Nate Davis

USA TODAY Sports

Big paydays for running backs harder to come by as teams think they can find talent in later rounds

INDIANAPOLIS — Carlos Hyde, Ka'Deem Carey and their fellow running backs in the 2014 NFL draft may be guilty of nothing more than being born a half-dozen years or so too late. Had their birth certificates been stamped in the 1980s rather than the 1990s, they likely would wind up richer men.

But the NFL doesn't invest the pricy salaries or high draft picks in ballcarriers that it once did, and today's prospects definitely aren't feeling the love.

"It does kind of bother me," Hyde said over the weekend at the scouting combine. The Ohio State star rumbled for 1,521 yards and averaged 7.3 yards per attempt in 2013.

"I feel like they are just down on us," he added. "They don't think we are capable of doing what we know we can do. They are kind of just downplaying us: 'We can just wait to get ya'll' (later in the draft)."

Carey was similarly irked.

"Definitely, I feel like they think the running back spot is going extinct for some reason. (But) they definitely need us," said Carey, who starred at Arizona.

"I'm definitely going to make sure that they know that when I step onto the field that they made a good pick and running backs aren't going extinct."

Carey probably will be a good pick, and early indications are he'll battle Hyde to be the first running back off the draft board. But that battle could extend to May 9 — Day 2 of the draft, when teams make their second- and third-round selections.

No runner was taken in Round 1 last year, the first time that had happened since the inception of the common draft in 1967.

Why?

"I think it's a realization that you can find running backs in the second, third, fourth and fifth round, and even beyond that, who are going to produce very well for a football team," Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff told USA TODAY Sports.

"We all know how important it is to have a good, solid running game. (And) when you come up short that way, it really stifles your offense. There's not a watering down of the importance; I just believe as team builders we like to look at the draft and look at free agency and look at where the best values are and where we need to go high."

Translation: In the age of the spread offense — even down to the high school level — other positions carry greater significance.

"You look at the trends of the draft, obviously the left tackles, the quarterbacks, the corners, those type of players are always going to supersede running backs," Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim said.

Numbers support the theory that teams prefer spreading the wealth rather than relying on the bell cow of yesteryear.

Only 13 players rushed for 1,000 or more yards in 2013, the fewest since 1994. Since 2007, there have been only two seasons with multiple 1,500-yard backs in the league, while there was an average of five from 2002 to 2006.

"It's hard for them to take 30 carries a game or 25 carries a game and last for a 16-week season," Jacksonville Jaguars GM Dave Caldwell told USA TODAY Sports. "I think you really have to have a by-committee kind of mentality with it."

None of the general managers polled by USA TODAY Sports believes the game's evolution is leading to lesser caliber players at the position, a notion substantiated by NFL Network chief draft analyst Mike Mayock.

"Look at the second round last year," Mayock said — a reference to where the Giovani Bernard of the Cincinnati Bengals and offensive rookie of the year Eddie Lacy of the Green Bay Packers were selected — after watching the tailback prospects work out Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"Their impact on their two teams was significant. So I don't think it's anything negative on the running back; it's just a pass-first league now.

"I think this running back group A) is talented, B) it's deep and C) you have to kind of filter through it to see who you like because there are a lot of different flavors out there depending on what kind of offense you run."

Still, don't be surprised if the well begins to dry eventually.

"I'm like, 'Why in the hell didn't you tell me this a couple of years ago, that running backs are going extinct?'" Carey quipped. "I'm just trying to bring it back and to show we're definitely valuable. But I definitely would have went to corner(back) or something. Shoot."

Hyde issued a reminder.

"You have two big-time backs in the Super Bowl playing," he said, a reference to Seattle Seahawks workhorse Marshawn Lynch and the Denver Broncos' Knowshon Moreno.

"You can't just pass the ball the whole game. At one point, you have to hand the ball off to make the defense play the run. You start passing the whole game, the defense can just play off and (make) interceptions."

Hyde appeared to injure his left hamstring running the 40-yard dash Sunday. He also must answer for a three-game suspension he received at the start of last season after he allegedly assaulted a woman at a bar in July.

Still, the 6-0, 230-pounder just might have the goods to reclaim respect for his peers while fulfilling his dream of being a first-round pick.

"I definitely thought that would be me one day," he said, "and it's still possible."

It just may not be likely.