No RB had 2000+ yards in 2008 (1 Viewer)

[The Man with the Plan]

This season there were 0 running backs with 2,000 or more yards from scrimmage. That hasn't happened since 1996. Every season since it seemed like you could count on at least a couple of backs hitting the 2K mark.

1997 Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis

1998 Terrell Davis, Marshall Faulk, Jamal Anderson

1999 Marshall Faulk, Edgerrin James

2000 Marshall Faulk, Edgerrin James

2001 Marshall Faulk, Priest Holmes

2002 Priest Holmes, Ricky Williams, LaDainian Tomlinson

2003 LaDainian Tomlinson, Ahman Green, Deuce McAllister, Priest Holmes, Jamal Lewis

2004 Edgerrin James, Tiki Barber

2005 Tiki Barber, Larry Johnson

2006 Tiki Barber, Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Steven Jackson, Frank Gore

2007 Brian Westbrook

Just last season there was only one guy to reach 2000 yards which is one more than this season. Adrian Peterson led the league with 1885 yards which was over 100 yards more than anyone else. Why was that the case and should we expect more of the same next season? With all the talk of RBBC going on in the league I don't know. Obviously it takes a lot of touches to reach that amount of yardage but how many guys will receive that type of workload nowadays?

 

[Chase Stuart]

This was the greatest passing season ever. I wonder if that might have something to do with it.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Trend.

The game is too physical for a team to rely too much on a primary back. Even if you have a stud that can get you 2000 yards, if you leave him on the field that much you'll shorten his career.

 

[Dentist]

Somewhere in between trend and aberration is the answer.

I don't see how the game is much more physical just 2-5 years ago when you saw a lot of RB's doing this.

but then again that stretch in the early to mid 2000's where RB's where getting tons of yards and setting all kinds of TD records might have been an aberration in itself historically.

 

[jurb26]

A lot of the top RBs seemed to get hurt this year. Not sure if there were more than other years, but LT, Portis, Bush, Addai, Westy, Parker, Barber, Jackson and Gore all missed several games each.

 

[DropKick]

Trend. I don't ever recall teams interchanging RBs so frequently. More teams using multiple backs in a copy cat league.

 

[stevegamer]

Somewhat aberrant. The great pass-catching backs were dinged: Bush, Westbrook, Tomlinson - and Westbrook got pulled in blowouts.