Hillis said he would be ready to go this Sunday. I hope so, Charles is not going to be able to maintain his current workload, he is on pace for 300+ carries and has been mediocre outside of his performance against the Saints who were doing terrible (which is why I predicted Hillis to have 200+ yards, got the yardage right, wrong player). Like many black backs who receive a ton of carries, he is doing nothing to help his team win. On 115 carries he has 2 tds. The homerun speed just isn't there like the previous two years, the one big run looked like he lost a gear. I am sure he will complain about losing any carries because it is now taking him 30+ carries to break 100 yards.
I think Hillis will have success down the line, if he doesn't have another 1k season he will be used like a Brandon Jacobs type. I think it will be like the White receiver situation, we had a few random years with guys having success, Stokley with 1k, Bennet with 1k, Furrey with 1k only to have their roles reduced and then finally we had consistency with Welker and the main thing that helps is staying healthy, which he has, except for the torn mcl/acl that he still came back the next season without missing any regular games. I know Bennett had some knee issues that he played through and Furrey had several concussions that came through all the special teams he had to play which he is now suing the league over, he played through these but would often dive to the ground after he caught the ball during his 98 reception season, smart by him but coaches want their White players to sacrifice their bodies and play through injuries but at the same time don't give a crap once they injure something enough to where they can't play for a while. His style of play probably didn't help his case for staying a focal point of the offense. After Stokley's 1k season he had two seasons where he was plagued by injuries, apparently after that he was no longer viewed as someone who could be featured on the majority of the team's snaps, and then there was Welker who stayed healthy.
Its no different than blacks at the same positions (except there is always a spot waiting for them if they get injured), there are dozens of black backs that could get 1k multiple seasons if they could manage to stay healthy, but they can't, so much to where they have changed the IR rules, I believe now you are allowed one IR player that can come back, I know teams were able to do this for a few players. Also the reason why teams have gone to splitting the workloads and having rbbc. Pretty much every back in the league has suffered some type of injury after 3 seasons of a full workload, Maurice Jones Drew the most recent example, last year was Peterson (first year split carries with Chester Taylor, who had over 180 touches) , and hopefully he runs himself into the ground.
The only problem is that we have a limited amount of Whites at these positions, and both the slot and rb are injury prone positions, the average rb career 3 years, not sure about the slot position but do know that no other player has been able to do what Welker has done for his career, most all purpose yards in the first 3 years since Gale Sayers followed by 3 consecutive seasons of 100+ catch 1k seasons with most of the yards after the catch, black or White, although Whites mostly due to lack of opportunity but where is the black Welker that Nate Burleson claimed to be? Davone Bess isn't doing it, Dexter McCluster isn't doing it. I guess you could technically say Percy Harvin is doing it right now leading the league in yac but lets see how the season plays out. Last season was his only full season healthy with 1300 yards from scrimmage, the role Welker SHOULD have had, slot receiver with carries as well but Id take the 120 catches over the 80+ receptions and 50+ carries, which he mainly got to limit the role of Gerhart while Peterson was injured.
However, if Harvin were White , there is no way he would have a featured role in the NFL with the migraines and other injuries, coaches would laugh at the thought of a White player not playing due to migraines. In fact he would have had a hard time getting a shot in the NFL with the injuries he had in college, his last year starting the season with a surgically repaired heel, missed some games as well as the SEC championship (Which Tebow won, people to this day still say Harvin is a big reason why Tebow had success), with a high ankle sprain and had a hairline fracture as well. That was his last year, this is the list of previous injuries- achilles tendonitis, knee tendonitis, hip flexor, hamstring and quad issues.
So if Hillis doesn't make it, we have a few White backs coming out, Line and Burkhead being the main two, hopefully Burkhead can shake the knee injury, he isn't letting it heal properly.
