Mark Ingram - NFL Combine Today

[fyo]

I wonder how he'd do in the NFL carryin the ball 20+ game after game

That's a rarity in the NFL:

ridiculously long nfl.com url

The stats are similar for other seasons... only about a handful of running backs average 20+ carries a game. And if you look at the list, it's not like those top guys were the best running backs last year (with Arian Foster a big exception -- the rest of the top look rather mediocre).

[Spider-Dan]

The stats are similar for other seasons... only about a handful of running backs average 20+ carries a game. And if you look at the list, it's not like those top guys were the best running backs last year (with Arian Foster a big exception -- the rest of the top look rather mediocre).

Huh?

Of the top 10 rushers in total yards, 5 of them averaged over 20 APG, and two more averaged over 19.  Furthermore, of the top 10 in APG, only two (C.Benson and F.Gore) finished outside of the top 10 in rushing yards.  I'm not sure what metric you are using to determine who is mediocre, but the top 10 in APG looks like a fairly good representation of the best in the league to me.

[fyo]

Huh?

Of the top 10 rushers in total yards, 5 of them averaged over 20 APG, and two more averaged over 19.  Furthermore, of the top 10 in APG, only two (C.Benson and F.Gore) finished outside of the top 10 in rushing yards.  I'm not sure what metric you are using to determine who is mediocre, but the top 10 in APG looks like a fairly good representation of the best in the league to me.

OF COURSE the top "total yards" rushers are usually among those with the most attempts per game; that's how you get a lot of yards.

It's such a ridiculously poor measure of running back performance, however, so I honestly didn't think anyone would use that.

Seriously, who had a better season, Steven Jackson or Darren McFadden? Jackson had more total yards, but his average was 3.8 while McFadden gained 5.2 yards per attempt. I know which performance I'd rather have... No, I'm not saying yards per attempt is the only way to look at performance (certainly better than total yards for backs with a lot of carries).

[Spider-Dan]

So what did you mean when you said the list of top RBs (by attempts) looked "rather mediocre"?  With two exceptions (Benson and Gore, who were just on mindless pound-the-ball losers), it looked like a pretty good representation of the best RBs in the league to me.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

If we rate RBs by average yards per attempt there isn't a single RB in the top 35.  The best running back is a punter named Reggie Hodges.

The best actual RB is Brian Leonard of Cinn who averaged 6.8 yards per carry.   Must have really impressed the coaches too cause they let him carry the ball a whopping 9 times during the entire season.

Miami should let Marlon Moore lineup at running back more often he is the teams best rusher averaging 16 yards per attempt.   

[fyo]

If we rate RBs by average yards per attempt there isn't a single RB in the top 35.  The best running back is a punter named Reggie Hodges.

Why in the world do you think I included the "for backs with lots of carries" provision?

So what did you mean when you said the list of top RBs (by attempts) looked "rather mediocre"?  With two exceptions (Benson and Gore, who were just on mindless pound-the-ball losers), it looked like a pretty good representation of the best RBs in the league to me.

I disagree

Less than half of the top ten in attempts / game would make my top ten overall running backs of last season. That Charles kid on the Chiefs played some REALLY fine ball. I don't know if you saw any Chiefs games, but he was running like mad and catching balls whenever he got the chance. For some insane reason, the Chiefs had him split carries evenly with Thomas Jones. Charles had 6.4 yards per attempt, Jones 3.7 yards per attempt. Yet Charles got the ball more. Was he a better back? Hardly.

I saw a lot of Steelers games last season and Rashard Mendelhall was bad. Yeah, he wasn't helped by the blocking, but the total performance was even worse than his very mediocre 3.9 yards per attempt suggest. Yet, the Steelers kept feeding him the ball the tune of 20+ carries a game. Should he be considered one of the top backs last season because of that? Hardly.

Bottom line is, it's quite common for teams to use some sort of running back by committee these days, even for a very good back. There is, IMHO, little correlation between the most heavily used backs in the league and the best backs.

Getting back to Ingram... I just don't think he'll necessarily need to withstand 20+ carries a game. As the stats show, that's fairly rare.