xwalker
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I was curious about teams where 1 player had the vast majority of the rushing yards vs teams where the leading rusher had a lower percentage of the rushing yards.
This spreadsheet is for the 2014 regular season and is sorted by Yards Per Team.
The column Percentage Yards Top Player is the percentage of yards that the lead rusher had for his team.
Color Code:
Bold Blue - Top Quartile
Blue - 2nd Quartile
Bold Red - 3rd Quartile
Red - 4th Quartile
It should be noted that with the Seahawks, 49ers, Dolphins, Carolina and Jags the QB had significant yards and was the #2 rusher.
Observations:
The Jets were #3 in rushing yards despite their leading rusher only getting 36% of the yards.
The Bengals were 6th despite their leading rusher only getting 52% of the yards.
The RBs with the higher percentage of their team's yards were Murray and Bell at 78% each. Murray's team ranked 2nd and Bell's team ranked 16th in total rushing yards.
The Seahawks and Lynch are odd because the QB gained almost 849 yards.
The Skins, Bears and Lions all had RBs that were top 8 in percentage of their team's yards but their teams were in the bottom half in total yards.
Of the top 16 rushing teams, 5 had leading rushers with less than 1000 yards.
Taking out the teams whose QBs had significant rushing yards, the remaining teams in the top 16 averaged 56% of the carries for their lead rusher. Compare that to Murray with 78% of the Cowboys rushing yards.
Conclusion:
It's possible for teams to have success rushing the ball with or without a workhorse type lead RB.
This spreadsheet is for the 2014 regular season and is sorted by Yards Per Team.
The column Percentage Yards Top Player is the percentage of yards that the lead rusher had for his team.
Color Code:
Bold Blue - Top Quartile
Blue - 2nd Quartile
Bold Red - 3rd Quartile
Red - 4th Quartile
It should be noted that with the Seahawks, 49ers, Dolphins, Carolina and Jags the QB had significant yards and was the #2 rusher.
Observations:
The Jets were #3 in rushing yards despite their leading rusher only getting 36% of the yards.
The Bengals were 6th despite their leading rusher only getting 52% of the yards.
The RBs with the higher percentage of their team's yards were Murray and Bell at 78% each. Murray's team ranked 2nd and Bell's team ranked 16th in total rushing yards.
The Seahawks and Lynch are odd because the QB gained almost 849 yards.
The Skins, Bears and Lions all had RBs that were top 8 in percentage of their team's yards but their teams were in the bottom half in total yards.
Of the top 16 rushing teams, 5 had leading rushers with less than 1000 yards.
Taking out the teams whose QBs had significant rushing yards, the remaining teams in the top 16 averaged 56% of the carries for their lead rusher. Compare that to Murray with 78% of the Cowboys rushing yards.
Conclusion:
It's possible for teams to have success rushing the ball with or without a workhorse type lead RB.
