Can Ashton Jeanty assist RBs regain NFL draft prominence?

AMONG THE SUBJECTS reporters wished Boise State working again Ashton Jeanty to debate throughout his media session at this 12 months’s NFL mix, one theme was talked about repeatedly to the top-5 draft prospect.

Final 12 months, Saquon Barkley confirmed what a working again can deliver to a contemporary offense with a huge season that helped carry the Philadelphia Eagles to a Tremendous Bowl victory. On the school stage, Jeanty had the same affect. He grew to become the primary working again chosen as a Heisman Trophy finalist since 2017 (Stanford’s Bryce Love) and led the Broncos to the School Soccer Playoff.

“It is a good time to be coming into this league,” Jeanty mentioned in February. “I can see the worth of working backs is certainly going to return up. Undoubtedly coming again in at an ideal time.”

This 12 months marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Cincinnati Bengals deciding on Penn State’s Ki-Jana Carter No. 1 within the draft, which was the final time a working again was taken with the highest choose. That streak will stay intact as former College of Miami quarterback Cam Ward is projected to go first general to the Tennessee Titans, however might the tide be turning? In chatting with a number of coaches and executives throughout the league this offseason, the perceived downfall of the working again has been exaggerated.

Jeanty and the remainder of this 12 months’s working again draft class will assist mirror how a lot worth the place brings within the trendy NFL, particularly as offenses shift additional towards a dynamic speeding sport. In his newest mock draft, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has Jeanty and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton going No. 6 and No. 12, respectively, and three extra working backs within the second spherical. Just one went within the first two rounds final 12 months, Jonathon Brooks to the Carolina Panthers at No. 46 general. Brooks, who missed the primary 9 video games rehabbing a knee harm he suffered at Texas, ended up enjoying elements of three video games and had 22 yards on 9 carries.

“When you’ve got a particular, X issue participant on the place, it may possibly actually improve your offense,” Jeanty mentioned on the mix.

Barkley and the Baltimore Ravens‘ Derrick Henry proved that final season. They’d the very best mixed whole (3,926 yards) of the league’s top-two rushers since Shaun Alexander and Tiki Barber totaled 3,740 speeding yards in 2005, based on ESPN Analysis. Barkley was named the NFL’s Offensive Participant of the Yr, one 12 months after the San Francisco 49ers‘ Christian McCaffrey gained the award. It was the primary time working backs have gained that honor in back-to-back years since 2005 and 2006 (Alexander, LaDainian Tomlinson).

Nonetheless, it’s going to take a singular expertise, and it will most likely need to be a down 12 months for quarterbacks, large receivers and edge rushers, for a staff to take a working again at No. 1 once more.

“If Walter Payton have been on this draft, I would take into consideration taking him No. 1 general,” Bengals director of participant personnel Duke Tobin mentioned on the mix. “However our sport’s modified so much. So that you’d need to be fairly particular.”

THE WAY BARKLEY hurdled defenders, discarded tacklers and thundered downfield for lengthy touchdowns in 2024 evoked recollections of an period when the highest rushers not solely dominated the sport however dictated the way it was performed.

In 1995, 9 working backs had 300 or extra speeding makes an attempt. In 2023, there have been none. A part of that may be attributed to the rise of two-back programs. 5 groups had a number of working backs with 150 carries or extra in ’23.

There have been six gamers final 12 months who had greater than 300 carries. Barkley (345 carries) and Henry (325) completed these feats after signing with new groups in free company.

“These are guys that touched the ball,” Ravens common supervisor Eric DeCosta mentioned on the mix. “These are the blokes that affect video games.”

The shift in how soccer is performed can be prevalent in how groups have handled probably the most premium draft picks.

Since 1996, the 12 months after Carter went to the Bengals, the highest 5 positions drafted with a high 10 choose have all been pass-centric — quarterback, offensive sort out, large receiver, defensive finish and defensive again. There have been almost twice as many offensive tackles (43) taken in that vary throughout that span as working backs (23).

“There tends to be extra runners [in the draft] than possibly a few of these different positions,” mentioned Inexperienced Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur on the annual league assembly in Palm Seashore, Florida. “I believe that is an enormous purpose why [teams have waited to draft running backs].”

Groups did not wait lengthy in 2018. In reality, if the Cleveland Browns had not been on a traditionally unhealthy run of quarterback play — DeShone Kizer was the starter in ’17 because the Browns went 0-16 — they may have taken Barkley on the high of the draft. As an alternative, they took Baker Mayfield and the New York Giants drafted Barkley No. 2. Barkley was voted Offensive Rookie of the Yr, foreshadowing his big season final 12 months when he rushed for two,005 yards and 13 touchdowns.

“I believe they’re checked out as most likely replaceable by some folks,” DeCosta mentioned. “However in the event you’ve obtained a terrific one, in the event you’ve obtained a historic one, you may’t substitute these guys.”

IN 2023, JEANTY caught 43 passes for 569 yards and 5 touchdowns. These numbers dipped to 23-138-1 final 12 months, however Jeanty realizes the load that ability carries for working backs coming into the NFL.

“You see the best way the sport is trending, the backs which are ranked excessive by way of the NFL, getting paid extra, that is the purpose clearly, they’re in a position to catch the ball out of the backfield,” Jeanty instructed ESPN in 2023. “The actually good ones are in a position to line up within the slot, too, and run routes.”

Detroit Lions working again Jahmyr Gibbs, who was picked No. 12 in 2023, did extra than simply catch passes. Final season, Gibbs had 33 good points of 15 or extra yards, probably the most amongst all gamers at his place because the Lions reached the NFC title sport. To place that in perspective, Lions large receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had 34 such good points, good for third-most within the league.

“Explosive performs are very near the turnover margin,” Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales instructed ESPN on the league assembly. “If you happen to can (have a plus-2 margin) in explosives, over time we have realized that nearly equals getting a ball from the opponent. It is actually shut in share by way of resulting in wins.”

That final half, greater than something, is why the worth of working backs has elevated coming into this 12 months’s draft.

“We have simply seen a working again [in Barkley] simply take over our league final 12 months and win the Tremendous Bowl,” Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris mentioned.

A COUPLE OF months after the Buffalo Payments made him the ninth general choose in 2010, working again CJ Spiller needed to know.

So he discovered Buddy Nix, the final supervisor for the Payments on the time, and requested him point-blank. Why, precisely, did the Payments draft him that prime? On the time, Buffalo had different working backs on the roster together with Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson

Nix had a easy reply — at all times take the most effective participant obtainable.

In 2012, even in a tough season for the Payments, Spiller had the kind of 12 months that Gibbs posted final 12 months — 1,703 scrimmage yards and 6.8 yards per contact, probably the most of any working again that season with a minimum of 150 touches.

Spiller, now a school assistant at Clemson, has been thrilled to see the likes of Gibbs and the Falcons’ Bijan Robinson be a part of veterans resembling Barkley and Henry with spectacular manufacturing. For a working again to go excessive within the draft, Spiller mentioned it takes a franchise to imagine a participant generally is a true difference-maker, particularly with regards to forcing a protection to remain trustworthy in opposition to the run and opening up deep passing lanes.

“Belief me, all offensive line coaches will not be going to wish to be in a five-man [pass] safety all sport,” Spiller instructed ESPN in March. “And all offensive coordinators and head coaches which have an offensive background aren’t going to wish to be throwing fast [passes] all sport. They’ll wish to take some pictures down the sector.”

Whereas the positional worth of a working again is rising, it nonetheless could also be some time — if ever — for one to be picked No. 1 general once more.

“It is like hiring an individual that may hit residence runs versus somebody who can play good protection and hit singles,” mentioned Los Angeles Rams common supervisor Les Snead. “You want each, however you most likely get drafted earlier — possibly within the first spherical — in the event you’re that one that can win the offensive scheme and gamers give that individual a crease and he will get 60 [yards] as an alternative of 12.5 or eight.”

One AFC head coach instructed ESPN elite quarterbacks, receivers and edge rushers take priority over different positions, together with working backs.

That wasn’t the case in 1995 because the Bengals traded the Nos. 5 and 36 picks to the enlargement Panthers so as to draft Carter, the Heisman runner-up who helped lead Penn State to an undefeated season and second-place nationwide end.

However Carter by no means realized his potential as accidents restricted him to elements of seven seasons. His career-high in yardage was 464 in 1997, his solely season with greater than 100 speeding makes an attempt (128).

Jeanty additionally completed because the Heisman runner-up, however the comparisons he factors to contain backs who’ve helped revolutionize the place.

“Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey, I get in comparison with these guys on a regular basis,” Jeanty mentioned. “It is a good factor to have the ability to be so versatile. Not solely does that [increase] my draft inventory, nevertheless it helps my sport much more.”

Sarah Barshop contributed to this report.