Chase Stuart contributes to the Pro-Football-Reference.com blog and to Footballguys.com.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Maybe you’ve heard of these guys: Tom Brady leads the league in touchdowns and interception rate while directing the best offense in the league; and Michael Vick is the first N.F.L. player with 20 passing touchdowns, 8 rushing touchdowns and 600 rushing yards – and he’s done that in only 11 games.

Other players are having outstanding seasons, of course. Roddy White has 106 receptions. Arian Foster leads the league in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, yards from scrimmage and total touchdowns. Antonio Gates was on a scorched-earth run before his injuries — he still has 782 yards and 10 touchdowns in only 10 games. Cameron Wake leads the league in sacks; Jerod Mayo tops all in tackles. Jake Long is having another great season for Miami.



But Jamaal Charles isn’t just having a great year — he’s breaking new ground as a running back. He’s averaging 6.42 yards per carry, the highest average by a player with at least 200 carries in a season. Take a look:

Charles is having an absurdly efficient season, but he has also been doing this for three years. No one can touch Charles’s 6.04 yards-per-carry average after three seasons in the league:

Since Charles has entered the league, his average carry has gone for over six yards. Because he splits time with Thomas Jones, Charles doesn’t receive as much recognition as certain workhorse running backs. But make no mistake: Charles is as valuable as any back in the league. He is a main reason the Chiefs lead the league in rushing yards, are undefeated at home, and are front-runners in the A.F.C. West.

Charles and Jones are averaging 152.2 rushing yards per game this season; they’re on pace to become just the 10th pair of teammates to rush for 150 yards per team game in league history. In 1973, O.J. Simpson rushed for 2,003 yards in 14 games, while Buffalo fullback Jim Braxton added 494 rushing yards (in only six games). Together, the two gained 178.4 rushing yards per team game, running behind the offensive line known as the Electric Company — because they turned on the “Juice.” Two years later, Simpson (129.8) and Braxton (58.8) played in all 14 games and averaged 188.6 yards per game, the most by any pair in league history.

The other seven pairs? Cleveland’s Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell in 1958 gained 2,027 yards in just 12 games, a 168.9 average. For an encore, Brown and Mitchell averaged 172.7 rushing yards per game in ’59. In 1963, Brown and Ernie Green combined for 170.6 rushing yards per game. As you can imagine, Cleveland boasted some of the most talented offensive lines in league history in the late ’50s and early ’60s. The ’72 Dolphins were three deep at the position, with Larry Csonka, Mercury Morris and Jim Kiick. But Csonka and Morris alone averaged 151.2 rushing yards per game, and became the first pair of teammates to record 1,000 yard rushing seasons in the same year. Four years later, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier each hit the 1,000-yard mark for the Steelers, and averaged 154.6 yards per game.

The last two instances were more solo acts. In 1977, Walter Payton had one of the most dominant seasons in league history, gaining 1,852 yards and 14 touchdowns in 14 games. His 132.3-yard per-game average has not been topped by anyone since (although both Simpson and Brown edged him out.) Together with fullback Roland Harper, the Bears’ top two running backs averaged 164.9 yards per team game. Seven years later, Eric Dickerson set the single-season rushing mark with 2,105 yards. Dickerson and Dwayne Crutchfield combined for 152.6 rushing yards per game, the last set of teammates to go over the 150-yard barrier for a full season.

Charles has been dominant this season, but in a different way than recent football fans have come to expect. Coach Todd Haley has been masterly in his deployment of Charles, maximizing his touches while minimizing his usage. It’s Charles’s average of 6.4 yards per carry that gives Kansas City the most potent rushing offense in the league. The table below shows the highest YPC average among players with at least 90 rushing yards per game since 1950:

Charles is currently enjoying a season for the ages. And it looks as if he should be fresh for the games that matter most.