Fantasy owners love to complain about how runningback-by-committee is ruining their pastime. Are there any dinosaurs left from the stud running back era? Among the contenders, Cedric Benson stands out as the T-Rex. The former Longhorns star was responsible for half of the six games in the NFL last season where a running back had 34+ carries; he was also the force behind the only such game in 2008. In six of his 13 games in 2009, he had at least 29 carries; no other running back had five such games. The Bengals have been a power rushing team since Benson moved into the starting lineup, and their strong defense has allowed them to lean on him early and often in games. So how unique is Benson -- is he one of the only workhorse running backs left? Or are the talks of the stud running back era being swept aside by RBBC premature?

There are a ton of different ways to measure how prevalent RBBC is in the league at any point in time. One metric I prefer is to measure how many times a running back received at least 20 carries. In 2008, a running back had at least 20 carries in 182 games out of a possible 512 (32 teams playing 16 games); that amounts to 5.7 twenty-carry games per 16 games.

From 1998 to 2008, the NFL average was 6.7 20-carry games per 16 games. From '88 to '97, the average was just 5.0; from 1970 to 1986, the average was 4.8. There's no doubt that the past twelve or so seasons have been the era of the stud running back. But the trend now appears to be curving back down again, as the rate has been dropping over the past six seasons.

Last year dropped us back to pre-1998 levels. Is RBBC here to stay? I doubt we're going to drop back below 5.0 again on a consistent basis like we saw in the late '80s, but the glory days of the early '00s are probably over, too. That means a lot more stress for fantasy owners.

Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to [email protected].