Q: If Justin Forsett rushed for over 900 yards with five touchdowns, with only two starts for the season, and averaged 5.4 yards per carry, why isn’t he on the top of the depth chart?
A: Your stats are a bit skewed, but your question is valid. Forsett rushed for 619 yards and four touchdowns to go with that 5.4-yard average. The other 350 yards and his fifth TD came on 41 receptions.
RB Julius Jones has remained the “starter” in minicamp and OTA practices, but Forsett is getting plenty of work. Carroll has been talking up Forsett since he arrived in January, and offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates is devising a role to fit his talents.
Perhaps a better way to answer your question is to point out that the plan is to use a running-back-by-committee approach. So more important than the “starter” label will be which back fills which role, and Forsett definitely will have at least one.
This looks like the trend in the NFL as far as running backs go these days. This is one of those situations that you just have to monitor up to draft time. It's hard to believe Forsett wouldn't eventually get a bulk of the carries, but we all kind of thought that last year when Jones got hurt but eventually came back to assume his starting role. The team also has Quinton Ganther, Leon Washington and Louis Rankin.
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