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 | ||
---|---|---|
Player | Yards | Entered League |
DeMarco Murray, Dall. | 1,845 | 3rd round |
LeVeon Bell, Pitt. | 1,361 | 2nd round |
LeSean McCoy, Phil. | 1,319 | 2nd round |
Marshawn Lynch, Sea. | 1,306 | • 1st round |
Justin Forsett, Balt. | 1,266 | • 7th round |
Arian Foster, Hou. | 1,246 | undrafted |
Eddie Lacy, G.B. | 1,139 | 2nd round |
Jeremy Hill, Cin. | 1,124 | 2nd round |
Frank Gore, S.F. | 1,106 | 3rd round |
Lamar Miller, Mia. | 1,099 | 4th round |
Alfred Morris, Wash. | 1,074 | 6th round |
Matt Forte, Chi. | 1,038 | 2nd round |
Jamaal Charles, K.C. | 1,033 | 3rd round |
Mark Ingram, N.O. | 964 | 1st round |
Joique Bell, Det. | 860 | • undrafted |
C.J. Anderson, Den. | 849 | undrafted |
Chris Ivory, NYJ | 821 | • undrafted |
Jonathan Stewart, Car. | 809 | 1st 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 | ||
---|---|---|
Player | Yards | Entered League |
Barry Sanders, Det. | 1,883 | 1st round |
Chris Warren, Sea. | 1,545 | 4th round |
Emmitt Smith, Dall. | 1,484 | 1st round |
Natrone Means, S.D. | 1,350 | 2nd round |
Marshall Faulk, Ind. | 1,282 | 1st round |
Thurman Thomas, Buff. | 1,093 | 2nd round |
Rodney Hampton, NYG | 1,075 | 1st round |
Terry Allen, Minn. | 1,031 | 9th round |
Jerome Bettis, Rams | 1,025 | 1st round |
Errict Rhett, T.B. | 1,011 | 2nd round |
Harvey Williams, Oak. | 983 | • 1st round |
Johnny Johnson, NYJ | 931 | • 7th round |
Lewis Tillman, Chi. | 899 | • 4th round |
Leroy Hoard, Clev. | 890 | 2nd round |
Ricky Watters, S.F. | 877 | 2nd round |
Bernie Parmalee, Mia. | 868 | undrafted |
Barry Foster, Pitt. | 851 | 5th round |
Bam Morris, Pitt. | 836 | 3rd 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