Player
Ameer Abdullah
RB · Colts
Surviving 11 NFL seasons as a running back — the shortest-career position in football — across five different franchises is genuinely rare. Most RBs drafted in 2015 are long retired.
11 seasons, 5 teams, 144 games — Abdullah keeps finding a roster.
TrendAbdullah by season (regular season)
| Season | Team | G | Car | RuYds | RuTD | Rec | ReYds | ReTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | DET | 16 | 143 | 597 | 2 | 25 | 183 | 1 |
| 2016 | DET | 2 | 18 | 101 | 0 | 5 | 57 | 1 |
| 2017 | DET | 14 | 165 | 552 | 4 | 25 | 162 | 1 |
| 2018 | DET | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 0 |
| 2018 | MIN | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| 2019 | MIN | 15 | 23 | 115 | 0 | 15 | 88 | 1 |
| 2020 | MIN | 11 | 8 | 42 | 0 | 8 | 58 | 2 |
| 2021 | CAR | 11 | 44 | 136 | 0 | 35 | 272 | 1 |
| 2021 | MIN | 6 | 7 | 30 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 0 |
| 2022 | LV | 16 | 4 | 20 | 0 | 25 | 211 | 1 |
| 2023 | LV | 16 | 15 | 89 | 0 | 19 | 131 | 0 |
| 2024 | LV | 15 | 66 | 311 | 2 | 40 | 261 | 3 |
| 2025 | IND | 13 | 14 | 60 | 1 | 16 | 99 | 0 |
From 2015 Lions 2nd-round pick to 2025 depth-chart utility back in Indy — Abdullah has now suited up for DET, MIN, CAR, LV, and IND across 11 seasons. The middle of the career (2018-2020) was a near-disappearance: just 32 carries combined over three years. He's still here.
Rushing yards by season
| Season | Rush Yds |
|---|---|
| 15 | 597 |
| 16 | 101 |
| 17 | 552 |
| 18 | 1 |
| 19 | 115 |
| 20 | 42 |
| 21 | 166 |
| 22 | 20 |
| 23 | 89 |
| 24 | 311 |
| 25 | 60 |
Why it matters. Surviving 11 NFL seasons as a running back — the shortest-career position in football — across five different franchises is genuinely rare. Most RBs drafted in 2015 are long retired.
As a pure RB in Detroit (2015-18) vs. as a passing-down back later — two different players.
SplitDetroit years vs. post-Detroit (regular season)
| Era | Car | RuYds | Rec | ReYds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DET 2015-18 | 327 | 1,251 | 57 | 420 |
| Post-DET 2019-25 | 181 | 803 | 162 | 1,147 |
In Detroit he was a runner — 3.8 yds/carry on 327 carries, just 57 receptions in 4 years. From 2019 on (MIN, CAR, LV, IND), the receptions outpaced the carries: 162 catches for 1,147 yards vs. 181 carries for 803 yards. The career splits nearly even out: 2,054 career rushing yards, 1,567 career receiving yards (regular season only).
Why it matters. The career arc of a drafted feature back who reinvented himself as a passing-down specialist to extend his career nearly a decade past his Detroit prime is a compelling NFL survival story.
Career-high 115-yard game came in his 10th NFL season — Week 17, 2024, age 31.
MilestoneBest single games
| Year | Wk | Team | Opp | Car | RuYds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 17 | LV | NO | 20 | 115 | 0 |
| 2017 | 4 | DET | MIN | 20 | 94 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2 | DET | NYG | 17 | 86 | 0 |
| 2015 | 15 | DET | NO | 9 | 77 | 1 |
Abdullah's only career 100-yard rushing game came in Week 17 of 2024 against New Orleans — 20 carries, 115 yards, age 31, in season 10. The 2024 Raiders breakout (311 yards, 2 rushing TDs, 3 receiving TDs) was his most productive year since the 2017 Detroit campaign.
Why it matters. A first career 100-yard game at age 31, in season 10, is almost unheard of for a running back. It flips the typical NFL career arc — most RBs peak early and fade; Abdullah's best rushing day came a decade in.
More receiving TDs (11) than rushing TDs (9) on 508 career carries — only 10 RBs in the last 20 years can say that.
AnomalyRBs with 300+ carries and rec TDs > rush TDs (2004-2025, reg season)
| Player | Car | RuTD | RecTD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darren Sproles | 734 | 23 | 32 |
| Jerick McKinnon | 660 | 14 | 20 |
| Duke Johnson | 532 | 11 | 12 |
| Danny Woodhead | 517 | 15 | 17 |
| Ameer Abdullah | 508 | 9 | 11 |
| Mewelde Moore | 507 | 6 | 8 |
| T.J. Yeldon | 492 | 6 | 7 |
| Shane Vereen | 356 | 8 | 11 |
| Ty Johnson | 329 | 8 | 9 |
| James White | 319 | 11 | 25 |
Among 282 RBs with at least 300 regular-season carries since 2004, only 10 have more career receiving TDs than rushing TDs — including Abdullah. He was drafted as a feature back in Detroit; 11 receiving TDs vs. 9 rushing TDs on 508 carries tells you exactly what happened to his role.
Why it matters. For a player who entered the league as a power runner, having receiving TDs outnumber rushing TDs is a quantified marker of positional reinvention. The peer group is exclusively pass-first RBs.
2018 was effectively a lost year — 1 carry for 1 yard across 9 appearances before MIN claimed him.
AnomalyAfter two productive Detroit seasons, 2018 was the bottom: 1 carry, 1 yard, 3 receptions for 28 yards across appearances for DET and MIN before the Lions released him and the Vikings picked him up. From that low point he rebuilt as a passing-down/special-teams back — and lasted seven more NFL seasons (2019-2025) across four more franchises.
Why it matters. 2018 is the inflection point of Abdullah's career — hitting near-zero production should have ended it, but instead it preceded a seven-year reinvention. That's the rarest kind of NFL comeback.
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