NFL running backs find second contracts elusive
The conversation took place between the greatest running back of his era and a player who may define the position in his.
Last year, Adrian Peterson chatted with Alvin Kamara and gave him contractual advice — a fraught subject for running backs — that amounted to this: When it’s time for your next deal, stand your ground.
“I remember telling Alvin, ‘God willing you stay healthy, keep doing what you’re doing, the Saints are going to be paying you a lot of money here soon,’” Peterson recalled last fall. “When his opportunity comes, he has to understand what he brings to that team. It’s understanding what your value is, and not feeling guilty.”
The gap between how running backs would like to be valued and how their franchises view them is only growing larger. On Thursday, Melvin Gordon’s agent told ESPN that his client will demand a trade if the Los Angeles Chargers refuse to rework his contract, which calls for him to make $5.6 million in the fifth year of his rookie contract — an option year the Chargers picked up.
The coming standoff will be the latest — and certainly not the last — skirmish in the Running Back Wars. Gordon, 26, is trying to use what leverage he has to obtain a new contract before he reaches free agency, which has been a source of frustration for running backs.
The Chargers, behaving like most NFL teams, want to use the best years of their star back without having to carry him for his most-expensive seasons, in which he is likelier to be less productive and more injury-prone.
Le’veon Bell’s yearlong holdout in Pittsburgh may have gathered more attention, but Gordon’s threat will be a telling test case for how the teams view star backs.
The Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott will be in an identical situation next summer. Kamara is entering his third season, meaning he’ll have one more year on his contract after this one, too (the Saints do not have an option because Kamara was picked after the first round). Joe Mixon and the Cincinnati Bengals are in the same situation.
The problem for Gordon and other star backs approaching second contracts is how NFL teams treat running backs: Even the best are viewed as interchangeable, plentiful and fragile.
Last season, Gordon gained 5.1 yards per carry — fourth in the NFL among players with at least 150 attempts — while catching 50 passes for 490 yards and scoring 14 touchdowns.
And still the Chargers have not offered him a contract that would place him among Todd Gurley, David Johnson and Bell, the league’s highest-paid running backs.
It doesn’t help Gordon that one year after Gurley signed a four-year, $57.5 million extension with the Los Angeles Rams, knee injuries diminished his workload during last season’s run to the Super Bowl and have clouded his future.
The Chargers playing hardball with Gordon is a reflection of how teams think. The Cowboys, for example, drafted Elliott fourth overall, allowing Demarco Murray to walk after he led the NFL in rushing.
It remains to be seen how the Cowboys and other teams move forward. Dallas could give Elliott a franchise tag, which would keep him on for a sixth year, although Bell showed how delicate — and relationship-fraying — that can be.
No two situations are the same; the Saints next summer may give Kamara a huge payday owing to his importance in the passing game and his ability to play all three downs. How Gordon’s negotiations unfold may have a major impact.