The run game last year was hampered big-time by the following losses (and we've been over this before):
- LT Brown...couldn't afford to keep him, but he was an absolute *monster* in run blocking in 2019.
- C Andrews...top-level blocker and the one who made all the line calls...his presence is important for unit cohesion.
- TE Gronkowski...maybe one of the best blocking tight ends in NFL history.
- TE Allen...not much of a receiver, but an outstanding, first-level run blocking TE.
- FB Develin...elite blocker at FB.
That's *five* absolutely ELITE blockers at their positions, ALL of them suffering from a massive, massive downgrade.
- Brown to Wynn (who was fine as a rookie, but played only half the season...the turn table that they featured at LT when Wynn wasn't in was terrible).
- Andrews to Karras (Karras is fine as a backup, and might even be a legitimate starting C in the league, but he's a significant drop-off from Andrews).
- Gronk and Allen to Izzo and Lacosse (I mean, this isn't even a fair thing to put these guys in the same sentence).
- Develin to Johnson to nobody to Roberts (again, from elite to nobody to a guy who threw a couple of good blocks but isn't in the same universe as Develin...yes I know Roberts caught a long TD pass, which was cool).
To lose any one of those would have had an effect. To lose ALL of them and have ALL of them suffer massive drop-offs in ability and effectiveness was just disastrous.
As for Sony....from:
https://www.playerprofiler.com/nfl/sony-michel/
Here's a comparison of his 2018 vs 2019 performance in some key areas...
Yards Created per Carry (yards generated above and beyond what was blocked)
2018: 1.85 (#6)
2019: 1.24 (#30)
Juke Rate
2018: 23.1% (#33)
2019: 19.3% (#40)
Average Defenders in the Box
2018: 7.0 (#21)
2019: 6.9 (#9)
True Yards Per Carry (factors out runs of 10+ yards....actual YPC will be in parenthesis)
2018: 4.3 (4.5) (#32)
2019: 3.6 (3.7) (#54)
Breakaway Run Rate
2018: 3.3% (#43)
2019: 2.4% (#43)
So Sony clearly wasn't as good. The blocking for him was much worse, but even Sony performed at a lower level than in 2018. He made fewer guys miss, broke fewer tackles, and did so against fewer guys in the box on average. He generated fewer yards on his own, never mind what wasn't blocked for him. If you take the Yards Created Per Carry number and combine it with the Yards Per Carry number (not the TYPC), you see:
YPC:
2018: 4.5
2019: 3.7
YCPC:
2018: 1.85
2019: 1.24
Do some math and you find that Sony's blockers got him:
2018: 2.65 yards
2019: 2.46 yards
So the blocking was worse, but Sony was also much worse.
That all needs to (and ought to) change in 2020, or whenever the hell they play football again.