Don't get me wrong, I am not here to bash Portis.

If we did not have Portis, we would have been down in the dumps during the Gibbs II era. We did not have a passing threat and we had at best a mediocre O line. Defenses put 8 men in the box and Gibbs just ran Portis over and over.

When Gibbs traded a future Hall of Famer Champ Bailey and a 2nd rounder for Portis, he was going to get his moneys worth. Portis on the other hand was constantly hurt because of overuse. His yards per carry went down. He also has become overtly careful regarding a few fumbles he had earlier and started putting two hands on the ball. In my view that took quite a bit away from his running.

Now Portis, who has been great warrior for the Redskins for a long time is at a point where many running backs of his caliber get to. He still has some gas left in his tank but the team is just not good enough for him to really be productive. You put Portis in a team like Patriots or Colts and he will give a 1200 to 1400 yards season. But you put him in our offense he will barely get to a 1000 yards rushing and he will take lot more hits from the linebackers rather than secondaries.

I just don't see the burst of speed that Portis used to have right now. Betts is hitting the holes with heck of a speed and making the 1st guy miss a lot of the times. He is also a better pass catcher than Portis and defenses has to account for that. Jim Zorn already said that he would not like to make Portis a second stringer right now given the fact that he has produced for such a long time. I'd argue that, in case of running backs it's imperative that you make him a second stringer because of the same reason. This kind of production in such circumstances has taken a toll on the man and it's Zorn's duty to promote Betts and save Portis's health.