FanPost

Jamaal Charles vs. Lesean McCoy

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via media.philly.com


We all know how good Jamaal Charles is. As chiefs fans we have his numbers memorized. The career YPC holder, soon to be chiefs all time leading rusher, etc. We know how important he is to our squad. What I recently learned however was how other people viewed him. I work as a bartender and sports talk is my frequent go to for small talk. I recently polled some of my customers coming in and out and I was kinda shocked at what I found. No offense to anyone living in East Tennessee but some of these guys were rednecks with three teeth in their mouth and hardly knew anyone outside of the Volunteers, but I digress...

I decided to throw Adrian Peterson out the window after a few people (metaphorically; I don't think I could ever toss AP out an actual window) brought him up. Obviously Peterson is a freak, and is a lock for the hall of fame already at this point of his career. He's penciled in as the number one back no matter what anyone else does on the field (don't blame me, blame the casual fan that watches sports center more than they brush their teeth). I wanted to see how Charles stacked up against other backs that played in a similar style. In fact, I narrowed it down to just one other runningback as a comparison: Lesean McCoy, aka Shady. 28/30 people would take Shady over Jamaal Charles. I got different answers why. "Charles was the whole chiefs offense obviously he's gonna have more total yards," or "The Eagles played tougher competition than the Chiefs." I could have fired back about throwing eight guys in the box to stop Charles since he was the only Chief worth watching. Or that the AFC West allowed less rushing yards than the NFC East this past season. Shady obviously had a monster season last year along with Jamaal Charles. Its arguable he was the better runningback last season. Alas, I'm not talking just runningback because Jamaal is more than that. No, I think Jamaal is the better player. I think he always has been, and I think he always will be. A little background on these guys before we jump into the stats...

Charles came into the league in 2008 and had limited touches. It wasn't until week nine of the 2009 season that Charles actually started taking off as a premier back. In 2010 he saw limited touches as well as we saw him splitting carries with Thomas jones. After taking the majority of the 2011 season off with an ACL tear Charles burst back into the scene in 2012 and hasn't looked back.

Shady entered the league splitting carries in 2009, but took over as the full starter in 2010. He's had success in Andy Reid's system himself, posting 17 touchdowns in his 2011 campaign. After an injury that cut his season short in 2012, Shady also wrecked the league with his career best in yards during the 2013 NFL year.

Neither one of these guys came in as a first round pick. Neither one of them was an established starter. Hell, Charles was almost running in DC had our GM caved for a 4th rounder. Both guys are an inch shy of six foot, both weighing right around the same. Charles is a little faster, McCoy a little stronger. Both have played in Andy Reid's system, both have excelled in it. These guys are good in space and can catch the ball out of the backfield. Both of these guys are the focal points of their offenses, but neither one of them can be stopped.

So down to the real stats. Jamaal has played in more games than Shady, but I'm tossing that away. In 2008 there were only two games in which Charles had more than 5 carries in a game (week 9 against Tampa bay he had 18 carries for 106 yards the proceeded to get the ball only 20 more times throughout the rest of the year. What was wrong with you Haley). Anyways, here's the stats:

Charles: 1043 carries for 5823 yards. 5.6 career YPC. 29 touchdowns.
McCoy: 1149 carries for 5473 yards. 4.8 career YPC. 39 touchdowns.

Thats roughly 350 more yards on 100 less carries. Pretty substantial right?


In the receiving game, Charles has always been solid but never spectacular. That changed in 2013 when Andy Reid came to town. Charles actually was the only NFL player to lead his team in rushing, targets, catches, reception yards and receiving touchdowns. A pretty amazing dual threat right? Check out his receiving stats below.

Charles: 222 receptions for 1975 yards. 14 touchdowns.
McCoy: 272 receptions for 2127 yards. 10 touchdowns.

McCoy has 152 more yards than Charles, but had to catch the ball 50 more times enroute to that number. Personally I don't find it all that impressive but that's up to you to decide.

If you're not good at math (like me, I had a calculator out for this whole post), Charles gets a lot more yards despite having a lot less touches. Hell, for their career Charles averages 6.16 yards per touch in comparison to McCoys 5.34. That's nearly a full yard! If it wasn't already 2:30 in the morning I'd check to see how this stacks up against other NFL competition across the history of the league. Gotta be near the top for runningbacks no?

Now I'm not totally blind. Shady does have the upper hand on Charles in regards to touchdowns, and he's also had less fumbles than Charles as well. Charles for his career has had 17 fumbles to Shadys 10. But what I find amazing is the amount of production that Charles has had on such a limited number of touches. I knew about his insane, NFL record for his average yard per carry. I just didn't expect it to work out to nearly a full yard more than the guy that the majority of people believe is better.

Another major factor is the markets that each of these guys are in. I moved from Southern Cal to Knoxville, Tennessee two years ago. I've never been in the Chiefs market. Regardless, as a fan, I haven't missed a game in years. Most people in the country tend to see the Eagles a little bit more than the Chiefs. Since 2009 the Eagles have had 22 primetime games compared to the 7 that the Chiefs have had. Now there could be some discrepancies in this stat seeing as I went off of the schedules released at the beginning of the year, prior to games that were flexed. That being said there would still be a large gap separating the two teams. I was also able to remember a few of the chiefs games that were flexed. The majority of NFL fans get to see Shady a lot more than Charles. Everyone knows that the NFC East teams are rating grabbers no matter what shape their team is in, and this does help skew peoples opinions.

Theres a lot of other factors that play into these guys careers. Charles was drafted into a team picking in the top five, and was part of a team that picked there two more times since. He's had a revolving door at quarterback, offensive coordinators and head coaches. McCoy has had a little more stability in all the same categories, and has had success in winning playoff games. This fan post is barely scraping the surface.

We've all seen the lists this year for running backs. Gil Brandt has McCoy over Charles, the NFL Network has Charles as the third best back, even PFF has McCoy over him (although Charles is the only runningback in their MVP conversation). Charles is and probably will always be underrated. He's out worked his current deal and is one of the best bargains in the league. At the end of the day I hope when it's all said and done the casual NFL fan can look past the fancy juke moves that a player can make in the snow and instead look at the 6 yards the better player is running for every time he touches the ball.

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via cdn2.sbnation.com


This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.