A popular bumper sticker from a generation ago read “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For [Insert Losing Candidate Here].”
In that spirit, here’s this writer’s take on the head-scratching collection of running backs that made the 2024 PFN Top 100: Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Miami Dolphins Pro Bowler Raheem Mostert.
Miami Dolphins’ Biggest Top 100 Snub: RB Raheem Mostert
Mostert was the most noticeable — and quite frankly, indefensible — Dolphins snub on this company’s consensus Top 100 list, which was voted on by 10 PFN experts.
Full disclosure: I was one of the 10. And I had Mostert — who broke the Dolphins franchise record in rushing (18) and total touchdowns (21) in 2023 — 54th overall (and the No. 3 running back).
But that wasn’t enough to overcome the will of my colleagues. After all the votes were tabulated, Mostert ranked 105th overall as the No. 7 running back behind Christian McCaffrey (5), Derrick Henry (69), Bijan Robinson (76), Saquon Barkley (83), Nick Chubb (86), and Breece Hall (103).
That’s wild. McCaffrey, of course, deserves to be the No. 1. But on this writer’s list, emerging Rams star Kyren Williams was 2, and Mostert was 3.
That trio had by far the best seasons of any running back in 2023.
In 2023, Mostert led the league in rushing touchdowns (18) and was sixth in success rate (55%), tied-sixth in yards after contact (2.2), eighth in yards per attempt (4.8), ninth in yards per game (67.5), and 10th in rushing yards (1,012).
McCaffrey ranked fourth in rushing TDs (14), 10th in success rate (54%), tied-sixth in YAC (2.2), second in YPA (5.4), second in YPG (91.2), and first in yards (1,459).
Williams was tied for seventh in rushing TDs (12), fourth in success rate (59.6%), fifth in YAC (3.0), fourth in YPA (5.0), first in YPG (95.3), and third in yards (1,144).
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They were the only three players to finish in the top 10 in all six of those categories. And Mostert did so behind a bottom-half offensive line that started roughly a dozen or so different lineups because of injury.
“I always look at everything I do as just try to beat the standard,” Mostert said earlier this offseason. “Obviously the standard is running backs at age 30 and above typically start to have that decline. Well, I didn’t have any wear and tear early on in my career, so it’s a little bit easier for me to go ahead and discredit that narrative altogether. Just continue to just do what I do at the highest level and help this team out and try to bring home a championship.”
Mostert’s body of work compares quite favorably to that of Robinson and Barkley, who seemed to make this list more on reputation than productivity. (Plus, at age 32, he’s probably still a safer bet than Chubb, who made the list on faith that he’ll be the same player he was prior to yet another reconstructive knee surgery.)
Robinson in 2023 ranked tied for 35th in rushing TDs (4), 39th in success rate (43.5), tied-19th in yards after contact (1.9), tied-11th in yards per attempt (4.6), 23rd in yards per game (57.4), and 15th in rushing yards (976).
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As for Barkley, he was tied 19th for in rushing TDs (6), 45th in success rate (40.1%), tied for 15th in yards after contact (2.0), tied for 31st in yards per attempt (3.9), seventh in yards per game (68.7), and 16th in yards (962).
Put another way: There’s no world in which this diminished version of Saquon is justifiably a Top 100 player and Mostert is not.
