Frank Gore still isn’t done playing yet. After completing his 15th season in the NFL, Gore expressed last week via his agent that he is not ready to retire and wants to play again this coming up season. Gore, the third-highest NFL rushing leader of all time and future Hall of Fame inductee, is officially an unrestricted free agent this month. So the biggest question now is: which team is going to sign Frank Gore?

Running back Frank Gore began his professional career in 2005 after being selected in the third round of the NFL Draft by the San Fransisco 49ers. He spent the next nine years with the 49ers creating a legendary status for himself by racking up a slew of franchise records including most career rushing yards, most rushing yards in a single season, and most 100-yard games in a single season. Gore separated from San Francisco in 2014 but is still the 49ers leading career running back of all time with 11,073 total rushing yards.

After leaving San Francisco, Frank Gore signed with the Indianapolis Colts, where he spent the next three seasons. From 2015 to 2017, he added another 2,953 yards rushing yards and 13 touchdowns to his stats list. He joined with the Miami Dolphins in 2018 and grabbed another 722 rushing yards before moving again to the Buffalo Bills for the 2019 season.

Gore agreed to a $2 million, one year contract with the Buffalo Bills for the 2019 season. He was positioned as a backup to rookie Devin Singletary and RB2 on the depth chart. He had a fairly solid year for a backup RB with 599 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He will officially be listed as an unrestricted free agent on March 18.

But at 36 years old, is Frank Gore worth an active NFL roster spot in 2020? There’s only two running backs in history (Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton) that have played in the NFL longer than Gore, but he still continues to show his usefulness year after year. He isn’t considered a top-tier running back by today’s standards, but last season showed us that he can still be trusted as a dependable backup.



For the 2019 season, Gore was one of the most productive backs in the league with an overall PFN OSM grade of 20.55. This grade places him as RB03 on the season for these metrics, which are used to illustrate a player’s individual productivity while the ball is in their hands. His 599 rushing yards last season weren’t exactly handed to him either. Gore was the third most defended against back in the NFL in 2019, running against 8+ defenders in the box on 37% of his snaps. Frank Gore can still play, folks.

So where is Frank Gore going to be playing in 2020? His veteran status and brick-house abilities mean that he can play a huge complementary role to the right starting back. A move to the Philadelphia Eagles, for example, would be a great landing spot for Gore in free agency. Jordan Howard is likely on his way out, leaving rookie Miles Sanders as RB1 on the Eagles depth chart. Gore’s ground-and-pound style and veteran knowledge of the game could be an excellent pairing with Sanders this year. Philadelphia hasn’t had a strong running game for several years; a move like this one could take them to the next level.

Probably the most intriguing move for Gore this offseason would be back to the Miami Dolphins. Miami went through a revolving door of running backs in 2019 before completing the last quarter of the season with undrafted rookie Patrick Laird as their number one guy. A look at Miami’s depth chart today shows three names under RB: two rookies and a second-year man.

The Dolphins can use all the help they can find at the position right now. To add fuel to the situation, Gore said in January that he wants to play for the Dolphins again in 2020. Gore, a University of Miami alumni, expressed recently that he “would love if [Chris Grier] would bring me back”. I can’t see Frank Gore being listed as RB1 for the Dolphins, but again his skill set would complement a younger player at the starting position.

Teams can officially start negotiating with free agents next week, so we should know soon where Gore is going to be this year. But one thing that you can count on is that the NFL’s third-leading rusher of all time will be padding his stats even more in 2020.

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