SLASHBACKS: The Necessary Progression of the Running Back Position

SLASHBACKS: The Necessary Progression of the RB Position 

(By Scoop Reed) 

In the 1995 draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers used the 60th pick (2nd round) of the draft to select Colorado quarterback Kordell Stewart. Stewart was a progressive pick to eventually replace veteran Neil O’Donnell. O’Donnell would lead the Steelers to Super Bowl XXX, losing to the Dallas Cowboys. O’Donnell left three months later in free agency and signed with the New York Jets. During the 1995 season, the Steelers coaching staff began looking at Stewart’s value in a different way. Instead of holding a clipboard, he put on his helmet and caught, ran, and punted the football. The media gave him the name “Slash” due to the multiple ways that he impacted the football game. Stewart would become the starting quarterback for the Steelers two years later. He would lead them to the AFC championship losing to the Denver Broncos, the eventual Super Bowl champion. Stewart was more than a quarterback, he was a weapon. It is time to start looking at the running back position in a different way. In order to do this, we have to change the way we place value on the position starting with the name. Running backs are more than runners, they are weapons…. they are Slash Backs.

Michael Lombardi of the Daily Coach, VSIN, and GM Shuffle Podcast has said on many of his platforms that NFL personnel departments have to start looking at running backs as weapons more than runners. Their value as pass catchers and pass protectors has just as much value or more as their ability to run the football. It would be good practice as a first step to begin to take the “run” out of running back and replace it with “slash”.  Slash back is what the position has always been. There have been 16 running backs elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame from the Super Bowl era starting in 1967. All were elected for their ability to run the football. But what the majority of them also had was the ability to catch passes out of the backfield. Out of the 16, only two had a yards per catch average lower than 7 yds (Earl Campbell-Houston Oilers, Emmitt Smith-Dallas Cowboys). In the last 20 seasons, there have been 27 running backs who have had multiple top-5 rushing seasons. All but one (Thomas Jones-NY Jets, 6.6) has averaged 7 or more yards per catch. The Tennessee Titans Derrick Henry, who finished second last season in rushing, leads the group with a 9.8 average. The 2023 top ten running back class includes six rushers that have 7 yards per catch led by Derrick Henry at 12.1 per catch and 2 receptions per game.

The NFL draft is a slash-back draft more than a running-back draft. In the last five years (2019-2023) 23 of the 25 running backs taken in the first three rounds averaged more than 7 yards per catch; 2022-Davis-Price LSU (6.6), 2019-Sanders Penn State (6.0). The 2024 draft is being touted as a weak running back class. That is only the case if scouts are looking at the prospects as runners instead of slashers. The top ten prospects for the 2024 class have 7 players who average more than 7 yards per catch led by Treyveon Henderson-Ohio State (11.0), Donovan Edwards-Michigan (12.2), Jarquez Hunter-Auburn (9.8), Raheim Sanders-Arkansas (9.7).  Based off of this data there seems to be plenty of running back talent to choose from in 2024.

Currently, the NFL has the #1 leading rusher from last season, Josh Jacobs (Las Vegas Raiders) at a standstill financially with a franchise tag. Holdouts by the running back position are not new to the NFL. The position had a long history of winning these holdouts because of the offense’s dependency on the position. One could argue that the Shanahan zone blocking scheme and their ability to take no named players and turn them into 1,000-yard rushers changed all of that. In 2018, Le’Veon Bell played chicken with the proud Pittsburgh Steelers franchise and sat out the entire season. He was traded in 2019, and out of the league by 2022. Running backs currently in the league and those looking to get drafted have to start marketing themselves as something else. They have to talk about themselves as more than just runners. They have to become a slashback.