Lawrence Taylor top 3 NFL greatest RBs

[kskboys]

Yeah so many factors. I personally focus on ability/peak.

Peak can't be too short or isolated. 6 years is of solid production is my expectation, because I've seen that be a consistent time frame among many RBs before a drop-off.

Ability should be rooted in all around capability. Like can they run, block, & catch? Yards and TDs are also both important because an imbalance between the two implies holes in the game... like low TDs might mean they're not strong goal line backs.

I'm 38, so the best running backs I've seen are Sanders, Tomlinson, and AP. I think Henry's phenomenal, but for some reason, I just don't put him up there with those guys. Can't pinpoint it, not an exact science.

Henry is a poor short yardage back. Lacks burst at the handoff which means you must get him the ball when he's already moving. That O they ran using RPO was the best I've ever seen him, as he'd get the pitch when he was already close to full speed.

People look at me crosseyed when I point out Henry isn't a good short yardage back, but he's not. Maybe on a pitchout around the edge. I watched him for many years get stuffed on short yardage stuff simply because he wasn't quick enough to the LOS.

You should go watch tape of Earl Campbell.

 

[erod]

"Stats are for folks who don't really know football" - sounds oddly familiar.

I'm so tired of typing that, but it's the truest thing about football. Especially football.

 

[jazzcat22]

I honestly believe many Dallas fans go against Dallas players just to show they are not homers, or want to be called one.

To me Emmitt is the best RB of all time. My opinion of course.
But I will not say Aikman, or Irvin was the best at their positions of all time. Not even Staubach.
But they all won multiple SB's as a team. That is what we want.

As for Barry vs. Emmitt and the OL and overall teams.
Barry had 2 all pro OL when he arrived. They drafted another OL in the 1st round, and he became an instant all pro OL.

Nate Newton said they were a bunch of nobody's on the OL until Emmitt got there. Not even sure if they became all pro, but did make the pro bowl regular. That is a difference in itself.
I think Stepnoski was the highest drafted OL, as a 3rd round pick. They had cast offs and a few traded players. I think Gesek came from the Raiders. Until Larry Allen was there, was he a 2nd round pick?
Barry had 3 all pro OL pretty much from the start.

 

[DarkVader33]

Whoa!
How did Reggie Bush not make the list???

Or Joseph Randle. Sheesh

 

[fivetwos]

Lol. His final season was nearly 1,500 yards and 1 year removed from a 2,000 yard season averaging 6 ypc. If he wanted more paychecks he had another few years to collect if he wanted to (and would have easily had the record if he wanted to). As I said, I get the defensiveness every time this topic comes up but let's not have it lead to slander.

Yep, poor choice of words on Sanders and I retract it.

Point was he wasn’t driven by the need to be great the way Emmitt was. Smith was the far less talented runner.

I could be wrong, and he will never say it, but I never got the impression that Sanders loved football, if we are comparing the two I mean. That was a large debate back then, one which most reading this would remember.

 

[Arkyvarminter]

Barry had over 15,000 yards and averaged 5.0 ypc.....

 

[Nova]

Henry is a poor short yardage back. Lacks burst at the handoff which means you must get him the ball when he's already moving. That O they ran using RPO was the best I've ever seen him, as he'd get the pitch when he was already close to full speed.

People look at me crosseyed when I point out Henry isn't a good short yardage back, but he's not. Maybe on a pitchout around the edge. I watched him for many years get stuffed on short yardage stuff simply because he wasn't quick enough to the LOS.

You should go watch tape of Earl Campbell.

Campbell and Dickerson are two backs I'm genuinely sad to have missed their playing days.

I've seen their highlights, and they're wild. But it's not the same as seeing them live.

 

[fivetwos]

Absolutely true. That's why I find it amusing when people insist that there's no doubt.

Many Cowboys fans think Dorsett was a better RB than Emmit.

Two very underrated parts of Emmitt’s game were grabbing the most yards possible from a Troy dump off pass, and pass protection. He really had it all.

If there’s ever a question, the 93 team was 15-0 with him, and 0-4 without him.

He did not have elite speed or a dynamic run style, but he always hit the hole quickly enough to maximize what was there.

 

[jazzcat22]

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/rush_yds_career.htm

Here you all go.
Only 32 RB's in NFL history with over 10,000 yards.

 

[nate dizzle]

Lol. His final season was nearly 1,500 yards and 1 year removed from a 2,000 yard season averaging 6 ypc. If he wanted more paychecks he had another few years to collect if he wanted to (and would have easily had the record if he wanted to). As I said, I get the defensiveness every time this topic comes up but let's not have it lead to slander.

The top 3-5 backs are basically interchangeable in the argument for GOAT. You can make a legitimate argument for any one of them.

 

[jazzcat22]

Why was Barry pulled when they were within 5 yards of the goal line?
This was where Emmitt Thrived.
How many 1 and 2 yards TD's hurt his, not only total yards, but average per yards as well.

 

[Nova]

I honestly believe many Dallas fans go against Dallas players just to show they are not homers, or want to be called one.

To me Emmitt is the best RB of all time. My opinion of course.
But I will not say Aikman, or Irvin was the best at their positions of all time. Not even Staubach.
But they all won multiple SB's as a team. That is what we want.

As for Barry vs. Emmitt and the OL and overall teams.
Barry had 2 all pro OL when he arrived. They drafted another OL in the 1st round, and he became an instant all pro OL.

Nate Newton said they were a bunch of nobody's on the OL until Emmitt got there. Not even sure if they became all pro, but did make the pro bowl regular. That is a difference in itself.
I think Stepnoski was the highest drafted OL, as a 3rd round pick. They had cast offs and a few traded players. I think Gesek came from the Raiders. Until Larry Allen was there, was he a 2nd round pick?
Barry had 3 all pro OL pretty much from the start.

The Nate Newton quote is a great one.

It's objectively true-- the line was built on a bunch of no-names. LA wasn't drafted until 94, and he was drafted 46th overall.

With that said, that OL was devastating. They may have started as nobodies, but they ended up being an all time unit.

Emmitt played a role in that, sure. But those guys threw down so well, that Jerry didn't take a 1st round OL until Tyron in 2011 because of them.

 

[gtb1943]

The greatest RB after contact I ever saw play was Earl Campbell, everyone points to that one play where he ran over half the rams D as a high light; but he did the same thing a number of times.

 

[shabazz]

The Emmitt vs Barry debate will never die.

Come on. Emmitt was a winning back who consistently made gains that moved the chains. Sanders was a bunch of TFL, then maybe a home run.

I was in the building for that playoff loss to Detroit. Drive ten hours each way for that mess, but hey, that was Barry’s big day over Emmitt. I knew what was coming from Dallas moving forward. How’d Barry do the following week at Washington?

Barry quit early. Emmitt had to be dragged out of the league. Talent and heart are two very different things.

My thoughts have been the Sanders was the better RB but Emmitt was the better football player.

Edge Emmitt

 

[Kingofholland]

it frustrates me when I see so many fans round the league leave Emmitt out of their top five!

They’ll usually do Barry, Sweetness, Brown, LT and AP

They make Emmitt a creation of his offensive line and durability and that’s it.

I think in general some fan bases want to discredit Cowboys, lol. Hard to take any list seriously that doesn't have him in the top 5 though. The truth is no one heard about that version of the offensive line until Emmitt got there. Tuinei and Newton didn't make their first pro bowls until being on the later side of their careers in their 30s. It certainly takes the right group of players coming together, but doesn't mean individual players weren't great.

I can understand if the list is top 5 flashiest RBs in history not putting him on there, but if that's all one cares about its a pretty limited list. It would be like basing top NBA players of alltime based on who made the flashiest dunks.

 

[blueblood70]

Very hard to argue against this order, though I'm having a hard time not slotting Jim Brown @ #2 with Barry then Emmitt. All 5 guys were elite, not sure any of them could take the punishment that Brown endured and still put up the stats.

That is because these are pointless rankings when you're only using a simple size of 3 Top 20 is probably more apropos so then people's list can include all their favorites but then show how you see them all.. Some betting over 100 years of NFL there's twenty great absolute elite running backs that can make that list that's the problem it's subjective that's his list and it's debatable but also understandable why you would pick those three..

When you have 100 years of NFL football just saying there's only three when most of us even have a what 5 on what we call that Mount Rushmore.. But nowadays you need a top 2010's not even enough there's just too much football's been played over that time and too many great players..

 

[blueblood70]

The Nate Newton quote is a great one.

It's objectively true-- the line was built on a bunch of no-names. LA wasn't drafted until 94, and he was drafted 46th overall.

With that said, that OL was devastating. They may have started as nobodies, but they ended up being an all time unit.

Emmitt played a role in that, sure. But those guys threw down so well, that Jerry didn't take a 1st round OL until Tyron in 2011 because of them.

Correct and I don't want to mess up this thread by going off topic a bit that shows to me that people need to stop thinking you're only finding your great players in the first round It's not true You can find good players all over the draft I don't care if it's the 4th round or the 7th round we've seen guys like Rock Purdy and Tom Brady even if you go to the 4th round you find a lot of great players and around here there are topics right now running to think the Cowboys are not spending enough money looking for new tackles in the 1st round when they may find a gym like this year the Penn State guy might work out they're saying the Cowboys didn't address it because they weren't picked in the first round but then yet you have guys like Hoffman and Bass who turned about to be really good players that were not drafted highly...

Doesn't matter where you're drafted or if you're an undrafted free agent or if you're a low budget pickup in free agency if you're good you're good if you develop and you work great as a unit especially on the offensive line doesn't matter where you pick them... All that matters is you're a football player I don't care what you look like in the mirror with your shirt off all that's also nonsense physique and physicality all that It's not necessary if you could play football you could play football..

 

[Bigrandrn]

A lot of people omit Emmitt these days…..he’s getting the “he played with hall of famers” argument.

People are ignorant and keep saying “it was all his line”…..and they don’t even know who was on his line, they are just parroting what other people say. They don’t know that Newton and Tuinei were both JAGs for like 6-7 years before Smith got there, and the only HOF lineman got there AFTER Smith already won the rushing title 3 times and 2 superbowls and a league and SB MVP. Barry sanders also had two all pro linemen in Kevin Glover and Lomas Brown. U can see on film Smith had the total package, great vision and patience, instincts, burst, wiggle (not as much as Sanders, but plenty), blocking, catching, and especially durability.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

People are ignorant and keep saying “it was all his line”…..and they don’t even know who was on his line, they are just parroting what other people say. They don’t know that Newton and Tuinei were both JAGs for like 6-7 years before Smith got there, and the only HOF lineman got there AFTER Smith already won the rushing title 3 times and 2 superbowls and a league and SB MVP. Barry sanders also had two all pro linemen in Kevin Glover and Lomas Brown. U can see on film Smith had the total package, great vision and patience, instincts, burst, wiggle (not as much as Sanders, but plenty), blocking, catching, and especially durability.

Yeah the narratives have for sure been changed over the years. Barry played with nothing and Emmitt had hall of famers on the line lol.

 

[MarcusRock]

Yep, poor choice of words on Sanders and I retract it.

Point was he wasn’t driven by the need to be great the way Emmitt was. Smith was the far less talented runner.

I could be wrong, and he will never say it, but I never got the impression that Sanders loved football, if we are comparing the two I mean. That was a large debate back then, one which most reading this would remember.

Don't know about the need to be great. Sanders put up the greatest single season of running I've ever seen (because I'm too young to have seen OJ's season). You can't discount the role hope played in his career. He played on mostly losing teams. Emmitt had team progress and championship success almost instantly. When you're Barry and will your team into the playoffs rushing for 2,000 yards and they follow that up with a 5-11 season, you can want to be great all you want. If it doesn't result in winning, are you okay with just the stat sheet looking great? In this light, you actually make it look like Emmitt was selfish, knowing he was past his useful prime but chased numbers and can sell Barry as frustrated with not having team success despite his individual success. Which do fans say they like more about players nowadays?