We play around with a lot of numbers at this time of year. You look at every stat in every which way, and see what boils to the surface. On the docket for today is the tabulation of running plays that end up losing yardage.
I like this one. It can illustrate which teams have poor offensive line or poorly designed schemes, and it can serve as an indicator of which backs are more apt to try to bounce plays outside, rather than simply putting their head down and getting what’s there. Saquon Barkley, for example, typically has a high percentage of runs that lose yardage.
For this one, I get all running plays in a database. I toss out the quarterback kneels downs. Then I add up the remaining carries for each player, and note how many of them resulted in losing yards.
There were 46 players with at least 100 carries, and they’re listed below.
Gus Edwards of the Ravens comes out on top, just like last year. In that offense, you almost never see him tackled behind the line of scrimaage.
The more interesting takeaway, though, is with the San Francisco 49ers. They made extensive use of three backs last year, and they there’s a big spread between them using this metric.
Raheem Mostert, who began the year as their third-string back, lost yards on fewer than 6 percent of his carries. That was the 3rd-best in the league among running backs. Tevin Coleman and Matt Breida, on the other hand, both lost yards on over twice as many carries. They both ranked in the bottom 7.
Every play is different, of course. A running back will reasonably lose yards on some plays that simply never had a chance. But this could be a situation where Mostert (at least last year) had a better feel for decisively making a decision and taking what’s there. Breida and Coleman may have been more prone to free-lancing into negative plays.
| RUNNING BACKS LOSING YARDS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Att | Lost | Pct |
| Gus Edwards, BAL | 133 | 5 | 3.8% |
| David Montgomery, CHI | 242 | 13 | 5.4% |
| Lamar Jackson, BAL | 157 | 9 | 5.7% |
| Raheem Mostert, SF | 137 | 8 | 5.8% |
| Ezekiel Elliott, DAL | 301 | 19 | 6.3% |
| Josh Jacobs, OAK | 242 | 16 | 6.6% |
| Royce Freeman, DEN | 132 | 9 | 6.8% |
| Latavius Murray, NO | 146 | 10 | 6.8% |
| DeAndre Washington, OAK | 108 | 8 | 7.4% |
| Melvin Gordon, LAC | 162 | 12 | 7.4% |
| Jordan Howard, PHI | 119 | 9 | 7.6% |
| Dalvin Cook, MIN | 250 | 19 | 7.6% |
| LeSean McCoy, KC | 101 | 8 | 7.9% |
| Kerryon Johnson, DET | 113 | 9 | 8.0% |
| Aaron Jones, GB | 236 | 19 | 8.1% |
| Alvin Kamara, NO | 171 | 14 | 8.2% |
| Benny Snell, PIT | 108 | 9 | 8.3% |
| Jamaal Williams, GB | 107 | 9 | 8.4% |
| Carlos Hyde, HOU | 245 | 21 | 8.6% |
| Mark Ingram, BAL | 202 | 18 | 8.9% |
| Phillip Lindsay, DEN | 224 | 20 | 8.9% |
| LeVeon Bell, NYJ | 245 | 22 | 9.0% |
| Austin Ekeler, LAC | 132 | 12 | 9.1% |
| Christian McCaffrey, CAR | 287 | 27 | 9.4% |
| Adrian Peterson, WAS | 211 | 20 | 9.5% |
| Peyton Barber, TB | 154 | 15 | 9.7% |
| Leonard Fournette, JAX | 265 | 26 | 9.8% |
| Devin Singletary, BUF | 151 | 15 | 9.9% |
| Kenyan Drake, MiA-ARI | 170 | 17 | 10.0% |
| Nick Chubb, CLE | 298 | 31 | 10.4% |
| Sony Michel, NE | 247 | 26 | 10.5% |
| Derrick Henry, TEN | 303 | 32 | 10.6% |
| Miles Sanders, PHI | 179 | 19 | 10.6% |
| Joe Mixon, CIN | 278 | 30 | 10.8% |
| Damien Williams, KC | 111 | 12 | 10.8% |
| Frank Gore, BUF | 166 | 18 | 10.8% |
| Chris Carson, SEA | 278 | 31 | 11.2% |
| James Conner, PIT | 116 | 13 | 11.2% |
| Todd Gurley, LAR | 223 | 27 | 12.1% |
| Tevin Coleman, SF | 137 | 17 | 12.4% |
| Marlon Mack, IND | 247 | 31 | 12.6% |
| Ronald Jones, TB | 172 | 22 | 12.8% |
| Alexander Mattison, MIN | 100 | 13 | 13.0% |
| Saquon Barkley, NYG | 217 | 29 | 13.4% |
| Matt Breida, SF | 123 | 17 | 13.8% |
| Devonta Freeman, ATL | 184 | 26 | 14.1% |
—Ian Allan