Every year it seems the drumbeat arguing that it is unnecessary to pay a big-time running back gets louder and louder. San Francisco’s 2019 run to the Super Bowl with Raheem Mostert has been one of the favorite supporting examples. When Carolina signed Christian McCaffrey to a monster 64 million dollar contract in the 2020 offseason, many cried that Carolina had overvalued the position. However, many of us cited that CMC was a different breed of running back—a guy whose versatility was the outlier.

Mike Davis may be the newest example of how replaceable running backs can be. McCaffrey, known for his durability going into 2020, struggled with ankle and shoulder injuries, which limited him to only three games in the season. The Panthers called on journeyman Mike Davis. He answered the call with a punishing running style that piled up to over 1000 yards from scrimmage behind a line offensive line that was average at best.

Davis’s numbers weren’t extraordinary, but they were impressive. For a guy who bounced around the league hoping for an opportunity, he became a bright spot on an offense that centered around Christian McCaffrey. I mean with a star like that, the dropoff has to be significant. Davis surely wasn’t CMC, but he wasn’t trying to be. He was Mike Davis, and now that punishing back has signed with the Atlanta Falcons.

Davis may not alone prove that teams shouldn’t pay running backs when building Super Bowl squads, and CMC very well run through holes in that argument in 2021. Davis, however, didn’t land big-time money either, so I’d expect him to bring that punishing running style to the table to enrich his future contract prospects. Let’s just hope he doesn’t deliver that punishment to the Panthers.

By Tony Dunn
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