Over that same time frame, just 12 running backs with 100 targets or more have topped that figure, and most of those backs are players such as Nyheim Hines or J.D. Teams are using less draft capital on backs than ever before, and they appear to be more aggressive in moving on from their lead backs once they sign extensions. To some extent, that's usage and location: Players attempting to catch out of the backfield average 6.1 yards per target, while players on the line of scrimmage average 8.2 yards per throw. Find records against the spread, over/under, and moneyline results. The Dallas Cowboys running back room has a new sheriff . (They did win a title in 2021, with Gurley costing them $8.4 million in dead cap, but that lack of cap space pushed them to send more draft capital to the Broncos that year to acquire Von Miller and have Denver pay virtually all of Miller's salary.) Mike McCarthy said if the season started today, Connor McGovern would likely start at left guard. When Holmes got injured, the Chiefs turned over the role to first-round pick Larry Johnson, who ran for more than 3,500 yards and scored 40 touchdowns over a two-year span before breaking down in 2007. George, a first-round pick, averaged 3.6 yards per carry. Perhaps more notably for the purposes of running backs racking up gaudy numbers, quarterbacks also score more often than they did before. 6.7M views. Over the past five years, that mark has risen to 14.5%. The only thing we know for sure . Best team fits for 13 unsigned NFL veterans and trade candidates: We picked ideal landing spots, Zeke eyeing Eagles, Jets, Bengals, sources say, Which team should sign Zeke? What's really interesting, though, is that the teams that rely on data most heavily aren't exactly tossing the ball all over the field. Players received a slotted amount for where they landed, regardless of their position or pedigree. Darren McFadden failed to make a Pro Bowl after being taken as the No. Sixteen different backs from 1978 onward racked up 350 touches across three consecutive seasons, but nobody has been able to do that since 2006. The 6-0, 209-pound back caught 39 passes for 337 yards both career highs through 15 games last year. Dak Prescott is excited about the Dallas Cowboys' running backs -- past and present. (1:00). Lead backs and rushing offenses on the whole have been more effective, at least in terms of yards per carry, by shifting away from the lead back model toward a rotation. We don't have financial data stretching back into the distant past, but we'll consider how teams filled their lead-back role in the context of draft capital. Kelly proceeded to win first-team All-Pro honors in each of the next three seasons and made it to seven consecutive Pro Bowls; he too became a Hall of Famer. One Dak Prescott's top targets, tight end Dalton Schultz, is no longer a Dallas Cowboy.He's still a Texan, a Houston Texan that is, after signing a one-year, $6.3 million deal in free . This game might not count for most of the team, but it was the final chance for many young players to prove themselves. As it stands, that crown belongs to Rico Dowdle, a talented young upstart who began making waves on the RB depth chart before seeing Year 2 derailed last August by a hip injury that ended his season. Best unsigned NHL free agents "They're all challenging for that role [of RB3]," said Peete. . Still, the idea that the Giants were allegedly offering Barkley about $22 million in guaranteed money would understandably incense the running back. pic.twitter.com/VzJLL0mbqo. The name of the RB3 game is to show and prove in August for the right to play in September and beyond because, as Peete readily admits, an impact third back remains critical in keeping a pair of spry legs on the field at all times. That would be a bad idea if offenses were suffering as a result, but rushing attacks have mostly grown more efficient by spreading rushing responsibilities around to multiple players, not less efficient. Cowboys have highest odds to land Sean Payton, Cowboys roster rundown: All is well at quarterback. However, pro football is still a business, and the Cowboys will be eyeing his $16.7 million salary cap hit for elimination next offseason if he doesn't produce. In 2021, the 49ers used a third-round pick on Trey Sermon, who fell out of favor almost immediately and was waived after one season. The Cowboys have a potential out next offseason by designating him a post-June 1 cut and saving $10.9 million while eating $5.82 million in dead money, according to Over The Cap. NFL contracts are supposed to pay a player for what he's going to do as opposed to what he has done, and time after time, we've seen teams pay backs for the latter and get something significantly less over the second deal. James Conner hasn't completed a single full season and is playing for a tanking Cardinals team. Jacobs had his fifth-year option declined after two middling seasons before a breakout 2022, his first full season as a pro. NOW PLAYING . Now, with rookie first-rounder Anthony Richardson moving into the starting lineup for the Colts, nearly a quarter of the league will have a significant role for their quarterback as part of their rushing attack in 2023. Barnwell's ideal fits for 12 available players, Where the Bills stand ahead of free agency's second wave, and what could be next, Cowboys release two-time rushing champ Zeke. While I've heard this often as a plan, I don't believe it's an ideal way to approach the issue, and I laid out why in my article on Bijan Robinson. Nall spent the last three seasons with the Chicago Bears and caught nine passes for 71 yards and a touchdown while rushing six times for 12 yards through 33 games. Cam Newton, the first No. Tyron Smith's hamstring injury will be a "challenge" for the Cowboys for however long he's sidelined this season, but the team knows it must adjust in the meantime. Mike Shanahan's Denver teams produced huge numbers with a series of unheralded rookies, undrafted free agents and journeymen rotating through at running back. More than 90% of the time that proves to be the case. Saquon Barkley stats (2022): 1,312 rushing yards, 57 receptions, 338 receiving yards, 1,650 total yards, 10 TD. It's fair to wonder whether that frustrating stretch helped push teams away from considering backs as often in the first round. NBA. As a related aside, you can also expect Dowdle to "get a lot of reps" in each of the Cowboys three preseason games. A breakdown of all the running backs on the Dallas Cowboys roster. OXNARD, Calif. -Take my hand for a moment, and let's have a quick heart-to-heart about the Dallas Cowboys situation at running back. Five have done so over the past two seasons, but that's also been a product of the 17th game being added to the schedule; prorating the round number to 318 carries to account for that extra contest eliminates Harris' 2021 season and Nick Chubb's 2022 campaign. Projected order | Read more . video. Aaron Jones took a pay cut earlier this summer to save his roster spot and avoid hitting this market. Stevenson has outplayed his deal but isn't eligible to sign an extension until after his third season. The Dallas Cowboys depth chart at running back may not look great right now, but it's likely far from a finished product. From 2006 to 2010, quarterbacks accounted for 9.6% of the league's rush attempts, including kneel-downs and scrambles. Take Eddie George, who made it to four straight Pro Bowls and served as the Titans' top back between 1996 and 2003. Which spot on the field is getting paid too much? Barkley missed nearly all of the 2020 season and struggled mightily in 2021 after tearing his ACL. The backs on the free agent market now would have been considered as players in the prime of their careers 20 or 30 years ago. Barnwell makes the case for nine active players, changed the way teams built their rosters, turned down a deal worth $14 million per season, extended Gurley after his stellar third season. As recently as 2006, 10 backs posted 300-carry seasons. This would be enough for another article altogether -- and I'd argue the influence of analytics in football isn't anywhere near as significant as it has been made out to be in many discussions about the league -- but things are different than they were before 2010. RBs do deserve to get paid, right? Tyron Smith's hamstring injury will be a "challenge" for the Cowboys for however long he's sidelined this season, but the team knows it must adjust in the meantime. 'I'm not sure I can forgive you': Injured teacher speaks to Mansfield Timberview school shooter after sentencing, Carroll ISD votes to remove specific protections against bullying LGBTQ students and adds bathroom-use restriction. The numbers in the past might not be as large as you think. Anderson looked great in a late-season stint for the Rams in 2018 but got only 16 carries with the Lions afterward. . The backs on the free agent market now would have been considered as players in the prime of . Callena Williams/Dallas Cowboys. Ryan Mathews had one solid season with the Eagles but retired after suffering a herniated disk in his neck. NFL wide receivers have averaged 1.5 yards per route run over the past five seasons. As teams approach training camp later this month, four respected veteran rushers remain free agents, seemingly with little interest. The other issue is that backs haven't consistently been able to keep up those totals. You can make a case that teams should be willing to consider moving on from even the best backs at the end of their rookie deals. That gap has only continued to grow, as I documented in my pre-draft piece on Bijan Robinson, given that the running back market has stayed stagnant while other positions have grown along with (or faster than) the rise in the salary cap. It's not hard to see how the running back landscape has changed: We actually saw a shift away from the first-round pick as the lead back early in the 1990s, but the most dramatic change has come over the past decade. Gambling Problem? SPORTSBOOK. Harris hasn't played well but gets all of his money through four years regardless. It's going to naturally work out that way. This might seem as if it made the landscape better for running backs, given that backs taken in the first round would be cheaper than they had been in years before. McKissic, who have been limited to a receiving role. Stephania Bell breaks down why she would love to see Dalvin Cook with the Dolphins. The only player from this group who left his first team and proceeded to make a Pro Bowl afterward was Murray, who made it with the Titans in 2016, dropped off the following season, then retired. Let's go back to Kyle Shanahan, who has been able to build an effective rushing attack virtually everywhere he has gone. and has now been. As receiver Michael Gallup works his way back from an ACL injury sustained in Week 17 last year, Pollard figures to be more of an element in the passing game. In 2022, no back came off the board in the top 32 picks, something that didn't happen even once over a nearly 50-year span between 1964 and 2012. | Scouts pick sleepers Share your thoughts with Mark on Twitter@therealmarklane. When you factor in the outsize value in landing a wide receiver, edge rusher or cornerback in the draft relative to what they make on veteran deals, the value in taking a running back in the first round simply isn't there. It's reasonable to wonder whether star high school and college players should even consider playing running back when other positions offer more professional upside and stability. Davis took full advantage of the extra snaps in practice showing his value as a ball carrier and a receiver out of the backfield. They score nearly 20% of the rushing touchdowns on those plays inside the 3-yard-line, up from just under 12% in the 2006-10 range. However, there is another preseason game on Friday and McGovern said he's expected to actually start at center. Gurley's knee hindered his explosiveness. Take the case of Todd Gurley, who was Offensive Player of the Year at age 23, third in that race at age 24, cut after his age-25 season and out of football after his age-26 campaign. The CBA isn't going to change soon -- it runs until 2030 -- but when the players sit down with the league during their next set of negotiations, I'd like to see them push for a path to playing one's way out of a rookie deal. Teams have gone away from the lead back model. Trevon Diggs Defends . That's what the NFL calendar dictates time of the year. The other side of this is: Should teams be drafting backs more often in Round 1 before simply letting them leave in free agency? Shanahan couldn't have anticipated McKinnon's injury, but he went back to the well the next season and signed away Tevin Coleman from the Falcons. The magic number for star backs used to be 300. Cook, Elliott and Hunt are 27. Reid's early mock draft | First look OXNARD, Calif. - Take my hand for a moment, and let's have a quick heart-to-heart about the Dallas Cowboys situation at running back.Now that you're all settled in, it's time you digest a cold, hard fact about Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard heading into the 2022 season: the team views it as a tag team title match and not either of the two setting up to do their best impression of Shawn . Teams also recognize that quarterbacks have an element of gravity in terms of creating efficiency for their running backs, which has depressed the value of those backs on the open market. Neither player has a bulletproof rsum. Who is No. C.J. Here are five guys who helped themselves. The following browsers are supported: Chrome, Edge (v80 and later), Firefox and Safari. For most of the last 40 years, I have taken athletes threats to withhold their services as a proper negotiating ploy and nothing more. It's been tough to get a legitimate look at the running back position during the non-tackling sessions, making it difficult to gauge how the depth pieces are performing at the position. One simpler way to do it would be to use year-end awards: If a player is voted to the Pro Bowl in either of his first two campaigns, he would become eligible for an extension after his second season as opposed to his third. The outsize importance of running backs in fantasy football is always going to make them a bigger piece of the puzzle than those players impact actual wins and losses. NFL execs rank the best cornerbacks (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth) The crazy thing about the Cowboys' backfield is that the fourth overall pick, with an 18-million-dollar cap hit, and two rushing titles is not the . Now that the NFL draft is behind us and the Dallas Cowboys have added a slew of undrafted free agents to their . The most famous and successful back of the bunch, Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, was a sixth-round pick in 1995. A potential holdout to open the 2023 NFL season . There's a lot to like about the . Each of those backs still has something to offer in the right situation, but it would be foolish to project them as the players they were at their peak. Has there been an even more significant shift in recent years than what has been perceived? Here are five guys who helped themselves. Is the era of the star running back over? There are players who were seen as stars in the past who wouldn't be given the same sorts of opportunities with more information. Rico has really shown that he's matured a lot and has a complete understanding of what we're doing. It will all begin and end with Moore finally making good on his promise to scheme both Elliott and Pollard onto the field at the same time, and often. More ESPN+ content . Eric Moody makes the case for trading Christian McCaffrey if you have him on a fantasy football dynasty roster. The third-string player in name only is where Deuce Vaughn slides in among the running backs heading into the 2023 season. I don't like a system in which players enter the league and are slotted into a below-market salary for three seasons without any recourse to earn a significant raise until their fourth season, but that's the deal the NFLPA has negotiated. Here's eight players we'll be watching closely against the Seahawks. Protecting Patriots' Mac Jones: An early look at rookie C/G Jake Andrews, What 'Quarterback' tells us about Kirk Cousins' future with the Vikings, Madden NFL 24 ratings and rankings: Top 10 quarterbacks, led by Patrick Mahomes, Seattle Seahawks 2023 betting lines, odds, schedule ATS, Las Vegas Raiders 2023 betting lines, odds, schedule ATS. Clinton Portis, a second-round pick in 2002, played well enough to inspire a swap for Hall of Fame cornerback Champ Bailey, with the Broncos even getting an extra pick in the process. Get the latest news, live stats and game highlights. Ezekiel Elliott's efficiency as a runner and receiver has dropped each of the past three seasons, and he has played through injuries since 2021 in Dallas. The easiest way to do this would be some kind of statistical threshold, where a running back immediately becomes eligible for an extension if he puts up some round number (let's say 1,500 yards from scrimmage) in his first two seasons. Elliott's power running style and Pollard's electrifying speed complement each other to keep defenses off balance. The Barkley saga has been significant for Cowboys fans, along with any coming fallout, for the obvious reasons. Eight signal-callers have 100-carry seasons over the past five seasons. Undrafted free agent Jeff Wilson and sixth-round pick Elijah Mitchell also had stretches as an effective lead back in San Francisco. "I focus on whats in the near future. A number that was a credit to the run blocking up front and the strong running from running back position. "But if we had to play a game tomorrow? When the Falcons and Lions drafted Robinson and Gibbs, they had to bring up the possibility of the backs as receivers around the formation to justify their choices. McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley were healthy last season after missing most of the prior two seasons with injuries. "We like both guys," Peete said on Friday, speaking from training camp in Oxnard. Backs who aren't drafted in the first round are at a huge disadvantage until they prove themselves. The six-time All-Pro signed a six-year, $84 million contract with the Cowboys back in 2018, but that contract was amended in each of the 2020, 2021 and 2022 . Guard? "He looks quicker to me in the first part of camp than he had at the end of last year. How can the market change now? Just because the Cowboys arrived late to the party for cutting running backs out of the loop for big paydays doesnt mean they arent profiting from it now. I went back in five-year windows through 1981 and identified where players who led their team in carries were drafted. He still appears to be the front runner for now, but not without a challenge. The browser you are using is no longer supported on this site. 2023 Dallas Cowboys. That change puts more running backs who are starting their careers in vulnerable positions. pic.twitter.com/kWE4potPDK. The Dallas Cowboys have seemingly put their collective running game eggs in the basket of Tony Pollard, who plays the 2023 season under the $10.09 million franchise tag. For Elliott, who enters the last year of his contract being guaranteed, he will need to show the organization that he is much more valuable to the roster than just as a ball carrier. The league's two franchise-tagged backs have to negotiate long-term deals with their teams by next week to avoid playing 2023 on the tag.