In the 2013 NFL draft, no running backs were chosen in the first round, and a running back didn’t go off the board until No. 37, when Giovani Bernard went to the Bengals. A year later, there were again no running backs in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft, and not even any running backs in the Top 50: Bishop Sankey, No. 54 overall to the Titans, was the first back off the board.
That led to talk that the running back position had been so devalued in the modern NFL that running backs simply wouldn’t go near the top of the draft anymore. But that talk has proven incorrect.
Penn State running back Saquon Barkley is certain to go in the Top 10 a week from tonight, and that will make the 2018 draft the fourth straight year with a Top 10 running back.
Todd Gurley reversed the trend when he went 10th overall to the Rams in 2015. Ezekiel Elliott went fourth overall to the Cowboys in 2016. And last year there were two Top 10 running backs, Leonard Fournette at No. 4 and Christian McCaffrey at No. 8.
So while it’s true that the NFL is far more of a passing league than it used to be, running backs haven’t been phased out quite as much as it may have appeared during those 2013 and 2014 drafts. If a running back has talent, an NFL team will gladly use a high pick to acquire him.
