I don't think it's that big of a deal - leaping over the pile at the goal line is a reasonably effective short yardage play, and a high jumper is better equipped to get up over the pile than the RBs we have. My bigger issue is Rhule pretty much telegraphed the playcall a year ago, and there's really nothing else Nelson would be doing in the game. He tweeted this right before early signing day, then clarified in his press conference that it was in reference to Nelson and one of the roles they envisioned was a goal line I-Back, diving over the pile like Walter Payton.
Even without that context, any team that puts a tiny bit of effort into scouting knows that Nelson is a really good athlete with a currently limited package of plays. He's still a string bean, so we're probably not just having him run into the line. You're watching for a leap over or a play fake with him sprinting to the flat, and it was obvious from his first step that he wasn't going out for a pass. In hindsight a case where using him as a decoy and having Raiola bootleg out, or have a quick handoff to the FB while Nelson leaping over top would be better. But I don't have a problem in general with using him in a critical goal line package - if they're selling out on defense, get the ball to your athletes.
