Bilal Powell

Louisville Football: Could Bilal Powell have a bigger workload this weekend?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

In a must-win game for the Jets on Sunday, will former Louisville football player Bilal Powell have a bigger role in the offense?

The New York Jets are struggling to start the season, as they have a 1-3 record after losses to the Bengals, Chiefs, and Seahawks. Newly acquired running back Matt Forte hasn’t quite lived up to his expectations either, as has struggled against some tough defenses so far this year. Powell, a former Louisville football product, has been very productive in his limited opportunities.

Matt Forte had been on the Jets’ injury report earlier this week, but has been taken off the list going into tomorrow’s game. That doesn’t bold well for Powell getting more playing time this Sunday for New York.

The real question now is should Powell be getting more touches in each game?

Samuel Feldman from Numberfire.com had this great quote about Bilal Powell from his article yesterday:

“At the very least, Powell deserves a larger role in the running game to see if his efficiency can best Forte’s over a larger sample. After all, Powell maintained league-average-or-better efficiency on 70 carries last season in terms of Rushing NEP per carry and Rushing Success Rate.

While his overall efficiency will drop from where it is now, Powell has earned a bump in play time and carries due to his consistent success so far this year.”

So far this season Powell has 13 carries for 99 yards and 15 receptions for 103 yards. Those numbers reflect that he is targeted way more in the passing game than Forte and he is averaging about twice as many yards per carry than Forte. Now, his number of carries are much less than Forte’s, therefore impacting their respective YPC (Yards per carry) averages. However, you can still see that Powell is finding open space with the football.

We have talked about Forte’s vulnerability to injury in many articles this year and he is already showing it this season. Powell will get his opportunities and you should expect him to keep producing just like his former Louisville football program.