The draft is rich in running backs, but I don’t think the Cardinals will be looking at the position. I think they have their young back already. Trey Benson looks like he’s going to be just fine.
Benson didn’t play at that much as a rookie, and he missed the last three games with an ankle injury. But when he was out there, he was impressive.
Benson in his final 10 games carried the ball 47 times for 260 yards. That’s 5.5 per carry. If and when they need him to fill in for James Conner, the offense shouldn’t lose much. With Conner coming in on 30 and having injuries every year anyway, we could be looking at a passing-of-the-torch season.
Playing around with the numbers, I see a dozen other backs in the 32-team era who were kind of similar to Benson as rookies. I looked for guys clicking the following boxes:
• selected in the second or third round.
• 50-100 carries (that is, they played some but didn’t get a full run).
• averaged at least 4.5 yards per attempt.
| ROOKIE RUNNING BACKS FLASHING SOME SUCCESS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Pk | G | Att | Yds | Avg | TD |
| 2002 | Ladell Betts, Was. | 56 | 11 | 65 | 307 | 4.7 | 1 |
| 2004 | Tatum Bell, Den. | 41 | 14 | 75 | 396 | 5.3 | 3 |
| 2005 | Ryan Moats, Phil. | 77 | 7 | 55 | 278 | 5.1 | 3 |
| 2006 | Jerious Norwood, Atl. | 79 | 14 | 99 | 633 | 6.4 | 2 |
| 2008 | Jamaal Charles, K.C. | 73 | 16 | 67 | 357 | 5.3 | 0 |
| 2011 | Stevan Ridley, N.E. | 73 | 16 | 87 | 441 | 5.1 | 1 |
| 2015 | Tevin Coleman, Atl. | 73 | 12 | 87 | 392 | 4.5 | 1 |
| 2017 | Dalvin Cook, Min. | 41 | 4 | 74 | 354 | 4.8 | 2 |
| 2019 | Alexander Mattison, Min. | 102 | 13 | 100 | 462 | 4.6 | 1 |
| 2022 | Breece Hall, NYJ | 36 | 7 | 80 | 463 | 5.8 | 4 |
| 2022 | James Cook, Buff. | 63 | 16 | 89 | 507 | 5.7 | 2 |
| 2023 | Tyjae Spears, Ten. | 81 | 17 | 100 | 453 | 4.5 | 2 |
| 2024 | Trey Benson, Ari. | 66 | 13 | 63 | 291 | 4.6 | 1 |
Of these 12 backs, I’m going to throw two of them out. Dalvin Cook and Breece Hall were both picked in the first half of the second round, and it was very clear they were going to be big-time players. They just happened to get hurt in the rookie seasons. Not really fair to comp them with Benson.
But we can take the other 10, then look at how they did in their second seasons, giving ourselves some idea of what might be fair to expect from Benson.
Of the 10, half posted top-25 numbers in their second season, outperforming where they were selected in fantasy drafts. And I guess we’ve got five others in the “not so much” category. Too early to draw definitive conclusions on Tyjae Spears. Alexander Mattison got some fill-in starts and the Vikings tried to make him a starter, but he wasn’t good enough for that role.
It's early, but my initial stab is that Benson should be one of the first half-dozen backup running backs to be rostered. I think it’s pretty likely that he’ll be getting some starts, and I believe he’ll be putting up credible numbers once he gets into that role.
| FLASHING BACKS IN SECOND SEASONS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | St | Rushing | Receiving | PPR | Rk |
| 2003 | Ladell Betts, Was. | 1 | 77-255-2 | 15-167-0 | 69.2 | 58 |
| 2005 | • Tatum Bell, Den. | 1 | 173-921-8 | 18-104-0 | 168.5 | 24 |
| 2006 | Ryan Moats, Phil. | 0 | 22-69-0 | 0-0-0 | 6.9 | 129 |
| 2007 | Jerious Norwood, Atl. | 2 | 103-613-1 | 28-277-0 | 123.0 | 42 |
| 2009 | • Jamaal Charles, K.C. | 10 | 190-1120-7 | 40-297-1 | 237.7 | 10 |
| 2012 | • Stevan Ridley, N.E. | 12 | 290-1263-12 | 6-51-0 | 209.4 | 15 |
| 2016 | • Tevin Coleman, Atl. | 0 | 118-520-8 | 31-421-3 | 191.1 | 20 |
| 2020 | Alexander Mattison, Min. | 2 | 96-434-2 | 13-125-1 | 86.9 | 56 |
| 2023 | • James Cook, Buff. | 13 | 237-1122-2 | 44-445-4 | 236.7 | 11 |
| 2024 | Tyjae Spears, Ten. | 1 | 84-312-4 | 30-224-1 | 113.6 | 42 |
| 2025 | Trey Benson, Ari. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan