Yesterday I was watching the Arizona/Atlanta playoff game and the play of Edgerrin James made me think more about Age and Running Backs in the NFL. A big storyline in the game was the rejuvenation of James. In that game, he ran for 73 yards on only 16 carries. It wasn’t just the over 4.5 yards per carry that was impressive, but it was the fact that a large amount of those yards were after contact.
During that discussion, the commentators noted two things that I was aware of.
- James had a disappointing regular season.
- James was old.
During the regular season, James only had 514 yards and 3 Touchdowns and he was benched early in the season. I took at look at the numbers and saw that those 514 yards were only with 133 carries. To me, that shows that James is declining, but a 3.9 yard per carry season isn’t bad. In fact, his career average is 4.1 yards per carry.
So, even though he isn’t putting up 1500 yard seasons anymore, it appears that if he would have had his normal 300+ carries, he would have had another 1100 yard season. Those aren’t incredible numbers, but they are consistent and would be a better option than the player that took over his starting role (Tim Hightower, 2.8 Yards per Carry).
The other point that was mentioned was how Edgerrin James is an old Running Back. While this is true, I was still shocked to see that he is only 30 years old. The guy has over 12,000 career yards and he is only 30. Still, I started thinking of some running backs who were productive in their 30s.
I took a look at all the running backs who have had over 1200 yards in a season (over 250 running backs qualified). The best season from a 30+ player was Tiki Barber in 2005 (he was 30 and ran for over 1800 yards). Outside of that, the oldest player I could find on there was John Riggins, who ran for over 1200 yards when he was 33 and 34. Of the 258 players listed, only 22 of them were in their 30s. I find that pretty astonishing and it reinforces the fact that it’s never worth holding on to a running back in his 30s, unless your other option is Tim Hightower.
