More details have emerged from a Saturday night meeting with several prominent NFL running backs.
This offseason has been a tough one on running backs, to say the least. Two-time rushing champion Ezekiel Elliott has been on the market for four months. Four-time Pro Bowler Dalvin Cook also remains a free agent more than a month after his release from the Minnesota Vikings.
Josh Jacobs (Las Vegas Raiders), Saquon Barkley (New York Giants) and Tony Pollard (Dallas Cowboys) did not receive long-term extensions from their respective teams after being assigned the franchise tag.
Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Los Angeles Chargers’ star Austin Ekeler “coordinated” a meeting for veteran NFL RBs over Zoom on Saturday:
Per multiple sources, the issue of holding in via the embellishment/exaggeration/fabrications of injuries (suggested earlier this week in an interview by NFLPA president JC Tretter) was raised during Saturday night’s call. As one source put it, the consensus was that this can’t work for running backs, since it feeds into the narrative that they’re prone to injury.
Much of the focus eventually went to agents, even though agents were excluded from the call. There was concern raised, we’re told, about some agents creating false expectations for other running backs by dumping phony salaries into the back end of contracts. (For example, Alvin Kamara has a final-year compensation package of $25 million, which pushed the average artificially to $15 million. There’s no way he’ll get $25 million in the last year of his current deal.)
The next step, we’re told, will be for the agents of this coalition of concerned running backs to get on a call of their own, in the hopes of coming up with better lines of communication and strategy for running backs who are or will be seeking new contracts. The goal is to get the agents, who are inherently in competition, to collaborate.”
Ekeler requested a trade from the Chargers earlier this offseason after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on an extension. The Bolts wound up adding incentives to the final year of Ekeler’s contract.
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Unfortunately for today’s running backs, there’s just no easy way of ensuring that they’re paid what they’re worth. It’s a devaluing position, and most RBs these days tend to slow down before they turn 30.
The likes of Elliott, Todd Gurley, Devonta Freeman and Le’Veon Bell can be cited as simple explanations as to why GMs don’t want to invest so much in running backs these days. All four of those men declined considerably soon after signing long-term deals with their clubs.
