Advertisement
Advertisement

Bolts’ backfield breaks new ground

Share

Ryan Mathews takes a handoff and speeds around the right edge, untouched for 80 yards.

Danny Woodhead leaks out of the backfield and catches a pass, wide open.

Donald Brown takes a snap with the third-team offense and runs past four defenders, practically before they know the play started.

Advertisement

Seeing what the Chargers have at running back sort of boggles the mind.

Mathews calls it “the three-headed monster.” It could perhaps also be called unprecedented.

In NFL history, only the 2012 Carolina Panthers -- after signing former Charger Mike Tolbert -- could arguably boast three running backs coming off a season as productive as the Mathews-Woodhead-Brown trio.

Each of the Chargers’ current backs had at least 429 yards rushing, 751 yards from scrimmage and seven touchdowns. Together, they totaled 2,221 rushing yards, 1,008 receiving yards and 23 TDs. Some of the Carolina trio’s individual numbers were higher, but their collective numbers were not as great.

Brown was a member of the Indianapolis Colts in 2013, yes. And, no, it can’t be expected that the threesome’s collective numbers will be as substantial working from the same backfield. There simply aren’t 493 carries or 622 touches to be doled out among them.

But this has the potential to be spectacular.

Think about how the Chargers’ backfield worked last season – with Mathews going for career highs in carries and yards and Woodhead leading all NFL running backs with 80 receptions (including playoffs). Then consider Donald Brown, who led the Colts in yards and rushing TDs, is five years younger than Ronnie Brown, who he replaces in San Diego.

It will be the same thing this year. Mathews the workhorse, Woodhead the versatile guy who can run and catch, Brown the sort of hybrid of the two.

“There are only so many touches to go around,” Brown said. “But we’re a selfless group, and this is a long season. There is a lot of wear and tear on the body. Being able to distribute the load, start wearing defenses down with the run and – boom! – throw the next guy in there with a full head of steam coming at you.”

He paused, either for emphasis, or maybe to allow consideration of the possibilities.

“The more weapons we can have as an offense,” Brown concluded, “the better we’ll be.”

What the Chargers are doing is the new way in the NFL, if just to the next power.

Said Chargers running backs coach Ollie Wilson: “There is no such thing as a featured back any more.”

At least, the definition of “featured” has changed.

Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson was the only player with two games with more than 29 carries in 2013. Mathews carried 29 times twice, and that threshold was reached just 14 times all season (by 12 different players). In 2003, 28 different players turned in 42 games with 29 or more carries.

There is hardly even such a thing as a 20-carry back anymore.

Last season, only Philadelphia’s LeSean McCoy averaged even 19.5 carries, and Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch was the only other back to rush more than 300 times. In 2003, Ricky Williams averaged a league-high 24.5 carries, and 11 other players carried the ball at least 310 times.

Green Bay rookie Eddie Lacy carried at least 20 times in a league-high 11 games. Peterson and McCoy did so eight times, Marshawn Lynch seven. Mathews and three others had six such games.

Sure, the number of passes are up. But it’s more than that.

In 2003, 11 backs accounted for at least 70 percent of their team’s rushes. Last season, Chicago’s Matt Forte was the only back to account for 70 percent of his team’s carries, and just six others were the ball carrier for even 60 percent of their team’s runs. Mathews carried on 58.6 percent of the Chargers’ run plays in ’13, and that was the eighth-highest relative workload.

The reason for the new attitude of sharing is that as players in the NFL have gotten bigger, stronger and faster, the game has become more debilitating. That’s truer for running backs than any other position, in that virtually every time they touch the ball they are involved in multiple collisions.

Consider that as well the Chargers backfield performed last year, Mathews and Woodhead were both banged up by the end. Had they won once more, Ronnie Brown might have been their starting back in the AFC Championship game.

So add another description for this trio: security.

“No one knows how it’s going to work out,” Woodhead said. “… We feel like we’ve got good players. Whoever is on the field, we know we’re going to trust him to make plays.”

Advertisement