How to assemble a great backfield

Running backs aren’t becoming extinct, as their species will always exist in the football kingdom. Instead, they’re becoming devalued because there’s little desire to pay a premium for a player at a uniquely brutal position.

Gradually then strong backfield tandems will become even more desirable, with platoon thinking possibly stretching to an extreme. We already saw this with the New England Patriots, and their offense that finished a mighty fine ninth overall in rushing yards this past season (2,065 yards at a pace of 4.4 per carry and 129.1 per game), doing it with four running backs. Two of them were discarded trash after LeGarrette Blount was acquired from Tampa for a seventh-round pick, and Brandon Bolden went undrafted.

That’s the Patriots Way defined. But the level of investment in a backfield is less important than what exactly is purchased if you’re buying multiple pieces. What does a successful and multi-pronged backfield look like?

It’s simple, really. And also not simple.

In one corner, you need speed

But a certain kind of speed. It’s not a eureka moment here to say that being fast is a good thing for an NFL running back. If that’s shocking, let me also tell you the Earth is not square.

Speed comes in different forms, though, and a straight line blazer can often get you only so far as a running back. Unlike a wide receiver burner like, say, Tavon Austin, an RB doesn’t always get the ball in space. Immediately upon receiving the ball in his gut he already has defenders in his grill, and faces the task of locating an open running lane.

That’s why Chris Johnson has gradually become less effective recently, despite his cheetah speed. Of the six types of successful running backs loosely defined earlier today, he’s the home run slugger, which means there’s often a lot of whiffing. In 2013 during his final year with the Titans, Johnson had six games when his longest run was 10 yards or less.

So you need decisive speed, and you need speed that also translates to elusiveness. But what if you took a home run hitter like Johnson -- who’s only one year removed from three +80 yard runs -- and placed him in a situation where he could focus on that fence swinging?

To do that, you need power

But preferably, a certain kind of power. While monstrous moving pianos like Brandon Jacobs in his prime serve a thundering purpose, those brutes can become one-dimensional when used at a high volume. Which is why that’s generally avoided.

During Jacobs’ peak with the Giants when he rushed for over 1,000 yards in two straight years (2007 and 2008), he was paired with a still bulky though far more agile backfield partner in Derrick Ward.

We saw the same split with the Patriots when Blount took over late this past season and into the playoffs, setting a franchise record for rushing yards and touchdowns during New England’s first-round win over Indianapolis (166 yards and four touchdowns). But while the 250-pound Blount was running impressively (355 yards between the Indy game and a Week 17 win over Buffalo), Stevan Ridley still had 128 yards during the same stretch in a secondary role.

Blount was ridden more at the end of the year, but they both finished the regular season with similar rushing numbers overall.

• Ridley: 773 yards, 4.3 yards per attempt, 7 touchdowns

• Blount: 772 yards, 5.0 per attempt, 7 touchdowns

Speed can be prepared for, and so can power. But doing both is the greater challenge, especially when the second option is still a smaller hammer with better lateral movement.

You need to be the Bengals

The 2013 Cincinnati Bengals had the 18th-ranked rushing offense, averaging all of 3.6 yards per carry. The pieces are now in place for that to change quickly for the 2014 Cincinnati Bengals.

They already had the required speed and elusiveness with Giovani Bernard, and now they have power mixed with agility. Enter Jeremy Hill.

Hill was selected with the Bengals’ second-round pick at 55th overall, the second straight year they’ve invested a second rounder -- and a top 60 pick -- in a running back. He falls somewhere in the middle between burner and brawn, though leans towards the latter at his height of 6’2”, and weighing 235 pounds. During his final season at LSU he ran for 1,401 yards at a pace of 6.9 per carry with 16 touchdowns.

That’s some serious shine against SEC defenses, and with his size and game film showing a punishing runner who churns through contact for extra yards, he was compared to Blount in pre-draft scouting reports. He’s a faster Blount, with 4.59 speed in the 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine, meaning a large man is coming awful quick through the hole.

Those attributes and shiny numbers get you near the top of the depth chart quickly, and predictably during the first day of Bengals OTAs Hill was the No. 2 running back, behind Bernard.

Bernard is the slippery guy who created 20 missed tackles on his 56 receptions in 2013, and he forced 44 more whiffs as a runner despite only 170 carries, according to Pro Football Focus. Some added context to Bernard’s banana peel-level slipperiness: Alfred Morris forced a fine 50 missed tackles, but he did it on 106 more carries.

The Bengals have plenty of youth then at a position where fading can happen fast. They have muscle too, they have speed, and with Bernard’s 56 catches for 514 yards during his rookie year, they have pass-catching ability out of their backfield, a vital asset in today’s NFL.

All of that is being managed by Hue Jackson, Cincy’s new run-heavy offensive coordinator. He held the same job back in 2010 with the Oakland Raiders when Darren McFadden had his best season. McFadden ran for 1,157 yards at 5.2 per carry, while adding 507 yards through the air.

With that tandem and Jackson’s scheme, the Bengals could be quite Patriots-like on the ground.