NFL teams strike gold in mid-round running backs

The Dolphins, Bears and Buccaneers, meanwhile, committed their top-five picks to running backs in 2005 and hardly got their money's worth.

Benson lasted three years in Chicago before he was released. Williams is merely a backup to Blount. Brown's once-promising career has been derailed by injuries, which has Miami reportedly considering drafting Ingram.

What's more, the rise of the pass and running-back-by-committees have devalued the need to gamble a high pick or high-pick dollars on one runner.

Green Bay won the 2011 Super Bowl using an array of runners, including sixth-round rookie James Starks, the Packers' leading rusher in the Super Bowl.

New Orleans won the Super Bowl the year before relying on a committee that featured undrafted backs Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas.

“Having a franchise running back is not as important as it was,” said NFL Network analyst Solomon Wilcots. “Unless you have an Adrian Peterson on the board, someone really special, I think you go ahead and wait. I think it's been proved that you don't have to take a running back with your first-round pick.”