Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard aren’t happy campers, and neither are their cohorts around the league.
Even Christian McCaffrey, who leads the position with a yearly average of $16.016 million, expressed discontent with the three franchise-tagged running backs failing to get multi-year contracts before Monday’s deadline.
“This is Criminal. Three of the best PLAYERS in the entire league, regardless of position,” the 49ers running back wrote on social media.
The franchise tag for running backs is $10.1 million for 2023.
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who is entering the final year of his rookie deal, could find himself in the same spot a year from now. He tweeted a one-word statement shortly after Tuesday’s deadline.
“Wow,” Taylor wrote.
He later expounded on the disappointment running backs as a whole feel, and the lack of respect they feel teams are showing them.
“1. If you’re good enough, they’ll find you. 2. If you work hard enough, you’ll succeed. …If you succeed… 3. You boost the Organization …and then… Doesn’t matter, you’re a RB,” Taylor wrote.
Titans running back Derrick Henry has a yearly average of $12.5 million after signing a four-year extension for $50 million in 2020. The Titans tried to trade Henry this offseason to no avail.
“At this point , just take the RB position out the game then. The ones that want to be great & work as hard as they can to give their all to an organization , just seems like it don’t even matter. I’m with every RB that’s fighting to get what they deserve,” Henry wrote.
Najee Harris and Austin Ekeler also were among other running backs to chime in.
Ekeler requested a trade this offseason and eventually agreed to a revised contract with $1.75 million of extra incentives. Joe Mixon took a paycut last week to stay with the Bengals, and Dalvin Cook remains unsigned while still looking for a better deal than what he has received.