Let me tell you something, Pac Nation.

I am looking at these OTA reports and I see Marshaun Lloyd out there taking first team reps with the ones, and I am already pacing around the recliner

like a madman. The kid has that burst, that thing we have been missing. You put him in space,

and he makes linebackers look like they are running in mud. But here's the thing that is eating at me right now. The Jacob's situation

is still hanging over everything like a January fog on the lake. We do not know what is happening

there. And suddenly the backfield feels real thin, real fast. Lloyd is getting a shot.

LaFleur already came out and said the kid has to prove he can stay consistent.

This is not a participation trophy situation.

This is the moment.

And I am sitting here thinking, does he have it in him to grab it and not let go? Because the explosiveness has always been there.

The problem has been keeping that body on the field long enough for it to matter.

You understand me?

We have seen this story before.

Guy flashes in practice looks like the answer, then something

tweaks, and we are right back to square one. I am not saying he cannot do it. I am saying

we better see it hold up through camp and into preseason before we start drawing up the whole backfield

around them. Because right now, the margin for error is zero. This whole thing with the guy

finally getting the reps and everybody waiting to see if he can stay healthy, it is just like what happened with that kid at the mill last winter.

I ran into Tomek at the gas station on Highway 17, and he is telling me about this new hire Dale brought in.

Kid was supposed to be the answer on the floor.

Fast, strong, could run the big machine like nobody else.

Dale gives him the good shift right away because he looked like he can handle it.

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