In American football, and in life too, there are these truths from which we cannot escape.
We know our classics: taxes, death, the Jets being bad. Another truth, in football anyway, is that generally speaking, you don’t win without being able to rely on a quality ground game. Which is strange because so often running backs are treated like third-class citizens, and maybe even fourth-class, if such a thing is possible.
On this subject, we note that the highest paid running back in the NFL at the moment is Christian McCaffrey, to whom the San Francisco 49ers will transfer $16.02 million this season. Are he and the other running backs underpaid? Probably, if we compare with the other attacking positions.
Thus, among receivers, Justin Jefferson is the richest in 2024, with a salary of $35 million. Among the quarterbacks, Dak Prescott no longer really needs to scrutinize Maxi’s circular since he pockets 60 million dollars per season in Dallas. On the lineman side, left tackle Trent Williams is earning a $27.6 million salary this season to protect Brock Purdy’s back in San Francisco.
We are not going to start crying for McCaffrey and all the others who earn “little”, but we notice that the contracts of 60 and 35 million dollars are not for them.
How is this explained? Hard to say. It can be suggested that this position is increasingly demanding and that for health reasons, the best running backs do not stay at the top for long; Ezekiel Elliott is a good recent example. Then, more and more teams are adopting the committee approach, asking two and sometimes three players to share the work. In this reality, it becomes more difficult to grant a long-term contract to a running back who will be on the decline two or three years later.
But Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry may be changing all that.
The first arrived in Philadelphia in March, and he completely transformed the Eagles’ offense this season. The second was hired by the Baltimore Ravens, also in March, and he allowed this team to end up with a ground game that is no longer focused on the legs of the quarterback, and which is all the more dangerous.
PHOTO KYUSUNG GONG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Running back Saquon Barkley has completely transformed the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense.
The impact of Barkley and Henry is undeniable, and then, with a little luck, the two men could flirt with the very prestigious bar of 2,000 yards of rushing gains in a season.
Will it be enough to reverse this trend of believing that running backs are no longer that important? In any case, it’s a good first step in this direction.
Daniel Jones, the second most incapable quarterback to have played for a New York club this season, will finally try to revive himself, as a reserve, with the Minnesota Vikings, who also excel in the art of restarting quarterbacks who are returning from disastrous stays with a New York team. If all goes well, Jones won’t have to throw a single pass by the end of the season.
PHOTO JOHN MUNSON, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Quarterback Daniel Jones
Speaking of comedy, Mark Sanchez, first recognized as the one who once dropped a ball and hit his face on a lineman’s pussy while playing for (who else?) the Jets, is now a TV analyst, and it’s a bit like the Milli Vanilli guys giving their opinion on the slightest singing turn at a Grammy gala.
The end of the season is coming, things are getting tough, and you have things to say, like Stéphane Dumaresq: “I took the plunge by reading an article on the dismissal of the CEO of the Jets; it was written that the Jets were anticipated by the football world as contenders for the Super Bowl at the start of the season with the return of Aaron Rodgers… Was it only Richard Labbé who had been right since all this time? »
It won’t be the first time, Stéphane. Finally, Marie-Ève Nadeau sends us this: “I thought [commencer] this missive with a series of your most contemptuous quotes towards my dear Detroit Lions […]but I’ll stick to my favorite: “You’ll have to see them for what they are: the equivalent of an Elvis impersonator in a Laval flea market” […] I would like to see an apology in your next column. »
Only the day after the Super Bowl.
With all that, the Pittsburgh Steelers will want to forget their humiliating defeat of October 6 against the Dallas Cowboys by going to face the Bengals in Cincinnati, the 49ers will go to Buffalo to try to survive, and then Sunday, 4:25 p.m. in Baltimore, the game of the week will pit the Eagles against the Ravens.
It’s also time to get back to listening Fa La La from Bündock as often as possible.
