What happened to our rushing stats?

[Dean-Atlanta]

They were much lower this past season. Not a single 1000 yards rusher. Several RBs around 800, that's ONLY 50 yards per game. I do not think this is for lack of effort in trying to run the ball, or entirely issues in coaching. All teams had less rushing.

Here are some RBs, name and ypc this last season and their SP-AC ratings.

Guice 5.5 83 81
Barkley 5.4 83 81
Taylor 4.2 82 81
Hall 4.0 83 81
Edwards 5.6 83 81
Hill 4.4 81 80
Edwards-Hela 3.8 81 80
Harris 4.0 82 80

[Jerry-Redskins]

Just a 5 minute thought observation:

I noticed in game planning lots of teams tried running more outside runs against teams that defend then better; taking losses on them and there seem to be more RL/GLR plays called in more than <1 situations. There was also a trend to throw PMM a large % of the time in a couple of situations that may be a player as well. If I had to guess before looking at data, I'd say the RL/GLR things brought down averages the most, but I would need to look at the data better.

[Charlie-49ers]

Well, some teams let one player dominate while others use multiple players. For example, compare your stats with the 49ers this past season:

Kenneth Walker (82/80) 100 carries (5.1)
Josh Jacobs (82/81) 89 carries (5.7)
Sony Michel (83/82) 85 carries (5.6)
Max Borghi (83/79) 62 carries (5.6)

Not sure that the running is worse, the defense is better, coaching is more varied, or a combination of all of the above!

[Matt-Jacksonville]

I think it's the fact that more teams are doing "running back by committee" versus the workhorse backs we used to see. I know for a fact I did this. If you look at Chicago the #1 rushing team this past season, their top two guys have carries almost split evenly.

[Brian-Broncos]

I'm not trying to do running back by committee, but that is what is occurring for me. I think I'm using pretty typical substitution percentages and only a handful of plays in my game plans call for HB2 or HB3 but they're getting subbed in anyway.

[Steve-LA Chargers]

Sweeps are getting shut down a lot compared to prior seasons - often for a loss. This is due to a significant increase in defensive plays being used that have defenders on the outside corners executing reads or run defense. Kind of why I have been trying to come up with sweeps with lead blockers that take out that defender.

[Jerry-Redskins]

Not sure anything happened:

2042 2043 2044
ATT 384.3 385.2 389.4
Yards 1,698.4 1,652.7 1,691.9
Avg ATT 4.4 4.3 4.3
TD 15.7 15.1 15.9

[James-Eagles]

I think it's the fact that more teams are doing "running back by committee" versus the workhorse backs we used to see. I know for a fact I did this. If you look at Chicago the #1 rushing team this past season, their top two guys have carries almost split evenly.

I think it is most likely this. When you have parity from HB1 to HB3. It makes sense to sub often to keep from experience a drop off.

[Jerry-Redskins]

Actually the best plays have multiple backs take the hand off and for me, I have never figured out how to get my best guy the majority of the carries