-
Ben baby
Between subjects Reporters wanted Boise State to run back Ashon Jeanty To discuss during his media meeting at this year’s NFL Combine, one timely theme was repeatedly mentioned at the Top-5 viewpoint.
Last year, Saquon Barkley showed what the run can bring back to a modern offense with Massive season it picked up Philadelphia Eagles To victory Super Bowl. Jeanty had a similar impact in the university. Became the first during the back as a Finalist Heisman Trophy Since 2017 – Stanford Bryce Love – and led broncos to a college football playoff.
“It’s a great time to enter this league,” Jeanty said in February. “I see that the back value of the back will definitely come back. Definitely returns in perfect time.”
This year commemorates the 30th anniversary Cincinnati Bengals Choosing Ki-Jana Carterová No. 1 Penn State in the design, which was the last time the run was back with the best selection. This lane remains intact as former Quarterback University of Miami CAM WARD is assumed that the overall will go first to Tennessee TitansBut could the tide rotate? In an interview with more coaches and managers throughout the league in this offseason, the perceived fall from the run was exaggerated.
Jeanty and the rest of this year’s Running Back Draft will help reflect how much position the position brings modern NFL, especially when the offenses move further to the dynamic game. In his latest fake proposalESPN Mel Kiper Jr. has Jeanty and North Carolina Omarion Hampton Go No. 6 and No. 12, respectively, and three other running backs in the second round. Last year only one in the first two rounds went, Jonathon Brooks to Carolina Panthers Overall at No. 46. Brooks, who missed the first nine games, rehabilitated the knee injury he suffered in Texas, ended with playing parts of three games and he had 22 yards per nine.
“If you have a special X-Factor player, it can really increase your offense,” Jeanty said to the combine harvester.
Barkley and Baltimore Ravens‘ Derrick Henry He did it last season. They had the highest combined rushing overall (3,926 yards), because Shaun Alexander and Tiki Barber, according to ESPN research, were 3,740 rushing yards in 2005. Barkley was appointed an offensive player of the year NFL, a year after San Francisco 49ers‘ Christian McCaffrey Won the prize. It was the first time that the back of his back gained this honor in his back since 2005 and 2006 (Alexander, Ladanian Tomlinson).
Yet it will take a unique talent and will probably have to be a year for quarterbacks, wide receivers and marginal rush to take the team back to No. 1.
“If Walter Payton was in this proposal, I could think that he would take it in general,” said the director of Bengal for the Player’s Players. “But our game has changed a lot. So you would have to be quite strange.”
Barkley Defenders, discarded and thundered down the field for a long landing in 2024 caused memories of an era where top rushing not only dominated the game, but dictated how they play.
In 1995, nine ran back had 300 or more attempts to rush. There were none in 2023. Some of this can be attributed to the rise of two back systems. Five teams had several running backs with 150 or more in ’23, ESPN research.
Last year there were six players who had more than 300 bears. Barkley (345 carries) and Henry (325) achieved these performances after signing with new teams in a free agency.
“They are boys who touched the ball,” said Ravens CEO Eric Decosta on a combine harvester. “These are boys who affect games.”
The shift in how football is played is also prevailing about how the teams treated the most first -class moves.
Since 1996, a year after Carter went to the Bengals, the top five positions were developed with the 10 best selections-quarterback, offensive tools, a wide receiver, a defensive end and a defensive back. According to ESPN research, there were almost twice as many offensive pulleys (43) in this range in this range because it runs back (23).
“It tends to be more runners (in the proposal) than perhaps some of these other positions,” he said Green Bay Packers Coach Matt Lafleur at the annual league meeting in Palm Beach, FLA. “I think that’s a big reason why (teams waited for back suggestion).”
Teams did not expect long in 2018. In fact, if Cleveland browns Was not on the historically bad run of a quarterback game – Deshone Kizer He was a starter in 17 when Browns went 0-16-they could take Barkley to the top of the design. They took instead Baker Mayfield and New York Giants He designed Barkley No. 2. Barkley was elected an offensive newcomer of the year and last year pretended his huge season when he hurried to 2,005 yards and 13 landing.
“I think they are viewed as likely to be replaced by some people,” Decosta said. “But if you have great, if you have historical, you can’t replace these people.”
In 2023, Jeanty He caught 43 passages for 569 yards and five landings. These figures dropped to 23-138-1 last year, but Jeanty realizes the weight that the skill carries back to the NFL.
“You see how the game is trendy, back that are rated high when it comes to NFL, get more paid, that’s of course the goal, they are able to catch the ball from the backfield,” Jeanty said in 2023.
Detroit Lions Running back Jahmyr gibbswho was selected No. 12 in 2023, made more than just catch the passages. Last season, Gibbs had 33 profits of 15 or more yards, most of all players in his position when the Lions reached the game NFC. To mention it in the perspective, the Lions Wide Amon-Ra receiver had Brown 34 such profits, good for the third place in the league. .
“Explosive games are very close to the turnover range,” coach Carolina Panthers Dave channels He said ESPN at the League meeting. “If you can (have a plus-2 margin) in explosives, over the years we have learned that almost equals to get the ball from the opponent. It’s really close to a percentage in terms of winning.”
This last part, more than anything else, is the reason why the back of the back has increased the entry into this year’s proposal.
“We just saw running back (in Barkley), who took over our league last year and won Super Bowl,” Atlanta Falcons Coach Raheem Morris said
Few months after Buffalo Bills He made him the ninth overall selection in 2010, ran back CJ Spiller had to know.
So he found Buddy Nix, at that time the CEO of the accounts, and asked him to be empty. Why did the bills charge him so high? At that time Buffalo had another running back on the list Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson
Nix had a simple answer – always take the best available player.
In 2012, even in the harsh season for accounts, the Spiller Type of the Year, which GIBBS published last year – 1,703 scrimmage yards and 6.8 yards to touch, most of the run this season with at least 150 touch.
Spiller, now a college assistant in Clemson, was excited to see the gibbs and the Falcons’ SESAME ROBINSON Join veterans like Barkley and Henry with impressive production. For running back to get high in the proposal, Spiller said it was franchise to believe that a player could be a real creator of differences, especially when it comes to force defense to remain honest against running and opening deep passing lanes.
“Believe me, all offensive line coaches will not want to be in a five -member (pass) protection of all the game,” Spiller ESPN said in March. “And all offensive coordinators and head coaches who have an offensive background do not want to throw quickly (pass) all the game. They will want to make some shots down the field.”
While the position of the run is growing back, it can still be a moment – if at all – for one to be selected again No. 1.
“It’s like hiring a man who can hit home runs versus someone who can play good defense and hit singles,” he said Los Angeles Rams CEO of Les Snead. “You need both, but it will probably work out earlier – maybe in the first round – if you are the one who can win an offensive scheme, and players give this person fold and get 60 (yards) instead of 12.5 or eight.”
One head coach AFC said ESPN Elite Quarterbacks, receivers and marginal rushing to have precedence over other positions, including back running.
It was not in 1995 when the Bengals traded with the fifth and No. 36 so that the Panthers expansion could develop Carter, Heisman Bunder-up, which helped lead the Penn State to the undefeated season and second.
But Carter never realized that his potential, because the injury limited him to part of seven seasons. His high career in Yardage was 464 in 1997, his only season with more than 100 rushing attempts (128).
Jeanty also ended up as Heisman Runner-up, but a comparison that points to the back of his back, who helped the revolution position.
“Alvin Kama, Christian McCaffrey, I get compared to those people all the time,” Jeanty said. “It is good to be so versatile. Not only does it (increase) my stock design, but it also helps my game even more.”
Sarah Barshop contributed to this report.
