GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Those veteran running backs who changed addresses in the offseason have given themselves a chance to showcase the difference they can make in the postseason.
Plenty of contenders capitalized on a crowded market by adding proven ball carriers. The moves paid major dividends.
Now players such as Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley, Baltimore’s Derrick Henry and Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs are welcoming the playoff opportunities they didn’t get often enough with their original teams. Barkley made that clear after the Eagles decided to rest him for their regular-season finale rather than giving him a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record.
“We didn’t come here and I didn’t sign here to break Eric Dickerson’s record,” Barkley said. “We came here to win a Super Bowl. I think everyone knows that.”
Barkley’s only playoff experience in his seven seasons with the New York Giants was a two-game run to the 2022 divisional round. Jacobs appeared in just one playoff game in five seasons with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders.
Their new teams meet Sunday when the Eagles (14-3) host the Packers (11-6) in the wild-card round.
“I’m not just satisfied with going to the playoffs,” Jacobs said. “I came here to win the Super Bowl. So, for me, that’s the only thing that’s really on my mind. I’m about to give everything that I’ve got to this and see how it could play out.”
Their playoff matchup follows a banner regular season for veteran running backs who switched teams.
Heading into this season, only three players had rushed for at least 1,200 yards with multiple teams since 2010, according to Sportradar: LeSean McCoy (Philadelphia and Buffalo), DeMarco Murray (Dallas and Tennessee) and Christian McCaffrey (Carolina and San Francisco).
That total doubled this year, thanks to Barkley, Henry and Jacobs.
Barkley rushed for an NFL-leading 2,005 yards after exceeding 1,300 yards in 2018 and 2022 with the Giants. Henry, a two-time NFL rushing leader at Tennessee, ranked second with 1,921 yards. Jacobs, who had an NFL-leading 1,653 yards in 2022, is sixth with 1,329 yards.
Each got a giant boost from joining a winning team.
BARKLEY more than doubled his rushing total from his last year in New York, when he ran for 962 yards. Jacobs had rushed for just 805 yards in 2023 following a preseason holdout. Henry ran for 1,167 yards — an impressive number, but 754 fewer than he had this year — his final season in Tennessee.
CBS analyst Tiki Barber, who rushed for 10,449 yards with the Giants from 1997-2006, said running backs often need “the right infrastructure” to thrive.
“In order to have a running back thrive, you have to be properly built,” said Barber, a 2005 All-Pro. “Good offensive line. You have to have an offensive system that’s not just predicated on your running back being your most productive asset or your big-play playmaker. When I think back with Saquon with the Giants a year ago, they fully depended on him to make their big plays. There was really nobody else that could do that.”
