With David Johnson being banged up and only getting one carry allowed Chase Edmonds to prove himself in at MetLife this week. That outing making it seem like the Arizona Cardinals have a pretty good trio in their backfield.
When the Arizona Cardinals drafted Kyler Murray one of the main reasons they selected him was for his elusiveness on his feet. He showed this off in Atlanta scrambling for a big-time third-down conversion to seel the game.
With David Johnson already being there, they knew they had the potential to have a versatile run game. But with the performance, Chase Edmonds had against the Giants in week 7 they might have a nice third option as well.
Now it was just one game where Edmonds got a lot of touches because of the banged-up Johnson, but he has shown a lot of improvement from last year. He has a great ability to change direction upfield has been displayed on numerous occasions. He also obtains great shifty skills to break away from tackles and create space on his own in one on one situations.
It is known in the NFL that David Johnson is a workhorse, when healthy. When he has been on the field fulling ready to perform he has made some dazzling plays that have had Cardinals fans in awe this year.
He still shows he has the ability to run through the middle in short-yardage and power formations, but also the ability to bounce outside. Johnson just needs to get himself back to one hundred percent so Arizona can have the David Johnson they love so much back in regular form.
Then the rookie, first overall pick, has shown so much flashing of quickness and athletic ability this year. Being able to run out of a collapsing pocket and break for yardage making him a threat both in the air and on the ground.
Also making him really efficient in the read-option looks. He has shown his game from college is slowly translating to a pro-style play in his first seven games.
The load management of carries of the three has been crucial to the success of their ability to run the ball this year. David Johnson leading with 77, to Kyler, scrambling and having designed runs for 49 attempts, and Edmonds relieving for 51 attempts is crucial to trying to keep these guys fresh for later in the year. Load management is becoming more and more of a prevalent concern in the NFL and Kingsberry and staff have done a great job and mixing it up and showing a lot of different looks to keep defenses guessing.
With this new three-headed snake backfield, the Cardinals have obtained through the draft makes the offense look better and better with new play-caller Kliff Kingsberry in his first year. We shall see if they can keep off the much-needed success of running the ball. Being currently 11th in the league in rushing, maybe this new trio can break the top ten going further into the season.