The running game

Heavy work load. We come from two different times I guess. Najee has only 55 carries in 3 whole games. That 18 carries a game. Yeah we must be way different in age. I remember when 25 - 30 was normal, and 35 - 40 was considered heavy.

 

Taylor is a very good back no question about that but Richardson has thrown 6 interceptions in 3 games and is completing 49% of his passes. He stinks, he is the worst starting QB in the league.

 

Achane is averaging 3.5 yards per carry this season and has 150 yards total on the ground. He has started six games and has only 146 carries in his career and you think he's shown more than Harris. That's funny.

 

The game is just different today. 18 a game is enough for 6th in the whole league. I would consider that a pretty heavy workload in comparison to the rest of the league.

 

I'll say he's going to play better just cause it's Pittsburgh. By that I mean he'll be motivated cause of who he's playing.

 

I'll just plop this here. Clearly, the trend is in the right direction especially when you consider this OL hasn't played intact to this point.



Definition: Success = 40% of yds to gain on 1st down, 60% on 2nd down, and 100% on 3rd down or 4th down

 

Harris is not a go down at first contact runner. He has been running like a man so far this season.

 

I will never consider 18 carries a pretty heavy work load. I can't just forget all the football before this year, or recent years...., but I guess that's just me.

 

I get the comparison, but there aren't drastically fewer carries per game now than there was back then. Its just that today teams spread those touches around more. Secondary backs, QB's, etc. I know that it is fewer carries for lead backs than it was 20+ years ago, but I think it is fair to call the 6th leading rush attempt player having a heavy workload too. Its heavier than every back in the whole league except for 5 lol

 

Dude. I'm totally getting what your saying. It's just hard for me to think 18 carries a game for the starting RB is a heavy load. Like I said I'm used to 25- 30 carries being average work load for a starting RB.

 

I know times have changed, but 18 heavy load???? 25 to 30 was heavy load, but to some that was actually not only expected, but something they loved to do. They usually got better as the game went on and wore the D down in the last quarter.

 

18 run per game is like 300 run on a 16 games season,so this is a lot!

 

This....this man....this is exactly what I'm talking about.

 

Not really. Not to us guys that remember 25- 30 carries a game during 16 game seasons, and even 30-40 at times.

 

I haven't seen him this year, again he has only played
about 10 NFL games .People are human they are going to
make mistakes. If he gets experience and a good OC who knows
What may turn out for this athletic QB? As long as he doesn't find himself
playing the Steelers. Steelers defense can make alot of QB''s look bad.

 

I get it too, its just that 25-30 wasn't really a normal work load in the 90s or 70s even. It happened on a season to season basis, and some backs could do it... but in 1976 (arbitrary year chosen) 18 carries a game would be 252 on the season or 8th in the league. In 1997 (Jerome Bettis led the NFL in rushing attempts that season) 18 carries a game would be 288 on the season, or 8th in the league. Its 7th in the league right now.

I'm not arguing that guys have gotten low to mid 20's in the per game basis for a season... It certainly has happened. But there isn't an era in the last 50 years where 18 carries per game wouldn't have given you a high end workload for the season. It is a little bit higher now than it was before, but not much. Just some info, thats all.

 

He showed promise before getting hurt last season.I certainly wouldn't write him off yet. I also wouldn't assume the Steelers are going to have an easy time with him tomorrow.

 

Now that sir is O fencing

 

Sucked at Florida too… but he was so athletic at combine

 

Here is the difference.
Average carries a game in a game their whole career. .....Examples.....
Najee Harris: 16
D. Henry: 22
The Bus : 22
L. Bell : 19
Thats a big difference throughout the season.

 

Those are all cherry picked stats though. A simple google search shows that those aren't any of those guys' average over their whole career.... You're choosing select years of their careers and passing it off like it is their career average?

Harris - 16.5 APG - tandem 2 years, bell cow 1
Henry - 17.1 APG - tandem to start his career for 2 years, bell cow for 6 years
Bettis - 18.1 APG - bell cow 10 years, ended career with 3 years of tandem
Bell - 16.6 APG - bell cow 6 years, tandem 2 years.

All of these players spent time in a tandem at different parts of their career. Najee has spent 2 of his 3 years as a part of a tandem with Warren, and is part of a tandem this year as well. His usage has ticked up a bit because of Warren's injury, but still a tandem nonetheless. You cant compare seasons where players were the only RB against someone getting workload in a tandem. Harris' career average is very similar to all of these players. Lower than all of them, but very close. Bettis would out carry him by 27 in a 17 game season if he carried his career average. I get that they all had multiple years over 20 APG, but the point still remains. Over 18 carries a game is a big workload for a RB in today's game. Najee is averaging over 20 touches a game. The last time he did that he led the league in touches.... He's getting a large workload.

 

They are not cherry picked. It's called math.
I took number of games played be each divided by carries. That's the result. I don't know how you would argue that???? On the very least it would show them being light ....not heavy. Because if they didn't finish the game it would still be considered playing.
So......wrong.

 

Ah I see the disconnect I think. You're taking their career rushing attempts and dividing them by their career starts and not their career games played. This is inflating their numbers because you aren't removing the carries they got in games they weren't credited with a start. I took my stats from Pro Football Focus in their career stats under APG. This would be all their career attempts divided by all their career games played.

 

No I did the same. Except I don't use PFF for anything. I have caught then being wrong with stats, or showing different stats than 3 other sights with the same stats.

 

I meant Pro Football Reference... I mistyped. So that is my bad.

Nah its not that you're wrong, its just you're not getting the outcome you think you are based off the parameters. You're just presenting total carries divided by games started, not total carries divided by games played. I did the math on games started and got the same numbers you did, so it seems like that is what happened.

It isn't a big deal, just in order to be an "apples to apples" comparison, you'd have to remove all the carries from each player on games they didn't start and divide again. It would be tedious and long-winded so I wouldn't expect you to do it. That is why I just looked at the career APG and got the numbers from my previous post. That is all.