Sophomore seasons similar for Ray Rice?
June 21st, 2009 | by Kevin Hanson |
When Ravens running back Ray Rice was a sophomore at Rutgers, he burst onto the national scene with a 1,794-yard campaign and 20 touchdowns. After an even better junior season, Rice declared for the NFL draft and was selected by the Ravens in the second round.
Will Rice experience a similar breakout in his “sophomore” NFL season?
Per Andy McCullough of NJ.com, Rice believes so. And so do I.
Rice, who is one of my four breakout players for 2009, said on Saturday that his “confidence is through the roof.”
“I needed that year to kind of gather myself and kind of get my things together,” Rice said.
In the off-season, Rice added some extra muscle. He’s been running with the first-team offense and says, “This is my job now.”
Recently, coach John Harbaugh said of Rice: “Now, people see him as a third-down back because of the success he had last year, but I don’t think we have any question that he can be an every-down back.”
With Le’Ron McClain moving to fullback and Willis McGahee seemingly out of favor, Rice should get a much larger share of the offense in 2009 provided that he remains healthy (knock on wood).
While 1700+ yards and 20 touchdowns is a stretch, Rice should blow away his ‘08 rookie numbers (454 rushing yards in 13 games) in ‘09.
Tags: Le'Ron McClain, Ray Rice, Willis McGahee
