GROUND AND POUND
Second acts fuel veteran running backs in this year’s NFL playoffs
Jan 7, 2025, 1:44 pm
Joe Mixon was selected to the Pro Bowl in his first season with Houston. Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images.
Those veteran running backs who changed addresses in the offseason have given themselves a chance to showcase the difference they can make in the postseason.
Plenty of contenders capitalized on a crowded market by adding proven ball carriers. The moves paid major dividends.
Now players such as Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley, Baltimore’s Derrick Henry and Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs are welcoming the playoff opportunities they didn’t get often enough with their original teams. Barkley made that clear after the Eagles decided to rest him for their regular-season finale rather than giving him a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record.
“We didn’t come here and I didn’t sign here to break Eric Dickerson’s record,” Barkley said. “We came here to win a Super Bowl. I think everyone knows that.”
Barkley’s only playoff experience in his seven seasons with the New York Giants was a two-game run to the 2022 divisional round. Jacobs appeared in just one playoff game in five seasons with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders.
Their new teams meet Sunday when the Eagles (14-3) host the Packers (11-6) in the wild-card round.
“I’m not just satisfied with going to the playoffs,” Jacobs said. “I came here to win the Super Bowl. So, for me, that’s the only thing that’s really on my mind. I’m about to give everything that I’ve got to this and see how it could play out."
Their playoff matchup follows a banner regular season for veteran running backs who switched teams.
Heading into this season, only three players had rushed for at least 1,200 yards with multiple teams since 2010, according to Sportradar: LeSean McCoy (Philadelphia and Buffalo), DeMarco Murray (Dallas and Tennessee) and Christian McCaffrey (Carolina and San Francisco).
That total doubled this year, thanks to Barkley, Henry and Jacobs.
Barkley rushed for an NFL-leading 2,005 yards after exceeding 1,300 yards in 2018 and 2022 with the Giants. Henry, a two-time NFL rushing leader at Tennessee, ranked second with 1,921 yards. Jacobs, who had an NFL-leading 1,653 yards in 2022, is sixth with 1,329 yards.
Each got a giant boost from joining a winning team.
Barkley more than doubled his rushing total from his last year in New York, when he ran for 962 yards. Jacobs had rushed for just 805 yards in 2023 following a preseason holdout. Henry ran for 1,167 yards — an impressive number, but 754 fewer than he had this year — his final season in Tennessee.
CBS analyst Tiki Barber, who rushed for 10,449 yards with the Giants from 1997-2006, said running backs often need “the right infrastructure” to thrive.
“In order to have a running back thrive, you have to be properly built,” said Barber, a 2005 All-Pro. “Good offensive line. You have to have an offensive system that’s not just predicated on your running back being your most productive asset or your big-play playmaker. When I think back with Saquon with the Giants a year ago, they fully depended on him to make their big plays. There was really nobody else that could do that.”
Barber noted that Barkley, Henry and Jacobs got a better chance to maximize their talents when they joined their new teams, which had more dynamic offenses with additional playmakers.
They’re not the only playoff running backs who benefited from fresh starts.
When the Packers signed Jacobs, they allowed Aaron Jones to depart in free agency. Jones joined the Minnesota Vikings and rushed for a career-high 1,138 yards.
Joe Mixon rushed for 1,016 yards as a Houston Texans newcomer after spending seven seasons in Cincinnati. Barkley, Henry, Jacobs and Mixon all earned Pro Bowl selections.
Just as these running backs thrived in their new situations, their new teams benefited from their arrival.
The Eagles went from 11-6 last year to 14-3 this year. The Packers improved from 9-8 to 11-6. Minnesota, which went 7-10 last year, soared to 14-3 this year with Jones leading an improved ground attack.
The impact is evident to the running backs themselves. Jones emphasized the point when he was asked about how so many of the NFL’s top running backs this year had switched teams in the offseason.
“Running backs matter!” Jones replied. “Hey guys, ‘Everybody hear me? Running backs matter!’ ”
Henry already showed how much running backs can mean in the postseason when he carried the 2019 Titans to the AFC championship game by rushing for 182 yards in a wild-card win at New England and 195 yards in a divisional round upset at top-seeded Baltimore.
After missing the postseason the last two years at Tennessee, Henry is back in the playoffs chasing his first Super Bowl.
“The reason why I came here is to have the opportunity,” Henry said. “But we know what’s at stake. We know what we’ve got to do.”
It’s too early to tell whether the success so many running backs had with their new teams this year will start a trend and cause more teams to pursue proven ball carriers.
Jones signed a one-year deal with Minnesota and is one of the top potential names in a free-agent running back class that doesn’t feature nearly as much star power as it did last spring, when Barkley, Henry and Jacobs were all available.
But there’s no doubt these veteran running backs on new teams made a statement this year with their impact production.
“The proof is in the pudding,” Packers center Josh Myers said. “All those teams got veteran running backs, and look how great all of them are doing. It’s position that still has a ton of value, and I think more value than most people give it credit for.”
And that makes former running backs such as Barber proud.
“I love to see the running back has become important to teams that are successful again,” Barber said. “Obviously it’s a quarterback-driven league, but when you have a great running back, you feel it. And the other team feels it.”
What looked like a minor blip after an emotional series win in Los Angeles has turned into something more concerning for the Houston Astros.
Swept at home by a Guardians team that came in riding a 10-game losing streak, the Astros were left looking exposed. Not exhausted, as injuries, underperformance, and questionable decision-making converged to hand Houston one of its most frustrating series losses of the year.
Depth finally runs dry
It would be easy to point to a “Dodger hangover” as the culprit, the emotional peak of an 18-1 win at Chavez Ravine followed by a mental lull. But that’s not the story here.
Houston’s energy was still evident, especially in the first two games of the series, where the offense scored five or more runs each time. Including those, the Astros had reached that mark in eight of their last 10 games heading into Wednesday’s finale.
But scoring isn’t everything, not when a lineup held together by duct tape and desperation is missing Christian Walker and Jake Meyers and getting critical at-bats from Cooper Hummel, Zack Short, and other journeymen.
The lack of depth finally showed. The Astros, for three days, looked more like a Triple-A squad with Jose Altuve and a couple big-league regulars sprinkled in.
Cracks in the pitching core
And the thing that had been keeping this team afloat, elite pitching, finally buckled.
Hunter Brown and Josh Hader, both dominant all season, finally cracked. Brown gave up six runs in six innings, raising his pristine 1.82 ERA to 2.21. Hader wasn’t spared either, coughing up a game-losing grand slam in extra innings that inflated his ERA from 1.80 to 2.38 in one night.
But the struggles weren’t isolated. Bennett Sousa, Kaleb Ort, and Steven Okert each gave up runs at critical moments. The bullpen’s collective fade could not have come at a worse time for a team already walking a tightrope.
Injury handling under fire
Houston’s injury management is also drawing heat, and rightfully so. Jake Meyers, who had been nursing a calf strain, started Wednesday’s finale. He didn’t even make it through one pitch before aggravating the injury and needing to be helped off the field.
No imaging before playing him. No cautionary rest despite the All-Star break looming. Just a rushed return in a banged-up lineup, and it backfired immediately.
Second-guessing has turned to outright criticism of the Astros’ medical staff, as fans and analysts alike wonder whether these mounting injuries are being made worse by how the club is handling them.
Pressure mounts on Dana Brown
All eyes now turn to Astros GM Dana Brown. The Astros are limping into the break with no clear reinforcements on the immediate horizon. Only Chas McCormick is currently rehabbing in Sugar Land. Everyone else? Still sidelined.
Brown will need to act — and soon.
At a minimum, calling up top prospect Brice Matthews makes sense. He’s been mashing in Triple-A (.283/.400/.476, 10 HR, .876 OPS) and could play second base while Jose Altuve shifts to left field more regularly. With Mauricio Dubón stretched thin between shortstop and center, injecting Matthews’ upside into the infield is a logical step.
*Editor's note: The Astros must be listening, Matthews was called up Thursday afternoon!
The Astros are calling up Brice Matthews, their top prospect on @MLBPipeline
via @brianmctaggart pic.twitter.com/K91cGKkcx6
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 10, 2025
There’s also trade chatter, most notably about Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins, but excitement has been tepid. His numbers don’t jump off the page, but compared to who the Astros are fielding now, Mullins would be a clear upgrade and a much-needed big-league presence.
A final test before the break
Before the All-Star reset, Houston gets one last chance to stabilize the ship, and it comes in the form of a rivalry series against the Texas Rangers. The Astros will send their top trio — Lance McCullers Jr., Framber Valdez, and Hunter Brown — to the mound for a three-game set that will test their resolve, their health, and perhaps their postseason aspirations.
The Silver Boot is up for grabs. So is momentum. And maybe, clarity on just how far this version of the Astros can go.
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