Lefko on CFL: RBs getting run out of town
Posted February 28, 2012 2:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If 2009 was the year of the running back in the Canadian Football League, 2012 may be recalled as the year of the 1,000-yard running back getting run out of the league.
With slightly more than four months to the start of training camp, four proven 1,000-yard running backs have been released. On Monday, Winnipeg’s Fred Reid joined Calgary’s Joffrey Reynolds, Hamilton’s Avon Cobourne and Saskatchewan’s Wes Cates on the unemployment line.
Reynolds, Cobourne and Reid were three of seven running backs who set a CFL record for 1,000-yard rushers in a single season. Cates was on the cusp of 1,000 with 932 rushing yards, sandwiched in between two seasons in which he surpassed the 1,000-yard mark.
Since the 2009 season, the list of 1,000-yard rushers dipped to five and was further whittled to three last year. Statistician Steve Daniel noted that from 1999-2006, the CFL had an average of five to six 1,000-yard rushers a season. In 2007, there were only three, followed by only two in 2008, which was then followed by the record 2009 season.
What has been a trend in the last two years is a combination of injuries and teams promoting backups into the starting spots.
Reynolds, Cates and Cobourne were all born in 1979, while Reid is a tad younger, born in 1982. Once running backs hit the age of 30 and over, they become vulnerable because of wear and tear. There may be no position more physically demanding to play in professional football than running back because of the sheer pounding. Football players who battle in the trenches and at the point of attack will tell you that every game is the equivalent of getting into a car crash because of the physical abuse. It usually takes players about two full days after a game for their bodies to recover, but the CFL schedule doesn’t always allow for that. In fact, it is not unusual to have three games in less than two weeks.
The average career of a professional football player is believed to be less than four years and is even less than that for a running back. Reynolds played for eight seasons, and was essentially the starter from the second season through to the seventh. He is Calgary’s all-time leading rusher with 9,213. Cobourne only had four years as a starter, primarily with Montreal, and only had one season with 1,000 or more yards, although he was close in three other years and was one of the better dual-purpose backs and a solid blocker. Cates, at one point the backup to Reynolds, basically played four full seasons with Saskatchewan and twice eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark. Reid had two full seasons as a starter, tallying 1,000 or more yards each time, and played a good portion of two others. Reid led the CFL in rushing in 2010 with 1,396. Reynolds led in 2009 with 1,504 and in 2008.with 1,310. He has six seasons with 1,000 or more yards.
Reid was released less than a year after signing a contract extension. He suffered a torn knee ligament with six games remaining in the regular season in 2011.
In virtually each instance of the four veterans who were cut (in Cobourne’s case by his own request), their production started to slip because of wear and tear and their salaries, relative to their workload, made them expendable.
Reynolds lost his job midway through last season, replaced by Jon Cornish, who became valuable because he was a Canadian player who could start and produce at a position that is almost exclusively manned by an American. As an aside, last year saw three Canadians start at running back or play a good portion in the lead role (Jerome Messam with Edmonton and Andrew Harris in B.C.) The Stamps also have a young, American running back in LaMarcus Coker, who showed some ability in limited action as a rookie last year. Winnipeg has an exciting young running back in Chris Garrett, who totaled 576 yards last year and averaged 6.3 yards per carry. Hamilton signed free agent Martell Mallett, who totaled 1,280 yards with B.C. in 2009 and then tried the NFL without any success after that, so that made Cobourne expendable a year after the team paid big bucks to sign him as a free agent. Saskatchewan has some young talent in Brandon West and Yvenson Bernard, but has also been active in acquiring players to battle for the starting spot.
One veteran evaluator of football talent told me that the easiest position in the CFL to find import talent is running back because of the abundance of talent in the market place. He added most deals are for no more than one year plus the obligatory option year because teams don’t want to get into long, front-ended deals (meaning contracts with up-front bonus money).
Because the CFL is considered a passing league, the premium for finding a talented running back is not as important as finding a quality receiver, who can last longer. The best receivers in the CFL are paid more than the best running backs. With only two downs, if a running back can’t produce four to five yards on the first down, the likelihood is a team isn’t going to want to pound the ball on the second down. Moreover, there are very few teams that are committed to a solid ground game.
So that’s why a running back who may be a star one year can be replaced the next, particularly once he creeps into the 30-or-older age bracket. If it’s not his body that fails him, it’s a younger, cheaper, faster back ready to step into his spot.
It truly makes you appreciate the longevity of Hall of Famers such as Mike Pringle and George Reed, each of whom played 13 seasons, and regularly ground out 1,000-yard seasons and, in the case of Pringle, a 2,000-yard mark in 1998. He totaled 2,065, which will likely never be broken, and was still a producing 1,000-yard seasons well into his 30s.
The recent trend would suggest that there will never again be a running back that can last as long as Pringle and still be effective. Once a running back has reached the age of 30, he is running on borrowed time, if not running on empty.
