The Rashard Mendenhall-Andre Ellington Time Share is Unique

by Chase Stuart on November 16, 2013

Ellington races for a long touchdown.

Arizona is one of many teams in the NFL employing a running back by committee philosophy, but no team — now, or at any point in modern history — allocated time quite like the Cardinals. Through nine weeks, Rashard Mendenhall has 105 rushes for 323 yards, giving him a miniscule 3.1 yards per carry average. Mendenhall arrived in the desert this offseason, as part of a reunion with new Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians. The duo worked together for three years in Pittsburgh, where Mendenhall rushed for 3,309 yards and 29 touchdowns and averaged 4.2 yards per carry. But Mendenhall hasn’t been close to the best back added this offseason, as Clemson’s Andre Ellington — a sixth round of the 2013 Draft — has 388 yards this year on 54 carries. Thanks to his spectacular 7.2 yards per carry average, he has outgained Mendenhall despite seeing roughly half as many carries.

How crazy is it for one back in a committee to average more than four more yards per carry than the other back? I ran the following query for every team since 1970:

First, I noted the two running backs who recorded the most carries for each team
Next, I eliminated all running back pairs where the lead back had over 150 more carries than the backup.
I also eliminated all pairings where the lead back was a lead back in name only due to injury to the starter (otherwise, years where Maurice Jones-Drew and Darren McFadden ranked second on their team in carries would be inappropriately included). To do that, I deleted sets where the “lead” back — defined as the back with the most carries — averaged fewer carries per game than the second running back.

After running through those criteria, the table below shows all situations where the backup averaged at least one more yard per rush than the lead back. As always, the table is fully searchable and sortable. It is currently sorted by the difference between the YPC average of the backup and the starter, but you can sort by year to bring the recent instances to the top.

Year	Team	Starter	Rsh	Yds	YPC	Backup	Rsh	Yds	YPC	Diff (Rsh)	Diff (YPC)
1987	RAI	Marcus Allen	200	754	3.77	Bo Jackson	81	554	6.84	119	3.07
1975	SFO	Larry Schreiber	134	337	2.51	Delvin Williams	117	631	5.39	17	2.88
2007	ATL	Warrick Dunn	227	720	3.17	Jerious Norwood	103	613	5.95	124	2.78
2010	KAN	Thomas Jones	245	896	3.66	Jamaal Charles	230	1467	6.38	15	2.72
1984	NOR	George Rogers	239	914	3.82	Hokie Gajan	102	615	6.03	137	2.21
1970	PIT	Preston Pearson	173	503	2.91	John Fuqua	138	691	5.01	35	2.1
1999	BAL	Errict Rhett	236	852	3.61	Priest Holmes	89	506	5.69	147	2.08
1974	CIN	Boobie Clark	99	312	3.15	Charlie Davis	72	375	5.21	27	2.06
1973	MIA	Larry Csonka	219	1003	4.58	Mercury Morris	149	954	6.4	70	1.82
1981	MIA	Andra Franklin	201	711	3.54	Tony Nathan	147	782	5.32	54	1.78
1990	KAN	Christian Okoye	245	805	3.29	Barry Word	204	1015	4.98	41	1.69
2009	SEA	Julius Jones	177	663	3.75	Justin Forsett	114	619	5.43	63	1.68
2009	NOR	Mike Bell	172	654	3.8	Pierre Thomas	147	793	5.39	25	1.59
1986	IND	Randy McMillan	189	609	3.22	Albert Bentley	73	351	4.81	116	1.59
2009	DAL	Marion Barber	214	932	4.36	Felix Jones	116	685	5.91	98	1.55
1970	DAL	Calvin Hill	153	577	3.77	Duane Thomas	151	803	5.32	2	1.55
2009	DEN	Knowshon Moreno	247	947	3.83	Correll Buckhalter	120	642	5.35	127	1.52
2005	SFO	Kevan Barlow	176	581	3.3	Frank Gore	127	608	4.79	49	1.49
1987	KAN	Christian Okoye	157	660	4.2	Herman Heard	82	466	5.68	75	1.48
2008	NWE	Sammy Morris	156	727	4.66	Kevin Faulk	83	507	6.11	73	1.45
2007	CAR	DeShaun Foster	247	876	3.55	DeAngelo Williams	144	717	4.98	103	1.43
2003	ATL	T.J. Duckett	197	779	3.95	Warrick Dunn	125	672	5.38	72	1.42
2008	DAL	Marion Barber	238	885	3.72	Tashard Choice	92	472	5.13	146	1.41
1991	PIT	Merril Hoge	165	610	3.7	Barry Foster	96	488	5.08	69	1.39
2011	NWE	BenJarvus Green-Ellis	181	667	3.69	Stevan Ridley	87	441	5.07	94	1.38
1971	BAL	Tom Matte	173	607	3.51	Norm Bulaich	152	741	4.88	21	1.37
1982	DEN	Rick Parros	77	277	3.6	Gerald Willhite	70	347	4.96	7	1.36
2007	DET	Kevin Jones	153	581	3.8	T.J. Duckett	65	335	5.15	88	1.36
1979	CIN	Pete Johnson	243	865	3.56	Archie Griffin	140	688	4.91	103	1.35
2000	NYG	Ron Dayne	228	770	3.38	Tiki Barber	213	1006	4.72	15	1.35
2012	DET	Mikel Leshoure	215	798	3.71	Joique Bell	82	414	5.05	133	1.34
2011	TAM	LeGarrette Blount	184	781	4.24	Earnest Graham	37	206	5.57	147	1.32
1971	CHI	Don Shy	116	420	3.62	Cyril Pinder	63	311	4.94	53	1.32
1999	OAK	Tyrone Wheatley	242	936	3.87	Napoleon Kaufman	138	714	5.17	104	1.31
1993	CIN	Harold Green	215	589	2.74	Derrick Fenner	121	482	3.98	94	1.24
2010	NWE	BenJarvus Green-Ellis	229	1008	4.4	Danny Woodhead	97	547	5.64	132	1.24
1971	NOR	Bob Gresham	127	383	3.02	Jim Strong	95	404	4.25	32	1.24
2011	NOR	Mark Ingram	122	474	3.89	Pierre Thomas	110	562	5.11	12	1.22
1973	CIN	Boobie Clark	254	988	3.89	Essex Johnson	195	997	5.11	59	1.22
2001	DAL	Emmitt Smith	261	1021	3.91	Troy Hambrick	113	579	5.12	148	1.21
1983	MIA	Andra Franklin	224	746	3.33	Tony Nathan	151	685	4.54	73	1.21
1982	WAS	John Riggins	177	553	3.12	Joe Washington	44	190	4.32	133	1.19
1972	NOR	Bob Gresham	121	381	3.15	Bill Butler	54	233	4.31	67	1.17
1975	DET	Altie Taylor	195	638	3.27	Dexter Bussey	157	696	4.43	38	1.16
1974	WAS	Larry Brown	163	430	2.64	Moses Denson	103	391	3.8	60	1.16
1999	NYG	Joe Montgomery	115	348	3.03	Tiki Barber	62	258	4.16	53	1.14
1974	NOR	Jess Phillips	174	556	3.2	Alvin Maxson	165	714	4.33	9	1.13
2003	MIN	Moe Williams	174	745	4.28	Onterrio Smith	107	579	5.41	67	1.13
2010	NYG	Ahmad Bradshaw	276	1235	4.47	Brandon Jacobs	147	823	5.6	129	1.12
2005	PHI	Brian Westbrook	156	617	3.96	Ryan Moats	55	278	5.05	101	1.1
2005	DEN	Mike Anderson	239	1014	4.24	Tatum Bell	173	921	5.32	66	1.08
2007	DEN	Travis Henry	167	691	4.14	Selvin Young	140	729	5.21	27	1.07
1975	CHI	Walter Payton	196	679	3.46	Roland Harper	100	453	4.53	96	1.07
2004	STL	Marshall Faulk	195	774	3.97	Steven Jackson	134	673	5.02	61	1.05
2009	NYG	Brandon Jacobs	224	835	3.73	Ahmad Bradshaw	163	778	4.77	61	1.05
1971	PHI	Lee Bouggess	97	262	2.7	Ronnie Bull	94	351	3.73	3	1.03
2007	SEA	Shaun Alexander	207	716	3.46	Maurice Morris	140	628	4.49	67	1.03
1972	CLE	Leroy Kelly	224	811	3.62	Bo Scott	123	571	4.64	101	1.02
1991	CHI	Neal Anderson	210	747	3.56	Brad Muster	90	412	4.58	120	1.02

After ten weeks, Ellington is averaging 4.08 more yards per carry than Mendenhall, an obviously unsustainable rate. Over the rest of the 2013 season, Ellington’s yards per carry average will go down, and Mendenhall’s will regress to the mean, too. It’s also possible that Ellington starts getting more carries, and ultimately finishes 2013 with more attempts than Mendenhall (making them ineligible to be on this list). But at least for now, this type of time share would stand out as one of the hardest to justify in NFL history.

Tagged as: Andre Ellington, Cardinals, Yards per rush

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