The Present and Future of Running Backs in the NFL
Publication: SB Nation
Date: January 19, 2018
Sometime around 2013 or 2014, running back was supposed to be a dying position in the NFL. In those two drafts, no back was taken with a first-round pick for the first time since the NFL-AFL merger. Then Le’Veon Bell racked up 854 receiving yards in the 2014 season. David Johnson hit 879 in 2016. This season, Alvin Kamara and Todd Gurley had 826 and 788 respectively, and none of that includes Kareem Hunt’s eye-popping 1782 yards from scrimmage (455 of which came as a receiver) in his rookie season.
Running backs were once thought to be going the way of the dodo, but a funny thing happened on the way to extinction: offenses figured out how to use their skills in different ways. Alvin Kamara, Priest Holmes, Carlos Hyde, and Kevin Faulk talk about what it means to play the position now, and what running backs may look like in the near future.
Source: SB Nation
