Droughns Is a Third-Stringer With First-String Talent
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Before this season started, the Giants knew their deepest position was running back, and as the season has progressed, they’ve needed that depth.
Starter Brandon Jacobs and backup Derrick Ward have both played well, but they haven’t been quite the 1–2 punch the Giants would have liked because they haven’t often been healthy at the same time. Jacobs entered the season as the starter, but he got hurt Week 1 and wasn’t back in the starting lineup until Week 6. Ward filled in nicely for Jacobs, but he got hurt Week 7 and hasn’t played since.
Ward’s absence on Sunday against the Detroit Lions meant that when Jacobs limped off the field in the third quarter holding his hamstring, the Giants were down to their third-string running back. But for the Giants that’s not a big problem: That third-string running back, Reuben Droughns, is better than some teams’ starters.
Droughns’ stat line from Sunday’s game (11 carries for 13 yards) doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. But eight of Droughns’s 11 rushing attempts came in the fourth quarter, after the Giants took a 16–3 lead and were just trying to run out the clock. With the Lions knowing the run was coming and stacking the line of scrimmage to stop him, all the Giants really needed was for Droughns to stay in bounds and avoid fumbling, which he did.
A much better sign of what kind of player Droughns can be came in Week 6 against the Atlanta Falcons. Droughns started that game in his customary role as the Giants’ short-yardage specialist, scoring a one-yard touchdown on his first carry and picking up a first down on third-and-1 on his second carry. But in the second half the Giants made Droughns the primary ball carrier, and he excelled, finishing the game with 14 carries for 90 yards.
When the Giants traded wide receiver Tim Carter to the Cleveland Browns to acquire Droughns in March, Droughns had every reason to believe he had a real chance to replace Tiki Barber as the team’s starting running back. Droughns has a solid NFL résumé, having twice run for more than 1,200 yards in a season (in 2004 with the Denver Broncos and in 2005 with the Browns), and Jacobs’s only experience was in limited work as Barber’s backup.
In fact, considering his résumé — and considering that everyone knew the Giants needed another running back to replace Barber — it was a bit of a surprise that Droughns was available to the Giants for as low a price as Carter, a part-time wide receiver who contributed mostly on special teams in his five seasons with the Giants. The Browns were willing to part with Droughns because they had signed free agent Jamal Lewis and because Droughns’s productivity slipped in 2006, when he was bothered all season by injuries and was playing behind an injury-depleted offensive line. But Droughns seemed likely, when the Giants traded for him, to contend for a starting job, or at least be part of a 1–2 punch with Jacobs.
Instead, once training camp started, Droughns fell behind not only Jacobs but also Ward on the depth chart. Ward showed more ability as a receiver out of the backfield than Droughns, so Ward got most of the playing time in passing situations. By the time the season started, the 1–2 punch was Jacobs’s first and Ward’s second.
That left few opportunities for Droughns to get the ball, other than short-yardage situations. But Droughns made the most of those limited opportunities. The best measurement of the effectiveness of a short-yardage back is how often he picks up a first down, and Droughns has picked up the necessary yardage on nine of his 11 carries on third-and-short. Overall, Droughns has gotten a first down on 20 of his 52 carries this season, or 38.5% of the time he runs the ball. Jacobs has 34 first downs on 115 carries this year, or 29.6%, and Ward has 21 first downs on 101 carries, or 20.8%.
The question now is whether Droughns can continue to be effective if the Giants make him their every-down running back — and not just a short-yardage back — on Sunday when they host the Minnesota Vikings. To make it work, the Giants need to use him properly. Droughns is a straight-ahead runner who is at his best when following a fullback through a hole in the middle of the line of scrimmage. Droughns doesn’t have as much pure speed as Jacobs or Ward, but he’s better than either of them at finding holes in the middle of the line. If the injuries to Jacobs and Ward increase Droughns’s playing time, the Giants’ offensive game plan will need to recognize that.
As a player who has spent the last three seasons as a full-time starter, routinely running the ball 15 or 20 times a game, Droughns must be disappointed at the way he’s been used in the Giants’ offense this year. But for the Giants he’s a luxury: a third-string running back with the talent of a starter.
Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com