Was digging further into the top 5 and wanted to see how this translate per carry before and after. Same top 5 below broken down by yards before contact per carry/yards after contact per carry
1. Murray - 2.23/2.40
2. Elliott - 2.68/2.35
3. Blount - 1.48/2.30
4. Ajayi - 2.62/3.36
5. Gordon - 2.13/1.84
Blount gets the fewest yards before contact per carry. That suggests the OL isn't giving him much help compared to other running backs.
Ajayi has been explosive, but I'm not sure it's going to be sustainable. 269 of his 646 yards come from his 10 biggest carries. He could be great, I just need to see a larger sample size. Todd Gurley benefited from a ton of big explosive plays last year, but a lot of his carries went nowhere. This year, we see the same muddling carries without the explosive ones and he's looked very bad.
Gordon hasn't done much on his own compared to the other backs, and he's a long-legged runner with big strides. When he gets going, he can be a force, but it looks like he's not quite at the same level as the others after contact.