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Legarrette Blount had kind of a good game yesterday. Sure it's preseason. Sure, other backs did pretty well, too. And sure, it wasn't against the first team. But the 101 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries the running back put up yesterday sure beat out anything the Buccaneers' running backs produced. And this run -- well, that's just vintage Blount.
Legarrette Blount has plenty of faults, of course. He's extremely inconsistent, appears to be largely useless in the passing game, fumbles too much and struggles to consistently run behind his pads. He's a big back, but failing to stay low causes him to lose a lot of power on a lot of his runs. But let's not forget he was also the running back who did this to the Green Bay Packers, rushed for 1,007 yards in 2010, averaged 4.6 yards per carry over his career and at times looked like a human highlight machine.
So the decision the Buccaneers made to trade for him practically nothing to the Patriots remains a bit odd. A late-round pick and Jeff Demps isn't exactly worth much, especially when you consider that Demps won't even join the Bucs until the third week of the preseason -- at the very earliest. How he plans to make the roster is a mystery to me.
Meanwhile, the Bucs are desperately trying to find a competent backup. Brian Leonard is okay, but his biggest asset is his versatility and pass-blocking prowess. Mike James hasn't shown anything and looked like a try-hard-but-don't-produce-much guy at Miami, while Peyton Hillis is injured now (surprise) and has his own set of problems. I just don't see how the Bucs think they got out ahead on that trade. Of course, that tends to happen when you execute trades with the Patriots.
Compare Chris Ivory. Sure, Ivory is more consistent than Blount and he fumbles less, but he's been healthy for exactly six games in each of the past two seasons and doesn't do anything in the passing game, either. He has much less production than Blount over his career, and yet Ivory garnered the ninth pick in the fourth round. Sure, I can understand that he's worth more than Blount -- but that much more? Really? No, that I don't buy.
So the Bucs are stuck with some okay-ish pieces at running back, and have practically nothing to show for Legarrette Blount. That is what we call a bad trade.