Here’s how little NFL teams value running backs: 49ers star Christian McCaffrey is the second-highest paid back in the league, scheduled to make $12 million this year. He’s the 143-highest paid player in the NFL, according to Spotrac, tied with luminaries like Josh Sweat and Adoree’ Jackson.
McCaffrey is one of the faces of the budding discontent with how teams underpay and then discard backs. After Tony Pollard, Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs were franchise-tagged earlier this summer, McCaffrey called their situations “criminal.”
Banding together is a sticky situation for any position group: Salaries in the hard-capped NFL are a zero-sum game.