The current system makes it hard for running backs to parlay performance into proper compensation. And the NFL’s current running backs are figuring out that the system is currently stacked against them.
“We’re kind of screwed, I feel like, for the next couple years,” Ravens running back Melvin Gordon said Tuesday, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com. “So, the only thing we could do is just kind of stack it and just ball out.”
There’s one other thing they can try to do, although the possibility has gotten no traction at all. They can agree that no running backs will participate in voluntary offseason workouts in 2024, absent a meaningful change to how they are all paid.
But the thinking is that this won’t work. There’s nothing at this point that will effect real change.
“At the end of the day, the talking and this and that is not going to get anything done,” Gordon said. “I think we just have to shine in the brightest moments when we get to the playoffs. The backs that are on that team got to take initiative to be like -- you know what -- I’m going to take over.”
That still won’t make a difference. Given the way the Collective Bargaining Agreement works, teams can squat on a running back for the full extent of his rookie contract (five years for a first-rounder, four years for every other round), apply the franchise tag once or twice, and then do it all over again with another draft pick.
The best solution, short of carving out special treatment under the CBA for running backs (that won’t happen), would be to create a league-wide fund that rewards running backs for their yards, touchdowns, etc., ensuring that players under low-cost rookie deals will get paid when they’re doing their best work.
And as to Gordon’s concession that running backs are “screwed . . . for the next couple years,” don’t buy the BS from the league or the union, guys. The CBA can be revised at any time. You don’t have to wait for the current one to expire.
But you do have to give the league and union a reason to deal with you now. The only way to do that is to say to all 32 teams, “Good luck having OTAs with no RBs” — and then work your asses off to get all running backs and agents to comply with what would be a perfectly permissible non-strike strike.
As to longer-term solutions, the best one continues to be the most obvious. Don’t play running back. Move to a different position.
