I am & always have been an advocate of the running back. When I was a kid watching football, we had Marcus Allen. We had Emmitt Smith. We had Barry Sanders, the greatest of all time. We even had guys like Thurman Thomas, who is the guy I fully believe fantasy football was created for. Thurman could do it all, couldn't he? He was a violent runner. A hell of a catcher. Play the old Tecmo Super Bowl games, if you have a Super Nintendo system, & pick the Buffalo Bills. You could start a season & win every single game just by picking running plays for Thurman Thomas. And this is a guy who played with two other Hall of Famers (Andre Reed & Jim Kelly). Thurman was just badass.
Where am I going with this? I saw Allen, Smith, Sanders & Thomas. As time went by, there was Jerome Bettis. Terrell Davis. Curtis Martin. Edgerrin James. As more time went by, you had Ladainian Tomlinson. Shaun Alexander. Beasts, every one of them. Adrian Peterson. Absolute madman with a football in his hand. These guys, to the very last, were judged by their ability to run the football & gain yards. Score touchdowns. Hand them the ball & watch them demoralize the defense. Pound it, pound it, pound it. Every once in awhile they'll catch a pass & gain even more yards. They're running backs. They run. That's their job. That's how that position used to be evaluated.
So we get to a little-known running back for the Atlanta Falcons by the name of Antone Smith. He was an undrafted free agent in 2009, signed by the Lions, then released by the Lions, then signed by the Falcons in 2010. Smith has had six... count 'em, six, career carries in regular season action. Six carries. Those six carries have yielded 142 yards on the ground, along with two touchdowns. Two touchdowns in six carries. Every third time this man has the football in his hands, he hits the end zone. His yards-per-carry average? 23.7 yards. If you extrapolate, that is a first down literally every time he touches the football. Emmitt Smith never did that. Neither did Barry Sanders. Neither did Thurman Thomas. Let me put this in bold & make it a little bigger, just in case you're missing it:
Antone Smith gains almost 24 yards every time he touches the football.
So logic would dictate that your average NFL head coach would want to put the ball in his hands more often, right? I've never coached on any level & I would not only put the ball in his hands more often, I would make damn sure he was on the field every single offensive play for the rest of my life. Somewhere along the line, however, the paradigm shifted. Running backs are no longer judged simply by their ability to run the football. It seems that now, the most important thing a running back has to do it.. wait for it.. pass protection.
Pass protection.
The running back has to be the ace of making sure the quarterback doesn't get hit before he throws the ball. By most accounts, Antone Smith is below average in pass protection. Hence, six carries in four seasons of football.
You know, I've always listened to the scouts, the ESPN talking heads, the coaches, the general managers, the sideline reporters, & the journalists, and all the other suits who are far more experienced & qualified to judge a football player than I am. It's the damnedest thing.. I really don't remember Emmitt, Barry, Thurman, Marcus, et al, being picked apart because of their pass protection skills. I never heard Curtis Martin praised for his ability to pick up the blitz. Maybe they were good at it, I don't know. I don't know because it was not an issue when these guys were playing. Pass protection fell to the offensive line, & certain tight ends. There was even a running back whose job was specifically designed to block people. We called them fullbacks.
You can say (and you probably will), "But Zane, it's a passing league now. Quarterbacks pass the ball more than ever now. Even a balloon head like Matthew Stafford can throw for 5000 yards." And you're right on each count. But ask yourself this: do you honestly believe it's always going to be that way? Do you really think some bright boy coach, as he watches exactly one defensive lineman & his little sister line up on the line of scrimmage, won't start thinking, "hey, maybe I shouldn't call a passing play since the defense has 42 people in the secondary"? It's going to happen. Super Bowl champions run the ball & run it well & they don't give a rat's ass if their running back can stop a charging linebacker. This devaluation of the most exciting position in football has to stop and it has to stop soon. And the Atlanta Falcons had better start to understand, and soon, what an asset they have in Antone Smith. That team, more than any other team in the league, should understand that squatting on an explosive player & letting him walk away for nothing is not a good way to do business, ESPECIALLY since in 2008, they themselves benefited from the San Diego Chargers doing the exact same thing. Difference is, the Chargers had Ladainian Tomlinson, & Michael Turner was never going to take HIS job. The Falcons, right now, have 87-year-old Steven Jackson, something called a Jacquizz, and a rookie. Not a good look. At all.
Here's hoping that this ridiculous trend of running backs being phased out & misjudged on bullshit that should have nothing to do with them ends, soon. And here's hoping, for the sake of the Falcons & their fans, that they're the ones that see the light.
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