As the season grinds on the number of bellcow running backs continues to decline. This week only had 6 bellcow backs (defined as getting 80% or more of a teams RB snaps): Demarco Murray, LeVeon Bell, DuJuan Harris, Devontae Booker, Melvin Gordon and Darren Sproles.

Bye weeks certainly affected this list as Lamar Miller and David Johnson were on bye. Injuries played a part as well as LeSean McCoy was limited (by his standards) and DuJuan Harris saw 88% of San Francisco’s snaps with the abscence of Carlos Hyde. Ezekiel Elliott surely would have made the bellcow list had Dallas not benched him in a blowout against Cleveland. Darren Sproles continues to see his snap count rise and is a surprise addition to the bellcow list.

Some key takeaways from the data…Minnesota is a full blown RBBC with no back seeing over 40% of snaps. C.J. Prosise has leapfrogged Christine Michael in snaps and I’d expect the gap to continue to widen. Unfortunately they combined for only 9 touches. T.J. Yeldon outsnapped Chris Ivory 56% to 44% but was out touched 20-13.

If you have any questions or comments about the data let me know below. Here it is:

BELLCOWS > 80% Team Snap % Carries Carry % Targets Target % 29-D.Murray TEN 95% 14 87.50% 7 100% 26-L.Bell PIT 94% 14 93% 9 100% 32-D.Harris SF 88% 10 83% 7 87.50% 23-D.Booker DEN 82% 10 83% 4 80% 28-M.Gordon SD 81% 32 89% 4 66% 43-D.Sproles PHI 80% 13 62% 9 90% WORKHORSES 60-79% Team Snap % Carries Carry % Targets Target % 35-C.West KC 78% 13 76% 4 80% 25-L.McCoy BUF 74% 21 70% 5 50% 23-J.Ajayi MIA 73% 24 80% 4 50% 25-T.Riddick DET 70% 14 58% 3 75% 23-F.Gore IND 69% 19 90% 3 43% 28-J.Stewart CAR 69% 15 83% 0 0% 24-D.Freeman ATL 63% 17 60% 3 100% 30-T.Gurley LARM 63% 12 80% 5 45% 21-E.Elliott DAL 60% 18 50% 1 100% < 60% Team Snap % Carries Carry % Targets Target % 23-R.Jennings NYG 58% 11 50% 3 50% 24-T.Yeldon JAC 56% 7 28% 6 75% 22-M.Forte NYJ 55% 12 66% 2 33% 22-C.Prosise SEA 55% 3 37.50% 1 100% 29-D.Johnson CLE 50% 5 45% 2 33% 34-I.Crowell CLE 50% 6 55% 4 66% 28-L.Murray OAK 49% 20 51% 2 33% 43-P.Barber TB 45% 11 65% 5 62.50% 29-B.Powell NYJ 45% 6 33% 4 66% 88-Ty Montgomerey GB 45% 7 54% 3 100% 33-C.Ivory JAC 44% 18 72% 2 25% 34-T.Hightower NO 43% 23 57.50% 1 16% 28-T.West BAL 41% 15 57% 3 60% 44-M.Asiata MIN 40% 9 39% 2 50% 22-M.Ingram NO 38% 15.00% 37.50% 3 50% 32-C.Michael SEA 38% 5 62.50% 0 0% 23-B.Cunningham LARM 37% 3 20% 6 55% 21-J.McKinnon MIN 37% 7 30% 1 25% 28-P.Perkins NYG 34% 11 50% 3 50% 46-A.Morris DAL 33% 17 47% 0 0% 28-T.Ward ATL 32% 8 44% 0 100% 36-D.Washington DET 32% 10 41% 1 25% 36-A.Smith TB 30% 5 29% 0 0% 30-K.Dixon BAL 29% 9 34% 2 40% 35-M.Gillislee BUF 28% 8 26% 2 20% 25-M.James TB 25% 1 0.05% 3 37.50% 30-J.Richard OAK 24% 8 20% 3 50% 33-R.Turbin IND 24% 2 10% 3 43% 43-F.Whittaker CAR 23% 1 0.05% 1 100% 33-R.Hillman MIN 23% 7 30% 1 25% 26-D.Williams MIA 22% 5 16% 3 37.50% 33-D.Washington OAK 20% 10 25% 1 16% 27-K.Farrow SD 19% 4 11% 2 33% 34-D.Jackson GB 19% 4 30% 0 0% 49-J.Olawale OAK 18% 0 0% 0 0% 34-K.Davis KC 17% 3 17% 1 20% 35-K.Bibbs DEN 16% 2 16% 1 20% 38-T.Cadet NO 15% 0 0% 2 25% 22-M.Davis SF 13% 2 16% 1 12.50% 24-R.Mathews PHI 11% 5 24% 1 10% 26-A.Andrews TEN 9% 2 12.50% 0 0% 22-R.Bush BUF 9% 0 0% 2 20% 43-B.Rainey NYG 8% 0 0% 0 0% 25-L.Dunbar DAL 8% 0 0% 0 0% 34-J.Ferguson IND 7% 0 0% 1 14% 34-D.Williams PIT 6% 1 7% 0 0% 32-K.Drake MIA 5% 0 0% 1 12.50% 28-W.Smallwood PHI 5% 2 10% 0 0% 26-C.Spiller NYJ 5% 0 0% 0 0% 34-K.Barner PHI 4% 1 0.50% 0 0% 33-S.Ridley ATL 4% 3 16% 0 0% 39-M.Brown LARM 3% 0 0% 0 0% 36-A.Collins SEA 2% 0 0% 0 0% 31-J.Williams BUF 1% 1 0.03% 1 10%