Adrian Peterson, Danny Woodhead, Arian Foster, Ameer Abdullah, Doug Martin, Jonathan Stewart. Running back is a position of attrition, as we were reminded on Sunday.
Guys at this position just never tend to stay healthy for long.
Of the 32 running backs who’ll likely start in Week 3, 75 percent haven’t been in that starting, featured role for half of a season. Only six have been able to go a year without being injured, benched or replaced, and these aren’t names you might think of: Frank Gore, Lamar Miller, Jeremy Hill, Latavius Murray, Isaiah Crowell and Rashad Jennings.
Here are the current 32. Some of the numbers are fudged a little. That is, there were a few games where some of these backs didn’t official “start” (they weren’t out there for the first play) but were used in their regular starting way.
Over half of the current starters are players who weren't starting tailbacks at the end of last year.
CONSECUTIVE STARTS BY WEEK 3 TAILBACKS | ||
---|---|---|
Team | Week 3 starter | G |
Indianapolis | Frank Gore | 82 |
Houston | Lamar Miller | 50 |
Cincinnati | Jeremy Hill | 27 |
Oakland | Latavius Murray | 21 |
Cleveland | Isaiah Crowell | 18 |
NY Giants | Rashad Jennings | 18 |
Pittsburgh | DeAngelo Williams | 10 |
NY Jets | Matt Forte | 8 |
Arizona | David Johnson | 7 |
Atlanta | Devonta Freeman | 7 |
Green Bay | Eddiy Lacy | 6 |
Philadelphia | Ryan Mathews | 6 |
Denver | C.J. Anderson | 5 |
Baltimore | Justin Forsett | 2 |
Buffalo | LeSean McCoy | 2 |
Chicago | Jeremy Langford | 2 |
Dallas | Ezekiel Elliott | 2 |
Jacksonville | T.J. Yeldon | 2 |
Kansas City | Spencer Ware | 2 |
Los Angeles | Todd Gurley | 2 |
New England | LeGarrette Blount | 2 |
New Orleans | Mark Ingram | 2 |
San Diego | Melvin Gordon | 2 |
San Francisco | Carlos Hyde | 2 |
Tennessee | DeMarco Murray | 2 |
Washington | Matt Jones | 2 |
Seattle | Thomas Rawls | 1 |
Carolina | Artis-Payne or Whittaker | 0 |
Detroit | Theo Riddick | 0 |
Miami | Ajayi or Drake | 0 |
Minnesota | Jerick McKinnon | 0 |
Tampa Bay | Charles Sims | 0 |
—Ian Allan