Shockwaves were felt around the NFL last night as news broke that the Philadelphia Eagles had traded 2013 rushing champion LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Linebacker Kiko Alonso.
Alonso, the 2013 Defensive Rookie of the Year, missed all of 2014 with a torn ACL. One has to think that the Bills won this trade as a player of McCoy’s caliber should have commanded a much higher return. Alonso, of course, played for Chip Kelly at Oregon, and Kelly is on the way to making the Eagles “Oregon East.”
McCoy is coming off back-to-back 1,300 yard seasons, and has eclipsed that mark in three of the past four years. He is a top 5 running back in the NFL and yet the Eagles practically gave him away. The reason for that is simple. Running backs are simply not worth a second contract in today’s NFL. Teams have started going to dual threat backfields and would rather pay two smaller contracts than one huge one.
Thirteen rushers eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark last season. Six of them were on their rookie contracts (DeMarco Murray, Le’Veon Bell, Eddie Lacy, Lamar Miller, Jeremy Hill, & Alfred Morris), while one was picked up off the scrap heap (Justin Forsett).
Five of those seven teams made the playoffs in 2014. Only Miami and Washington did not.
The other six are veterans – the aforementioned LeSean McCoy, Arian Foster, Frank Gore, Marshawn Lynch, Matt Forte, and Jamaal Charles.
Five of those teams did not make the playoffs. Part of the reason was having too much money tied in their running back position. The only outlier is Marshawn Lynch, but the Seahawks made the Super Bowl the past two years in part because Russell Wilson was on his rookie contract. The news out of Seattle right now is that he is not going to be re-signed, and the Seahawks will move on with a cheaper option.
Dallas is also going to move on from DeMarco Murray, despite the fact that he carried them to an improbable 12-4 season. Yes, there are salary cap issues. Yes, they have made Dez Bryant a priority. But the fact that they didn’t even negotiate with him prior to becoming a free agent tells you all that you need to know.
There will be teams out there who will throw money at Murray & Lynch next week when free agency begins (Cough-Oakland-cough). Big money at a running back will not cure your problems. The new NFL is a passing league, and each year it’s proven more and more that whoever your running back is does not matter.