Being a running back is a great way to get recruited. In high school, RBs frequently have the ball in their hands, and it doesn’t take much for their talent to be recognized. Little Johnny fakes out two linebackers, runs over a safety, and then glides into not only the end zone, but also a college scholarship. However, if Little Johnny gets to the NFL and is as good as Dalvin Cook who totaled no less than 1,350 from scrimmage in four consecutive seasons, he can still get replaced like an Amazon Warehouse employee.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Cook was informed by the Minnesota Vikings that they are going to release him on Friday if they couldn’t find a trade partner on Thursday. He is the Vikings’ third all-time leading rusher with 5,993 yards in six seasons. All of that production, but he was no match for the NFL’s hard salary cap. Cook will one day be honored at midfield as a Viking great, but that $14 million cap hit proved to be too much for the franchise to bear.
They answered the question that every NFL team has to ask itself once it comes time to give a running back who has been a stand-out player a new contract. Is it worth it to eat up the salary cap on that position when it’s not difficult to find a group of running backs who cost much less, and the production dips merely from great to good?
Prepare to be replaced once you cost too much
In regards to the population as a whole, NFL running backs are rare. In comparison to the other football positions though, the NFL goes through running backs like Amazon goes through warehouse workers.
The backs are repeatedly sent face first into a mass of 300-plus pound bodies. If they get through that obstacle, they are greeted by the entire rest of the defense looking to create as thunderous an impact as possible. For those good enough to be considered an every-down back, they get the honor of being used as an emergency lever as a pass catcher, and on other third-down situations, they are forced to block blitzing linebackers.
It’s a job that results in quite a pounding on the body. The same goes for the people who fling around strollers, pots, televisions, tables, deodorant, dumbbells, and whatever item a human being could possibly want delivered to their front door on a day’s notice.
Like running backs lured by supposed millions of dollars that come to every football player, Amazon Warehouse workers were lured by the high hourly salaries. And also like running backs Amazon Warehouse workers run into contact at high rates of speed, repetitively. So much so that they also share a high risk of injury. Amazon warehouse workers suffer injuries at a much higher rate than other warehouses. (Editor’s note: I’m assuming NFL players don’t have to piss in water bottles during their “shifts.”)
The result of all of this is of course a high turnover rate. Running backs have the shortest average career length of all NFL position groups at 2.57 years. With the injuries, the workload, and the fact that Amazon warehouse workers — like football players — have their production quantified, they last an average of only eight months.
In a world in which labor is increasingly devalued by the day, running backs are getting hit hard on and off the field. A handful of the elite players might luck out at some point in their careers and get a big multi-year deal like Derrick Henry, Ezekiel Elliott, and Todd Gurley.
The Cook release is evidence that those deals do not come around for the vast majority of running backs. One of the best players in Vikings franchise history is going to be on the open market at 27 years old.
For the running backs of America enjoy the glory days while you can. Your efforts will always be essential to keeping the most popular sport in the country going, but your compensation will likely not ever reflect your importance. Welcome to the American — and world — economy.