By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
When I was growing up in the 80’s, the NFL was dominated by larger than life running backs. From Emmitt Smith to Walter Peyton, the game was predicated upon the ability to run the football and run it well.
During this time of the NFL game, the biggest star on each team was not a quarterback, it was almost certainly a running back.
Think the Dallas Cowboys were Troy Aikman’s team? Think again! They were Emmitt Smith’s team.
If I asked you which of the following Lions players was most beloved during the 90’s – Rodney Pete, Scott Mitchell or Barry Sanders, let’s just say that you wouldn’t need a second guess. And who the heck was Rodney Pete would be your next question. In fact, I misspelled Rodney Peete last name, and you didn’t even know it. Did you!
All I have to say is the name Jim Brown and you automatically know he was just about the most important Cleveland Brown’s player of all time. In fact, Jim Brown might as well be the reason Cleveland is nicknamed the “Browns”.
Pick a team from the 80’s and most of the 90’s, and you will probably find that the biggest star and highest paid player was not a quarterback with a golden arm, but rather a bruising running back, with feet light as a feather.
Bo Jackson, while his career was short, was the very heart and soul of the L.A. Raiders. O.J. Simpson managed to drag the Bills through most of the 70’s and led the league in rushing yards four of the nine seasons he played for the Bills. He is enshrined on the Bills Wall of Fame. His quarterback for much of that time, Joe Ferguson, didn’t fare so well.
Eric Dickerson, Tony Dorsett, Franco Harris, Thurman Thomas and the aforementioned Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, O.J. Simpson and Jim Brown were all inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a positional group that has the most enshrined members, if we include half-backs and full backs.
So what the heck happened? Well to make a long story not so long, too much success from a crowded field of above average talent is what happened.
Runnings backs became so popular through the 80’s and the 90’s, that every young kid born thereafter wanted to emulate the likes of Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders and college programs were quick to reap the benefits.
Put simply, it became a lot easier to recruit a top tier running back, than an above average quarterback, wide receiver or tight end.
To make matters worse or better depending on your prospective, college teams didn’t need to recruit an above average quarterback or top flight wide receiver, because their running backs could literally take over an entire game on offense. Unfortunately, this led to the unintended consequence of too many good to great running backs entering the NFL.
While in every NFL Draft there might be legitimately two or three really good quarterbacks and maybe the same number wide receiver and tight ends, there might be three or even four times that many good to well above average running backs. That meant that teams could afford to wait a little longer to draft a running back and concentrate more on finding a quarterback in the higher rounds of the draft.
It also meant that when a team did find a great quarterback, one that could change their team’s fortunes, they had to pay that position more money to keep him from landing on another team’s roster.
The same was really not so true for running backs. Team’s could more easily absorb a great running back walking in free agency, because there were so many alternatives floating around the league in free agency or waiting to be drafted out of college.
That brings me to my next running back killer – free agency. If video killed the radio star, then free agency killed the running back star, at least in the modern NFL.
Because there were so many great running backs available almost every year in free agency, it meant teams were less likely to strike a long term deal with their current star back, because there was so many cheaper options available on the open market. Think of it like a vicious cycle playing over and over again.
One team decides not to sign their running back who is coming off a rookie contract and decides to let that player hit the open market. Half the teams in the league decide to do the same thing. That leaves a surplus of talented running backs that can be had, often for below market value.
Overtime this has pushed down the value and longterm financial contracts for running backs. Often compounding the problem, most running backs tend to have their best years at the beginning of their NFL career and then often see a steep decline as they age. Unfortunately, NFL salaries tend to work in a way that is contrary and counterproductive to how running backs perform.
In a perfect world a running back would get paid more in the beginning years of their NFL career, as the first 5-7 years of a running backs time in the NFL tend to be their most productive. But the NFL’s rookie pay scale, which locks a player into to set amount of guaranteed money, prevents this from happening.
Often by the time a running back reaches free agency or a period where most other NFL players would be expecting a lucrative long term contract extension, they tend to start seeing a decline in their game. This makes it difficult for a running back to secure a long term deal.
Even when a running back tends to buck the trend and play well into their early 30’s, they tend to get shorter max deals, often no more than a 2-3 year deal and even these deals tend to be outliers.
So what is the solution?
Some have suggested that running backs should form their own union. that is separate from the NFLPA. This would, in theory, give running backs greater collective bargaining powers. It would, should the owners and the NFL agree to such a running backs union, allow players to negotiate their own rookie pay scale contracts, separate from other players.
Running backs would likely argue that sense their careers tend to be shorter, that they should receive more lucrative rookie contracts, that compensates them more fairly as again their most productive years tend to be at the beginning of their careers.
There are several roadblocks that would likely prevent running backs from forming their own separate union. The biggest would be the NFLPA itself. Letting such a large position group walkaway from the NFLPA and form their own union would be crippling for the NFLPA.
Owners, despite their tedious relationship with the NFLPA, would likely not want to have to collectively bargain with another union. So they would likely not approve such a deal. The players themselves would also be hard to all get on board. There are always going to be some players tentative to want to abandon an already established union such as the NFLPA.
The NFLPA has a decent track record of strong collective bargaining success with the owners and the League. Many running backs might not feel so secure in abandoning such a strong union with a fairly good track record.
Another solution could be to simply do away with the current rookie pay scale altogether. When the current rookie pay scale was approved in 2011. it had lukewarm support from the NFLPA. The owners have tried over the last three collective bargaining periods to sweeten the deal as much as they are of course willing to do so. But perhaps the NFLPA might finally be in its best position to request truly revolutionary changes to rookie pay scales, instead of the more evolutionary ones that have persisted over the last decade.
Because the new rookie pay scale drops precipitously as the rounds go by, and sense it has become taboo to draft a RB in the first round, this past draft not withstanding, running backs typically cannot maximize their financial earnings until their second contract. It’s that second contract that has become the most critical one for most running backs.
There had been some talk in past collective bargaining agreements (CBA) of restructuring rookie contracts from four years, with a fifth year option, to three years with a fourth year option. Some have even suggested eliminating the option year altogether.
There is some good news potentially on the horizon for running backs. Rushing yards have gone up each of the last three seasons and many teams are beginning to utilize their running backs in more versatile play action formations. Teams like the 49ers, Falcons, Ravens, Jets, Titans, Dolphins, and Browns have all invested heavily at the running back position over the last three years. If that trend continues, running backs could see a renewed interest in their overall value over the next few years.
The NFL has always been a copycat league. Teams are quick to pick up on trends that are working and schemes that are ultimately breeding success. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a little of what was once old is new again apply to the running back position. In time teams could be investing more heavily in their running back stables. Some teams already are.
