Our 3 RBs = Cerberus

For those not up to date on their ancient Greek mythlogy, Cerberus is the three-headed monster dog that guards the gates of hell.

Marion Barber, Tashard Choice, Felix Jones

I feel that these guys are the key to our offense.  How do we best utilize them.

First, how do we distribute the carries in the traditional one RB formations? 

I say we give Choice the start.  His natural shiftiness and vision are great for early in a game when defenses are fresh and anxious.  He can elude over-pursuit and turn sure no gains into 3 yards.  Give him carries early after halftime too.

Felix is the wildcard, he comes in on any down and any distance to keep defenses on their toes.  He can run and catch and is a home run threat every time he touches the ball.  Not knowing when or why he is on the field will drive defenses crazy.  Think lots of mismatches, blown assignments, and general over-concern for Felix, which will open up the playbook.

The Barbarian, The Predator, The Closer.  Marion knows he is designed to kill.  Kill the clock, kill the opponents will, punch them in the face and stomp their throats into the turf.  Throughout the game, he gets the must have yards: goal line, 3rd and short, 4th and inches.  When we get a lead or got their defense on their heels late, Barber takes over.  Give him the ball damn near every play and let him do what he does best - Close

With well defined roles, production should be maximized.

Since the running backs are so different from each other and yet still extremely versatile, I started to wonder can we get them all on the field at the same time?

This is my second question.

Can we play our 3-headed RB monster at the same time?  Here's the CERBERUS formations I got so far:

         ------------------------CERBERUS BACKFIELD SETS--------------------------

          WR            LT LG C RG RT         WR

                            RB      QB      RB

                                        RB

          WR            LT LG C RG RT  TE

                             RB      QB      RB

                                        RB

                     TE  LT LG C RG RT  TE

                             RB      QB      RB

                                        RB

These first three got QB in shotgun, next three under center.

         WR            LT LG C RG RT           WR

                                        QB

                              RB                RB

                                        RB

         WR            LT LG C RG RT  TE

                                        QB

                              RB                RB

                                        RB

                     TE  LT LG C RG RT  TE

                                        QB

                              RB                RB

                                        RB

Out of these alignments we would be doing a lot of running, screens and short passes.  If we got two wideouts think play action bombs to Austin or T.O. if he's still on team.  If we got a TE or two TEs think power running and play action short/mid-range passing game.  We can also shift to a 3 WR set easliy by putting Felix in motion out of backfield.  Barber could be a decent enough FB/lead blocker and allow even more versatility.

Isn't the goal to get your best players on the field as much as possible.  There is no debate that these guys are our most consistent and talented offensive playmakers. So lets get them on the field and give them the ball.

Now I haven't really considered defenses counter-moves so I leave that up to yall.