The 1,000-yard rushing season has long been the benchmark of greatness in the NFL. Emmitt Smith did it a record 11 times, and Hall of Famers like Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Tony Dorsett and Franco Harris all racked up many 1,000-yard seasons.
But it is starting to look like the 1,000-yard rusher may be heading the way of the drop kick or the T formation.
This season, only seven players hit the mark, the lowest number since 1991.
Worse, the teams with a star back were not usually very good. Of this season’s 1,000-yard rushers, only the leader, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings, played for a playoff team. The only other man over 1,200 yards, Doug Martin, played for 6-10 Tampa Bay. Dallas had a 1,000-yard back, Darren McFadden, but won only four games.
Peterson totaled just 1,485 yards, the lowest total to lead the league in eight years.
A challenging feat in the early days of the NFL, rushing for 1,000 yards got easier with the advent of the 16-game schedule in 1978. Soon, nearly every team sent out a 1,000-yard rusher: In 2000, 23 players reached the number, and any back who did not was seen to be substandard.
But the general trend toward more passing in the NFL has led to a sharp decline in backs putting up big numbers. Ten years ago, when 16 players ran for 1,000 yards, 47 percent of offensive plays were running plays. That number is now 42 percent.
Running the ball still works: Yards per rush is basically unchanged in the last 10 years, 4.1 versus 4.0. But passing has become more effective: Net yards per pass is now 6.4 versus 5.9 10 years ago.
Coaches are also breaking up the rushing load.
While most teams used to have one star back taking the bulk of the carries, now teams send out a mix of runners depending on the play situation. Though 1,000-yard rushers are in decline, the number of 500-yard rushers has increased, to 44 this season from 38 10 years ago.
The elite teams this season did not jettison the run, but instead used it as a complement to the pass, and shuffled runners in and out, sometimes because of injury.
Though, among playoff teams, only the Vikings had a 1,000-yard rusher, every playoff team did have a 600- to 900-yard runner. Cincinnati, for example, which finished 12-4, gave the ball 223 times to the starting running back Jeremy Hill, who rushed for 794 yards. But they gave Giovani Bernard 154 carries for 730 yards as well.
This season’s trend is also partly caused by injuries.
Last season’s top rusher, DeMarco Murray, fell out of favor with coach Chip Kelly at his new team in Philadelphia. But the players ranked Nos. 2 to 6 last season, Le’Veon Bell, LeSean McCoy, Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett and Arian Foster, all lost time to injury this season. Not one of last season’s 13 1,000-yard rushers repeated the feat this season.
Old ideas die hard: 13 of the last 20 offensive Most Valuable Players were running backs, including Murray last season (the other seven were quarterbacks). Running backs still tend to dominate the top of fantasy football drafts, too. And many running backs provide much of their value as pass catchers, not rushers, these days.
But barring a rules change or a drastic rethinking of NFL offenses, the era of the superstar running back seems to be over.
