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Shock waves were sent through the NFL world yesterday when it was announced that the Philadelphia Eagles sent LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso. Plenty of arguments have been made on both sides on who won this trade. Plenty think the Bills landing a star running back for a good linebacker coming off an ACL injury is a steal, while others see that Chip Kelly has cleared a ton of cap space and is starting to fortify a defense that let him down in 2014.
After the dominoes have fallen from this trade, one thing is certain: the NFL running back no longer has value.
This league was built on running the football. Whether it was George Halas’ T-formation or Vince Lombardi’s power sweep, teams were built around running the football. This continued through the 1970s with the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers winning Super Bowls on the legs of Larry Csonka and Franco Harris, respectively. For decades, teams tried desperately to land a player like McCoy and would never trade him away at any cost, but that is no longer the case.
The game started evolving in the 1980s with Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers‘ offense. That is the point that the NFL began to change into a passing league. Here we are now in 2015 and there is not even a shadow of a doubt. The Dallas Cowboys are letting DeMarco Murray test free agency after an MVP-like season. Adrian Peterson needs to restructure his contract to make trading him a viable option. No running back was taken in the first round of the past two NFL drafts. In fact, Marshawn Lynch was the only former first-round draft choice to rush for over 1,000 yards this season.
The value of running backs is the lowest it’s ever been. General managers and coaches now believe that running backs are interchangeable and a strong offensive line and a formidable passing game will set up the run rather than the other way around. Teams like the Baltimore Ravens have shown that they can get a tremendous season out of a journeyman like Justin Forsett.
The NFL has changed and it’s never looking back. It is a passing league. The running back will continue to lose value, but it’s clearly lower than it’s ever been in the history of the league. Horse racing once dominated the American sports landscape, the heavyweight boxing division was once the king of all sports and the NFL running back was once a franchise player; times change, and that time has come in the NFL.
Bill Zimmerman is a featured NFL writer for www.RantSports.Com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.
