During the season, I looked at the Carolina Panthers and how their team rushing stats were a bit misleading.
The Carolina Panthers have rushed for 982 yards this year, an average of 109.1 per game. That ranks 15th in the NFL, and just a hair above the league average rate of 108.1 rushing yards/game. But the Panthers don’t have anything resembling a traditional ground game: of those 982 yards, starting running back Jonathan Stewart has just 350 of them, while quarterback Cam Newton has 341 rushing yards, the most of any quarterback in the NFL in 2017.
In addition, wide receivers Curtis Samuel, Damiere Byrd, and Russell Shepard have combined for 87 yards; that’s the third-most rushing yards in the league for any team behind the Rams (Tavon Austin) and Raiders (Cordarrelle Patterson) among non-QB/non-RBs. In fact, Panthers running backs are averaging just 61.6 rushing yards per game, the fewest in the NFL.
Carolina’s running game improved the rest of the way, but that was thanks to both Newton and the traditional ground game improving. The Panthers finished the season 4th in rushing yards, which sounds really good! But Carolina also ranked just 27th in rushing yards by running backs, which, well, doesn’t sound very good. The table below shows where each team ranked in rushing yards by running backs, along with in just raw rushing yards:
| RB Rsh Yd Rk | Team | RB Rush dd | Rush Yd Rk | Rush Yard | RB Perc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NO | 2011 | 5 | 2066 | 97.3% |
| 2 | JAX | 1929 | 1 | 2264 | 85.2% |
| 3 | LAR | 1862 | 8 | 1942 | 95.9% |
| 4 | PHI | 1785 | 3 | 2113 | 84.5% |
| 5 | NE | 1781 | 10 | 1875 | 95% |
| 6 | MIN | 1779 | 7 | 1958 | 90.9% |
| 7 | BAL | 1761 | 11 | 1857 | 94.8% |
| 8 | DAL | 1760 | 2 | 2147 | 82% |
| 9 | ATL | 1631 | 13 | 1848 | 88.3% |
| 10 | DEN | 1626 | 12 | 1856 | 87.6% |
| 11 | PIT | 1575 | 20 | 1666 | 94.5% |
| 12 | CHI | 1528 | 15 | 1787 | 85.5% |
| 13 | BUF | 1507 | 6 | 2002 | 75.3% |
| 14 | LAC | 1497 | 22 | 1593 | 94% |
| 15 | HOU | 1492 | 14 | 1841 | 81% |
| 16 | NYG | 1481 | 25 | 1548 | 95.7% |
| 17 | NYJ | 1471 | 19 | 1703 | 86.4% |
| 18 | KC | 1463 | 9 | 1904 | 76.8% |
| 19 | SF | 1455 | 21 | 1655 | 87.9% |
| 20 | TEN | 1428 | 16 | 1778 | 80.3% |
| 21 | OAK | 1362 | 24 | 1568 | 86.9% |
| 22 | IND | 1333 | 23 | 1570 | 84.9% |
| 23 | MIA | 1324 | 29 | 1392 | 95.1% |
| 24 | GB | 1288 | 17 | 1714 | 75.1% |
| 25 | CIN | 1237 | 31 | 1366 | 90.6% |
| 26 | WAS | 1233 | 27 | 1434 | 86% |
| 27 | CAR | 1229 | 4 | 2103 | 58.4% |
| 28 | CLE | 1212 | 18 | 1712 | 70.8% |
| 29 | ARI | 1205 | 30 | 1382 | 87.2% |
| 30 | TB | 1168 | 26 | 1448 | 80.7% |
| 31 | DET | 1073 | 32 | 1201 | 89.3% |
| 32 | SEA | 845 | 28 | 1417 | 59.6% |
And it’s not true that the Panthers running backs fare poorly here because Newton takes all the carries. Carolina running backs had 340 carries, which is a bit below-average, but the real issue was that Panthers running backs ranked in the bottom five in yards per carry.
| Rk | Tm | RB RSH | RB RSH Yd | YPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NO | 394 | 2011 | 5.10 |
| 2 | KC | 314 | 1463 | 4.66 |
| 3 | PHI | 395 | 1785 | 4.52 |
| 4 | LAR | 413 | 1862 | 4.51 |
| 5 | NE | 404 | 1781 | 4.41 |
| 6 | DAL | 413 | 1760 | 4.26 |
| 7 | ATL | 384 | 1631 | 4.25 |
| 8 | BAL | 420 | 1761 | 4.19 |
| 9 | CLE | 292 | 1212 | 4.15 |
| 11 | JAX | 466 | 1929 | 4.14 |
| 10 | OAK | 329 | 1362 | 4.14 |
| 12 | GB | 314 | 1288 | 4.1 |
| 13 | SF | 357 | 1455 | 4.08 |
| 14 | MIA | 325 | 1324 | 4.07 |
| 15 | CHI | 376 | 1528 | 4.06 |
| 16 | PIT | 390 | 1575 | 4.04 |
| 17 | NYG | 368 | 1481 | 4.02 |
| 18 | DEN | 406 | 1626 | 4.00 |
| 19 | NYJ | 370 | 1471 | 3.98 |
| 20 | MIN | 448 | 1779 | 3.97 |
| 21 | BUF | 383 | 1507 | 3.93 |
| 22 | LAC | 381 | 1497 | 3.93 |
| 23 | TEN | 366 | 1428 | 3.90 |
| 24 | HOU | 397 | 1492 | 3.76 |
| 25 | CIN | 331 | 1237 | 3.74 |
| 26 | IND | 361 | 1333 | 3.69 |
| 27 | WAS | 339 | 1233 | 3.64 |
| 28 | CAR | 340 | 1229 | 3.61 |
| 29 | TB | 331 | 1168 | 3.53 |
| 30 | ARI | 358 | 1205 | 3.37 |
| 31 | DET | 325 | 1073 | 3.30 |
| 32 | SEA | 274 | 845 | 3.08 |
Although regular readers will recall that while Christian McCaffrey “only” averaged 3.7 YPC, he was above-average at gaining at least 1, 2, 3, or 4 yards. Starter Jonathan Stewart averaged 3.4 YPC and didn’t offset that with a good success rate; he won’t be back in Carolina in 2018 (he’s the Giants backup now), with C.J. Anderson being brought in to team with McCaffrey.
What stands out to you?