Isaiah Crowell, T.J. Yeldon, and Special Teams Yards

by Chase Stuart on August 2, 2017

Bell had a lot of valuable yards last year.

All yards gained on special teams are done outside of the context of the series (down and distance) environment that defines most games. A kickoff return from to the 30 or to the 40 represents a difference of 10 yards, but those 10 yards are not as valuable as the difference between a gain of 5 yards and 15 yards on 3rd-and-10. The former are, quite literally, special teams yards. They don’t provide any value in gaining any additional first downs, or keeping a drive alive. This is why we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about all-purpose yardage leaders, or the difference between a kickoff returner who averages 28.0 yards per return or 24.0. Special teams yards, while obviously valuable, are — just as obviously — the least valuable yards possible.

On a 3rd-and-10, a 15-yard pass provides a significant amount of value by providing a first down. But let’s get a bit more precise: the first 10 of those yards were really valuable. The last 5? Well, those were special teams yards. The difference between gaining 10 yards and gaining 15 yards on 3rd-and-10 isn’t that significant: well, it’s about as significant as returning a kickoff for 30 yards or 35 yards. Those last 5 yards don’t help a team move the chains.

Last year, Isaiah Crowell rushed for 944 yards on 197 carries. ^[1]Note: The play-by-play source material I am using has very minor errors, which leads to some numbers being slightly off. Crowell actually had 952 yards on 198 carries. That’s an average of 4.79 yards per carry, but of his 944 yards, 370 of them came after he had already rushed for a first down. That’s a whopping 39% of his rushing yards that we could call “special teams yards” that didn’t help move the sticks.

Conversely, T.J. Yeldon rushed 129 times for 463, a 3.59 YPC average. That was not good, of course. And while “special teams yards” are not as valuable as yards gained to help move the chains, getting almost none of them also shows a lack of explosiveness. Yeldon had just 47 special teams yards last year, or 10% of his rushing yards, the fewest ratio in the league (minimum 100 carries).

The table below shows the special teams yards, average yards per carry after removing special teams yards, and percentage of special teams yards gained by each running back.

Running Back	Rush	Rush Yd	Yd/Car	Sp Tm Yds	Non-ST Yd/Car	Sp Tm Yd %
Isaiah Crowell	197	944	4.79	370	2.91	39.2%
Mike Gillislee	101	576	5.7	215	3.57	37.3%
Jay Ajayi	260	1270	4.88	441	3.19	34.7%
Jordan Howard	252	1313	5.21	447	3.44	34%
LeSean McCoy	234	1267	5.41	427	3.59	33.7%
Devonta Freeman	228	1082	4.75	356	3.18	32.9%
DeMarco Murray	292	1283	4.39	414	2.98	32.3%
Ezekiel Elliott	322	1631	5.07	519	3.45	31.8%
Mark Ingram	205	1045	5.1	328	3.5	31.4%
Bilal Powell	131	714	5.45	223	3.75	31.2%
Jeremy Hill	222	839	3.78	253	2.64	30.2%
Tevin Coleman	117	517	4.42	155	3.09	30%
Latavius Murray	195	788	4.04	235	2.84	29.8%
Melvin Gordon	253	992	3.92	295	2.75	29.7%
Jacquizz Rodgers	130	560	4.31	162	3.06	28.9%
LeGarrette Blount	299	1161	3.88	330	2.78	28.4%
Thomas Rawls	109	349	3.2	99	2.29	28.4%
Rob Kelley	168	704	4.19	192	3.05	27.3%
Terrance West	193	775	4.02	211	2.92	27.2%
David Johnson	293	1239	4.23	334	3.09	27%
Jonathan Stewart	218	825	3.78	222	2.77	26.9%
Carlos Hyde	217	988	4.55	264	3.34	26.7%
Chris Ivory	117	440	3.76	113	2.79	25.7%
Lamar Miller	268	1073	4	267	3.01	24.9%
Christine Michael	148	583	3.94	145	2.96	24.9%
Spencer Ware	214	922	4.31	227	3.25	24.6%
Ryan Mathews	155	660	4.26	161	3.22	24.4%
Matt Forte	218	814	3.73	195	2.84	24%
Tim Hightower	133	548	4.12	128	3.16	23.4%
Derrick Henry	110	490	4.45	113	3.43	23.1%
LeVeon Bell	262	1266	4.83	286	3.74	22.6%
Alfred Blue	100	420	4.2	92	3.28	21.9%
Jerick McKinnon	159	539	3.39	110	2.7	20.4%
Rashad Jennings	181	593	3.28	120	2.61	20.2%
Paul Perkins	112	456	4.07	90	3.27	19.7%
Matt Asiata	122	402	3.3	79	2.65	19.7%
Devontae Booker	172	610	3.55	115	2.88	18.9%
C.J. Anderson	110	437	3.97	74	3.3	16.9%
Frank Gore	263	1026	3.9	170	3.25	16.6%
Todd Gurley	278	885	3.18	120	2.75	13.6%
Doug Martin	144	421	2.92	44	2.62	10.5%
T.J. Yeldon	129	463	3.59	47	3.22	10.2%
	191.2	807.4	4.22	218.8	3.08	27.1%

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments.

References[+]

References
↑1	Note: The play-by-play source material I am using has very minor errors, which leads to some numbers being slightly off. Crowell actually had 952 yards on 198 carries.

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