Earlier this week, I wrote about about Saquon Barkley and his remarkable traditional statistics but less than stellar efficiency metrics (in part due to New York’s offensive line woes).

The graph below shows each of Barkley’s carries this season. On the X-Axis, you can see how many yards he gained. On the Y-Axis, you can see how many Expected Points Added was gained on that carry.

As you can see, Barkley has had 6 very long runs, but the majority of his carries have produced negative EPA. This is in part because running plays are less valuable than passing plays, and in part because over half of his rushing attempts have gained 2 or fewer yards.

But this gets to a much more important question than how to evaluate Barkley (and remember, “Barkley” here is shorthand for Barkley in the Giants offense, running behind a bad offensive line): it gets to the heart of how do you evaluate running backs overall.

What do you think?