Running back pay and value continues to dominate the conversation as the forthcoming NFL season draws ever closer. With superstar rushers Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor both publicly voicing their displeasure about their current contracts, the situation has only continued to sour with no amicable resolution in sight for either side.
Regrettably, long gone are the days of running backs being signed to mega-deals. The market has adjusted the way the position is viewed and valued by NFL franchises in the modern game—with more teams than ever using multiple runners in a rotation rather than just one bell-cow back.
Still, the rare elite running backs that remain are only paid a fraction of what their top counterparts at other positions earn—and with the franchise tag always an option, many players are kept from even getting to the open market at all.
Running backs often spend their entire prime trapped on a rookie scale deal before being tagged and promptly discarded for the next draft pick—as the carnivorous cycle continues its callous consumption in perpetuity.
Sadly, the salary stalemate for the league’s running backs is set to continue for the foreseeable future, as the current collective bargaining agreement will run through the year 2030.
While some of the league’s best rushers rightfully rally to receive a rise in their overall revenue share, there isn’t a better time to take a look back at eight of the worst running back contracts ever signed in NFL history…
LeSean McCoy
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● Year: 2015
● Team: Buffalo Bills
● Contract: 5 years for $40 million
Once considered among the very best at the position, McCoy is one of the most electric players to ever lace up the cleats. Known mostly for his time as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, “Shady” led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in 2011 and in rushing yards in 2013.
After being traded by the Eagles to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for linebacker Kiko Alonso in 2015, McCoy inked a massive extension with his new team.
Previously a perennial All-Pro caliber performer—the lightning quick running back was painfully pedestrian in his first season with the Bills, rushing for 895 yards while playing in twelve of sixteen games.
Unlike most others on this list, McCoy eventually returned to more than respectable form—making three Pro Bowls in Buffalo and putting up back to back thousand yard rushing seasons before injuries and ineffectiveness eventually rendered the once elite back replaceable.
McCoy finished his career as a backup and rotational player on two Super Bowl winning squads, hoisting the Lombardi first with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019 before winning again the following season as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The likely future Hall of Famer did have some respectable seasons after signing his big deal with the Bills, but his play never quite fully lived up to the colossal contract and McCoy would have to leave Buffalo to chase his championship dreams elsewhere.
DeMarco Murray
● Year: 2015
● Team: Philadelphia Eagles
● Contract: 5 years for $40 million
Murray was a Pro Bowler and All-Pro in 2014 with the Dallas Cowboys, leading the league in rushing attempts, yards and touchdowns on his way to being voted AP Offensive Player of the Year.
Dallas surprisingly let Murray walk in free agency after his career-best season, and instead the star rusher ended up with the Cowboys division rival—signing with the Philadelphia Eagles for a staggeringly substantial sum.
Splitting carries and playing time with fellow running backs Ryan Matthews and Darren Sproles, Murray took a significant step back after inking his big extension. The powerful pile pusher only managed 702 rushing yards while starting just eight of fifteen games played in Philadelphia.
With his performance no longer matching his pay rate, the Eagles decided to move on from Murray after just one season, trading him to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a fourth round pick.
Murray returned to Pro Bowl form as a reclamation project with Tennessee before retiring after the 2017 season, but his contract with Philadelphia is still remembered as one of the worst in NFL history.
Devonta Freeman
● Year: 2017
● Team: Atlanta Falcons
● Contract: 5 years for $41.25 million
Following back to back thousand yard rushing campaigns, the Atlanta Falcons signed their superstar rusher to a gargantuan extension in 2017, making Freeman the highest paid running back in the NFL at the time.
Freeman had been an integral piece of the Falcons’ 2016 Super Bowl run, as the shifty scat back accumulated 1,541 total yards and 13 touchdowns from scrimmage for Atlanta’s top-ranked offensive attack.
Unfortunately, injuries began to mount for the once prolific runner and the former Florida State star missed two games with a concussion in 2017 before dealing with a bothersome knee injury during the 2017 postseason.
Freeman played in just two contests during the 2018 slate—missing time due to an assortment of ailments and eventually undergoing season-ending core muscle surgery.
Though Freeman would return healthy in 2019, he failed to meet the high expectations placed on him by his lofty pact—managing only 656 yards on 184 attempts with just two rushing scores.
The Falcons released Freeman with three years still remaining on his deal, and the former Pro Bowl runner would spend time with the Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants before calling it quits in 2021.
Freeman’s catastrophic contract served as a lightning rod lesson to not overpay for running backs—potentially initiating a paradigm shift in positional value for the once highly regarded rushers.
David Johnson
● Year: 2018
● Team: Arizona Cardinals
● Contract: 3 years for $39 million
The Arizona Cardinals signed Johnson to a lucrative extension in 2018, giving him $30 million guaranteed despite the running back missing all but one game during the previous season due to injury.
The Cardinals were betting that Johnson would return to his All-Pro form, but the bruising back would be unable to live up to his enormous agreement.
Johnson played all sixteen games in 2018, but averaged an atrocious 3.6 yards per carry on the season—failing to reach one thousand yards rushing despite a whopping workload that included 258 rushing attempts.
After a continued decline in performance the following season, the Cardinals miraculously managed to trade Johnson to the Houston Texans in exchange for all-world wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in 2020.
The head-scratching deal sent Johnson to Houston, where he played for two injury riddled seasons before landing with the New Orleans Saints as a depth piece in 2022.
If not for one of the most infamous trades in NFL history, Johnson’s contract would likely be held in even lower regard—but still stands as one of the worst running back contracts of all time.
Todd Gurley
● Year: 2018
● Team: Los Angeles Rams
● Contract: 4 years for $57.5 million
After winning Offensive Player of the Year and finishing second in MVP voting in 2017, the Los Angeles Rams inked Gurley to a massive new deal worth $22 million in guaranteed money. The former Georgia star had just led the NFL in rushing touchdowns as a multi-purpose weapon out of the Rams backfield and was rewarded with an immense four year extension.
Gurley repeated as the league’s rushing touchdown leader the following season, punching in seventeen scores on the ground while playing just fourteen games—being named a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro for the second consecutive year.
Despite a career-low in scrimmage yards, Gurley still managed fourteen total touchdowns in 2019 but a chronic degenerative knee issue caused his efficiency to continually diminish drastically.
The Rams released Gurley before the 2020 season, as the once dominant dual-threat back signed with his hometown Atlanta Falcons for one last season—playing a pedestrian fifteen games in a rotational role before hanging up the cleats for good.
Gurley’s oversized extension is an often cited example of why NFL franchises no longer allocate sizable assets to the running back position, with more teams utilizing the draft and franchise tag to keep costs controlled.
Le'Veon Bell
● Year: 2019
● Team: New York Jets
● Contract: 4 years for $52.5 million
A three-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time first-team All-Pro, Bell’s patient running style made him one of the NFL’s most productive players over five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers before the star runner sat out the 2018 slate due to a bitter contract dispute with the team.
After missing an entire season in his prime, Bell returned to the NFL in 2019—signing with the New York Jets for a whopping $35 million guaranteed in free agency.
The former Michigan State bell-cow back was abysmal as the big ticket in the Big Apple, averaging a measly 3.2 yards per carry and mustering just 789 yards rushing in fifteen games.
Just one year after signing his mega-deal, Bell was released by the Jets in 2020 and bounced around multiple teams before dabbling in celebrity boxing and hip-hop.
Arguably the worst running back contract of all time, Bell was a major disappointment after signing his massive extension—leading many NFL teams to totally rethink how they approach allocated compensation for the position.
Christian McCaffrey
● Year: 2020
● Team: Carolina Panthers
● Contract: 4 years for $64 million
The Carolina Panthers made McCaffrey the highest paid running back in NFL history when he signed his then-record breaking contract in 2020.
An undeniably terrific talent, the former Stanford star had just concluded an all-time season the year prior—piling up over one thousand yards rushing while also snagging one hundred receptions for another thousand plus yards through the air.
McCaffrey’s monumental feat had only previously been accomplished by two others in NFL history—Roger Craig in 1985 and Marshall Faulk in 1999.
After etching his name in the history books as only the third member of the illustrious club, McCaffrey was widely thought to be the league’s next star at the running back position.
Unfortunately, McCaffrey would appear in just ten games for Carolina over the next two seasons before being traded to the San Francisco 49ers mid-way through the 2022 campaign.
The diminutive dynamo was a perfect fit in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s scheme, scoring ten total touchdowns in ten starts for the 49ers and helping the team reach the NFC Championship.
Although he was able to return to Pro-Bowl form last year in San Francisco, McCaffrey’s Carolina contract irrefutably remains one of the worst ever handed out to a running back—as the former Stanford standout is still counting $18.35 million against the Panthers dead cap in 2023, despite no longer being on the roster.
Ezekiel Elliott
● Year: 2019
● Team: Dallas Cowboys
● Contract: 6 years for $90 million
The Cowboys mistakenly made Ezekiel Elliot the highest-paid running back in NFL history back in 2019 and the contract is without a doubt the worst of all time for the position.
Not only was Elliot’s extension enormous, with over $50 million in guarantees, but it is also the longest of all the contracts on this list, checking in at a whopping six years.
While Elliot was still moderately productive after signing his massive mega-deal, his efficiency and involvement in the offense steadily declined until his release earlier this summer.
Currently toiling on the free agent market looking for his next NFL opportunity, Elliot is still due nearly $12 million dollars from the Cowboys over the next two years.
Released just halfway through his gigantic extension, Elliot’s deal will go down in history as the worst contract ever given out to a running back in NFL history.
