Gore has finished between 1,200 and 1,550 yards from scrimmage in every season since 2007, because he’s absolutely a robot.
On the Miami Dolphins’ fourth offensive play Sunday against the New England Patriots, Frank Gore burst through the left side of the offensive line and trucked down the field for 36 yards. It was the third run this season of at least 30 yards for Gore, a 35-year-old running back who must be a robot. There’s no other explanation.
In the last decade, Gore is the only player older than 33 to reach 500 rushing yards in a season. He did it with 961 yards last year and — with 708 yards this season — he’s now done it twice.
At 7-6, the Dolphins are in the postseason hunt and Gore has helped them get there with 4.7 yards per carry — his highest average since 2012. But even if he’s a robot (which he must be), it’s possible we’re down to the last three games of Gore’s incredibly durable career.
“I’m going to just evaluate myself and my body and see if I really want to do it again this offseason,” Gore said in November, via Pro Football Talk. “I take it one year at a time.”
Whether he retires after the 2018 season or not, Gore’s numbers may go forever untouched.
Gore’s streak of 12 consecutive seasons with 1,200 all-purpose yards — a record that will probably never be broken— looks unlikely to reach a 13th straight year. He’d need 368 more yards in three games to keep the streak alive.
But if he can manage to add 266 more rushing yards to his career total, Gore would be the fourth player ever to 15,000. And maybe the last.
Gaudy passing totals define the NFL of today, and huge rushing stats are increasingly a thing of the past. Gore is one the last of a dying breed of consistent and durable running backs, and we’ll probably never again see a career like his. Let’s review:
Consistency/Durability: 9.8
In 2006, a 23-year-old Frank Gore finished with 1,695 rushing yards. It was the third most in the NFL that season and earned him his first Pro Bowl nod.
In the 12 years since, Gore’s next best rushing total is the 1,214 yards he finished with in 2012. Not since his third place finish in 2006, has Gore even finished top five in the NFL in rushing yards.
Adrian Peterson, who is now 33, has 13,148 career rushing yards thanks to the three times he was the NFL’s rushing champion — including his 2,097-yard season in 2012. But Peterson also has a long list of injuries that cost him games and had a lengthy suspension in 2014.
That has Peterson about 1,600 career rushing yards behind Gore, who — for over a decade — has been the same exact player week after week.
In 11 straight seasons, Gore has finished with somewhere between 1,200 and 1,550 yards from scrimmage. Even if that streak ends this year, those are outrageously consistent statistics at a position where few can stay healthy for long.
Gore hasn’t even missed a game since 2010, when he sat out the last five due to a broken hip. He returned in time for the 2011 season and now — seven years later — will play in his 110th straight game when the Dolphins travel to play the Minnesota Vikings in Week 15.
He’s second all-time in NFL games started by a running back with 195 — behind only Emmitt Smith, who had 219. The next closest active player on the list is Peterson at 136.
Gore’s a robot. He’s gotta be.
Permanence: 9.0
Will any other player ever reach 15,000 yards? It’s no guarantee that Gore will, but even if he doesn’t, it’s difficult to imagine him ever getting topped.
Peterson cranking out another 1,852 yards isn’t impossible, considering the way he bounced back with an impressive 2018 campaign. But that’d probably be asking for at least two more years of solid play. I have my doubts.
After Peterson, the next highest active player on the rushing list is LeSean McCoy who’s way down in 26th with 10,571. McCoy is 30 now and finishing up easily the worst season of his career with 479 yards and just 3.3 yards per carry for the Bills.
And — uhh — that’s just about it. The next highest player on the active rushing list who’s under 30 is Mark Ingram, a 28-year old with 5,881 yards.
So if Gore and/or Peterson don’t get to 15,000 yards, nobody’s going to come close for a very long time. Especially when big seasons for running backs are becoming increasingly rare.
When Gore was drafted in 2005, the numbers for running backs looked much different. There were 21 times a player topped 1,500 rushing yards — including Gore’s 1,695 — between 2003 and 2006.
Now, 1,500 rushing yards is a rare total. Ezekiel Elliott’s 1,631 yards in 2016 is the only time reached the mark in the last three years.
Keep in mind, 15,000 yards would be averaging 1,500 yards for an entire decade — a career length few running backs ever manage.
Gore’s 100 percent a robot.
Robot: 10.0
Beep boop beep.