Is the concept of the "Triplets" dead?

[freddyjj]

The NFL has changed dramatically in the last 25 years since the Bills were last dominant.  Back in the late 80's, early 90's it seems like the good teams had 3 all - world players at QB, RB and WR:

 

Back in the day:

Bills:  Kelly, Reed, Thomas - all HOFers

'Boys: Aikman, Irvin, Smith - all HOFers

49ers: Montana/Young, Rice/TO, Craig - All but Craig in HOF

Broncos: Elway, Sharp/Smith, Davis - all but Davis in HOF

 

Today's NFL:

Steelers have the closest thing in Big Ben, Laveon Bell and Antonio Bryant as all 3 could make HOF

It seems today that NE has 2/3 in Brady/Gronk as the RB position is a roulette wheel in their offense.

New Orleans has Brees, Kamara/Ingram, and Michael Thomas - but only Brees is making HOF

ATL has Ryan, Jones and their two headed RB attack (Coleman and Freeman)  

 

Do you think the platooning of RBs in the league today (as opposed to the old 350-400 carry bell cow) is responsible?

Or is it all the rule changes favoring the passing game (5000 yd passers, receivers with >100 receptions) that is responsible?

 

I look at the NFL draft and the salaries for RB1s and say that the whole position is de-emphasized save for the few who can run and catch (Johnson, Bell, McCoy, Kamara).   It appears the new rules NFL makes having a set of Triplets unnecessary as long as your team can still throw the ball.

 

What are your thoughts?

Edited August 7, 2018 by freddyjj

[LikeIGiveADarn]

The NFL moved towards a passing league over a decade ago with the changes to the pass interference rules. an elite RB is nice to have, but it doesn't mean NEARLY as much as it did 30 years ago which is shame. I always liked the balanced approach to the game, and RBs brought a good counterbalance to QBs for teams that couldn't find theirs.

[whatdrought]

Free agency changes a lot of that too. Players don't stay around as much as they used to, so it's harder to find teams with a bunch of HOF talent. The shape of the league now with salaries so large and players moving so much shows that great teams are usually teams made up of good players with a couple blue chips that have everything work right for them. 

The evidence of this is the fact that even with the Steelers having that HOF triple, they still haven't been able to convert when it matters. 

[Dablitzkrieg]

I think it is dying, but not dead yet.  Most teams are running back by committee now, so there are very few bell-cow RB's.

[Fadingpain]

22 minutes ago, freddyjj said:

The NFL has changed dramatically in the last 25 years since the Bills were last dominant.  Back in the late 80's, early 90's it seems like the good teams had 3 all - world players at QB, RB and WR:

 

Back in the day:

Bills:  Kelly, Reed, Thomas - all HOFers

'Boys: Aikman, Irvin, Smith - all HOFers

49ers: Montana/Young, Rice/TO, Craig - All but Craig in HOF

Broncos: Elway, Sharp/Smith, Davis - all but Davis in HOF

 

Today's NFL:

Steelers have the closest thing in Big Ben, Laveon Bell and Antonio Bryant as all 3 could make HOF

It seems today that NE has 2/3 in Brady/Gronk as the RB position is a roulette wheel in their offense.

New Orleans has Brees, Kamara/Ingram, and Michael Thomas - but only Brees is making HOF

ATL has Ryan, Jones and their two headed RB attack (Coleman and Freeman)  

 

Do you think the platooning of RBs in the league today (as opposed to the old 350-400 carry bell cow) is responsible?

Or is it all the rule changes favoring the passing game (5000 yd passers, receivers with >100 receptions) that is responsible?

 

I look at the NFL draft and the salaries for RB1s and say that the whole position is de-emphasized save for the few who can run and catch (Johnson, Bell, McCoy, Kamara).   It appears the new rules NFL makes having a set of Triplets unnecessary as long as your team can still throw the ball.

 

What are your thoughts?

2 factors at work here.

 

1) A salary cap.  That wasn't around back in the day, and

 

2) A dearth of talent at the QB position, at least relative to today's defensive schemes/talent.

 

There were many more good QBs around 25 years ago, or at least let's say it was much easier for a QB to perform on a high level relative to the defenses he was seeing back then.

 

 

[TXBILLSFAN]

Davis is in Hall (Class of 2017).

 

As for trips, I think fact that NFL has gone pass happy, you more apt to need to stud WR/TE's then a stud RB

 

 

[billsfan89]

2 hours ago, LikeIGiveADarn said:

The NFL moved towards a passing league over a decade ago with the changes to the pass interference rules. an elite RB is nice to have, but it doesn't mean NEARLY as much as it did 30 years ago which is shame. I always liked the balanced approach to the game, and RBs brought a good counterbalance to QBs for teams that couldn't find theirs.

 

I think with running backs coming out of college and being better receivers who can also be workhorse backs you are going to see the return of the elite back. Guys like Gurley and LeVeon who are all around threats at their position are having tremendous value because they are threats to run and catch passes at extremely effective levels. 

 

Sure these types are rare and once in awhile, you find a Zeke who is a complete mauler with subpar receiving ability but I think the relevance of the NFL running back is on an upswing because of the dual-threat RB's emergence. 

1 hour ago, TXBILLSFAN said:

Davis is in Hall (Class of 2017).

 

As for trips, I think fact that NFL has gone pass happy, you more apt to need to stud WR/TE's then a stud RB

 

 

 

If you consider Phillip Rivers a HOF QB then the Chargers could get Gates/LT/Rivers. Also Peyton/Edge James/Marvin Harrison are another possibility. 

[JohnnyK]

This was an off-season ESPN thing to make up news in the off-season

nothing more or less

 

none of the early teams thought like this they just had good players at key positions

 

[Billzgobowlin]

1 hour ago, billsfan89 said:

 

I think with running backs coming out of college and being better receivers who can also be workhorse backs you are going to see the return of the elite back. Guys like Gurley and LeVeon who are all around threats at their position are having tremendous value because they are threats to run and catch passes at extremely effective levels. 

 

Sure these types are rare and once in awhile, you find a Zeke who is a complete mauler with subpar receiving ability but I think the relevance of the NFL running back is on an upswing because of the dual-threat RB's emergence. 

 

If you consider Phillip Rivers a HOF QB then the Chargers could get Gates/LT/Rivers. Also Peyton/Edge James/Marvin Harrison are another possibility. 

Also Warner, Faulk and Holt or Bruce

[Ol Dirty B]

What about the LA Rams?

 

Goff, Gurley, Cooks locked in seems pretty solid to me.

[DriveFor1Outta5]

Yes, because when you pay a franchise QB you can no longer afford to keep Hall of Fame caliber receivers and running backs. 

[Heavy Kevi]

Salary cap makes having "dream teams" difficult to assemble and stay together. Coupled with FA it's almost impossible.

 

RB-wise a few things are in play. One, they just don't stay in their prime well, and the career is far and away shorter than a QB or WR... So right there that's tough. But also, GMs and HCs don't want to use up their talent all at once. The "curse of 370" and the "1800 threshold" are generally true, so they don't want to hit those numbers. 

 

The curse of 370 is that if a RB gets more than 370 carries in a year, it burns him out and he sucks next year.

The 1800 threshold is that once a RB gets 1800 carries, he's done being productive and starts to fall off a cliff statistically.

 

Here's an interesting read o  the curse of 370. It's from 2007 and it's about if Shaun Alexander will be good again, but it's the most comprehensive case forthe curse I have seen:

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2007/370-carries-revisited

 

Here's a more recent (and extremely comprehensive) look at the 1800 rule:

https://www-numberfire-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.numberfire.com/nfl/news/4940/measuring-nfl-running-back-longevity-falling-off-the-1-800-carry-cliff/amp?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From %1%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.numberfire.com%2Fnfl%2Fnews%2F4940%2Fmeasuring-nfl-running-back-longevity-falling-off-the-1-800-carry-cliff

[corta765]

There are very few bell cow RB's like Shady, Bell, or Zeke who take 90% of the carries. Teams do RB by committee and don't pay the position like they use to because a RB's shelf life is usually so short now.

 

The other thing is not only with the league moving to be a passing league, but teams running 3, 4, even 5 WR formations teams have 2 to even 3 good-great WR's that share the ball there. I mean heck Brandin Cooks whose a pretty dang good WR himself with considered expendable enough to be traded twice and I think he is better the Michael Thomas. But with how WR's get paid and the fact you can get guys cheaper in the draft I would say even the WR position outside of your elite guys like ODB, Brown, AJ Green etc.. teams are only willing to pay a certain price.

 

Basically with QB's now being valued more highly then ever teams are very budget conscious and forcing hard decisions on which players to spend on.

Edited August 8, 2018 by corta765

[Soda Popinski]

I think it's still possible but much less likely.  Look at ATL.  Ryan, Jones, Freeman should all be together for the foreseeable future.   It's not easy because that elite WR/QB tandem is much more likely to stay together than the QB/WR/RB trio.   

 

With today's league getting a RB to go 10 years is almost unheard of anymore, I still think it can be done but it's a pretty big rarity.  

[CommonCents]

Shady, Zeke, Bell, DJ, Hunt, Gordon, Freeman, Gurley, Saquan, Guice, Fournette, Henry.

 

All those guys should be penciled in for 230 carries at a minimum if healthy. Penny, Royce, Chubb and others could easily break that number as well.

 

Teams seemed to be going away from running backs a few years ago but the last couple drafts seemed to have reversed that a bit. It could be due to the amount of talented guys coming out, who knows.

10 minutes ago, Soda Popinski said:

I think it's still possible but much less likely.  Look at ATL.  Ryan, Jones, Freeman should all be together for the foreseeable future.   It's not easy because that elite WR/QB tandem is much more likely to stay together than the QB/WR/RB trio.   

 

With today's league getting a RB to go 10 years is almost unheard of anymore, I still think it can be done but it's a pretty big rarity.  

Is that true? Marshawn, Shady, Gore, Peterson are all doing the 10 year thing. I don’t think we will see many more Marcus Allen type of careers but 10 isn’t that rare.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Commonsense

[Soda Popinski]

7 minutes ago, Commonsense said:

Shady, Zeke, Bell, DJ, Hunt, Gordon, Freeman, Gurley, Saquan, Guice, Fournette, Henry.

 

All those guys should be penciled in for 230 carries at a minimum if healthy. Penny, Royce, Chubb and others could easily break that number as well.

 

Teams seemed to be going away from running backs a few years ago but the last couple drafts seemed to have reversed that a bit. It could be due to the amount of talented guys coming out, who knows.

Is that true? Marshawn, Shady, Gore, Peterson are all doing the 10 year thing. I don’t think we will see many more Marcus Allen type of careers but 10 isn’t that rare.

I meant 10 with the same team.  Marshawn 3, Gore 2, Peterson 3, Shady 2 it's tough to keep a back, especially an elite one anymore.   You want to have them the bulk of their HOF career and not overpay for those Emmit Smith years in Arizona.  

[Gugny]

18 hours ago, freddyjj said:

The NFL has changed dramatically in the last 25 years since the Bills were last dominant.  Back in the late 80's, early 90's it seems like the good teams had 3 all - world players at QB, RB and WR:

 

Back in the day:

Bills:  Kelly, Reed, Thomas - all HOFers

'Boys: Aikman, Irvin, Smith - all HOFers

49ers: Montana/Young, Rice/TO, Craig - All but Craig in HOF

Broncos: Elway, Sharp/Smith, Davis - all but Davis in HOF

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Davis is in.  But there's no way in hell that he should be.

[eball]

With the advances in fertility treatment I'd say the concept of triplets is very much alive and well.  Odd topic though.

[BringBackOrton]

The concept of 3 good players is dead. The NFL imposed sanctions on any teams with more than 2 good players.

 

thanks Roger.