Former Patriots RB Harris Frustrated With NFL Running Backs Being Devalued
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Former Patriots running back Damien Harris’ interview with TheAthletic’s Robert Mays last week obviously had some interesting quotes as it pertained to his thoughts on Mac Jones and Bill Belichick during that difficult 2022 season. But he also provided some first-hand experience when it comes to the situation NFL running backs have been dealing with.
As we know, it’s a position that seems to have been devalued league-wide in recent years. Harris went through it himself, with the Patriots having spent the last few seasons drafting multiple backs, including Rhamondre Stevenson, Kevin Harris, and Pierre Strong, among others.
Stevenson ended up being the one among that group who supplanted Harris, turning into the club’s future starter, rushing for 1,040 yards on 210 carries along with five touchdowns in 2022. Harris carried 106 times for 462 yards and three touchdowns in his final season.
That’s ultimately the reason why the club seemingly didn’t make much of an effort to keep Harris, who hit free agency following that difficult 2022 season.
Harris said that offseason was supposed to be a big one for running backs, with the former Patriot expecting teams to come calling.
Instead, it ended up being the complete opposite.
“Everybody was looking at my class that was coming up in free agency,” said Harris. “This is going to be the class that reshapes the market for the running back position. They’re going to get guys paid more. They’re going to get guys more guaranteed money, more extended deals, so on and so forth. And it just wasn’t happening. Because, obviously my phone wasn’t ringing. And so I was in touch with my agent like, ‘What’s going on?’ He’s like, ‘Bro, nobody’s phones are ringing because just the market is just not doing what everybody thought it was going to do.’ And it was the weirdest thing, for a lack of better words. I didn’t really describe it as that at the time. I thought it was a bunch of bulls***. But it was just the strangest thing because you got all these guys who were expected to do it.”
“So then basically, all these teams gave them a tryout year, and then eventually paid them anyways. But when you do that, then you only have a couple of guys who are getting paid. Versus in my class, it was supposed to start with the guys up here, and then it was supposed to trickle all the way down. And a lot of guys were supposed to benefit from that. But that’s the thing with the league, unfortunately. With running backs, it’s like, ‘Okay, you’ve been a great player for three or four years. Okay, prove it again. Because you just have to. One, we’re not going to pay you. We’re going to send you somewhere else, and they’re probably not going to pay you.’ So you just got to keep proving yourself year after year after year.”
“And then once you finally get to the level of proving yourself, then they’re like, ‘Oh, shit, well, you’re too old now, and now your career is going to start going like this.’ So you work so hard to prove yourself. And once you get to the mountaintop of like, ‘Okay, finally, I’m about to get what was owed to me.’ And then they look at you and they’re like, ‘You’ve been in the league for about five years now, six years now. You’ve already surpassed the average lifespan of a running back. So at any year now, it could be your last year, and you could be gone.’ So it’s such a weird dynamic, man.
Harris ultimately signed a one-year deal in Buffalo with the Bills, but he suffered an injury in 2023 that ended up being career-ending. “The decision [to retire] came because of the injury that I had last year, where I messed up my neck pretty good,” said Harris. “And ultimately, that just wasn’t something that I could come back from.”
Harris gave some insight into why he believes that running backs are undervalued, especially given how the market has shifted at that position.
He pointed to a player like the Giants’ Saquon Barkley, who does so many of the little things that go unnoticed yet make a big difference against opponents.
“Well, I think of a guy like Saquon Barkley, right? And so obviously, Saquon is an incredibly, incredibly talented guy, right? When he’s got the ball in his hands, he’s electric, right? But then you also got to think, Okay, well, how many times a defense is going to line up in an eight-man box because they don’t want Saquon to rush for 150 yards, and you got two receivers streaking down the field, you got a quarterback that can get them the ball?” said Harris. “I mean, that completely shapes a game plan.”
“That completely changes what a defense is going to throw at you. Or say you got the same Saquon who, obviously, like I said, electric with the ball in his hands, but who’s going to protect Daniel Jones, or in this case, Jalen Hurtz, so he can throw to A. J. Brown? There are so many things that running backs do that are transformative to the entire game of football. Don’t get me wrong, it’s 100% a quarterback-driven league. I get that. But at the same time, you have to have one, a run game to balance out your run-pass option. You got to have a running back that’s going to at least draw the attention of a defense.”
“You want a seven-man box, you want an eight-man box. Then what does that set up? That sets up your play-action because as soon as you fake to somebody like Saquon, all three of your linebackers are going to go shooting the gaps. Like, Oh, I got to go hit this, dude. I got to fill my gap. I got gap responsibility. I got to do this. Oh, snap. The quarterback still got the ball in his hands. So then what do they do? They just turn and run. And that’s what linebackers do. They just turn and run. They have no clue where they’re going. They just turn and run, trying to find a receiver to cover. And by that time, when you got guys like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, just the plethora of options that Philly has that transform a complete game plan. As a defensive coordinator, okay, do we want to stop Saquon from running the ball? Do we want to sit back and let our coverage handle the deep part of the field and then let Saquon run for 150 yards? Or what are we going to do every time he play actions? What are we going to do whenever they run screens?”
“That’s what goes on through a defensive coordinator’s mind. A defensive coordinator is not going to sit and look at a receiver and be like, Okay, I have to design my entire game plan around this guy. If anything, he’s going to be like, We’re going to run one double 11, which is two guys cover A.J. Brown. And that’s it.”
“You know what I mean? It’s nothing. You designate two guys to him, try to eliminate them from the other half of the field, and that’s it. But you got such a dynamic player at running back who can not only run the ball, can catch out of the backfield, can block, can draw defenders in play action. You literally have to base your entire game plan around this guy. So whenever you think about it in terms like that, why are running backs so undervalued?”
Harris caught a bad break in 2023, with his injury causing him to walk away. Obviously, that makes the decision to move on from him look like a wise one by the Patriots, but the points he made when it comes to the position are still valid.
As for Harris, he said the decision to retire was difficult, but it’s one he’s come to terms with.
“And in that statement that I made [when he retired], having the strength to walk away, the reason why I thought it was important to say that was because I see a lot of guys … I’ve played with a lot of guys, and you see it all the time, guys who chase that dream for, unfortunately, way too long. They put their bodies through too much. They put their minds and their brains through too much.”
“Whenever their career is basically telling them that it’s over. You know what I mean? For me, I never wanted to be that guy. Once my time was up, I wanted to have the mental fortitude to be ready to move forward.”
(Editor’s Note: Portions of the above appeared in this morning’s Patriots news and notes column.)
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