Raiders case study: The 2007 New York Giants

Running backs

Brandon Jacobs was the starting running back for the Giants in 2007 after having two relatively underwhelming seasons to begin his career. In his rookie year, he ran for only 99 yards, but in Year 2, he improved by collecting 423 yards on the ground. Zamir White will be the starting running back for the Raiders in 2024 after having two similarly unimpressive seasons.

His rookie campaign saw him total a mere 70 yards on the ground, while he garnered 451 in his second year. This means that the two backs had 522 and 521 yards in their first two seasons respectively. Jacobs exploded for 1,009 yards in his third year, and based on this track record, White could do the same. 

Brandon Jacobs did score a fair amount of touchdowns during these first two campaigns, but all 16 of them were from inside the 10-yard line, and nine of them were from the one-yard line. He was nowhere near being the bellcow back, he was just the biggest running back on the team so he finished off the work of others.

White was the biggest running back on the Raiders roster the last two seasons, but the team had Josh Jacobs, one of the league’s best, to finish off plays in the red zone, if and when they actually did capitalize. Mike Clay of ESPN, coincidentally, just predicted that White will be one of the main players in the league that will see a touchdown increase this season. He only had three carries inside the five-yard line in 2023 according to Clay, and that number should drastically increase this year.

As for the secondary back, the Giants had Derrick Ward, who recorded 602 yards on the ground but also added 179 yards through the air. In terms of total touches, Ward got about 15% of his production through the passing game. This means that he served primarily as a complement to Jacobs, adding production as a pass catcher.

New Raiders RB Alexander Mattison finds himself in a similar situation this year, as in 2023, he totaled 700 yards on the ground, and 192 in the air. Once again, these numbers are strikingly similar, and even weirder is that Mattison collected roughly 15% of his production as a pass catcher as well. So, not only did the starting running backs start their careers on similar trajectories, but the No. 2 back complements the starter in a nearly identical way.