Running Back Revival Season Finishes In Style – JoeBucsFan.com – Tampa Bay Bucs Blog, Buccaneers News

Todd Bowles

Imagine a high-scoring Super Bowl yesterday being won by a team whose quarterback threw for only 182 yards.

What is this, 1988?

The Chiefs won their second ring of the Patrick Mahomes era last night and Mahomes attempted just 27 passes. He completed 21 and ended with only 182 passing yards but three touchdowns. To make things even more interesting, Mahomes wasn’t sacked.

The Chiefs stayed balanced with 26 carries for a whopping 158 yards. That’s 6.1 yards a pop, led by a seventh-round pick of a rookie running back.

Joe wrote previously about how much the NFL shifted this year when it came to running back production. Fantasy football players knew all about that in a hurry. It was the year of the running back.

The Chiefs dominated with their run game last night against a run-first Eagles team. The NFL has always been a copycat league and Joe has no doubt that owners and general managers took notice, including the power brokers at One Buc Palace.

Joe brings this up because the NFL Draft is loaded this season with intriguing running back prospects. Meanwhile, the Bucs have Leonard Fournette entering the final year of guaranteed money in his contract and Ke’Shawn Vaughn is on the final year of his rookie deal. Rachaad White had an encouraging rookie season, but Joe can’t call it anything more than “encouraging.” Veteran Giovani Bernard is a free agent and Joe is sure his Bucs days are over.

Joe has no doubt Todd Bowles, like most defensive-minded head coaches, is salivating at the thought of improving his running game next season: getting tougher in the trenches and finding a young running back to compete for the top job.

Joe thinks Bowles got even hungrier yesterday after seeing how the Chiefs hammered away on the ground.