My headline…it’s sort of a loaded question. How does one define greatest? Is it purely most points wins? Or is it all All-Robio awards? We have to take into account that the league scoring system has changed, but so has the NFL. There was a time in the league when 10-12 backs would get 300 carries. Now, maybe one or two do, so perhaps numbers can lie.
Yet, before we dive into some history…let’s see how Matt got here.
LE’VEON BELL / TODD GURLEY
Thanks to a savvy trade and a 2-11 record last year, Matt Neatock was able to enter the season with Todd Gurley and Le’Veon Bell as his starting backfield.
Bell was the obvious choice to be the first overall pick. He had earned 1st-team All-Robio in 2014 and he was on his way to repeating that feat again in 2015, until he tore his ACL. Last year, despite serving a suspension to begin the season, he still managed to finish as a 3rd team All-Robio.
In the postseason, he crushed the record books, producing a total of 1,432 fantasy points in three games (776, 262, 394). So yeah, first pick in the draft.
Gurley wasn’t quite no-brainer, but keeping him in round four certainly was. In 2015, the Rams back suffered through sophomore slump, barely averaging over three yards per carry. But with a new head coach in town in 2016, I made the third-year back one of my first-team All-Robio running backs.
RESULTS
These two…they have not disappointed. Gurley is crushing it, leading the league in fantasy points. He’s on pace for nearly 2,000 total yards. He’s second in carries and top-10 in receptions by backs. His 11 touchdowns leads the league.
Bell is actually having a career low season when it comes to yards per carry, averaging only 3.9 YPC. However, he’s first in rush attempts by 48 over the next guy, second in targets, first in receptions and is on pace for over 2,000 total yards.
Gurley and Bell are ranked first and second in fantasy points and Matt is poised to become the the first team in league history to have two first-team All-Robio running backs on the same roster. That’s huge. But does that mean he has the greatest backfield in league history?
THE GREATEST?
Again, depends on what you value. If having the first ever 1st-team All-Robio duo as the most important factor, then yes. But if points are what impress you, then no, they’re not and it’s not close really. Hell, they wouldn’t even be Matt’s greatest backfield (more on that in a bit).
At their current pace, Bell/Gurley will score about 6,850 points combined in the regular season. That would certainly crush Calderon’s 2015 combo of Murray/Bell, who combined for 6266 and is considered one of the best backfields ever, but that puts them on par with my 2008 duo.
DeAngelo Williams and Thomas Jones, adjusting to modern day scoring (more on that in a bit) would have produced 6,832 total points. This tantum has the designation of being the best due not drafted by the team. I traded for Thomas and picked up DeAngelo off the wire in week five.
But let’s go back to 2004 to find arguable Matt’s greatest backfield. Matt had 1st-team Edgerrin James and 3rd-team Brian Westbrook (an Eagle, shocking, I know). Now to get an accurate reading to judge, we have to make some adjustments. Those two played in a 14-game season, but also played under a different scoring system, where every touch came with a -2. With those adjustments, subtract a game and eliminate the -2, James/Westbrook would have combined for 7,430 points…crushing Matt’s current duo.
Hell, Matt’s had two duos creak 7,000. In 2007, Tomlinson and Peterson finished first and second-team and combined for 7,289 points.
That’s the fact, jack. You can’t even be considered one of the greatest if your duo didn’t break 7,000 total (with adjusted scoring).
The first to do it was me, way back in 1999. My combo of Edgerrin James and Ricky Watters combined for 5,968. However, adjust the scoring and they combined for 7,302. However, that was a 8-team league, so asterisk.
Let’s move up to 2005, when we first started playing a 13-game regular season and Griff had what was always argued to be the best backfield in history. That team featured three All-Robio backs; 1st team Shaun Alexander and a pair of third-teamers in LaMont Jordan and Larry Johnson. Remember though, Johnson earned this third-team award, despite not even starting the first five games of the season.
Anyhow, Alexander/Johnson led Griff to the title and those two combined for 6,464 points. But again, that was under a different scoring system. Put them in the same system that Bell/Gurley gets to enjoy and they combined for a stunning 7,535 fantasy points, which blows away Neatock’s 2017 duo. Hell, throw in Jordan, who actually started six games for Griff that year, that trio combined to score (with adjusted scoring) a total of 10,868 points.
Yet, we’ve still haven’t even talked about the duo that produced the most points ever. In 2008, Burrier had Tomlinson and rookie Kevin Jones. Those two combined for 6,928 with the negative two per touch. In today’s scoring, these two combined for 7,953 fantasy points. You read that right. Those two nearly hit 8,000 combined points.
Yet, we don’t typically have this duo of Tomlinson/Jones as one of the best duos ever, that’s because 66% of those points came from one guy (Tomlinson). Jones was the 10th best back in the league that year and to be called the greatest duo, both players have to earn All-Robio (top-six), right?
Speaking of…do you want to know the two greatest individual regular seasons by a running back in Robioland history? Sure you do.
LaDainian Tomlinson, back in that 2006 season for Burrier, produced the greatest season by a RB in league history. He scored a total of 4,672 points, for an average of 389 PPG and that’s without adjusting the scoring. If you put that total into modern day scoring, he would have averaged a stunning 446 points per contest, scoring 5,798 points total.
Priest Holmes’ 2002 season isn’t too far behind. Adjusting to the current scoring format, he would have averaged 440 points per game and 5,720 total. No one else even sniffs 5,000 total points.
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