Tre Mason Needs To Do His Talking On The Field

Over the past week Rams rookie running back Tre Mason has been making his fair share of unnecessary rookie noise. It first started when Mason  said that he’ll compete for a starting job which was backed up by coach Jeff Fisher.

I don’t doubt this, Fisher is going to start the better player and the hot hand. He proved this last season when he benched the struggling Daryl Richardson in favor of Zac Stacy, which ended up being his best move last season.

However, where things may be getting is of hand and have started to get interesting is  Mason recently said, “10 carries, all I need. 10 for a 100 yards.”

Confidence is great, and I’m all for it. I’d rather a player like Mason that exudes confidence and doesn’t just accept things the way they are than a player that is o.k. with just sitting on the bench. There is a point however when all the confidence talk goes from confidence talk to a distraction, and this is nearing that line slowly but surely.

What Mason needs to realize is that the player ahead of him, Zac Stacy, almost rushed for 1,000 yards himself as a rookie and was really the star of the team, therefore taking that starting role for himself isn’t going to be an easy task. Jeff Fisher also said earlier in the offseason that he sees Stacy as a “70% of the carries kind of guy”.

This isn’t Auburn anymore, racking up 304 yards off of a whopping 46 carries most likely won’t happen, nor will averaging 129 yards per game. Not to say that isn’t at all possible, but Mason will be playing in the NFC West, a division in which every team ranked in the top ten in run defense last season.

Mason is saying all of this and he has yet to set foot in a live action NFL-level game. The Rams have yet to take the field in OTA’s, and have only gone through basic minicamp.  If I were Mason I’d keep quiet until he has something to back his talk up with. He’s shown he can talk the talk, now let’s just hope he can walk the walk.