Photo: Tim Nwachukwu
The deadline for NFL teams to use their franchise tag has come and passed and there were exactly zero running backs tagged this offseason. Additionally, it doesn’t appear there are likely to be any running backs chosen in the first round of the upcoming NFL Draft. Dan laments the decline of the running back, a once glorified position that teams were built around which has now been relegated to the value of a place kicker or punter. Nobody wants to pay big money to players who have basically become interchangeable.
Dan Patrick: “NFL teams have little interest in committing money to veteran running backs with heavy mileage on the tread, and the free agent class; you got some proven players here. And you look at the draft; I don’t think there’s a running back that has been mentioned at all for the first round...you don’t need to spend a lot of money. It’s almost like the running back is like a place kicker or a punter, ‘Hey, we got to have you, (but) we’re not going to spend a lot of money on you because, you know what? You’re interchangeable.’”