Lord Lucan
Footballguy
Jerious Norwood's career stats at the moment are 243 carries for 1526 yards. He's in his third season, had around 100 carries in each of his first two years, and is on pace for just over 100 carries again this year.
The reason I'm wondering whether he'll manage to rack up 507 more carries - and it's not impossible, though obviously depends on how he's used and whether he stays injury-free - is that if he does, he'll reach the generally accepted threshold of 750 carries for record qualification - and at the moment, don't laugh, but he's on pace to kick Jim Brown off the top spot in the career yards per carry category.
Norwood is averaging 6.9 yards per carry over his first 243 carries. To break Brown's record (5.2 ypc) he would need to average just 4.68 yards per carry over his next 507 rushes (and then promptly retire!).
It's probably unlikely - the Falcons seems intent on keeping him to the change-of-pace role, and he'd be pushing 30 by the time he closes in on 750 carries at his current rate - but it would lead to some interesting discussion around the league if he starts getting close. Of course, it can easily be said that several other guys are "on pace" to break this record - Felix Jones might be in a similar position much quicker the way he's started (I did think the same about AD but his career mark average is already down to 5.2 ypc), and Ahmad Bradshaw has averaged 7.5 yards per carry over just 41 career rushes to date - but I keep expecting Norwood's ypc to regress to the norm, and it hasn't happened yet; it will be interesting to see how his career progresses.
The reason I'm wondering whether he'll manage to rack up 507 more carries - and it's not impossible, though obviously depends on how he's used and whether he stays injury-free - is that if he does, he'll reach the generally accepted threshold of 750 carries for record qualification - and at the moment, don't laugh, but he's on pace to kick Jim Brown off the top spot in the career yards per carry category.
Norwood is averaging 6.9 yards per carry over his first 243 carries. To break Brown's record (5.2 ypc) he would need to average just 4.68 yards per carry over his next 507 rushes (and then promptly retire!).
It's probably unlikely - the Falcons seems intent on keeping him to the change-of-pace role, and he'd be pushing 30 by the time he closes in on 750 carries at his current rate - but it would lead to some interesting discussion around the league if he starts getting close. Of course, it can easily be said that several other guys are "on pace" to break this record - Felix Jones might be in a similar position much quicker the way he's started (I did think the same about AD but his career mark average is already down to 5.2 ypc), and Ahmad Bradshaw has averaged 7.5 yards per carry over just 41 career rushes to date - but I keep expecting Norwood's ypc to regress to the norm, and it hasn't happened yet; it will be interesting to see how his career progresses.
What interests me is how long a RB can keep churning out huge YPC stats without his team increasing his workload. Football Outsiders have been campaigning for more carries for a while, but given his frame there is always going to be the concern that he would break in two if given too many carries (typing "Jerious Norwood Skinny Legs" into Google gets nearly 400 results).Generally, I would have thought that when a RB starts off his career with a high YPC, he gradually gets more and more carries until he regresses towards the mean, but Norwood is closing in on 250 carries now and there's no sign of his YPC going down. Does anyone know of another RB who has averaged over 6ypc on more than 200 carries (maybe there are loads, I don't know)?
What interests me is how long a RB can keep churning out huge YPC stats without his team increasing his workload. Football Outsiders have been campaigning for more carries for a while, but given his frame there is always going to be the concern that he would break in two if given too many carries (typing "Jerious Norwood Skinny Legs" into Google gets nearly 400 results).Generally, I would have thought that when a RB starts off his career with a high YPC, he gradually gets more and more carries until he regresses towards the mean, but Norwood is closing in on 250 carries now and there's no sign of his YPC going down. Does anyone know of another RB who has averaged over 6ypc on more than 200 carries (maybe there are loads, I don't know)?
