[h=1]Peterson leads ranking of top 10 RBs[/h]Field Yates, ESPN Insider
One of the critical tasks NFL scouts face in player assessment is evaluating players not just in a vacuum but also in relation to other players. Sometimes the task is to assess a player relative to a solid starter in the league, sometimes the task is to evaluate a prospect relative to the players at his position on your team's roster. Oftentimes, those tasks coincide.
Part of that evaluation is body type -- height, thickness, sturdiness, weight distribution, etc. That's one of the benefits of evaluating players in person, as area scouts do throughout the college season: They get a clearer sense of just how each prospect stacks up physically (beyond what is decipherable on film).
While working in the Chiefs' scouting department during the 2009 season, I recall seeing a player who -- even among his NFL brethren -- was nearly superhuman in stature. It was Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who looked more like a linebacker than a ball carrier. It crystallized for me that comparing other running backs to Peterson was shortsighted: He is far from a prototypical running back.
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So despite the fact that Peterson is now 30 and coming off a year in which he played just one game, he'd be the running back I'd choose to build an offense around over the next three seasons. That supreme physical dominance was on display in Peterson's return to OTAs this past week, and it is why the Vikings have been intent on keeping him and the three years and $40 million-plus left on his deal.
Below is a look at my remaining top 10 running backs for the next three seasons.
2. Le'Veon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers: Just 23 years old, Bell soared into super stardom during his second NFL season. Among the question marks that surrounded him coming out of Michigan State was whether Bell would play faster at the NFL level than his 4.6-second 40 time suggested at the combine. After posting 3.5 yards per carry as a rookie in 2013, he kicked things into gear last season, averaging 4.7 yards and catching 83 passes. Young and versatile, Bell can do it all.
3. Eddie Lacy, Green Bay Packers: At 230 pounds, Lacy is categorized as a power back. And while he has significant leg drive, tagging him as just a power player is underselling him. He has nimble feet, an array of elusive moves that work near the line of scrimmage in short spaces (including a spin move), and he's an adept pass-catcher (42 catches in 2014).
4. Jamaal Charles, Kansas City Chiefs: No back has better harmony between his eyes and his lower half, as Charles' vision to find holes and cutback lanes is difficult to replicate, as is his ability to torque and maneuver his frame to get to those spots. He's 28 and a player who will get dinged up because of the punishment he takes on hits (he's less than 200 pounds), but Charles is exceedingly tough and has a special skill -- straight-line speed -- that hasn't regressed yet and likely won't soon.
5. Jeremy Hill, Cincinnati Bengals: Perhaps a surprising name this high on the list, but consider this: From Nov. 1 through the end of the 2014 regular season, no back accumulated more yards on the ground than Hill. He scorched opposing defenses during the season's final eight weeks, posting 929 yards (105 more than any other player) and 5.4 per carry (also the highest during that stretch). That included three runs of at least 60 yards. He's 22, close to 240 pounds and just scratching the surface.
6. Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks: In evaluating running backs, Bill Belichick is a firm believer in tracking the yards they get based on the blocking in front of them and the yards they get beyond their blocking. The latter separates the best backs from the ordinary ones. Lynch excels in this area because he's the most difficult player in the NFL to tackle. He seemingly embraces contact rather than avoiding it. He has an uncanny ability to find a speck of light at the end of the tunnel and barge through it (oftentimes through the grasps of multiple tacklers). He has amazing balance and power through his lower half.
7. Todd Gurley, St. Louis Rams: Gurley hasn't taken a single snap in the NFL and continues to recover from a torn ACL suffered during his final college season, but in a recent interview on NFL Insiders, Rams coach Jeff Fisher noted that Gurley had a rare lower half. Gurley has virtually no holes in his game -- he's a power player with explosive skills, vision and burst. The fact that he went 10th overall to a team that has another promising young runner (Tre Mason) shows just how Gurley was perceived during the pre-draft process.
8. DeMarco Murray, Philadelphia Eagles: The reigning rushing king, Murray departed Dallas this offseason and signed with Philadelphia. And while 2014 may well prove to be the best season of his career, it also illuminated what makes him special as a runner: He is decisive and explosive in the open field, and he didn't break down amid a huge workload. Injuries had been a previous limitation in his career, but not even a broken hand could keep him off the field in 2014.
9. LeSean McCoy, Buffalo Bills: The best change-of-direction player in the NFL, McCoy has a new beginning in Buffalo this season. He catches the ball with natural instincts and has very good speed and a unique ability to reverse course and find open space. He's not an overly powerful back, but McCoy can consistently make defenders miss in the hole and turn what would be negative plays into forward progress. He's one of the premier backs in the NFL on runs that can stretch to the perimeter.
10. Matt Forte, Chicago Bears: I debated a handful of names for the final spot on this list (the Texans' Arian Foster among them), but ultimately the steady Forte gets the nod. He averaged just 3.9 yards per carry in 2014, but he set an NFL record for running backs with 102 catches in a single season. That is the special trait that tilts the scale in his favor. Even if Forte's every-day ability wanes a shred as a runner, he'll remain a dynamic threat because he catches the ball so adeptly and rarely misses games (just five in seven seasons).
Others considered: Foster; Melvin Gordon, Chargers; C.J. Anderson, Broncos; Alfred Morris, Washington; Mark Ingram, Saints; Jonathan Stewart, Panthers; Andre Ellington, Cardinals.
[h=2]Notes[/h]• Falcons following Seattle's secondary model: When the Seahawks built their Legion of Boom secondary, it didn't strike me that the team coveted tall and long cornerbacks as a method to slow down bigger receivers within the division. Rather, the team simply coveted size in its defensive backs, regardless of the opponents. Now in Atlanta as the head coach, former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is looking to build a secondary that mirrors Seattle's group in some ways -- specifically with long, rangy cornerbacks.
The team used its second-round pick this year on Jalen Collins, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound cornerback out of LSU. He'll be part of a promising trio of cornerbacks that also includes Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford. A big secondary could pay off particularly well in the NFC South, where both the Buccaneers (Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans and Austin Seferian-Jenkins) and Panthers (Kelvin Benjamin, Greg Olsen, Devin Funchess) have a trio of receivers with good size.
• Roster consistency pays off for Packers: There isn't just one way to build a roster in the NFL, but I do believe that staying consistent in your approach is essential. My feeling is that the best way to build a sustainable roster is -- generally speaking -- to draft, develop and reinvest in your cornerstone players, with free agency serving as the finishing touches on your roster as opposed to the building blocks.
The Packers embody this model about as much as any NFL team, and that crystallized in a terrific recent piece from colleague Kevin Seifert, who noted that the Packers have added zero players who logged a single snap in the NFL during the 2014 season this offseason. Also of note from his piece is some perspective on the task ahead in San Francisco for the 49ers, who have to replace a league-high 8,728 snaps from last season.
One of the critical tasks NFL scouts face in player assessment is evaluating players not just in a vacuum but also in relation to other players. Sometimes the task is to assess a player relative to a solid starter in the league, sometimes the task is to evaluate a prospect relative to the players at his position on your team's roster. Oftentimes, those tasks coincide.
Part of that evaluation is body type -- height, thickness, sturdiness, weight distribution, etc. That's one of the benefits of evaluating players in person, as area scouts do throughout the college season: They get a clearer sense of just how each prospect stacks up physically (beyond what is decipherable on film).
While working in the Chiefs' scouting department during the 2009 season, I recall seeing a player who -- even among his NFL brethren -- was nearly superhuman in stature. It was Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who looked more like a linebacker than a ball carrier. It crystallized for me that comparing other running backs to Peterson was shortsighted: He is far from a prototypical running back.
<offer style="box-sizing: border-box;"></offer>
So despite the fact that Peterson is now 30 and coming off a year in which he played just one game, he'd be the running back I'd choose to build an offense around over the next three seasons. That supreme physical dominance was on display in Peterson's return to OTAs this past week, and it is why the Vikings have been intent on keeping him and the three years and $40 million-plus left on his deal.
Below is a look at my remaining top 10 running backs for the next three seasons.
2. Le'Veon Bell, Pittsburgh Steelers: Just 23 years old, Bell soared into super stardom during his second NFL season. Among the question marks that surrounded him coming out of Michigan State was whether Bell would play faster at the NFL level than his 4.6-second 40 time suggested at the combine. After posting 3.5 yards per carry as a rookie in 2013, he kicked things into gear last season, averaging 4.7 yards and catching 83 passes. Young and versatile, Bell can do it all.
3. Eddie Lacy, Green Bay Packers: At 230 pounds, Lacy is categorized as a power back. And while he has significant leg drive, tagging him as just a power player is underselling him. He has nimble feet, an array of elusive moves that work near the line of scrimmage in short spaces (including a spin move), and he's an adept pass-catcher (42 catches in 2014).
4. Jamaal Charles, Kansas City Chiefs: No back has better harmony between his eyes and his lower half, as Charles' vision to find holes and cutback lanes is difficult to replicate, as is his ability to torque and maneuver his frame to get to those spots. He's 28 and a player who will get dinged up because of the punishment he takes on hits (he's less than 200 pounds), but Charles is exceedingly tough and has a special skill -- straight-line speed -- that hasn't regressed yet and likely won't soon.
5. Jeremy Hill, Cincinnati Bengals: Perhaps a surprising name this high on the list, but consider this: From Nov. 1 through the end of the 2014 regular season, no back accumulated more yards on the ground than Hill. He scorched opposing defenses during the season's final eight weeks, posting 929 yards (105 more than any other player) and 5.4 per carry (also the highest during that stretch). That included three runs of at least 60 yards. He's 22, close to 240 pounds and just scratching the surface.
6. Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks: In evaluating running backs, Bill Belichick is a firm believer in tracking the yards they get based on the blocking in front of them and the yards they get beyond their blocking. The latter separates the best backs from the ordinary ones. Lynch excels in this area because he's the most difficult player in the NFL to tackle. He seemingly embraces contact rather than avoiding it. He has an uncanny ability to find a speck of light at the end of the tunnel and barge through it (oftentimes through the grasps of multiple tacklers). He has amazing balance and power through his lower half.
7. Todd Gurley, St. Louis Rams: Gurley hasn't taken a single snap in the NFL and continues to recover from a torn ACL suffered during his final college season, but in a recent interview on NFL Insiders, Rams coach Jeff Fisher noted that Gurley had a rare lower half. Gurley has virtually no holes in his game -- he's a power player with explosive skills, vision and burst. The fact that he went 10th overall to a team that has another promising young runner (Tre Mason) shows just how Gurley was perceived during the pre-draft process.
8. DeMarco Murray, Philadelphia Eagles: The reigning rushing king, Murray departed Dallas this offseason and signed with Philadelphia. And while 2014 may well prove to be the best season of his career, it also illuminated what makes him special as a runner: He is decisive and explosive in the open field, and he didn't break down amid a huge workload. Injuries had been a previous limitation in his career, but not even a broken hand could keep him off the field in 2014.
9. LeSean McCoy, Buffalo Bills: The best change-of-direction player in the NFL, McCoy has a new beginning in Buffalo this season. He catches the ball with natural instincts and has very good speed and a unique ability to reverse course and find open space. He's not an overly powerful back, but McCoy can consistently make defenders miss in the hole and turn what would be negative plays into forward progress. He's one of the premier backs in the NFL on runs that can stretch to the perimeter.
10. Matt Forte, Chicago Bears: I debated a handful of names for the final spot on this list (the Texans' Arian Foster among them), but ultimately the steady Forte gets the nod. He averaged just 3.9 yards per carry in 2014, but he set an NFL record for running backs with 102 catches in a single season. That is the special trait that tilts the scale in his favor. Even if Forte's every-day ability wanes a shred as a runner, he'll remain a dynamic threat because he catches the ball so adeptly and rarely misses games (just five in seven seasons).
Others considered: Foster; Melvin Gordon, Chargers; C.J. Anderson, Broncos; Alfred Morris, Washington; Mark Ingram, Saints; Jonathan Stewart, Panthers; Andre Ellington, Cardinals.
[h=2]Notes[/h]• Falcons following Seattle's secondary model: When the Seahawks built their Legion of Boom secondary, it didn't strike me that the team coveted tall and long cornerbacks as a method to slow down bigger receivers within the division. Rather, the team simply coveted size in its defensive backs, regardless of the opponents. Now in Atlanta as the head coach, former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is looking to build a secondary that mirrors Seattle's group in some ways -- specifically with long, rangy cornerbacks.
The team used its second-round pick this year on Jalen Collins, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound cornerback out of LSU. He'll be part of a promising trio of cornerbacks that also includes Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford. A big secondary could pay off particularly well in the NFC South, where both the Buccaneers (Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans and Austin Seferian-Jenkins) and Panthers (Kelvin Benjamin, Greg Olsen, Devin Funchess) have a trio of receivers with good size.
• Roster consistency pays off for Packers: There isn't just one way to build a roster in the NFL, but I do believe that staying consistent in your approach is essential. My feeling is that the best way to build a sustainable roster is -- generally speaking -- to draft, develop and reinvest in your cornerstone players, with free agency serving as the finishing touches on your roster as opposed to the building blocks.
The Packers embody this model about as much as any NFL team, and that crystallized in a terrific recent piece from colleague Kevin Seifert, who noted that the Packers have added zero players who logged a single snap in the NFL during the 2014 season this offseason. Also of note from his piece is some perspective on the task ahead in San Francisco for the 49ers, who have to replace a league-high 8,728 snaps from last season.
