Ezekiel Elliott and the Myth of the Replaceable Running Back

April 18, 2016   ·   Mike Tanier   ·   Jump to comments

Ezekiel Elliott is one of the five to 10 best players in this draft class. He's one of the special guys, the immediate difference-makers, the "can't-miss" Pro Bowlers after you knock on wood for injuries. 
But Elliott is also a running back. NFL teams have shied away from drafting running backs in the first round in recent years. Only six running backs have been selected in the first rounds of the last five drafts. Only one, Trent Richardson, has been selected in the top eight since 2008, and that did not turn out so well.
There's a theory that bubbled forth from analytics circles years ago that running backs are "fungible." Fungible means easily and cheaply replaceable and essentially interchangeable. Your cellphone is not fungible, but its charger is. Tom Brady is not fungible, but the Patriots go through three or four running backs per year without worrying that none of them are Adrian Peterson.
I also bubbled forth from the analytics circles, and I always though...

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