Are Running Backs a Dying Breed in Today’s League?
Photo by PFF
PSF - In today’s NFL, we are quickly seeing the extinction from the running back position. The trend over the last couple of years is an elite running back has a couple great seasons and then proceeds to get paid a long term contract. After these running backs get paid they slowly start to show their age with their legs and less production.
Ezekiel Elliott is a great example for this, he is the reason running backs started to get paid and reset the running back market and also killed the market at the same time. After his first three years in the league, Zeke was proving to be a generational running back tallying over 1,400 rushing yards two out of his first three seasons. He most likely would’ve hit this margin again in his second year if he wasn’t suspended for six games, he still ran for just under 1,000 yards despite only playing 10 games. Entering his fourth season, Zeke decided to holdout of all activities that offseason with Dallas which went all the way until three days before the first game of the season. That is when Jerry Jones gave in to Zeke’s holdout and rewarded him with a 6 year, $90 million contract which is absurd for the running back position. It seemed like it was a new age for running backs after that, but not so quickly. In his fourth year Zeke did run for 1,400 yards, but you could tell all throughout the season that Zeke didn’t look as his explosive as he did his first three years, which is kind of crazy to say after running for that many yards. His next three years you could tell that Zeke’s legs were catching up to him as his yards per carry and yards per game took incremental dips which led to his release this past offseason, he has still yet to find a new home with training camp right around the corner.
We have seen other running backs sort of fall like this too. Saints running back Alvin Kamara got paid and hasn’t really been elite in three years and this next season is looking like it will be his last with New Orleans. Kareem Hunt and Leonard Fournette have also unfortunately gone down this path after getting paid with their production dropping right after. The only running backs to get paid and still look elite while producing have been Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry and Nick Chubb. McCaffrey got paid a huge contract from the Carolina Panthers and he started to slow down a little bit which led to them trading him to San Francisco last year during the season, but once he landed with the 49ers he sort of had a resurgence in his career, tallying 1,800 total yards last season. Derrick Henry and Nick Chubb both had productive seasons the last two years but both have battled substantial injuries and are looking to be on their last legs here shortly.
Dalvin Cook has just recently been a victim of the running back world. After four straight 1,000 yard seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Cook was just released due to his contract being too high with the running back market the way it is. I think coaches and general managers across the league have seen what the Chiefs have done with barely dumping any money into their running back room and getting three different versions of young and cheap running backs to do what they need them for in their offense.
This past free agent class had three pro bowl running backs in Josh Jacobs, Saquon Barkley, and Tony Pollard who were all franchise tagged due to their general managers being too afraid to handout long term deals with the recent trends. This really makes you wonder if we are slowly going to start seeing more teams use multiple running backs instead of paying one to be a work horse for them.