Mark Madden: Running backs just aren't that important in today's NFL

If anybody’s at fault for the quandary of the NFL’s running backs, it’s the NFL Players Association.

The franchise tag isn’t fair. It keeps free agency from being free.

But the NFLPA approves it in each new CBA, getting instead the right to smoke pot. (That’s more important to the general membership.)

But if there was no franchise tag, would Saquon Barkley get a huge offer on the open market?

Probably not.

Barkley has had two Pro Bowl seasons in his five. He has been hurt a lot. He’s not Jim Brown. He has disappointed as much as he has excelled.

It’s Economics 101. Supply and demand. Running back just isn’t that important. That’s how the NFL has evolved.

New York Giants fans might find this hard to swallow, but retaining quarterback Daniel Jones for the long haul is much more important than paying Barkley. Especially when Barkley can be franchised for the short term.

Quarterbacks last. Running backs don’t.

Barkley should shut up and play. I can’t feel sorry for anybody who’s “forced” to make $10.1 million. Multi-millionaire athletes shouldn’t indulge victim culture. They aren’t child laborers in Nike sweatshops.

Barkley gains nothing by not playing except ego gratification: “I’ll show them!” That didn’t work for Le’Veon Bell.

Here’s a formula put forth by ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller:

1. Draft a running back.

2. Play the running back.

3. If he’s good, franchise the running back for one season.

4. Go back to the first step.

Running backs are disposable. Their bodies break down quickly. There’s no shortage of decent backs.

But even the very best backs don’t mean much.

Cleveland’s Nick Chubb has won one playoff game in six seasons. Tennessee’s Derrick Henry has three postseason victories in seven campaigns. Super Bowl champ Kansas City had a rookie who was drafted in the seventh round as its starting running back last season.

Quarterbacks and receivers determine who wins in the NFL.

So, you’d better feel really good about Kenneth Pickett and Diontae Johnson.

Ex-players in the media want this situation “fixed.” All the running backs are straight dawgs, should get the bag, etc.

But there’s nothing to “fix.” Running backs aren’t very important. That can’t be changed short of jumping in Doc Brown’s DeLorean and going back to, say, the ’70s. The further back, the better.

The running backs grousing on Twitter look like big babies. The average salary for tight ends is just $200,000 more. How come tight ends aren’t complaining? Travis Kelce matters more than Barkley.

Henry: “Take the running back position out the game.” Yo, Derrick … that’s happening.

Najee Harris: “The notion that we deserve less is a joke.” So is the notion that Harris is living up to the pedigree of being a first-round pick. No chance of a second contract for him. Heck, the Steelers seem unlikely to even pick up Harris’ fifth-year option. He’s not qualified to participate in this discussion.

Christian McCaffrey said what’s happening to franchised backs Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard is “criminal.” Yet no arrests have been made. Hyperbole much?

Barkley, Jacobs and Pollard will each make $10.1 million under the franchise tag. That puts them seventh-highest at their position for average annual value. That’s about where they rank at their position in terms of quality, too. They’re not Chubb, Henry or McCaffrey. They don’t have the resume.

There are good backs out there still unemployed: Dalvin Cook, Ezekiel Elliott, Leonard Fournette and Kareem Hunt. Supply and demand.

If they excel in 2023, Barkley, Jacobs and Pollard might get similar deals for 2024. Not a long-term deal. Those days seem done for running backs.

Look at recent big-money, long-term contracts for backs: Bell, Cook, Elliott and Todd Gurley got cut mid-pact. McCaffrey got traded. Those deals were mistakes.

This isn’t collusion, by the way. Owners wouldn’t collude against one position. If they did, it would be quarterback, the most expensive. The franchise tag is a small pocket of collusion, one agreed to by the NFLPA.

Star football players get put on pedestals in their pre-teen years. This is just another example of them wanting what they want, when they want it.

But the current NFL CBA doesn’t expire till 2030. The notion of running backs forming their own sub-union is laughable.

You can’t fix it. So get used to it.