NFL Running Backs: Little Men Are Making Big Marks Again

At 5-foot-8 1/2 and 169 pounds, Dexter Carter is built more like a Candlestick Park usher than a National Football League running back.

Nevertheless, the San Francisco 49ers drafted him in the first round of the 1990 draft and signed him to a $2.2 million contract. Why? The short answer is Dave Meggett. Some around the league feel Carter should split his hefty $820,000 signing bonus with the New York Giants’ multipurpose mini-back.

As a 5-7, 180-pound rookie, Meggett ran, caught and returned for a total of 1,807 yards. Only two players, Buffalo’s Thurman Thomas and Detroit’s Barry Sanders, produced more -- and they’re both 5-10 or under. The Giants drafted Meggett 132nd overall in 1989, from Towson State. Sixteen games later, he was voted to the Pro Bowl.

In a league long dominated by hulking V-8s, suddenly those four-and six-cylinder models that run hotter and faster are beginning to look more efficient. It is worth noting that five of the NFL’s top seven running backs last season are under 6 foot.

“Guys like Sanders and Meggett helped break the door down for the little guys,” says Detroit scout Ron Hughes, whose team took the 5-8 Sanders with the third pick in the 1989 draft. “In personnel, we’re all a little guilty of being critical of short players. Now, you’re more willing to give the guy without the measurable a chance.”

According to San Diego General Manager Bobby Beathard, the 1990s will bring smaller players across the board. He argues that the league’s tougher anti-steroids testing policy will lead to smaller linemen and the spread-out offenses call for smaller, more nimble runners and receivers. Defenses are expected to counter with similarly down-sized players.

This season, the trend toward smaller players can be placed in two categories: 1) the small player and, 2) the short big player.

Meggett and Cleveland’s 5-9, 180-pound Eric Metcalf belong in the first group and their success influenced the drafting of Carter. Many teams have discovered in this day of the 45-man active roster that small, versatile running backs are invaluable. As a rookie last season, Metcalf was the Cleveland Browns’ leading rusher and kick returner and added 54 catches out of the backfield.

“I think maybe some people are less likely to make (lack of size) a negative,” says Ernie Accorsi, Cleveland’s executive vice president of football operations. “I’ve had people in this organization say that Metcalf is small, but the reason you draft him is his speed. I’ve had coaches tell me he won’t break tackles, but he doesn’t have to if they can’t catch him. It’s not like we’re asking him to block.”

The Chicago Bears’ answer to Meggett and Metcalf is 5-8, 180-pound Dennis Gentry, a former running back now listed as a wide receiver. Like Meggett, he takes inside handoffs out of the shotgun formation and lines up on the line of scrimmage flanked wide. This spares him the punishment of the bruising inside game.

When Carter was drafted, he said he would arrive in training camp looking like Superman. He came in looking more like Jimmy Olsen. Carter had difficulty handling kicks in preseason and returned only two for 32 yards in the opener at New Orleans.

Houston has produced instant results with sixth-round draft choice Tony Jones, who is 5-7 and listed at 142 pounds. His first NFL catch last week was a 15-yard touchdown against Atlanta. Jones’ teammate 5-8 Gerald “The Icecube” McNeil, who made his reputation as a punt returner in Cleveland, is the league’s only other player who occasionally dips into the high 130s.

Personnel men hasten to say that small players have always enjoyed a role in the NFL. They point to Beathard’s Smurf wideouts in the early 1980s and mention running backs Joe Washington and Darrin Nelson, formerly of Washington and Minnesota.

“Hey, we drafted Joe Morris in 1982, didn’t we?” asks Giants General Manager George Young. “Greg Pruitt wasn’t that big. They said Joe Delaney couldn’t run in this league, and he did. James Brooks -- how small is he? I’ll bet he’s barely 5-9.

“That’s the thing: when guys get good in this league, when they get established, they get taller.”

Maybe so. Certainly, Sanders played tall last season. He won the 1988 Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma State, but scouts wondered if he was durable enough to withstand the rigors of the NFL. Sanders, who weighs in at a solid 203 pounds, only led the NFC in rushing.

“Barry Sanders may be 5-8, but he’s not exactly small,” Young says. “He’s really a short big guy.”

Says Hughes, “He’s very fast, but he’s very powerful. I think his play opened the way for Steve Broussard.”

After seeing Sanders run free in Detroit’s run-and-shoot offense, Atlanta chose the Washington State running back 20th overall in the draft. When Carter was taken five picks later, it was the first time two backs under 5-9 were taken in the first round in the same year. At 5-6 1/2, 201 pounds, Broussard is virtually the same size as Sanders and already seems comfortable in the Atlanta Falcons’ spread offense. In his debut last week, he touched the ball 19 times and gained 77 yards.

Personnel men say talent has always been the leading factor in sizing up a prospect, it is just recently they have been able to grade smaller players more objectively.

“There’s a lot of cliches you can use about short players,” Hughes says. “As long as their feet touch the ground, that’s all that matters. All those people you’re talking about have talent. It’s like all the guys at the Alamo, regardless of size, were tough guys.”

Hughes cites Cleveland cornerback Frank Minnifield, who is listed at 5-9 and 180 pounds. He’s played in the Pro Bowl.

Young, a conservative curmudgeon on many issues, does not see a day when football players will look like baseball players.

“The physicality of the game is still very important,” he says. “All I know is you better not have too many small guys, because you won’t have them at the end of the season.”