Is Chiefs’ Jamaal Chales A Top 100 Player?
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Is Kansas City Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles one of the top 101 players in the NFL?
Not according to our friends at Pro Football Focus. Not in 2012, anyway.
I wanted to point this article out because I think the argument is interesting and that we should rehash it here.
The basic story is that PFF released their top 101 players of 2012 and Jamaal wasn’t on the list. There was outrage from Chiefs fans to the point where PFF actually released a long article explaining why Charles didn’t make the list.
"Charles topped 1,500 rushing yards last season, but did you know that 42% of them came on just 19 carries? The only player to have a higher Breakaway Percentage was Adrian Peterson who amassed a frankly ludicrous 40 runs of 15 yards or more and gained 1,184 yards from that set of attempts. I’m not trying to suggest that being a home-run threat is a bad thing by any means, but I am suggesting that outside of those runs, Charles was doing less than some other runners who did actually make the list.If we put those runs to the side for a moment, Charles averaged 3.3 yards per carry on everything else. That’s not a terrible number, but Marshawn Lynch was able to average 3.6 yards per carry when his breakaway runs are taken away, so was Alfred Morris, and Frank Gore 3.7 yards per attempt."
PFF makes some good points but some readers in the comments also point out some pretty interesting flaws in the argument against Charles.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read the entire PFF article. Then report back here and tell us what you think.
Did Jamaal have a top season in 2012 or is PFF correct that he should be excluded from their list?