Drake had 17 negative yardage runs on 105 carries, Gore had 10 negative runs on 156 carries. 26.7% of Drake's runs went for either no gain, or negative yards. 14.7% of Gore's went for either no gain or negative yards. By contrast, Drake had 41 carries of 5 or more ypc (39%), and 4 carries of 20 or more (3.8% of his carries) and Gore had 64 runs (41%) of 5 or more and 5 of 20 or more (3.2% of his carries). If you extrapolate out and give all carries to Gore or Drake (acknowledging that different usage might produce different results), Gore would have 38 carries of 0 or negative carries, vs. Drake with 70 of 0 or negative, and Gore 8 runs of 20+ and Drake would have 10 runs of 20+ runs. So, in theory, if you give Drake all of Gore's carries, you accept 32 more 0 or negative runs, 6 or so fewer runs of 5+ ypc, and in exchange you get 2 more 20+ runs. That's a lot of carries (30+) that leave the offense in poor position (negative or no gain runs) and you still get fewer quality runs (defined by me at 5+ yds) all for 2 more big gain runs of 20+ runs. And, then you have the issue of blocking. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I just dont see the case for Drake if you believe these numbers accurately represent what you'll get on a full year basis. The numbers would have to get far more skewed in favor of big runs by Drake to justify the high percentage of poor runs, IMO. Will be interesting if Ballage can skew the equation.
Interestingly...Ajayi had 259 carries in 2016, with 10 carries of 20+ (3.86%) , 37 carries for negative yards (14.3%), and 62 carries of 0 or negative (24%), and only 94 carries of 5 or more yards (36.8%). In some ways, worse than Drake by not getting enough good runs