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.”
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Astros lose tight one despite brilliant outing from Hunter Brown
May 15, 2025, 10:29 pm
It’s a fun series between the Astros and Rangers through the weekend in Arlington, but by no means is it a critical series. It would be nice for the Astros to not lose three out of the four games (or obviously all four) to their upstate rivals. The Astros have lost their last five road series, dropping two out of three games in each of them. As with the Astros, pitching has been the strength of the team for the Rangers thus far. After the humdinger Hunter Brown-Jacob deGrom mound matchup Thursday night, the Rangers give the ball Friday to Nathan Eovaldi with his earned run average at 1.78, then Saturday it’s Tyler Mahle with his even more sparkling 1.47 ERA. Heading into Thursday play, the Mariners having lost five of their last six games meant just a game and a half separate first from fourth place in the American League West. The Astros, Rangers, and Athletics are all right there. Only the Angels are inconsequential.
Star power!
There is an asterisk to attach but Jeremy Pena is making a real charge at becoming a first-time All-Star game selection. Among American League shortstops, the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. is clearly the best. The clear number two in the pecking order coming into this season was the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, who is on fire after a slow start that began with him missing seven games on the injured list. Athletics’ rookie Jacob Wilson goes into the weekend batting .350 and amazingly has struck out just nine times in 164 at bats. Rangers’ stud Corey Seager being on the injured list with a balky hamstring for the second time this season helps the Astros this weekend and likely frees up an All-Star spot.
Now to that aforementioned asterisk. Pena has been sensational so far, indisputably the Astros’ best everyday player. We just need to see more staying power of performance before fully slotting Pena in the top tier of shortstops. Pena’s four-hit game Wednesday night hiked his batting average to .315, his OPS to .840. Well, last year Pena put head to pillow the night of May 15 with his batting average at .333, his OPS at .830. The rest of the season Pena hit .240 with a meager .653 OPS. That Pena drew a paltry 18 walks over his last 114 games. 2025 Pena has showed markedly better plate discipline. He’ll never be a high walks-drawn guy but incremental improvement matters, and can bear fruit in other ways.
Fruitless continues to describe an awfully high percentage of Christian Walker’s plate appearances. 2023 Jose Abreu was better (2024 Abreu was not). Plenty of season still remains for a turnaround, but more than a quarter of the season is gone and it’s not as if Walker is trending in the right direction. In three games against the Royals he went zero for 12 with seven strikeouts. With his final whiff, Walker reached the 50 strikeout “milestone” for the season in his 154th at bat. Feeble and lousy are fair characterizations of a .208 batting average and .625 OPS, magnified for someone batting clean-up most nights. Starting play Thursday 13 big leaguers actually had struck out more than Walker so far this season, among them only the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds carries a lower OPS. Walker has been even worse with runners in scoring position, batting just .171, with a sub-abysmal 20 strikeouts in 41 at bats.
Using Baseball-Reference's Wins Above Replacement statistic, the Astros’ three worst non-pitchers this season are Walker, Yordan Alvarez, and Jose Altuve. Those are the three highest paid players on the team. Altuve’s extended funk has him hitting .202 over his last 27 games with a .538 OPS. Altuve was dropped to second in the batting order basically at his request. It has not sparked him. If Altuve doesn’t pick it up, manager Joe Espada will have to consider dropping Altuve several more spots down the lineup. Alvarez is at 11 games and counting missed with a muscle strain in his right hand. He will not be approaching the career-high 147 games played last season.
Relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a revelation last season. Before joining the Astros at age 31 Scott had a big-league ERA of 9.00 in 46 innings scattered over three seasons. So it was pretty much out of nowhere that the only South African pitcher in MLB history posted a scintillating 1.36 ERA into early August before fading and winding up with a still stellar 2.23 mark. The clock struck midnight on his Cinderella story this year though, and with the Astros needing to open a roster spot this week, Scott was designated for assignment.
Book it!
Longtime Astros’ broadcasting stalwart Bill Brown has authored several books. His latest is Wartime Athletes, which tells the stories of athletes across a number of sports who served in the U.S. military during various wars. If you know anything about Bill Brown, you know each story was meticulously researched and makes for an interesting read. I’m no Oprah when it comes to the power of suggestion for reading material, but Wartime Athletes is worth your time and/or is a worthy gift for someone else.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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