Yeah,
We Disagree.
Signed,
Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Adrian Peterson, Ahrian Foster, Michael Turner, Maurice Jones Drew, Frank Gore...
Chris Johnson has had one season out of 4 where he avg'd more than 20 carries a game. Averaged 16 in 2011
Adrian Peterson: 1 season out of 5 over 20 per game, last season 17 per game.
Arian Foster: 21 and 20 carries last 2 seasons, only played in 6 games, year 1, lets see how long he lasts.
Michael Turner: Averaged 20+ carries 2 of the last 4 seasons, played sparingly in his first 4 years in the league
Frank Gore: has never had a season where he averaged 20 or more carries a game. Avg 16 per for his career.
Maurice Jones Drew: averaged 21 attempts per game last 2 seasons, averaged 16 per game for his career.
I said "most can't", you picked 6 of 32 starting RBs in the league.
I said 25 a game. That was probably high, so lets go with 20 per game.
Emmit Smith played 15 seasons, and averaged 20-24 carries a game for half of those years. Averaged 19.5 for his career.
Walter Payton averaged 20 carries a game for his career. Only 4 of those years did he average under 20 per game.
Earl Campbell averaged 19 per for the career, cut drastically by his final 2 seasons in New Orleans. Avg'd about 22 per game with the Oilers.
The difference in averaging 16-17 carries per game vs 20-22 per game may not seem that significant viewed that way, but it's 15-20 percent fewer carries, and that's for the bigger more durable backs you cited, and only 6 out of the whole league.
RBs have less value in today's game. RBs have the shortest careers on average in the NFL, a big up front investment is risky. Many organizations have decided they can use cheaper talent to get it done. In most of the mock drafts I've seen, Rent is the ONLY RB projected in the first round.