The wave of training camp holdouts has finally come in, and at least initially you’re seeing a lot more high-profile running backs in the NFL saying they won’t show up to camp without a better contract.
New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley is among the big names that have stated publicly they won’t report to camp on time. But Colin Cowherd isn’t a believer in the narrative that running backs should be on the receiving end of some massive contracts.
On The Herd on Wednesday, Cowherd said it’s easy to look around at various media outlets and figure out that they’re on the player’s side.
“The media’s take is always, ‘Pay the players. They’re being taken advantage of,'” he said. “That’s always the media’s take. ‘Players are getting screwed!'”
Colin pointed to three facts that he thought made a good case for not paying the running backs the money they want.
The first was a tweet from analyst Warren Sharp, who had a stat that said quarterbacks in the league are accounting for a bigger percentage of rushing yards.
The second fact is that even though running backs might be worthy of big contracts, in the last decade analytics say don’t hand out a second big contract. The backs won’t be as productive.
Thirdly, there hasn’t been a Pro Bowl running back on a Super Bowl-winning roster in a decade. Additionally, the last regular season rushing champion to reach the Super Bowl was Shaun Alexander in 2005.
“These are all indisputable,” Cowherd said. “Every sport has a skill or a position that analytics has changed.”
“This is the way sports work,” he added. “Tight ends and wide receivers and edge rushers and quarterbacks have never made more. Running backs are more niche. They do get paid but not the years they want.”
Cowherd said stats and facts are stats and facts. You can’t deny them. And all the signs point to those players not necessarily being worthy of the kind of money they’re asking for.
“I got all the data on my side. All of it. All of it. History, data,” he said. “The minute the quarterbacks have been asked to move more because of rule changes, it’s an offensive sport. It pivoted about eight years ago, nine years ago whenever it was. Quarterbacks are now doing more of the running backs work. Of course I’m gonna pay them less.”
