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The 5 O’Clock Club: Washington’s 3rd down backs

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Seattle Seahawks v Washington Football Team
Photo by Todd Olszewski/Getty Images

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…

The 5 o’clock club is published from time to time during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

CLICK HERE to see the full 5 o’clock club archive

Chris Thompson

Many fans may have forgotten that Chris Thompson, who was a 5th round draft pick out of Florida State in 2013, had a very sluggish start to his career — so much so that he was still eligible for the Mason-Brennan Hype! Award in 2015. In fact, he won that prestigious award in ‘15.

As a rookie, Thompson opened the season as the Redskins’ return specialist, but he didn’t distinguish himself. He averaged 20 yards per kickoff return and 5.14 yards per punt return over the first 4 games before he was replaced. He did not play any offensive snaps. His season was ended by a torn labrum suffered in early November.

He spent most of his second season (2014) on the practice squad, having lost the training camp battle for the RB3 position to Silas Redd. He was promoted to the active roster in mid-December when he got his first offensive snaps as a pro. Thompson had a good game against the Giants, getting 3 carries and catching 3 of 4 targets. He finished the game with 34 scrimmage yards and a receiving touchdown. He added 3 catches for 5 yards the following week to finish his statistical contribution to the 2014 season.

Thompson’s career really got started in 2015 when he made the initial 53-man roster and got three carries in Week 1. He finished that season with 216 rushing yards, 35 receptions, 240 receiving yards, and two receiving touchdowns.

Thompson’s career peaked (at least statistically) in 2016 & 2017, when he was an integral part of Jay Gruden’s offense. In ‘16, Thompson had 705 yards from scrimmage and scored 5 TDs. In 2017, despite playing only 10 games, he had career highs in scrimmage yards and TDs with 804 and 6, respectively. In Week 11 of the ‘17 season, Thompson fractured his fibula and was ruled out for the remainder of the year. His career had reached its peak.

Washington Redskins v New York Giants
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

In 2017, Washington’s lead back had been “Fat Rob” Kelly; in ‘18 & ‘19 it was Adrian Peterson. Moreover, the team carried 4 running backs both of those seasons, with Samaje Perine and Kapri Bibbs rounding out the RB room. Thompson’s touches fell, especially his rushing totals.

When Jay Gruden was fired in 2019 and the Ron Rivera era started in 2020, the end had come for the 30-year-old Thompson. He signed with Jacksonville, where he added 166 yards and a TD to his career totals in 8 games with the Jaguars, but never played in another NFL regular season game again following a Week 10 back injury.

Thompson finished his 7-year Redskins career with 2,966 yards from scrimmage and 15 touchdowns.

JD McKissic

When Ron Rivera arrived in DC, he started assembling a training camp roster, and when I saw that JD McKissic had been signed, I scoffed and predicted that his uneventful career, which had amounted to just over 900 yards and 4 touchdowns in 4 seasons, was already at an end. I may have used the phrase “camp body” to refer to him.

Boy, was I wrong!

I had been a huge fan of Chris Thompson, but in his 35 games in burgundy & gold, JD McKissic made me a fan as well.

In 2020, playing alongside the lead back, Antonio Gibson and short-yardage specialist Peyton Barber, McKissic compiled 954 yards from scrimmage and 3 touchdowns, with 589 of the yards and 2 of the touchdowns coming in the passing game. His career highlight play probably came in the game against Atlanta, when he scored the winning touchdown with less than a minute to play:

He was healthy and active for 11 games in 2021, and continued his rushing and receiving trends, finishing with 609 yards from scrimmage and 4 touchdowns.

At the end of the ‘21 season, McKissic was a free agent. As the 2022 free agency “legal tampering” period began, it was announced that he had agreed to terms with the Bills. A frantic day or two followed with Washington’s staff reaching out to the player and his agent, and when the league year opened, McKissic had agreed to return to Washington on a 2-year contract.

In Week 8 of the 2022 season, McKissic suffered a neck injury and ended up on IR; he was released by the team in March 2023 and hasn’t played a snap in the NFL since.

In total, JD McKissic played 35 games in burgundy & gold, and amassed 1,831 yards from scrimmage and 7 TDs.

Antonio Gibson

Antonio Gibson’s running back story is not straightforward. He was a wide receiver at Memphis as a college player, but he got limited snaps as a runner as well. At 6’2”, 220 pounds, he had the build to play running back in the NFL, and that’s what Ron Rivera decided to do with him.

Gibson was drafted in 2020, and, playing alongside veterans Peyton Barber and JD McKissic, Gibson had the role of ‘lead back’. He had 170 rushing attempts and only 36 receptions as a rookie.

2021 was more of the same, with even more focus on Gibson as a runner. He carried the ball 258 times while catching only 42 passes. By the end of the ‘21 season, Gibson had scored 21 touchdowns. Unfortunately, he had also fumbled 6 times.

In 2022, Brian Robinson was drafted out of Alabama as a big-bodied bruising runner, and JD McKissic was coaxed out of leaving the the team. It seemed clear that Antonio Gibson’s time as the lead dog in Washington’s running back room was about to come to an end. But the ‘22 season ended up being an adventure. First, Brian Robinson was shot in the leg in an attempted car-jacking just before the start of the season. With the rookie unable to play, the coaches turned back to Gibson, who averaged 13 carries and 4 receptions per game for the first month of the season. When Robinson was healthy enough to play, Gibson’s role was reduced, and he started returning kickoffs as a way to keep him busy. Even after McKissic’s neck injury, however, Gibson’s usage as a receiving back didn’t really pick up, and he finished the season with just 899 yards from scrimmage and 5 touchdowns — surprisingly low totals in a season where Robinson missed so much time and McKissic suffered a mid-season career-ending injury.

Last season, there was a lot of preseason talk about Eric Bieniemy unlocking Gibson’s potential as Washington’s 3rd down back.

As it turned out, for the first time in his NFL career, Gibson had more receiving yards (389) than rushing yards (265), and 2 of his 3 touchdowns in the ‘23 season were on passing plays; however, that had more to do with a reduced role in the running game than with any dramatic increase in his use as a passing target.

Gibson left in free agency this year, and in 2024 he will be playing for the Patriots. There has been a lot of preseason buzz about Gibson in New England.

In his 4-year career in Washington, Gibson was drafted by the Redskins, and played for both the Football Team and the Commanders, finishing with 2,643 rushing yards and 22 rushing touchdowns along with 1,283 receiving yards and 7 receiving touchdowns.

While Gibson definitely belongs on this list of 3rd down backs because of his role in 2023, and while most NFL fans think of him as a receiving back because of his background in college, Gibson probably made his biggest mark as a runner when he compiled over 1,800 yard and 18 touchdowns on the ground in his first two seasons.

Austin Ekeler

It looks like 2024 will see just one change to the Commanders backfield, with Gibson out and Austin Ekeler in. Brian Robinson and Chris Rodriguez will likely reprise their 2023 roles in burgundy & gold.

Ekeler spent the first 7 years of his career with the Chargers and had more than twice as many rushes as receptions during his tenure there. With 8,239 career yards from scrimmage and 69 rushing & receiving touchdowns, Ekeler has already had a hugely successful career after going undrafted out of Western Colorado in 2017.

Rushing & Receiving Table
Games Rushing Receiving Total Yds
Year Age Tm Pos No. G GS Att Yds TD 1D Succ% Lng Y/A Y/G A/G Tgt Rec Yds Y/R TD 1D Succ% Lng R/G Y/G Ctch% Y/Tgt Touch Y/Tch YScm RRTD Fmb AV Awards
2017 22 LAC RB 16 0 47 260 2 13 55.3 35 5.5 16.3 2.9 35 27 279 10.3 3 12 48.6 38 1.7 17.4 77.1% 8.0 74 7.3 539 5 2 4
2018 23 LAC RB 14 3 106 554 3 25 50.0 41 5.2 39.6 7.6 53 39 404 10.4 3 18 52.8 44 2.8 28.9 73.6% 7.6 145 6.6 958 6 1 8
2019 24 LAC RB 30 16 8 132 557 3 32 44.7 35 4.2 34.8 8.3 108 92 993 10.8 8 42 56.5 84 5.8 62.1 85.2% 9.2 224 6.9 1550 11 3 11
2020 25 LAC RB 30 10 10 116 530 1 26 43.1 27 4.6 53.0 11.6 65 54 403 7.5 2 20 53.8 28 5.4 40.3 83.1% 6.2 170 5.5 933 3 1 6
2021 26 LAC RB 30 16 16 206 911 12 53 55.8 28 4.4 56.9 12.9 94 70 647 9.2 8 31 53.2 40 4.4 40.4 74.5% 6.9 276 5.6 1558 20 4 12
2022 27 LAC RB 30 17 17 204 915 13 46 48.0 72 4.5 53.8 12.0 127 107 722 6.7 5 36 48.0 23 6.3 42.5 84.3% 5.7 311 5.3 1637 18 5 11 AP OPoY-9
2023 28 LAC RB 30 14 14 179 628 5 34 47.5 55 3.5 44.9 12.8 74 51 436 8.5 1 20 43.2 39 3.6 31.1 68.9% 5.9 230 4.6 1064 6 5 7
Career 103 68 990 4355 39 229 49.1 72 4.4 42.3 9.6 556 440 3884 8.8 30 179 51.1 84 4.3 37.7 79.1% 7.0 1430 5.8 8239 69 21 59
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2024.

Ekeler had the two best years of his career in 2021-22 under head coach Brandon Staley and offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, rushing the ball for over 900 yards in each season and averaging 685 receiving yards per season. Ekeler scored an incredible 38 touchdowns over those two campaigns.

With a new offensive coordinator in 2023, Ekeler’s production was down a bit, but still very respectable, with 1,064 yards from scrimmage and 6 touchdowns. Chargers fans (and others) will tell you that Ekeler has lost a step or two:

While Ekeler has been the lead back for his entire career, 2024 may bring more change to his life than simply being on a new team. The 31-year-old is expected to take a back seat to Brian Robinson while acting as a mentor and taking on the role of 3rd down back. We may see less distinction in roles than that; it could be that Robinson and Ekeler will share time, with each of them running and catching the ball, but early indications are that Brian Robinson will be the primary runner with Ekeler seeing the field often.