The receiver market has exploded this year, even as a constant stream of good-to-great receivers enters the NFL every year via the draft. Tight ends, who are underpaid in comparison, are taking notice. Running backs, who have been underpaid for a while, have known about the distinction for a while.
Via Brian Costello of the New York Post, Jets running back Michael Carter vented this week about the fact that running backs are getting further lost in the shuffle.
“To say that pay them as running backs, you label them as running backs, you should pay them as offensive weapons,” Carter said. “Where you’re going to give [Raiders receiver] Davante Adams a $100 million or whatever he got, but Aaron Jones is really doing great, too. I’m not pocket watching. He got paid, but not even half [$48 million] of what Adams got paid. Now I get there’s a market for receivers and it goes up every time someone gets signed and it goes up, goes up and goes up. But the same way they look at Tyreek Hill and the same way they look at [Stefon] Diggs and those guys are really great receivers, but Derrick Henry is a staple on his team. Jonathan Taylor is a staple on his team. Them guys deserve those big deals, too, and then from there the market can rise.”
Although every draft brings a fresh cycle of running backs to the NFL, Carter rejects the idea that the best running backs are expendable.
“I don’t like that because I’m just going to be honest, you’re not replacing Alvin Kamara. You’re not replacing [Christian] McCaffrey right now,” Carter said. “Not that the players behind them can’t do it because I’m friends with a lot of those guys. But the value that they add from the locker room and then . . . how many running backs have had a thousand and a thousand? You’ve got like McCaffrey, Marshall Faulk, Matt Forte, a few. You’re not going to just go get the next guy and expect them to do that. Dalvin Cook is not necessarily the most replaceable guy in the world right now.”
The difference between receivers and running backs comes from the relative physicality of the positions. Running backs absorb much more contact. There’s only so much of a pounding they can take before the wheels come off. That’s one of the reasons why 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel is taking a stand now; if the 49ers plan to use him as a running back as extensively as they did down the stretch in 2021, he’ll take more hits and sooner get to the point where those hits make it impossible to perform like he once did.
Several years ago (and as explained in Playmakers), former NFL running back Ben Tate said that, if he were to do it all over again, he would have played safety. Not that long ago, the best athletes ended up being running backs, largely because the lower levels of the sport consisted of giving the ball to the best athlete, pointing him in the direction of the end zone, and watching him run around and/or through the defense to gain yards and/or score points. Young players relish that role. It carries with it the most opportunities to get the ball in their hands and to demonstrate their skills.
Nowadays, the best young athletes gravitate toward quarterback (if they can throw) and to receiver (if they can’t). With the proliferation of seven-on-seven workouts and competitions, receivers refine abilities that allow them to gain yards and score touchdowns while being hit and tackled by defensive backs -- not by defensive linemen and linebackers.
McCaffrey, for example, got a market-setting contract after three seasons of appearing in 16 games per year. He has played in a total 10 since then. And it’s not his fault. He suffered injuries in 2020 and 2021 due to the nature of the position he plays.
It was smart, in hindsight, for McCaffrey to get his contract when he did. The outcome, however, becomes a cautionary tale to other teams faced with a great running back who, after three years, expects a major payday.
And while plenty of running backs in recent years have indeed gotten big contracts, those deals pale in comparison to the contracts recently given to the best receivers.
Some teams, like the Titans, have opted to treat the receiver position like the running back position, trading a player who wanted a market-value deal and replacing him with someone cheaper. It’s a calculated risk, obviously. If the replacement doesn’t fill the shoes of his predecessor, the Titans will regret the move.
They surely don’t regret paying Henry, who got $12.5 million per year and has been worth every penny, and then some. But if they were to, for example, double Henry’s pay, they’d be taking an even greater risk of, say, a sudden foot injury that shelves him for more than half of the season.
And so that’s the difference. Injury risk. Or, for most running backs, injury reality. Rarely do running backs go unscathed. Quarterbacks and receivers stay healthier. They’re more likely to provide the return on the investment. Thus, teams are more willing to make a larger investment in the players who play the positions.
Fair or not, it’s a basic reality of the modern NFL. And the message should be heard all the way down to the pee-wee level. The kids who are the fastest, the most nimble, the most elusive, and the most athletic should shy away from playing running back and insist on playing quarterback or receiver.