Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler has the Twitter fingers firing at ESPN's Matt Miller about running back contracts. Players around the NFL are fed up with running backs not getting paid. In the midst of Monday's conversations about the position's value, Miller gave his analysis on Twitter:

This isn't exactly a new take; it's really just a philosophy that a lot of teams follow. Miller isn't the first analyst to suggest paying running backs isn't the best investment.

Still, Austin Ekeler wasn't a fan of this Tweet. He fired back with the following: “This is the kind of trash that has artificially devalued one of the most important positions in the game. Everyone knows it’s tough to win without a top RB and yet they act like we are discardable widgets. I support any RB doing whatever it takes to get his bag,” Ekeler wrote on Twitter.

Monday was the deadline for NFL teams to reach long-term extensions for franchise-tagged players. Star running backs Saquon Barkley (Giants), Josh Jacobs (Raiders), and Tony Pollard (Cowboys) all failed to reach an agreement with their teams. Their options are to play on the franchise tag, worth about $10 million, or hold out for the 2023 season.

Guys like Dalvin Cook, Kareem Hunt and Ezekiel Elliott (all former Pro-Bowl RBs) still don't have jobs at all. Players are frustrated that there isn't a market for running backs, but the blame is pointed in the wrong direction. It's not Matt Miller, or any analyst's fault that teams have all the leverage here.

The pay structure defined by the current NFL CBA is at fault for the position's diminishing value. By the time running backs are available for free agency, they typically don't have the same burst, or they have injury history. Young running backs tend to have more value than veteran All-Pro ones do. For that to change, the NFLPA has to fight to change the pay structure. Four years is just too long of a rookie contract for running backs.

Miller has been on blast all day for his comments, but he's not saying players don't deserve to get paid. He's just outlining the economics of the position in the NFL. Austin Ekeler, like all of these other backs, is a great player. And of course they should all get paid. But that doesn't mean Ekeler is right.

It's simply a fact that Super Bowl winning teams don't have top running backs, and they especially don't have top-paid running backs. This graphic illustrates that fact in a crystal-clear light:

Furthermore, out of this list, only two of these players rushed for 1,000 yards in the season they won a championship: Blount with the Patriots, and Rice with the Ravens.

Emotions are high in the running back contract discourse, and rightfully so. But it's one thing to support running backs gettingf paid, and it's another to suggest that running back is one of the most important positions in football, or that it's hard to win without a great one.

It just isn't.