Chiefs' Charles comes within .02 yards of setting NFL record

[Wolf]

The distance is only 0.72 inches. If Jamaal Charles(notes) of the Kansas City Chiefs had gained that much more per carry this season, he'd have unseated an NFL legend in the record books.

The explosive Chiefs running back finished with 6.38 yards per rush this season, an average which left him narrowly behind Jim Brown's record of 6.4 yards per carry, set in 1963. (Other ball carriers have finished with higher averages -- Michael Vick(notes) ran for 8.4 yards per attempt in 2006 and 6.8 this season -- but not as running backs.)

That's a difference of .02 yards, .06 feet, 0.72 inches, 1.88 centimeters or 18 millimeters. It's less than the length of the "return" key on your keyboard.

Over the course of the season, Charles would have needed five more total yards on his 230 carries to set the mark. Five yards over a season. That's nothing. As we saw Sunday night in Seattle, the difference between a few yards can be as simple as where the official spots the football. Charles was thisclose to setting the record.

Sure, it's not a flashy one and is only well-known because the legendary Brown had the mark but, regardless, ousting a Hall of Famer from the record books would have been a nice achievement for Charles and the Chiefs offensive line. (It also might have drawn more attention to the fact that Kansas City only handed the ball to the efficient Charles 230 times. I'm all for limiting carries to prevent injury, but someone running for over 6 yards per carry should be getting it more than 14 times a game.)

As the Kansas City Star pointed out, Charles temporarily had the record during Sunday's loss to the Oakland Raiders, but lost it when he was stuffed for a 1-yard loss with 7:55 remaining. He didn't have another carry for the rest of the afternoon.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shu...urn=nfl-302853

[HJam72]

Originally Posted by Wolf

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shu...urn=nfl-302853

Originally Posted by Wolf

...Charles temporarily had the record during Sunday's loss to the Oakland Raiders, but lost it when he was stuffed for a 1-yard loss with 7:55 remaining. He didn't have another carry...

Haha!

[Dutchrudder]

Good, I don't have any reason to root for Charles, but Jim Brown was incredible and is one of the few legends of the Browns.

[infantrycak]

I bet Ronnie Brown is more pissed. He missed a $500k bonus by 16 yards and the Dolphins only gave him the ball 6 times in the last game.

[scourge]

Originally Posted by infantrycak

I bet Ronnie Brown is more pissed. He missed a $500k bonus by 16 yards and the Dolphins only gave him the ball 6 times in the last game.

I doubt that's coincidence...

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Wolf

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shu...urn=nfl-302853

Love Jamal Charles.... he's from Port Arthur Texas.

But I disagree with the article, that you give him more carries.

Totally different runner, but Marion Barber was in a similar position. Limit his carries, & he's explosive & efficient. Give him more carries..... & that efficiency disappears.

I could be wrong, I thought the same about fast Willie Parker.

But I think it's Charles' dual threat ability that makes him dangerous.

[Texan_Bill]

Originally Posted by infantrycak

I bet Ronnie Brown is more pissed. He missed a $500k bonus by 16 yards and the Dolphins only gave him the ball 6 times in the last game.

That's because McNair is such a cheap ass.

[keyser]

Originally Posted by infantrycak

I bet Ronnie Brown is more pissed. He missed a $500k bonus by 16 yards and the Dolphins only gave him the ball 6 times in the last game.

This is one of the things I don't like about incentive-oriented contracts (dealing with injury is the main other one).

In general, I really like the idea of incentives/performance-driven salary. I'd love to see some team set up all of its contracts in some way that they take the entire salary cap and divide it among the players based on performance or something. But, it seems that there's just too much incentive in some of these cases for someone to mess with in-game strategy in order to save money. That just feels wrong - I'd like coaches to be able to coach to win, without having to take into account the desires of the GM/owner for decisions like this.