Deebo & Joe - Part 2: Lions Extend Jahmyr Gibbs + NFL QB Ranking

**James Harrison** (0:00)
Joe, I'm going to go ahead and slide on through. Your boy, Jahmyr Gibbs, he came back. He came back the other day. But I see why he came back.
Okay, Lions and Jahmyr Gibbs, they agreed to a three-year $67.5 million contract to make him now the highest-paid running back in NFL history, including, Joe, $51 million in guarantees.
On top of that, the Colts and Jonathan Taylor have agreed to a two-year $44 million extension with $39 million guarantee. Joe, they said the running back market was going down. Joe, do you think this right here, this is bringing the position back? Why is the stock rising? What's going on? What do you think? Is it back? Is it popping? What's going down, Joe?

**Joe Haden** (1:01)
They understand what's going on, Deebo.
The running back market is getting to where it needs to because they're getting just as much touchdowns and they're receiving the ball too. Like, Gibbs, B. John Robinson, those dudes, they're catching the ball and they're running the ball. They scored 30, we got 36 touchdowns for Gibbs. We got 44 touchdowns for Derrick Henry. We got 36 touchdowns for the other back. So, like, what I'm saying is, they understand it was Jonathan Taylor. So teams are realizing when you go and give them these short term deals, wide receiver market is $40 million a year. You got Jahmyr Chase that scored 25 TDs, not knocking Jahmyr at all. Great player, average around 1700 yards. But when you're looking at the top running backs, all purpose yards, they're getting around 15, 1600 rushing and then 600, 700 yards receiving also. So they get around 2300 yards all purpose with 40 TDs, 36 TDs that you can get them for $25 million instead of $40 million.
So when you're looking at the value that you're being able to get these backs that can actually clock, ground and pound, you know what I'm saying, maintain the clock and then not take them off the field on third down where you could pass it to them and screens that it can be able to get first downs for you. So just dollar cents, dollar wise, when you have a court, these receivers are making 33 million dollars where, you know, for a thousand yards. Zay Flowers, great receiver, but $35 million a year. When you got Bijon Robinson at 22 and you got to say Flowers at 35, I like that Bijon Robinson. That's just, that's a no brainer as far as money wise goes. So just with the, when you get a great running back, when you get these young running backs that are playing to a great level, a high term, so you can get them to these three year contracts to where a 50 million guarantee. Let's see how much longer you can do this. Ball out for these next two years because this is what you've done. If you can keep doing it, we can be able to get another contract. But it's these three years, nice spread, $25 million when there's just showing the market of receivers are making $40 million back, like okay, ones are making $35 million. We got to, you know what I'm saying? It makes sense.

**James Harrison** (3:16)
I'm thinking it's a combination of two things, to be honest with you. I don't think necessarily the running back market as a whole is coming back like that.
Because when you look at it, I think your average running back, you know, it's what is it? They say 2 to 4 million, something like that. But that's also a lot of guys that on those rookie deals, that's your first year deal. And then guys that make it to that second year deal because hell, right now, they're considering anything, what, 28, damn they're old now. You got an average between, they say, 5 and 10 million dollars. And right now, what you're seeing is, you're seeing guys hitting that 22 to 25, 22 to 22 and a half range. And that's, like you said, that's your top running backs. And it's guys that can do all three or all four downs or that your offense runs through them. You need them to be able to have success. Your success starts with them. So, and like you said, when you look at it, you got Gibbs, you got Bijon, you got Jonathan Taylor, you got Saquon, you got McAthory, Henry, all that. Those are guys that either can do it all or the offense runs through them. And the success of that offense is built into them being able to run the ball and they can do that. So I think that's a combination of it as far as those top running backs being able to get that money. And again, once you look at it as an average across the top guys, they get paid because they can do it all and the offense runs through them or the offense runs through them or both.