My previous article on the Commanders’ running game revealed that the ability of the running backs to get off the line cleanly varied considerably throughout the season and overall rushing performance varied with it.
Those findings might suggest that rushing performance was limited by run blocking. But it’s equally possible that the Commanders’ RBs simply failed to make more than was given to them. And those two possibilities are not mutually exclusive. It is challenging to tease things apart analytically, because rushing and run blocking performance are not entirely separable.
Nevertheless, I thought it would be worth having a stab at seeing whether the metrics I used in the previous article can shed any light on whether the run blocking or the running backs were the limiting factors in Washington’s on-again, off-again rushing attack last season.