Peyton Hillis

If you look back in the past 15 years there have been multiple white running backs that were considered "fullbacks" in the NFL and never got any opportunities. Rob Konrad and Heath Evans could have easily been featured backs. Both of these guys had 4.5 speed even though they were bulked up to play the fullback role. Mike Alstott was never considered a "featured back" and always ended up splitting carries with Warrick Dunn. Now Hillis is being called a "hybrid" back by the media. He should be called what he is, a tailback.

What they should call him is a complete back. Even Jim Brown who was a fullback couldn't or didn't block well. He fell to the ground and never wanted sacrifice his shoulders. I'm a bit older than some of the posters here but I remember when the fullback was the feature back on some teams. Riggins in NYC/Washington, Chuck Foreman in Minnesota, Van Eeghan in Oakland/New England and others. Even when they weren't feature backs they carried significant loads on various teams. To the younger posters fullback seems like a four letter word. Does anybody know or remember when Alstott was the main back in the seasons where Dunn was down to injury. Was Mike moved to tailback or was he still a fullback?Edited by: white is right

Alstott played RB a few times when Dunn was injured and also when Dungy used the "rhino" backfield which consisted of Alstott at RB and Neal at FB. Alstott tried to sign with another team as a FA but not ONE single team was interested in Mike as a RB only FB so he stayed in Tampa...

here's a great article on peyton,http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/...ng_back_11.html</span>

For Hillis, becoming a featured back is a dream come true. He grew up
idolizing Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders. His dad, a huge football fan,
named him after Walter Payton. But because of his 6-1, 240-pound frame,
coaches often pegged him as a fullback. In college, he paved the way
for back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons by tailbacks Darren McFadden and
Felix Jones, who were drafted in the first round. But Hillis started
more games than either of them his rookie year.


"I never thought I had any less ability than those guys," he said.
"I'm a smashmouth, throwback style of back. I always thought I was a
running back [not a fullback] and I always thought I could do a good
job."


The Ravens found out the hard way that he was right. He hopes to show the Bengals, too.


"I'm usually not easily impressed, but he impressed me," Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs told the Carroll County Times.


Added Thomas: "You can see the defense doesn't want to tackle him.
They don't want to come up in the hole and put their nose in there. I've
seen where Csonka ran right through people. That's Peyton."

Click to expand...

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2010/10/cleveland_browns_running_back_11.html





Nice find!

Cincinnati is 17th against the rush so hopefully Hillis can put together another 100 yard performance.

An odd article on Hillis.

Odd columnEdited by: DWFan

Was watching NFL matchup this morning and 'Jaws' & company were looking at the upcoming Ravens Steelers matchup.

When they discussed the Ravens 'D' they said they were only average and pointed out what Hillis did to them.

Seems to me the Ravens were better than average while holding the Jets and Bengals vaunted running games in check in weeks 1 & 2.


After the Ravens stuff Mendenhall and the Steelers running game they will once again be good and it will be the Bengals turn to be called average after Hillis runs over, through & around them.

P.S. -- DWFan, link didn't work for me.

Another thing benefiting Peyton this week is that Delhomme is inactive again. Seneca Wallace gets t he start and that means more touches for Hillis.

Anyone have a link where we can watch Hillis?

Sorry GWTJ, fixed it.

102yds & 1td !!!! I watched this game & Peyton never really had any holes to run through. He earned every yard the tough way. People were getting hurt trying to tackle him.

Back to back 100 yard games for Peyton. He's also the 1st Cleveland Browns running back to rush for a touchdown in 4 straight games since 1975!!!

GO PEYTON !!!!!!!!!!

I knew IF Peyton got the carries/reps he could tear it up. I hope Woodhead gets some reps tomorrow night (too).

on nfl.com's segment inside the number they feature Peyton again, both in the cover picture and in the subtitle:

"Inside the numbers: Another big day for Hillis

Peyton Hillis had 27 rushes for 102 yards and a TD, his fourth straight game with a rushing TD (longest streak by a Browns player since Greg Pruitt had five straight games with a rush TD in 1975)."

oh and another thing:

Notes: The Bengals lost both S Roy Williams and CB Jonathan Joseph to injuries. Williams hurt his right knee in the second half. Joseph injured his right forearm trying to tackle Hillis in the second and did not return.



(some more good pics in this gallery!)


another good article from chronicle.northcoastnow.com:

CLEVELAND â€" Peyton Hillis has only been with the Browns for seven months, but he's made himself right at home on the North Coast.


Browns running back Peyton Hillis scores on a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter Sunday. (AP photo.)
The hard-hitting running back gained 102 yards on a career-high 27 carries and scored a touchdown Sunday afternoon, leading Cleveland to a 23-20 victory over the Cincin­nati Bengals.

It was Hillis' second consecu­tive 100-yard performance, as well as the fourth straight game he has rushed for a touchdown â€" the longest such scoring streak by a Browns player since Greg Pruitt in 1975.

"I've never been happier and I've never had more fun playing football than we are right now,"Â￾ the 6-foot-2, 250-pounder said. "I can't even explain how much I love this city and I love this team.

"There are such hard-working people here and they love their football so much, you want to play as hard as you can for them all the time. I think the good Lord had a plan for me to wind up in Cleveland."Â￾

Despite his smash-and-crash running style, Hillis was in the backfield for the Browns' first 63 offensive snaps against Cincin­nati. He finally got a rest â€" and former starter Jerome Harrison finally got into the game â€" when they went into the victory formation for the final three plays.

"A guy like Peyton, he helps a lot,"Â￾ Cleveland coach Eric Mangini said. "He's tough, he's physical, and his message com­ing out of the locker room was, ‘Feed me,' and we did."Â￾

Fittingly, Hillis locked up the win by busting off a 24-yard run with 2:46 remaining. Since the Bengals were out of timeouts, it allowed the Browns to stage an extended celebration on their sideline and in the stands.

"This game says a lot about our team and our coaches,"Â￾ said Hillis, who was acquired from Denver in exchange for quarter­back Brady Quinn. "It shows we are improved and we can win. Being a part of it is such a bless­ing, it really is."Â￾

and yet decent article article from bleacherreport.com

Peyton Hillis Continues To Impress as Josh McDaniels Looks More Foolish
By Andrew Bailey (Featured Columnist) on October 3, 2010

On March 15 of this year, the Broncos sent fullback Peyton Hillis, a 2011 sixth-round draft pick and a 2012 conditional draft pick to the Cleveland Browns for quarterback Brady Quinn.

Hillis has quickly returned to the promising form he showed in Denver prior to Josh McDaniels' arrival in the Mile High City. Quinn has yet to play a down in the regular season.

Hillis was not as impressive in the 23-20 victory against the Bengals as he was last week against the Ravens. Even still, he had 83 more rushing yards than his former team. Hillis bowled his way to 102 yards, while the entire Broncos team amassed a whopping 19 yards.

After Denver's Week 4 win, the Broncos are now averaging 55 yards rushing per game; Hillis is averaging 80.5 yards. The Broncos have three rushing touchdowns; Hillis has four.

The Broncos have managed to go 2-2 without any sort of effective running game, so just imagine how good they could be with Hillis.

During his rookie year with the Broncos, Hillis started just two games, and ran for 343 yards and five touchdowns. While all those numbers didn't come during the two starts, the bulk of them did. It looked like Denver had a young running back that would be effective for them for years to come.

Enter Josh McDaniels.

During the Broncos' first draft with McDaniels at the helm, the team drafted Knowshon Moreno in the first round. Right then, Hillis' career as a Bronco was doomed. A small part of me held out for a rushing attack that featured both Moreno and Hillis. That hope was dashed very early in the 2009 season.

McDaniels barely let Hillis sniff the field. In 14 games, Hillis carried the ball just 13 times. For some incomprehensible reason, the Broncos did nothing to take advantage of this young, multi-talented player.

After that season, I was actually a bit happy for Hillis when I heard the Broncos were shipping him out. I thought the Browns might give him the carries he deserved.

For the Broncos, this trade made very little sense when it happened. Quinn had pretty much already proven that he was a bust after three terrible years in Cleveland; his career passer rating is 66.8.

With each week, McDaniels is looking more foolish for failing to utilize Hillis when he was in Denver.

If the Browns are smart, they'll continue to use Hillis as the featured back after Jerome Harrison returns from his injury. If they're smart, they can even build around Hillis for the future.

Seeing good press about Hillis makes for a good start to the morning, fellas.

Was watching two different NFL rehash shows yesterday and spent the better part of two hours flipping back and forth just trying to pick up a 2 or 3 minute blurb on the Browns/Bengals. It was like they [media] were studiously avoiding covering that game. Finally, Berman and Jackson showed the Hillis TD and an exceptionally quick cut of Hillis breaking off that 24 yarder. That was it. That was the coverage.

I suspicion that it was because two white RB's scored TD's in that match-up while one of them [Hillis] is becoming a thorn in the medias sides that they will have to acknowledge someday.

The highlight shows were like all Eagles/Redskins all the time! with a smattering of Ravens/Steelers thrown in for diversity .

Irvin and Sanders on that NFL network piece of crap show are so racially biased to their own kind, any pale face would be looking for work for a quarter of the crap those two idiots spew!

Sucks living out west when the Browns got the guy I want to see succeed.

Haha McDaniels is going to have a rough year! I'm loving it, hopefully San diego can get it together and the Chiefs are much improved, hell even the Raiders might be able to surprise some people with Gradkowski leading the way.I don't see McDaniels finishing above .500 this year..

Animalmuther0 said:

Seeing good press about Hillis makes for a good start to the morning, fellas.

Was watching two different NFL rehash shows yesterday and spent the better part of two hours flipping back and forth just trying to pick up a 2 or 3 minute blurb on the Browns/Bengals. It was like they [media] were studiously avoiding covering that game. Finally, Berman and Jackson showed the Hillis TD and an exceptionally quick cut of Hillis breaking off that 24 yarder. That was it. That was the coverage.

I suspicion that it was because two white RB's scored TD's in that match-up while one of them [Hillis] is becoming a thorn in the medias sides that they will have to acknowledge someday.

The highlight shows were like all Eagles/Redskins all the time!

with a smattering of Ravens/Steelers thrown in for diversity

.

Irvin and Sanders on that NFL network piece of crap show are so racially biased to their own kind, any pale face would be looking for work for a quarter of the crap those two idiots spew!

Sucks living out west when the Browns got the guy I want to see succeed.

Click to expand...

Berman is an insufferable as%hole.

During the Blitz segement on the Browns-Bengals game, Berman called Hillis the "human bowling ball" and Tom Jackson uttered a couple of "uh-huhs." That was it. Just proves again, that there is no media support for whites in anything that encroaches on the "status quo." Rush Limbaugh's infamous quote about the media having a vested interest in seeing black quarterbacks succeed barely scratched the surface; and the flip side of that is of course is that the media will never provide support or encouragement for anything seen as encroaching on something dominated by blacks or non-whites.

As for Berman, he's always had an entertaining schtick, but he's liberal to the core. He's had a lot of influence over the years with shaping media perceptions of NFL players given the audience he and Jackson have had since 1987, and he always follows the same predictable script.

I live in a part of Ohio that is definitely Cleveland Browns all the way and I told everybody that would listen back when the trade took place between Quinn and Hillis that the Browns had made a steal. So it's been real nice giving the "I told you so" to so many people with Hillis getting back to back 100 yard games and becoming a fan favorite to most of the Browns fans that I know. This is one of those priceless anti-caste moments where the point we have been making for years on this site can be driven home and some people will actually listen to what we have to say and see what is actually going on in regards to the treatment of white athletes in the NFL. Here's hoping that Welker, Woodhead and Hartline have great games tonight.

Great post guest301. Hillis is making all of us proud. What we need to do is to educate people and tell them that there are countless Hillis type running backs that never get the chance to run the ball. They either don't get drafted, get moved to full back or linebacker. Some just never see the field except for on special teams. Peyton Hillis can help change the perception of white running backs. This needs to start a movement. We need more teams to take chances on these guys. Usually the NFL is a copycat league. Let's hope so in this case.

Yes, I also think that the Jets cutting Woodhead will be shown for the racist move it was when he lights it up for the Pats, just as Hillis being forced out of Denver has made some think it was over race. We used to use the Wes Welker being cut by SD example for how ridiculously biased the NFL is. Now we have many more!

"Team chemistry" being a phrase we can mock with impunity, because that is why Danny was cut so they could keep a "team leader" on the roster and not a white player.