I thought I would cleverly show how much running backs have been marginalized over the last 20 years. How in the past you had to select them in the first round, and now it doesn’t really make sense to select them that high. But what when I started looking at the numbers, it didn’t quite come together.

Idea was to look at the top 20 or so running backs from the 2014, and then note where they came from. There are guys like Arian Foster and C.J. Anderson who were very productive but who weren’t even drafted. Similarly, Joique Bell and Chris Ivory.

The 2014 running backs look like this. I have the off-the-grid guys in bold. They were originally undrafted, or they came from another franchise (free agency, trade, waivers, whatever). If a player was originally on another NFL roster, I’ve got a black dot next to his status.

I decided on 800-yard runners. A third of the guys (six) came from one of the more unconventional routes. Only three were first-round picks.

800-YARD RUSHERS IN 2014
PlayerYardsEntered League
DeMarco Murray, Dall.1,8453rd round
LeVeon Bell, Pitt.1,3612nd round
LeSean McCoy, Phil.1,3192nd round
Marshawn Lynch, Sea.1,306• 1st round
Justin Forsett, Balt.1,266• 7th round
Arian Foster, Hou.1,246undrafted
Eddie Lacy, G.B.1,1392nd round
Jeremy Hill, Cin.1,1242nd round
Frank Gore, S.F.1,1063rd round
Lamar Miller, Mia.1,0994th round
Alfred Morris, Wash.1,0746th round
Matt Forte, Chi.1,0382nd round
Jamaal Charles, K.C.1,0333rd round
Mark Ingram, N.O.9641st round
Joique Bell, Det.860• undrafted
C.J. Anderson, Den.849undrafted
Chris Ivory, NYJ821• undrafted
Jonathan Stewart, Car.8091st round

But when I started looking at the 1994 numbers, they weren’t as different as I expected.

In that season, there were six guys who were former first-round picks. Twice as many. That was kind of expected. If they re-did those drafts today, guys like Harvey Williams, Rodney Hampton and maybe even Emmitt Smith wouldn’t be first-round picks.

But the off-the-grid number is really just the same. There’s only one undrafted guy (Bernie Parmalee) but the draft had more rounds. If it were snipped off at the end of the sixth round, than Terry Allen and Johnny Johnson (comparable, I think, to the Foster-Anderson combo) would have been undrafted.

Overall, you’ve got five of the 18 in those years coming from off the radar, which is pretty similar.

In both years, 5 of the 18 running backs were second-round choices.

800-YARD RUSHERS IN 1994
PlayerYardsEntered League
Barry Sanders, Det.1,8831st round
Chris Warren, Sea.1,5454th round
Emmitt Smith, Dall.1,4841st round
Natrone Means, S.D.1,3502nd round
Marshall Faulk, Ind.1,2821st round
Thurman Thomas, Buff.1,0932nd round
Rodney Hampton, NYG1,0751st round
Terry Allen, Minn.1,0319th round
Jerome Bettis, Rams1,0251st round
Errict Rhett, T.B.1,0112nd round
Harvey Williams, Oak.983• 1st round
Johnny Johnson, NYJ931• 7th round
Lewis Tillman, Chi.899• 4th round
Leroy Hoard, Clev.8902nd round
Ricky Watters, S.F.8772nd round
Bernie Parmalee, Mia.868undrafted
Barry Foster, Pitt.8515th round
Bam Morris, Pitt.8363rd round

By the way, while we like to moan and groan that the running game is disappearing and more teams are rotating their backs, there were 10 runners going over 1,000 yards in 1994. Last year there were 13.

—Ian Allan