I feel so terrible for CJ after his shoulder injury (long)

Oct 19, 2014, 4:44 PM

I'll apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I just wanted to express my feelings on Spiller and the apparent broken collarbone he sustained in today's Bill's game against Minnesota.

CJ is such a classy and talented young man, and I hate to see him suffer such a serious injury. Naturally, I hate to see anyone at all fall victim to any type of serious injury, but my emotions are on a completely different level when it comes to Spiller. With all of the hard work he has put in, it just doesn't seem fair for him to potentially lose the remainder of the season. As much as CJ did for Clemson on and off the field along with the effect he has had on recruiting being a 5 star top RB from Florida picking our Tigers over just about any and every school in the country, it's quite possible that he will always be my favorite player.

On a positive note, I'm pretty sure that this is the final year of his contract in Buffalo. If memory serves, his rookie contract was for 5 years for something like $30 million. I'm not aware of any extensions that he signed since then.

Even with the incredible stats that he put up in his record-breaking senior season in 2009, there was still a large contingent of analysts and commentators who predicted that he would never be able to live up to his first round status because he supposedly lacked the size to handle the workload in the NFL, he was too focused on making the big play than grinding out the tough 3 and 4 yard runs between the tackles, and he was supposedly injury prone (Despite only missing 1 full game in his 4 years at Clemson and being the only player in the nation to score a TD in every game in 2009 despite battling turf toe throughout the season). I think he has proven that he has the ability to be a Pro Bowl level NFL running back. He has had a couple of nagging injuries in his career, but if his clavicle is broken, this will be the first time in his career where he has missed more than 2 games.

The most amazing thing about his production (especially in his 2012 breakout season where he led the NFL in yards per carry with 6.0 and gained 1244 yards) is that he has had success despite being used very inefficiently for a few years by Chan Gailey and now by Doug Marrone. When Buffalo drafted him, he became the third halfback in a backfield that included both Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch.

Even after Lynch was traded to Seattle, Spiller has shared carries with Jackson his entire career and been given very few opportunities in the red zone. The one stretch where he was used as a feature back was in the last 5 or 6 weeks of 2012 when Fred Jackson was hurt, and all he did was lead the NFL in yards per carry. Going into the final week of the season that year he was averaging something like 6.5 yards per carry, which would have been an all-time NFL record for a running back, but a mediocre performance in week 17 that year lowered it down to 6.0 yards per carry).

Throughout his 4+ years in the league, CJ has 658 carries for 3255 yards and 12 TD's. That's 4.9 yards per carry in a league where 4.0 is considered good enough to earn and keep a job as a starting running back. Unfortunately his TD's have been curtailed by his lack of carries in the red zone, meaning he has had to score on long runs. He also has 152 receptions for 1176 yards and 6 TD's. When he was used as a returner in his rookie season, he had 1 kickoff return TD and finished 5th in the league with 14.6 yards per return as a part-time punt returner. When Doug Marrone decided to give him the opportunity to return kicks again at the beginning of this season, he showed that he hadn't lost his speed and vision when he returned a kick 102 yards for a TD in week 2 against the Dolphins.

The bottom line is that Spiller has been a very productive player over his 5 years in Buffalo even though he hasn't been used very often. Seeing him go down to a serious injury is horrible, and it could be the end of his season. That could very well mean the end of his career in Buffalo. It's nice to be able to watch CJ and Sammy play together along with Chris Hairston and Jonathan Meeks when he's healthy, but the best thing for CJ's career would be a change of scenery out of Buffalo.

Just looking at how successful Ellington has been in Arizona with a good obvious mind running the show (Bruce Arians) proves that there's plenty of room for a talented running back that is under 200 lbs. I would love for Spiller to have the opportunity to play for a team that has had much more recent success, gets more media and tv coverage, and has an offense with a decent QB and some other playmakers.

Best of luck to him in his recovery and also with finding a new team if he doesn't decide to re-sign with Buffalo.

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I feel so terrible for CJ after his shoulder injury (long)

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