Bishop Sankey deserves patience, not criticism
Although they need to make sure that they bring in some competition at the position, the Tennessee Titans have stated that they are confident with what Zach Mettenberger did as a late-round rookie and seem to be leaning towards starting him in his rookie season. Of course, this can definitely change during the draft process, and it could even be a red herring; it’s hard to take anything like this with more than a sprinkle of salt. With all this Mettenberger talk, I wonder how much the Titans like the other rookie in their backfield, as Bishop Sankey was the first running back taken in the 2014 NFL Draft and received plenty of criticism for his footwork and pass protection as a rookie.
Sankey finished his rookie season with subpar numbers, averaging just 3.7 yards per carry on 152 rushes, and he ran for over 60 yards just once; a 3.4 yard-per-carry day in the middle of the season against the rival Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s safe to say that Sankey’s numbers across the board were subpar, but it did take the Titans a while to finally get him on the field ahead of the plodding Shonn Greene, who was clearly never going to be an answer for the Titans in the backfield. Sankey didn’t look much better, but at least the Titans gave themselves a chance to evaluate the rookie out of Washington.
It’s difficult to evaluate Sankey’s rookie season without the benefit of what the coaches see, because his rookie year was such a mixed bag. Not only did he average just 3.7 yards per rush, but just 35.5% of his runs, per Advanced Football Analytics, can be called “successful” based on down and distance. That said, the Titans blocking on the right side of the line was almost impossibly bad (thank you, Michael Oher), and these stats don’t take into account what Sankey did well as a rookie; make defenders miss.
Per Pro Football Focus, Sankey forced a whopping 29 missed tackles on the ground, and he was tenth in the NFL in “elusive rating” which uses missed tackles forced and yards after contact to measure how well a running back did without help from his blockers; it also adjusts for carries, which is definitely important for someone like Sankey. He was also tied for 14th in the league with 2.51 yards after contact per carry, so that also helped him crack the top-ten in PFF’s elusive rating, which is something worth praising. Sadly, elusive rating isn’t the best predictor of success in the NFL, and the best way to illustrate this is to mention a certain running back in the division- I think you know what’s coming.
Indianapolis Colts running back Trent Richardson has consistently been among the league leaders in missed tackles forced, yards after contact, and elusive rating, and yet he’s consistently one of the worst running backs in the NFL when it comes to actual production. Playing the running back position effectively is about much more than making defenders miss or skill.
While the traits that go into forcing missed tackles and generating yards after contact are important in this league (the likes of Arian Foster, Le’Veon Bell, and DeMarco Murray are among the league leaders in these stats), other traits such as vision and awareness might be even more important. Richardson can’t claim the blocking defense, since the other running backs on the roster consistently outperform him, whether it’s Ahmad Bradshaw, (last season) Donald Brown, or Dan Herron.
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Bishop Sankey can actually claim “poor blocking” at a defense for a number of reasons:
1. He’s a rookie, so it’s hard to make any strong conclusions due to a sample size of just 152 carries.
2. While the Titans run blocking wasn’t dreadful, it was subpar, and, again, the Titans had trouble moving the pile on the right side.
3. The rest of the running backs on the roster didn’t play well, and while that’s also because they aren’t good backs, it isn’t enough to rule out blocking as an excuse for Sankey’s low yards per carry relative to his high missed tackle and yards after contact.
That said, I wonder if the Titans coaching staff is worried that they could have a second-round T-Rich-type RB on their hands, because they did criticize Sankey significantly during the season, and the “footwork” complaints are especially concerning in retrospect. The good news is that it’s far too early to make any conclusions about Sankey’s game, and his ability to make defenders miss and generate yards outside of help from the offensive line are both promising and help make up for his inconsistency and low YPC.
It would be wise for the Titans to bring in a solid back to form some sort of a tandem with Sankey as insurance, and they definitely need to find somebody with more talent than Greene. Even though Sankey put up just 3.7 yards per carry and didn’t show up well as a pass protector, neither of those two things concern me at this stage.First of all, pretty much every rookie back struggles in pass pro, and, secondly, the Washington product didn’t exactly find himself in the best position. Defenses didn’t respect the offense as a whole, making it more difficult for Sankey to find running lanes, and his ability to pound out yardage on his own shows that there’s still plenty of hope that he’s a legit feature back in this league, especially if he finds himself in a better situation.
While Sankey didn’t have a strong rookie season, it isn’t fair to criticize him yet, and he deserves some more time, because time will ultimately tell us if Sankey is legit or not. We’ve seen plenty of successful running backs finish their rookie years with a low yards per carry average, and there are signs that he can be a key part of the Titans offense in the future, so any criticism thrown at him would be both premature and, by extension, unfair. It’s fair to state that Sankey’s rookie season was a disappointment (since that’s looking at things from a production standpoint), but any extrapolation beyond that is a tad dangerous.