An area Marcel Reece was underutilized last season was as a third down, short yardage back. Greg Knapp miscast Darren McFadden in that role and the offense stalled constantly because of it. That is a role Reece should be playing and new OC Greg Olson intends to use him that way.
"It's nice to know especially from a quarterback standpoint to have somebody who is built like he's built and is also intelligent enough to be that third-down back who understands the blitz packages that other teams are doing and to have tremendous hands coming out of the backfield. I was really pleasantly surprised in that part of the game that he could go in and be a third-down back. Not just a plug-in type guy but not only did he do it but he did it well. I was excited to see that."
This obviously will impact McFadden's involvement in the passing game. We're expecting a better year from DMC due to the Raiders moving back to a power running game, but it sounds as if he won't be used as much on third down.
