I recently wrote a piece on how Jerick McKinnon gets unfairly set into a particular role because of his size—a trait that doesn’t even correlate to the role he supposedly can’t fill. McKinnon’s size falls well within the range of players who can fulfill every-down roles, and we can confidently say that players like 198-pound LeSean McCoy and 200-pound Jamaal Charles aren’t outliers; good running backs can range from 195 pounds to 245 pounds.
In that piece, I off-handedly mentioned that McKinnon doesn’t see a lot of third-and-short time, and that his yards-per-carry could be inflated by his expected role.
That seems particularly relevant to the Vikings not just because McKinnon’s efficiency numbers are a little different than what “normal usage” for a running back should be, but because Adrian Peterson’s are as well.
Peterson led the league in rushing last year and did so with a respectable 4.5 yards per carry, but it’s also well-known that the Vikings ran it more often on first and ten than any other team. On first and ten, it’s a little easier to get yards. The league average is 4.31 yards per carry in that situation, which is above the league average on non-first-and-ten runs, 3.94 yards per carry.
And if we do this for Peterson, we may as well do it for all running backs that we have relevant data for.
Click here to continue reading about the surprising potential of Jerick McKinnon.