RBs might get a lift on this 12 months’s draft due to Saquon Barkley’s success

The times of working backs being the headliners on the NFL Draft are lengthy previously, with the league’s shift to extra passing resulting in quarterbacks, go rushers and go blockers dominating the highest of the draft annually.

The elements may very well be in place for a little bit of a change this 12 months due to one of many deepest courses of working backs in years following a season when game-changing backs comparable to Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry grew to become the most important free-agent hits.

“After I was a child, working again was arguably an important place on the sphere,” Ravens normal supervisor Eric DeCosta mentioned on the [NFL Scouting Combine]. “I grew up a Cowboys fan — Tony Dorsett, Emmitt Smith, guys like that had been my idols. Then we went by this era over the past 5, 10 years, the place the analytics definitely de-emphasized the place. I feel final 12 months, you noticed the affect that a few of these guys had. … 

“I feel (working backs) are checked out as most likely replaceable by some individuals, however in case you have an incredible one, you have obtained a historic one, you simply cannot substitute these guys.”

The massive query headed into the draft Thursday is whether or not groups view prospects comparable to Boise State‘s Ashton Jeanty and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton as these kinds of backs worthy of being taken with a premium choose.

Jeanty was projected within the remaining AP mock draft to go sixth to Las Vegas, which might be the very best choose for a working again since Barkley was taken second general in 2018 by the New York Giants.

[MORE: Cowboys take RB, but not Ashton Jeanty, in Colin Cowherd’s 2025 NFL mock draft]

“We simply noticed Saquon Barkley simply change the Eagles in a single 12 months,” Raiders GM John Spytek mentioned. “Now that they had an incredible workforce round him and it was including an elite participant. I feel if you sit the place we sit, I imply the concept is so as to add elite gamers at any place. I don’t attempt to devalue any sure place. … There [are] sure methods to construct a workforce, and I don’t know the place we obtained to a spot the place we don’t really feel like working backs are valued. I come from the College of Michigan to my core, and people guys had been definitely actually valued there, so it’s exhausting for me to get away from that.”

Just one working again previously six drafts was taken within the prime 10, with Bijan Robinson going eighth to Atlanta in 2023. 5 working backs had been top-10 picks from 2015 to 2018, with two being taken that top in 2017 when Leonard Fournette went fourth and Christian McCaffrey went eighth.

It is a far cry from earlier eras when working backs had been usually the highest general choose, together with 4 occasions in 5 seasons from 1977 to 1981. No working again has gone first general since Ki-Jana Carter in 1995.

Groups have been ready later and later to take working backs, with Jonathan Brooks the primary to go final 12 months at No. 46 to Carolina. There was simply a median of two working backs taken within the prime 50 previously six drafts, down from a peak of 12 in 1990.

[MORE: Broncos HC Sean Payton: Running back will be a ‘focus’ in 2025 NFL Draft]

This 12 months’s class of working backs is without doubt one of the deepest in latest reminiscence, with a number of gamers after Jeanty and Hampton projected to be picked both late within the first spherical or on day two of the draft, together with Ohio State‘s duo of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins; Iowa‘s Kaleb Johnson; Arizona State‘s Cam Skattebo, Tennessee‘s Dylan Sampson; Virginia Tech‘s Bhayshul Tuten; and UCF‘s RJ Harvey.

[MORE: NFL Draft RB matchmaker: Best team fits for Ashton Jeanty, Skattebo, top 10 backs]

The shift from a working to a passing league started with rule adjustments in 1978 that made passing simpler and has continued for greater than 4 many years.

The speed of working dropped from a post-merger excessive of almost 58% in 1977 to a low of simply greater than 40% in 2014 earlier than present process a slight improve in recent times to 43.4% final season.

However the bell-cow again had principally disappeared as groups went to a backfield by committee. The league featured 13 gamers in 2003 who had a minimum of 300 carries in a season — matching the nine-year mixed whole from 2015-23.

Six gamers hit the 300-carry mark final season, led by Barkley and Henry for probably the most in a season since 2010.

“For some time, the market possibly was suppressed,” Payments GM Brandon Beane mentioned. “Folks weren’t taking a look at them as weapons. I form of search for them as anybody you add to your offense. What do they convey? What’s their talent set? Is it a mismatched participant? … Somebody requested, I feel a 12 months or two in the past, what’s your philosophy? Would you draft a working again within the first spherical? I most likely wouldn’t draft a working again that’s three yards and a cloud of mud, but when it’s a weapon like a few of these guys had been speaking about, heck yeah I might.”

With the diminished function of the featured again, the pay on the place has additionally suffered, with Josh Jacobs’ running-back-leading $48 million cope with Green Bay rating tied for 159th amongst all gamers. The $13.6 million franchise tag quantity for working backs — decided by the highest-paid gamers at every place — is the bottom of any place outdoors of specialists.

The rookie wage scale put in place within the 2011 collective bargaining settlement determines salaries for the primary 4 seasons solely on draft place, main groups to make use of premium picks on high-value positions comparable to quarterback, deal with, go rushers and receivers with the intention to lower your expenses in comparison with veteran contracts.

[MORE: NFL Draft: Which positions are most and least valued over the past decade?]

That’s a giant issue that’s exhausting for some groups to beat.

“It’s an attention-grabbing dialog, as a result of the draft choose is about potential ceiling, skill to play at a sure degree, whilst you have these years underneath contract beneath free company market degree, your skill to maintain a second contract,” Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah mentioned. “There’s all these questions that come into that reply earlier than you pull the cardboard.”

Reporting by The Related Press.

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