NFL Halfback Drama
date
Sep 20, 2023
Files & media
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nfl-halfback-drama
status
Published
tags
Football
Jets
summary
A developing story coming into this offseason around the NFL was the value of the halfback and stars at the position being disgruntled with organizations who continue to overlook their talents. Plenty of blockbuster contracts were signed in an offseason that set records for guaranteed money, as it typically does when prices get reset in the player market…
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Post
A developing story coming into this offseason around the NFL was the value of the halfback and stars at the position being disgruntled with organizations who continue to overlook their talents. Plenty of blockbuster contracts were signed in an offseason that set records for guaranteed money, as it typically does when prices get reset in the player market. Quarterbacks all over the league have been getting paid handsomely. Joe Burrow, signed an extension Early in September with an APY (Average Per Year) of 55 million dollars, Justin Herbert; $52.5, Lamar Jackson; $52.0 and even Patrick Mahomes restructured his deal recently to slot him between Herebert and Burrow at $52.65 APY, $210.6 guaranteed over the next four years, historic numbers. Football clubs are going all out to secure their man under center and rightfully so with the NFL becoming a passing league, but are front offices undervaluing other positions like the running back as a result?
Some notable names at the halfback position who negotiated contracts this offseason were Saquon Barkley, Tony Pollard, Austin Ekeler, Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor. Pollard and Jacobs were both franchise tagged at 10.91 million, the going rate for tagging running backs. Barkley, wanting a longer term deal, refused the franchise tag and held out until he ultimately agreed to a one year prove it deal with a base salary of 10.1 and around 900k in incentives. Austin Ekeler, another back unhappy with his previous deal, joined Barkley with an incentive riddled restructuring that amounted to about the same as the franchise tag would be if all incentives were met. With incentive deals comes inherent risk to the player, they need to stay healthy in order to earn themselves more money while also trying to outperform daunting expectations, which raises the question of what the boundaries of negotiation are with running backs in these front offices, where do they draw the line?
Teams are realizing that the position is too volatile to put massive amounts of value into one player and players still believe, despite their position’s imminent risk every play, their value shouldn’t be diminished or critiqued because of an increased risk of injury when they are used as a pivotal part of an offense even being overused in some scenarios. Look at Jonathan Taylor’s situation for instance, he wants to be paid like a superstar which he is, after rushing for over 3,800 yards through his first three seasons but the Colts want to pay him ordinary money. When Taylor promptly requests a trade, the Colts going rate for him is at least a first round pick, how does it add up?
Through two weeks alone, we’ve seen J.K Dobbins, David Montgomery, Austin Ekeler, Saquon Barkley, and most recently Nick Chubb all sidelined due to injury, some for longer than others. Maybe the NFL does have a point, the halfback position is simply too dangerous to be worth anything long term.
On the flip side of this, there are teams who have bright futures in the backfield and are coddling their budding stars by monitoring snap counts and thinking more in terms of longevity. Rookie halfbacks Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson had lofty expectations of immediate impact, which they have shown flashes of but both teams are taking a wary approach with the young stars. Gibbs, through the first two weeks, saw a 3 to 1 touch count to veteran back David Montgomery and Bijan has seen substantial workload, especially in the passing game but still appears to splitting snaps equally with Tyler Allgeier. Now with Montgomery out there’s a chance Gibbs can see more action but I bet the Lions will still monitor his usage especially seeing all the injuries around the league at the position thus far.
Which brings me back to players like Chubb, Pollard and Jacobs, each with 300 or more snaps and 10 plus touchdowns in the past two seasons combined. The only way these players put up historic numbers is through massive workloads and other than Chubb none of them are on contracts that back that up their production. It goes to show franchises have a short memory when it comes to a halfback’s output, last years stats don’t indicate future performance and as the runningback market becomes even more saturated with young talent, a replacement for much cheaper can be found at the drop of a hat.
To use the children’s show Tom and Jerry for inspiration in this predicament it feels as if runningbacks are represented as Tom frantically chasing Jerry (NFL front offices), doing everything they can to be compensated fairly, however, we all know Jerry always protects his back with booby traps, cornering runningbacks into incentive deals and franchise tags.
I hope these runningbacks get the recognition they deserve soon because the only entity that will suffer the most with these players not being on the field, will be the NFL and their product at the end of the day.