2022 season · Running backs, 35 qualifiers

Light Box Rate Leaders

Light Box Rate — 2022 NFL leaders, updated Oct 2, 2026. Saquon Barkley (NYG) led the league in light box rate at 68.8%, ahead of 34 other qualifying players. Based on verified play-level charting from FTN Data via nflverse, regular season only. Through the 2022 season.

Light box rate is the share of a running back's designed runs that met a box of six or fewer defenders, counted by FTN's charters. Scrambles and quarterback runs are excluded. A light box is space the offense earned — usually by spreading the field or by a passing game the defense respects — so the stat describes what a back was given, not what he did with it. Rank 1 saw the most light boxes. It is not the inverse of the stacked box board, which counts eight or more defenders from Next Gen Stats tracking. In season every figure here is season to date, and before Week 4 it rests on two or three games — a gap of a few points between neighbours is noise until the sample grows.

Light Box Rate, 2022 NFL season
#PlayerLight%LightRunsListen
1Saquon BarkleyNYG68.8%203295
2Antonio GibsonWAS64.2%95148
3Travis EtienneJAX61.6%135219
4Jonathan TaylorIND60.9%117192
5Isiah PachecoKC60.0%102170
6Rhamondre StevensonNE60.0%126210
7James ConnerARI59.9%109182
8Aaron JonesGB58.7%125213
9Miles SandersPHI58.3%151259
10Joe MixonCIN54.8%115210
11Dalvin CookMIN53.0%140264
12Najee HarrisPIT53.0%143270
13Austin EkelerLAC51.5%105204
14Devin SingletaryBUF50.8%90177
15Raheem MostertMIA49.7%90181
16David MontgomeryCHI49.3%99201
17Dameon PierceHOU47.7%104218
18Leonard FournetteTB47.1%89189
19AJ DillonGB46.8%87186
20Alvin KamaraNO46.2%103223
21Josh JacobsLV45.1%153339
22Latavius MurrayDEN45.0%77171
23Brian RobinsonWAS42.0%86205
24Tony PollardDAL40.8%78191
25Nick ChubbCLE40.7%123302
26Ezekiel ElliottDAL39.3%90229
27Jeffery WilsonMIA37.4%65174
28Cam AkersLAR36.2%68188
29Derrick HenryTEN35.0%122349
30Kenneth Walker IIISEA33.0%75227
31Christian McCaffreySF32.0%78244
32Jamaal WilliamsDET29.8%77258
33Cordarrelle PattersonATL28.5%41144
34Tyler AllgeierATL26.7%56210
35D'Onta ForemanCAR21.7%44203

FTN's box count, not Next Gen Stats'. The two count defenders differently, so this board and the stacked box board are not two ends of one number.

New to this stat? What light box rate means.

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