For years as the NFL became more and more of a pass-first league, the following sentiment arose: running backs don’t matter.
However, that’s not quite accurate if they’re treated as the cherry on top of an offense that has the rest of the pieces in order: solid play from the quarterback, offensive line and receiving corps. The Baltimore Ravens signed 30-year-old, four-time Pro Bowler Derrick Henry to a two-year, $16 million deal, and the Philadelphia Eagles signed 27-year-old, two-time Pro Bowler Saquon Barkley to a three-year, $37.75 million in free agency this offseason.
Through the first half of the 2024 season, Henry and Barkley are dominating. Henry (116.9 rushing yards per game) and Barkley (115.6) rank first and second in the entire league in rushing yards per game as well as first and third, respectively, in rushing yards per game in a player’s first season with a new team, per CBS Sports Research.
Most rush yards/game in first season with team, NFL history
Season RB Rush YPG New Team 2024 Derrick Henry 116.9 Ravens 2002 Ricky Williams 115.8 Dolphins 2024 Saquon Barkley 115.6 Eagles 1983 Eric Dickerson 113.0 Rams 1987 Eric Dickerson 112.3 Colts
Henry is currently poised to become the third player in NFL history to win three rushing triple crowns, leading the league in carries (168), rushing yards (1,052) and rushing touchdowns (11) this season. He would join Hall of Famers Steve Van Buren (three) and Jim Brown (four), but he would be the first to do so at age 30 or older. Henry one of the NFL’s most efficient runners too despite the NFL-high in volume: his 6.3 yards per carry this season are the second-most in the NFL behind only Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs’ rushing yards-per-carry average. He is also the first player since then-Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander during his 2005 NFL MVP season
Barkley has been nearly as magical as Henry in his first season with Philadelphia. Hs possesses the fifth-most rushing yards, 925, in his first eight career games with a team all time. That production has him in line for 1,965 rushing yards, which would break LeSean McCoy’s single-season Eagles record of 1,607 set in 2013. Barkley is also averaging an NFL-leading 133.9 scrimmage yards per game after racking up 199 — 159 rushing on 27 carries and 40 receiving on three catches — in a 28-23 victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9. Three of Barkley’s seven highest single-game rushing totals in his career have come in his first eight games with Philadelphia, and he is averaging 2.5 yards before contract per rush, the third-most in the league among running backs in 2024 That’s a massive departure from his 2023 yards-before-contact-per-rush average of 1 yard, which ranked 32nd among running backs last season. The reason why? Like Henry, he is the cherry on top of talented offensive core.