CJ would have had more carries this year he would have been higher in the top backs of the league than where he wound up maybe right up there with A P ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjmac Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Careful. If CJ is used too much he might get winded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonborn10 Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Just going out on a limb here but I think the defenders Thurman played against were about 20lbs lighter on average. I have no doubt Spiller can carry the ball 20+ times a game. But to use Peterson as the arguement is a bit silly. 30 other teams use a running back by committee. Lots of factors of course but CJ's highest number of carries was also his lowerxt YPC of the seaon. Take away the 66 yard pass and he was held in check most of the day. It will also be interesting to see what happens to Peterson next year and to see if the workload carries over to next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarolinaBill Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Just going out on a limb here but I think the defenders Thurman played against were about 20lbs lighter on average. I have no doubt Spiller can carry the ball 20+ times a game. But to use Peterson as the arguement is a bit silly. 30 other teams use a running back by committee. Lots of factors of course but CJ's highest number of carries was also his lowerxt YPC of the seaon. Take away the 66 yard pass and he was held in check most of the day. It will also be interesting to see what happens to Peterson next year and to see if the workload carries over to next season. Thats just it though, you can't take that away, thats part of his game, our game, its part of the deal. If you take away the catches Thurman had out of the backfield he wouldn't look as good either. CJ is a guy that you get the football in different ways. He has shown incredible improvement running b/t the tackles, but you always want to get him the ball in space. CJ is the guy that can be held in check for every play then BAM, lightning strikes and he scores a 66 yd TD. Thats what you get in CJ Spiller, he is not a pound it in the middle 35X/game for 3.5 yds/carry guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerball Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 With all of the talk this past year that CJ was to small to handle the load of 30 + carries which coach Gailey seemingly thought by not running him as the first back while Fred was healthy & playing. I looked at my Thurman Thomas rookie card he measures 5' 10 " tall & 198 lbs when he came into the league & his YPC avg was 4.9 & is now known to be one of if not the best all purpose backs the Bills have had & is in the HOF for his accomplishments while with the Bills. Then i looked up CJ on the Bills roster 5' 11" tall 200 lbs not a lot bigger but still bigger than Thurman & his YPG avg at one point this year was 7.1 ypc & wound up over 6 for the year. This guy is going to be very special !! I just hope we can keep him here . OH & for all you Bills fans that were on the CJ is a bust band wagon, in the words of a famous country singer HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW ?? I just love it when players make some people eat their words !! If CJ would have had more carries this year he would have been higher in the top backs of the league than where he wound up maybe right up there with A P ... I look forward to the day when Spiller surpasses Thurman's accomplishments. He's far from it now but who knows what the future will bring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 I look forward to the day when Spiller surpasses Thurman's accomplishments. He's far from it now but who knows what the future will bring? Thurman was a remarkably durable player. As to the OP, while the listed measurables may indicate that Spiller is the larger man, Thurman (at least relative to his contemporaries) was a bigger player than Spiller and gained many of his yards between the tackles, unlike Spiller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcali Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Thurman was a remarkably durable player. As to the OP, while the listed measurables may indicate that Spiller is the larger man, Thurman (at least relative to his contemporaries) was a bigger player than Spiller and gained many of his yards between the tackles, unlike Spiller. So true. Thurman was stronger.He definitely played bigger. CJ is not a guy you can pound away with. Of course CJ is faster and better in the open field than Thurman was. Thurman had remarkably good hands--he never dropped a ball. --Completely different players--both excellent. All that said CJ needs more touches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Trooth Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 We'll see. Thermal had heart and was a leader that got his teammates fired up. A guy that could, would, and did put the team on his shoulders. I sure as hell ain't feeling that with CJ. CJ has the physical gifts.... does he have the passion, the soul, and the character that Thermal did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zulu Cthulhu Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Thurman himself said recently that today's teams need 2 running backs. I tend to agree and there many teams using committee backfields. That said, I think there's a very recent trend of elite guys getting more and more of the workload. Foster, Peterson, Richardson, Bush, & Morris (he especially surprised me) all come to mind. I have little doubt Spiller can be as good, if not better than all those guys (except Peterson) with an increased workload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFLstyle Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Well, yeah a lot of people doubted him, but I've seen a lot of people at least admitting they were wrong. It was definitely frustrating being on here and seeing people say that he's a bust after one season. Spiller's superstar potential was always evident to me -- but like any other running back, he needed the opportunity to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max997 Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Thurman was more like 5'9" and 190 LBs and there is now way Spiller is 5'11" Thurman was never a huge touch guy either just incredibly productive when he did touch it. Bills had Kenneth Davis who got his share of touches during those years as well. They are different type of backs but there is no reason why Spiller cant be used in a similar way to Thurman and get 20 touches a game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerball Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Thurman himself said recently that today's teams need 2 running backs. I tend to agree and there many teams using committee backfields. That said, I think there's a very recent trend of elite guys getting more and more of the workload. Foster, Peterson, Richardson, Bush, & Morris (he especially surprised me) all come to mind. I have little doubt Spiller can be as good, if not better than all those guys (except Peterson) with an increased workload. Thurman was at his best when Kenny Davis was ready behind him. No change there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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