Why RBs Don't get Paid Anymore (Freakonomics)

AND the RB was worse.

No one is saying all the other things didn't matter too.

 

what part of yes did you miss for your first question. I just said it was disappointing based on expectations but I’m not blaming Barkley for all of it.

I didn’t post yards after contact because I was pointing out yards before contact. Barkley faced a lot more loaded boxes this year and like I said earlier, Hurts running 33% less for 350 less yards made it a lot easier to stop Barkley.

If you watched Philly (I doubt you did) you would’ve seen Barkley making the first man miss just like last year but he had 2 more defenders on him behind the LOS.

I asked you to check out the link where the Philly analyst breaks down the changes from last year. They went from inside zone to outside zone and it failed. This is why the OC was fired.

oh, and McCaffrey signed an extension for 2/38 in 2024. This year he had 1300 rushing yards and 10 TD’s. He also had 925 receiving yards and 7 TD’s.

 

wrong.. it’s a contract this year for Walker.

The other RB is hurt and this team is young and set to run it back again.

Why pay anyone on Seattle since they just won with a ton of talent on rookie contracts?

That’s as goofy as the guy saying we wouldn’t ever see a RB run a team to a SB win ever again.

 

I think you have to be smart when paying a RB.... There are LOTS of good RB's in the league, but very few great ones. There's like 7-8 studs and then probably about 20 dudes that are REALLY close in how good they are. Guys like CMC, Barkley, Robinson, Taylor, Gibbs, Cook, Henry... Those are the "elite" guys, and even Cook and Gibbs need a second back to pair with as they are too small to be able to take an 18+ carry a game workload.

The sweet spot for teams is having a really good tandem and having them split the carries where the lead back gets like 15-16 touches a game and the second one gets like 10-12 touches. Its all about maximizing your output for the money. Warren and Gainwell combined for 2300 yards and 16TD's for less than 8 million bucks between them... That's pretty good. When Barkley has a year like he did in 2025... the Eagles can't be thrilled paying nearly $21 million bucks for 1300 total yards and 9 TD's. Those are essentially Warren's numbers and we paid Warren less than a 1/3 of what Barkley makes. Now, Barkley had like 2300 total yards and 15 total TD's the year before... so I'm not saying he wasn't worth the money. I just think that you have to be RIGHT about paying the correct back, since there are so many good backs that will produce at a lower dollar amount.

I like Walker a good bit, but there are a lot of good FA RB's available. Is it worth investing in a guy that statistically produced at exactly the same clip as Jaylen Warren, when the price tag gets around $10 million bucks? Idk. Spending $16 million combined at RB wouldn't be terrible, but those guys would have to be driving the offense. Plus Walker will be 27 next year and Warren 28. These guys likely don't have more than 3-4 years left...

Now, if we are talking Seahawks players... there are a couple FA's in their secondary I'd love to pay to be a Steeler in Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen. We could afford both of them with the money we get from cutting Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith (according to OTC's projections). That would bolster this team immensely (and still leave us money to pay Rodgers, a decent FA WR, and maybe a G or ILB). I would sign up for Bryant and Woolen in a heartbeat.

 

This is an example of why having two good backs at low cost on rookie deals (Walker 2.7MM, Charbonnet $2.1MM) is likely better than having one RB you pay a lot to (e.g. Barkley)

How many RBs were paid more than Walker this year?

How many of them were in the SB?

How many of them were SB MVP?

Walker and Charbonnet combined for almost 1800 yards and have a cap hit of a little less than $5MM. As you point out, Walker also won SB MVP.

Barkley and Bigsby combined for 1484 yards and have a cap hit of $7.78MM.

And it's only that close because of the insane cap manipulation Philly does. Barkley currently has more than $30MM in cap hit that's been pushed past when his contract voids. And another $30MM in cap hit that's set to his in the 3 years remaining on his contract. I'm sure they'll push some of that out. But he's got a $60MM cap hit outstanding and 3 years left on his deal.

Also...I agree cheap rookie contracts are a cheat code in the NFL. Particularly when guys play expensive positions (like QB and LT and WR). That's why it really sucks that we missed badly on Kenny (worth the risk to try, was good we didn't keep throwing good money after bad), Jones has been disappointing (hope the light goes on next season, he was not terrible before he got hurt), and we felt like Pickens attitude was so bad we couldn't keep him until the end of his contract (I think this is something you and I both agree was silly).

 

sure.. we had Warren’s affordable contract and ranked 26th in rushing. We weren’t good at it last year. There is thing called team chemistry and when you think you can plug and play cheaper players you don’t always get good results.

Are the Eagles thrilled about last years production? I doubt it, but this is why the OC was fired.

 

That’s nice

Is there a point here

 

We can do this for damn near every position with a SB winning team. There are 28 teams every year who paid big money and failed.

How much was Smith Njigba paid vs the top WR’s?

All these high paid WR’s were sitting at home watching Njigba and Kupp win a SB.

However, Barkley and McCaffrey made it to SB’s the previous 2 years and folks are still saying you can win with UFDA RB’s.

The truth is its hard to make a SB and there is no correct way of assembling a team.

If a player produces, he should be paid. If he is elite, he should receive more compensation.

Watt is going to make almost 200 Million and he hasn’t sniffed a playoff win yet. Miles Garrett is going to make $200 Mill for his career with 1 playoff win…against us.

There is no way you can convince me that Barkley was overpaid when he won a damn SB and could’ve smashed the single season record if he played the 17th game.

 

Yes.

RB’s deserve more money.

 

Uh

No