High praise there.

I gotta be honest, I’ve never even heard of Mike Smith. I know Robert Turbin from Utah State and he’s another force to be reckoned with in the NFL. After doing a tad bit of research, apparently Smith is a speedster.

To be honest, Doug Martin WILL be a feature back for the Bucs come September. Blount is more of a between the tackles type runner, too. And given that fact, he’ll see playing time when Doug needs a breather because Doug is a 3-down back. As for Smith, given his speed, he’ll be more of a change of pace back. A guy they’ll use on the outside because of his speed from time to time.

I think Blount’s spot at #2 is solid. ANd if the Bucs are smart, they’ll use all 3 to their advantages with Doug being the workhorse and feature back.

Initially, I don’t expect Doug’s numbers to be gaudy (or even that impressive to the average football fan). Where he’ll excel is that he does it all and he does it well. Which means he may be put in for his pass-blocking/receiving on 3rd downs and his between the tackles ability on first and second down to gain some much needed yardage and close the gap for yardage on 3rd downs.

If I played fantasy football, I wouldn’t necessarily jump to pick up Doug on my fantasy team (because of the above mentioned reason). BUT if I were a GM or coach, there would be nobody better to have on my team at RB than Doug Martin.