In addition to penalties, negative plays can absolutely kill drives for an offense. Just so you know, last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a total of 35 rushing plays that went for negative yards.
During the offseason, the Steelers signed free agent running back LeGarrette Blount to compliment starter Le’Veon Bell. We’ve already looked quite a bit at Blount so far, but I was interested to see what his negative run percentage is through the first four years of his career.
The sortable table below shows running backs that have carried the football at least 400 times over the course of the last four seasons. As you can see, Blount’s negative run percentage of 9.33% is very respectable.
As for the other stats I included, while Blount’s first down per carry percentage rate of 19.69% doesn’t look all that great, it’s important to point out that only 27 of his career caries have come on either third or fourth down.
One the most surprising things about Blount is that he has shown the ability to break off the big run at the NFL level. So far during his career, 11.92% of Blount’s carries have gone for 10 or more yards. For a 250 pound running back, that’s quite impressive.
There’s just not many negatives associated with Blount and he should compliment Bell very well in Pittsburgh.
| PLAYER | RUSH | YDS | YPC | TD | NEG | NEG % | FD | FD % | 10 + | 10 + % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shonn Greene | 791 | 3178 | 4.02 | 20 | 46 | 5.82% | 159 | 20.10% | 58 | 7.33% |
| BenJarvus Green-Ellis | 908 | 3525 | 3.88 | 37 | 57 | 6.28% | 211 | 23.24% | 71 | 7.82% |
| Michael Bush | 563 | 2132 | 3.79 | 22 | 38 | 6.75% | 123 | 21.85% | 46 | 8.17% |
| Peyton Hillis | 589 | 2320 | 3.94 | 17 | 40 | 6.79% | 123 | 20.88% | 45 | 7.64% |
| Ray Rice | 1066 | 4386 | 4.11 | 30 | 75 | 7.04% | 187 | 17.54% | 92 | 8.63% |
| Ryan Mathews | 840 | 3672 | 4.37 | 20 | 63 | 7.50% | 164 | 19.52% | 91 | 10.83% |
| Felix Jones | 471 | 1961 | 4.16 | 5 | 37 | 7.86% | 102 | 21.66% | 50 | 10.62% |
| Maurice Jones-Drew | 963 | 4147 | 4.31 | 19 | 77 | 8.00% | 217 | 22.53% | 104 | 10.80% |
| Knowshon Moreno | 600 | 2525 | 4.21 | 19 | 48 | 8.00% | 128 | 21.33% | 65 | 10.83% |
| Jamaal Charles | 784 | 4350 | 5.55 | 21 | 65 | 8.29% | 208 | 26.53% | 124 | 15.82% |
| Fred Jackson | 714 | 3194 | 4.47 | 23 | 61 | 8.54% | 160 | 22.41% | 74 | 10.36% |
| Willis McGahee | 654 | 2687 | 4.11 | 15 | 56 | 8.56% | 145 | 22.17% | 64 | 9.79% |
| Ben Tate | 421 | 1992 | 4.73 | 11 | 38 | 9.03% | 108 | 25.65% | 60 | 14.25% |
| Stevan Ridley | 555 | 2477 | 4.46 | 20 | 51 | 9.19% | 141 | 25.41% | 62 | 11.17% |
| Ahmad Bradshaw | 706 | 3078 | 4.36 | 25 | 65 | 9.21% | 163 | 23.09% | 89 | 12.61% |
| Pierre Thomas | 445 | 1853 | 4.16 | 10 | 41 | 9.21% | 97 | 21.80% | 43 | 9.66% |
| LeGarrette Blount | 579 | 2711 | 4.68 | 20 | 54 | 9.33% | 114 | 19.69% | 69 | 11.92% |
| Chris Ivory | 438 | 2140 | 4.89 | 11 | 41 | 9.36% | 107 | 24.43% | 50 | 11.42% |
| Rashard Mendenhall | 819 | 3066 | 3.74 | 31 | 80 | 9.77% | 161 | 19.66% | 65 | 7.94% |
| DeMarco Murray | 542 | 2681 | 4.95 | 15 | 53 | 9.78% | 146 | 26.94% | 64 | 11.81% |
| Beanie Wells | 449 | 1678 | 3.74 | 17 | 44 | 9.80% | 77 | 17.15% | 30 | 6.68% |
| Arian Foster | 1077 | 4793 | 4.45 | 42 | 106 | 9.84% | 257 | 23.86% | 131 | 12.16% |
| Alfred Morris | 611 | 2881 | 4.72 | 20 | 62 | 10.15% | 147 | 24.06% | 83 | 13.58% |
| Trent Richardson | 451 | 1509 | 3.35 | 13 | 46 | 10.20% | 65 | 14.41% | 23 | 5.10% |
| Cedric Benson | 665 | 2426 | 3.65 | 14 | 69 | 10.38% | 123 | 18.50% | 51 | 7.67% |
| Marshawn Lynch | 1102 | 4787 | 4.34 | 41 | 117 | 10.62% | 249 | 22.60% | 123 | 11.16% |
| Donald Brown | 473 | 2096 | 4.43 | 14 | 51 | 10.78% | 97 | 20.51% | 48 | 10.15% |
| Steven Jackson | 1002 | 3968 | 3.96 | 21 | 108 | 10.78% | 186 | 18.56% | 100 | 9.98% |
| Matt Forte | 953 | 4408 | 4.63 | 23 | 104 | 10.91% | 202 | 21.20% | 121 | 12.70% |
| Jonathan Stewart | 461 | 2047 | 4.44 | 7 | 51 | 11.06% | 100 | 21.69% | 62 | 13.45% |
| Frank Gore | 1000 | 4320 | 4.32 | 25 | 111 | 11.10% | 212 | 21.20% | 122 | 12.20% |
| Darren McFadden | 661 | 2826 | 4.28 | 18 | 74 | 11.20% | 122 | 18.46% | 62 | 9.38% |
| Reggie Bush | 702 | 3228 | 4.6 | 16 | 79 | 11.25% | 139 | 19.80% | 97 | 13.82% |
| Doug Martin | 446 | 1910 | 4.28 | 12 | 52 | 11.66% | 82 | 18.39% | 49 | 10.99% |
| C.J. Spiller | 587 | 3001 | 5.11 | 12 | 69 | 11.75% | 117 | 19.93% | 76 | 12.95% |
| DeAngelo Williams | 615 | 2751 | 4.47 | 16 | 75 | 12.20% | 114 | 18.54% | 68 | 11.06% |
| Adrian Peterson | 1118 | 5631 | 5.04 | 46 | 140 | 12.52% | 268 | 23.97% | 155 | 13.86% |
| LeSean McCoy | 994 | 4836 | 4.87 | 35 | 125 | 12.58% | 255 | 25.65% | 147 | 14.79% |
| Michael Turner | 858 | 3514 | 4.1 | 33 | 109 | 12.70% | 178 | 20.75% | 86 | 10.02% |
| Chris Johnson | 1132 | 4731 | 4.18 | 27 | 147 | 12.99% | 207 | 18.29% | 115 | 10.16% |
