I enjoy cooking. I’m not a world-class chef or anything, but if my girlfriend—yes, she’s imaginary—goes to the store and picks up some fresh, quality ingredients then I can whip up some pretty darn good food. Of course, I’ll use every single dish in the house to get the job done and require some major assistance in the clean up department. But the cook shouldn’t have to clean up, right? My imaginary girlfriend begs to differ after the last time she cleaned mushroom risotto off the ceiling.
Anyway, in my demented mind, this is a great analogy for the NFL running back position. Most backs fall into this good but not great chef territory. If they’re surrounded by quality ingredients and opportunity, they’re all capable of delivering some delicious fantasy food. Just provide them with the right system on a good team, with a competent quarterback to set the table and an above average offensive line to clean up the mess.
I won’t go so far as to say all running backs are made equal, but there’s only a handful of Michelin Chef running backs in the world like Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, and Ezekiel Elliott, who might be able to transform spoiled spam into a delicious honey baked ham. Oh and Kerryon Johnson, who I wrote a Kerryon Johnson Dynasty Due Diligence love letter for last week. He’s definitely Michelin! But what does all this have to do with Devin Singletary you ask?
Please, blog, may I have some more?