Thirteen running backs had 300-plus carries during the 2003 NFL season. That number steadily declined throughout the next two decades before bottoming out at zero in 2023.
The 2003 rushing leaderboard is a who’s who of workhorse backs from that era: Shaun Alexander, Eddie George, Ahman Green, Edgerrin James, Jamal Lewis, Fred Taylor and LaDainian Tomlinson, to name a few.
With modern offenses generally being geared toward the passing game, Ravens standout Derrick Henry is one of the few running backs who can be considered a traditional workhorse back. But could the pendulum be swinging back in favor of featured backs? Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor, Kyren Williams and Henry all had 300-plus carries in 2024.
FOX NFL analyst Mark Schlereth says there’s a cyclical nature to football, with offenses now adjusting to defenses that prioritized speed to slow down pass-happy offenses.
“What ended up happening to the league, it’s almost like basketball. Everybody starts playing small,” said Schlereth, an NFL offensive lineman from 1989-2000. “I think one of the things that has happened on the offensive side of the ball, you’re like, ‘Well, listen, if we’re going to have 215-, 220-pound linebackers and people are going to play us in big nickel with safeties playing linebacker or big dime … let’s return to the ‘90s and play a little smash-mouth football.'”
Former Ravens running back Femi Ayanbadejo, who played in 101 NFL games from 1998-2006, is familiar with that style of football. He played alongside Robert Smith in Minnesota, Priest Holmes and Jamal Lewis in Baltimore and Ricky Williams in Miami.
None of those players were all that similar but were nevertheless uniquely effective as three-down backs, according to Ayanbadejo.
“The guys that were the lead backs had a special talent,” Ayanbadejo said. “Either they were elusive and fast or they had a power style and they were fast or somehow they just had a knack for chewing up yards and getting yards. If you think about the guys that were leading the way, there were so many different sized, shaped backs, from Jerome Bettis to Barry Sanders. Couldn’t be more different than those two guys, but they were both effective.”
A running back got 300-plus carries in a season just 17 times from 2013-2023. There are plenty of reasons for that beyond the pass-heavy direction of most offenses, according to Ayanbadejo and Schlereth.
Teams have a strong desire to keep their running backs fresh. “Let’s not wear one guy out,” Ayanbadejo said. “Let’s have them share the load and keep a guy fresh. There’s just so much you have to be able to do and learn. You don’t want to wear a guy out. Who’s getting hit the most? Running backs get hit the most.”
Coaches want their top backs involved in the passing game. “The running back position used to be, ‘Hey man, we’re going to get you 24 carries.’ Now it’s, ‘Hey, can we get you 21, 22 touches.’ That’s a completely different ballgame,” Schlereth said.
There are a lot of layers to the position, encouraging teams to spread the workload around. “What position other than quarterback do you need to know where every offensive lineman is going and every route that you need to have that’s complementary to all the other routes that everyone else is doing? Running back, that’s it,” Ayanbadejo said. “Tight ends don’t have to do as much as running backs do. They don’t.”
The preponderance of shotgun sets limits the diversity of the running game. “When you’re in shotgun — and this is why some people try to run pistol — it eliminates any wide runs,” Schlereth said. “The quarterback handoff eliminates your ability to attack downhill wide. You’re going underneath the quarterback, so you can forget about running wide zone stuff. Any of that stuff is out.”
Whether the workhorse back continues its renaissance in 2025 remains to be seen, but don’t expect the market for running backs to make a comeback, according to Over The Cap founder Jason Fitzgerald.
Big contracts signed by Ezekiel Elliott, Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Christian McCaffrey helped cool the market for backs given how those players performed after signing those deals, Fitzgerald explained. Elliott signed a six-year, $90 million contract with the Dallas Cowboys at the age of 24 in 2019. Gurley signed a four-year, $57.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Rams at the age of 23 in 2018. Johnson signed a three-year, $39 million pact with the Arizona Cardinals at the age of 26 in 2018. McCaffrey signed a four-year, $64 million contract with the Carolina Panthers at the age of 23 in 2020. All four were cut or traded before the end of those deals.
Despite the salary cap continuing to rise, the biggest traditional extensions — a player’s second contract with the team that drafted him — currently belong to Jonathan Taylor (three years, $42 million with the Indianapolis Colts), James Cook (four years, $48 million with the Buffalo Bills), Kyren Williams (three years, $33 million with the Rams) and Rhamondre Stevenson (four years, $36 million with the New England Patriots).
“I think that run of contracts that there was a couple years ago just kind of turned everyone very negative on that position,” Fitzgerald said.
The highest-paid backs in the league by average annual value — Barkley, McCaffrey and Henry — all got their deals after crushing an audition with their second team.
Henry signed a two-year, $16 million contract with the Ravens in free agency in March 2024 at the age of 30. The 6-foot-2, 252-pound back had one of the best seasons of his career, running for 1,921 yards and 16 touchdowns. The Ravens rewarded Henry in May with a two-year, $30 million extension through 2027.
Don’t be surprised if that’s how backs get paid big money in the future, according to Fitzgerald.
“I think that’s probably going to be the future platform of it,” the cap expert said. “… Get traded and then play for an extension, or sign as a free agent on a reasonable contract and then hope you can get a quick extension based on having a dynamic year your first season there.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox
Issue 294: August / September 2025
Originally published Aug. 13, 2025