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The Jacksonville Jaguars offense heading into the 2014 season is a big unknown, mostly because the offensive line is set to be completely different, most of the receivers could be new and the team will have a new face at running back for the first time in years. That new face though, sounds like it will be the focus of the offense.
"Toby will be our workhorse," Jaguars second-year offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch told Ryan O'Halloran of The Florida Times-Union.
Many, especially fantasy football geeks, have been wondering how much of a workload Gerhart is going to get in the Jaguars offense, but I have a feeling it's going to revolve around him. He's never been that workhorse in the NFL because he was backing up Adrian Peterson and the comparisons to Michael Turner when he signed with the Atlanta Falcons are too perfect.
The Jaguars will have a ton of new pieces on offense in the 2014 season and relying on the running game, which is something they struggled with in the 2013 season, makes all the sense in the world. You don't ask Chad Henne to carry you with his arm, because we know he's not going to. If Blake Bortles winds up playing some games, you can simplify it for him and run the football. Gerhart has all the makings of a complete workhorse running back in the NFL.
"He's a horse," Jacksonville Jaguars running backs coach Terry Richardson said of Gerhart's running style back in May. "He's a big guy, and I talked to one of his former coaches, and he was saying Toby had the strongest legs he's been around in terms of his leg drive and leg power. We're excited about that."
Gerhart may not get the 370+ carries that Turner got his first year with the Atlanta Falcons, but I imagine it will be similar in that he'll get the lion's share of carries and snaps out of the backfield.
"Toby has the ability to do it all," Fisch told O'Halloran. "He can catch it well. He can pass protect well, and he’s going to be in the game a lot — third down, base downs, short-yardage, passing downs."
While Gerhart is still officially an "unknown" in regards to his play in the NFL, he showed he can do everything in college at Stanford when he was the Heisman runner up (should have won, IMO) and flashed the ability at times with the Vikings.