The Ravens signed Derrick Henry. He could be good at closing out games for them, and I expect he’ll lead them in rushing. But I’ll be interested in seeing what they do with Keaton Mitchell.
They’ll need to start by seeing where Mitchell is at physically. His leg got bent around awkwardly on the play that ended his season. I’m not sure if he’ll be ready for Week 1, and I can’t guarantee he’ll ever run with the same kind of speed and athleticism. The injury was ugly enough that they declined to show the replay.
But if Mitchell can get back to being anything close to what he was last year, they’ll be wanting to get the ball in his hands about 10 times per game. While he’s small and went undrafted, he was looking really special at the time of the injury, averaging at least 6 yards per carry in five of his six games.
Mitchell finished the season with 396 yards on only 47 attempts. That’s 8.4 yards per attempt. In the last 40 years, no other running back has carried the ball more than 30 times and averaged 8.4 per attempt.
We’re working with a small sample size of work, of course. But if Mitchell gets back to fully healthy, I’m definitely interested.
Below see the small subset of running backs with at least 20 carries who’ve averaged over 7.0 per attempt. There are only 23 of them, and of those 23, 9 at some point in their career put together a top-30 season (using PPR scoring). So plenty of misses. Given the severity of Mitchell’s injury, he’s probably more likely to be a miss than a hit. But definitely a guy I want to get eyes on.
| RUNNING BACKS AVERAGING 7 YARDS PER CARRY | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | Best Rk |
| 2008 | • Felix Jones, Dall. | 30 | 266 | 8.9 | 3 | 23 |
| 2007 | De Dorsey, Cin. | 21 | 183 | 8.7 | 0 | 95 |
| 2023 | Keaton Mitchell, Balt. | 47 | 396 | 8.4 | 2 | 59 |
| 2021 | Travis Homer, Sea. | 21 | 177 | 8.4 | 1 | 69 |
| 1995 | Jerry Ellison, T.B. | 26 | 218 | 8.4 | 5 | 61 |
| 1993 | Lorenzo Neal, N.O. | 21 | 175 | 8.3 | 1 | 69 |
| 1986 | Thomas Sanders, Chi. | 27 | 224 | 8.3 | 5 | 72 |
| 2017 | Corey Grant, Jac. | 30 | 248 | 8.3 | 2 | 83 |
| 2007 | • Ahmad Bradshaw, NYG | 23 | 190 | 8.3 | 1 | 10 |
| 2013 | Toby Gerhart, Min. | 36 | 283 | 7.9 | 2 | 39 |
| 2018 | Brian Hill, Atl. | 20 | 157 | 7.9 | 0 | 50 |
| 2023 | • DeVon Achane, Mia. | 103 | 800 | 7.8 | 8 | 25 |
| 2018 | • Raheem Mostert, S.F. | 34 | 261 | 7.7 | 1 | 5 |
| 2002 | Michael Wiley, Dall. | 22 | 168 | 7.6 | 1 | 66 |
| 1986 | • Tony Nathan, Mia. | 27 | 203 | 7.5 | 0 | 15 |
| 1991 | • Darrin Nelson, Min. | 28 | 210 | 7.5 | 2 | 12 |
| 2001 | • LaMont Jordan, NYJ | 39 | 292 | 7.5 | 1 | 6 |
| 2000 | Brian Mitchell, Phil. | 25 | 187 | 7.5 | 2 | 45 |
| 2005 | Rock Cartwright, Was. | 27 | 199 | 7.4 | 2 | 43 |
| 2001 | Michael Wiley, Dall. | 34 | 247 | 7.3 | 0 | 66 |
| 2008 | • Jerome Harrison, Cle. | 34 | 246 | 7.2 | 1 | 22 |
| 2012 | Cedric Peerman, Cin. | 36 | 258 | 7.2 | 1 | 72 |
| 2011 | • Mewelde Moore, Pitt. | 22 | 157 | 7.1 | 0 | 26 |
| 2000 | Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Pitt. | 21 | 149 | 7.1 | 1 | 45 |
—Ian Allan