ESPN: Top 10 runnings backs of all time

[dwmyers]

Take Brown, Emmitt and Sweetness and put them in any order. They are the top 3. Sanders faults are well known. Gale Sayers was the most dangerous open field runner I have ever seen. He was just a little too fragile for the game. I would put Earl Campbell in the top 10 before Faulk. To be in the top ten to me you had to be dominant for at least several years. The next group after the top 3 would be Campbell, Simpson,Dickerson, LT, TD, Sanders.

I think Franco Harris should be in that top 10. He ran for a ton of yards and he ran for tough yards, and before Bradshaw matured, he was the heart of the Steeler's offense in the 1970s.

 

[fRESH88]

Does anyone know how many yards emmitt lost when his career was over?


and in case your wondering Barry Sanders lost 1,114 yards when he retired.

 

[burmafrd]

Franco harris ran out of bounds all the time leaving a lot of yards on the field.

Never had much respect for him.

Jim Brown. Ernie Stautner talked about Earl Campbell and what an incredible bull he was- then said the only more powerfull back he ever saw (and Ernie PLAYED against Brown) was Jim Brown.

 

[I LOVE ME SOME ME!]

BArry sanders is the best. everybody can argue who is the second best, but #1 in my book is easilly BArry sanders. I'm basing this on pure running skill. His cuts, the vision, the off the wall cat like moves. Come on man, the guy was just a beast.

Emmitt is top 5..I can debate on #2 but it would be a hard debate with non Cowboy fans. In most RB lists I see emmitt going anywhere from 3-5.

The best rb of all time should'nt have a -3 yard playoff game in his resume. He's eliminated off that alone. All Barry fans seem to ignore that game tho.

 

[percyhoward]

How Marshall is ahead of Dickerson and Simpson is beyond me

Well, I'll tell ya.

Nobody else, in his career, has ever had more than 3 seasons with 2,000 yards from scrimmage.

Faulk had four such seasons--in a row. He should be top 5.

 

[Woods]

The most dominant RB I've watched in his PRIME - not over the course of his entire career - was Earl Campbell.

He was brutal. If you like MBIII, you'd love Earl Campbell. I've never seen a more punishing, physical runner. And he had the speed to run around you as well.

As for my top all time RBs, the top 3 have to be Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Emmitt, in whatever order you want.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

1. Jim Brown
2. Emmitt Smith
3. Walter
4. Barry Sanders

 

[jterrell]

I absolutely agree.

It's like saying Danica Patrick is a better race car driver than Mario Andretti Sr.

Looking good and being flashy are hardly the deciding factor in overall ability at a position.

Emmitt had more TDs, more first downs, more rushing yardage, and more trophies. Mostly because he had more heart. He was a vastly superior between the tackles and goal line runner as well as being the far better blocker.

 

[utrunner07]

Marshall Faulk top 10 of all time??? No way.

 

[J-DOG]

pfft.. Barry Sanders #2? give me a break..

to me, i can accept any form of Emmitt, Payton and Brown being in the top 3, no matter the order.. but Barry Sanders shouldn't be in front of any of them..

Agree.
I find people who put Sanders ahead of Emmitt to have amnesia.
They conviently forget that Sanders was yanked out the the game when they got inside the 5yd line because he was not an inside runner and he was shut down in some of the most important playoff games the Lions played.
That doesn't make him better than the reliable nose-for-the-endzone runner Emmitt was.

 

[J-DOG]

The most dominant RB I've watched in his PRIME - not over the course of his entire career - was Earl Campbell.

He was brutal. If you like MBIII, you'd love Earl Campbell. I've never seen a more punishing, physical runner. And he had the speed to run around you as well.

As for my top all time RBs, the top 3 have to be Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Emmitt, in whatever order you want.

I am a big Earl Campbell fan as well.
He was the most physical runner I have ever seen.
When people talk about a player's heart...watch tape of Earl Campbell.
I would watch him play and after watching the game I would be exhausted just watching him play. So many collisons and so many times it took 3 or 4 guys to just bring him down.
Amazing rb.
I would have him in my top 5 or 6 definitely.

 

[lonestar6]

Sorry, I'm as big a fan of Emmitt as anyone, but count me on the side of putting Barry ahead of Emmitt (and I watched both play growing up). Barry would have had the career rushing title if he hadn't retired (he had way more yards than Emmitt at the same points in their careers), and despite the comments on his negative yard plays, he still had a much higher career yards per carry average than Emmitt. And while I've seen some comments that Emmitt was a better receiver, statistics don't bear that out either.

And this despite playing on a perenially bad/mediocre team in which opponents could key on him all day while Emmitt got to play along side a HOF quarterback, HOF wide receiver, and all-pro offensive line. If both players had had to swap teams for their careers, I could have seen Barry flourishing while I'm sure Emmitt would definitely have struggled more.

 

[Cowboysfan22]

Emmitt Smith number1.

 

[Chuck 54]

I love Emmitt Smith, but only a homer would actually see him as the best RB of all time.

He had longevity, and he had a ProBowl OL, along with a balanced attack with HOF QB and WR. Emmitt was great, but does anyone think he could have come close to what Sanders did in Detroit? really?

I would not argue that Barry Sanders was better than Emmitt, but Sanders did incredible things and did what had to be done to give Detroit any chance of winning, which included gambling that resulted in lost yardage. Emmitt had lots of negative runs towards the end of his career when our OL and QB sucked too.

These guys are looking at the pure RB skills and probably trying to imagine if all the players listed had run behind the same OL with the same team around them...that's the only way to really try and be fair.

I don't think I would have put Barry ahead of Emmitt myself, mostly because I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan for life, but I can imagine what Barry might have done behind that Dallas OL and in that offense, and anyone who doesn't think his numbers would have been enhanced quite substancially is not being fair...switch Barry and Emmitt, and I have no doubt Barry would have surpassed Peyton's record 2-3 years before he retired...at least.

However, the total yards would still not automatically make him the greatest RB ever...I fully support keeping Jim Brown right there, and I agree with Tomlinson's spot as I think he's been overrated as well. I don't care how many yards Tomlinson ends up with, I'd never put him ahead of Emmitt until he has a "heart" game like the one where Emmitt put our team on his back with a separated shoulder.

I can also guess that Gayle Sayers would be listed much higher if he hadn't had his career shortened by injury...also makes you wonder where Campbell and Dorsett are in the overall mix.

 

[J-DOG]

Sorry, I'm as big a fan of Emmitt as anyone, but count me on the side of putting Barry ahead of Emmitt (and I watched both play growing up). Barry would have had the career rushing title if he hadn't retired (he had way more yards than Emmitt at the same points in their careers), and despite the comments on his negative yard plays, he still had a much higher career yards per carry average than Emmitt. And while I've seen some comments that Emmitt was a better receiver, statistics don't bear that out either.

And this despite playing on a perenially bad/mediocre team in which opponents could key on him all day while Emmitt got to play along side a HOF quarterback, HOF wide receiver, and all-pro offensive line. If both players had had to swap teams for their careers, I could have seen Barry flourishing while I'm sure Emmitt would definitely have struggled more.

To me if you have to take out your rb once you get inside the 5 yd line it's a no brainer who I would pick. Emmitt did the dirty work that rb's must do. Whether it was picking up blitzes or getting the tough yards inside the 5 yd line.
I don't want to hear about the O-line either. We had count'em...no first round picks on that line. Tunei a converted d-linemen was no blue chipper.Eric Williams and Larry Allen were small school diamonds in the rough. Nate Newton was cut before he came to the Cowboys and was not seen as a great linemen. Even Stepnoski was seen as undersized for his position.
Did our O-line make Emmitt's career or did Emmitt make our O-line look great?
Chicken vs the egg arguement.
Don't get me started about the level of competition between Barry's division and the NFC EAST. Not even close.
More yards than Emmitt at the same time of thier career...I could argue TD's and playoff performances.
I think Barry was a great rb but it's a no brainer that Emmitt was the better rb in my opinion.

 

[THUMPER]

I love Emmitt Smith, but only a homer would actually see him as the best RB of all time.

Not necessarily. I don't consider myself a homer when comparing players' careers as Emmitt is the only Cowboy I have as my top player at any position (except for DT where I list Bob Lilly as the best ever but that is not in any way quantifiable).

With Emmitt it IS quantifiable and I have done so. The problem is that most people look strictly at average yards per carry or total yards and those are not good indicators of a RB's TOTAL contribution to the game. Based on all of the factors I have available, Emmitt comes out as the best ever with Payton & Brown very close behind him.

He had longevity, and he had a ProBowl OL, along with a balanced attack with HOF QB and WR. Emmitt was great, but does anyone think he could have come close to what Sanders did in Detroit? really?

I would not argue that Barry Sanders was better than Emmitt, but Sanders did incredible things and did what had to be done to give Detroit any chance of winning, which included gambling that resulted in lost yardage. Emmitt had lots of negative runs towards the end of his career when our OL and QB sucked too.

These guys are looking at the pure RB skills and probably trying to imagine if all the players listed had run behind the same OL with the same team around them...that's the only way to really try and be fair.

No that's actually not a fair way to compare players at all because it is pure speculation. A player plays for the team and with the teammates he has and produces what he does based on a nearly infinite number of factors. Styles of the individual players themselves comes into play as does the style of offense, how often they were ahead, the balance between pass & run, how well their defense played, how good the competition was, etc.

Playing "what if" games doesn't work very well when comparing players because we are not comparing potential but actual production.

I don't think I would have put Barry ahead of Emmitt myself, mostly because I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan for life, but I can imagine what Barry might have done behind that Dallas OL and in that offense, and anyone who doesn't think his numbers would have been enhanced quite substancially is not being fair...switch Barry and Emmitt, and I have no doubt Barry would have surpassed Peyton's record 2-3 years before he retired...at least.

However, the total yards would still not automatically make him the greatest RB ever...I fully support keeping Jim Brown right there, and I agree with Tomlinson's spot as I think he's been overrated as well. I don't care how many yards Tomlinson ends up with, I'd never put him ahead of Emmitt until he has a "heart" game like the one where Emmitt put our team on his back with a separated shoulder.

I can also guess that Gayle Sayers would be listed much higher if he hadn't had his career shortened by injury...also makes you wonder where Campbell and Dorsett are in the overall mix.

Barry Sanders DID have a great O-Line blocking for him and they hated it. Kevin Glover (a perennial pro-bowler) said that he hated blocking for Barry because Sanders never ran where he was supposed to run. If he didn't see a big hole for him then he would cut back and look for another way. He would not have benefited from playing behind our O-Line as he was not the same style runner that Emmitt was.

Emmitt didn't need as much of a hole to run through and was more of a power runner than a finesse, cutback type like Sanders. Barry also took major losses at times and put his team in 2nd or 3rd & long way more often than Emmitt did. Emmitt didn't have as many long runs as Barry but he had a dramatic number more for positive yardage that kept drives alive and didn't put his team in bad situations.

To say that Sanders didn't play with any other good players is to be blind to who else was on his team. He had one of the top WRs in the game in Herman Moore as well as guys like Brett Perriman & Johnnie Morton. Scott Mitchell threw for more than 4000 yards one year with the Lions.

The year Barry ran for over 2000 yards (1997) the Lions had 2 1000 yard WRs in Moore & Morton. In fact, that happened 3 years in a row from 1995-1997.

Sanders was also taken out in short yardage and goalline situations which helps his average per carry look good.

Barry Sanders was an exciting runner and one of the best pure runners I've ever seen but he was not a winner and performed poorly in the playoffs. He also quit on his team and lost his desire to play so playing the "what if" game doesn't take into account the heart, or lack thereof, of the player. Emmitt had it and Barry didn't.

 

[dfense]

It's extremely tough to catagorize the best of their era. I have a few problems with the list.

Jim Brown- A man amongst boys at the time, literally. He was a power big man who ran against some lineman that he outweighed. When defensive tackles ran around 235 to 250 and DB's were 180 soaking wet. You can't help but wonder how he's fair against today's players.

Sanders- Incredible stop on a dime swivel hips, change of direction and speed. Was taken out of the game on short yardage and goal line. Had more tackles for loss than any Rb in the top 50 all-time. Oh, that's right, I forgot about the old "If Barry Sanders had the Cowboys line" excuse.

OJ Simpson- I don't care how many people he killed, he should be higher on the list. He had the complete package as a runner. Some say he was more a power back, I thought he was a slasher. ha ha

 

[BAT]

Either you are too young to remember or you forget, Detroit ran a run & shoot offense where they would spread the field with WRs. This system was designed to spread the opposing Ds so Barry had the biggest holes to run through. His speed, cutback ability and size made this system ideal for him, unlike the power scheme that Emmitt ran in.

Only later in his career did Barry run behind a FB, and he hated it.

It is nice to play what ifs, but the fact remains, Emmitt was absolutely the best in the post season, when championships are won.

I love Emmitt Smith, but only a homer would actually see him as the best RB of all time.

He had longevity, and he had a ProBowl OL, along with a balanced attack with HOF QB and WR. Emmitt was great, but does anyone think he could have come close to what Sanders did in Detroit? really?

I would not argue that Barry Sanders was better than Emmitt, but Sanders did incredible things and did what had to be done to give Detroit any chance of winning, which included gambling that resulted in lost yardage. Emmitt had lots of negative runs towards the end of his career when our OL and QB sucked too.

These guys are looking at the pure RB skills and probably trying to imagine if all the players listed had run behind the same OL with the same team around them...that's the only way to really try and be fair.

I don't think I would have put Barry ahead of Emmitt myself, mostly because I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan for life, but I can imagine what Barry might have done behind that Dallas OL and in that offense, and anyone who doesn't think his numbers would have been enhanced quite substancially is not being fair...switch Barry and Emmitt, and I have no doubt Barry would have surpassed Peyton's record 2-3 years before he retired...at least.

However, the total yards would still not automatically make him the greatest RB ever...I fully support keeping Jim Brown right there, and I agree with Tomlinson's spot as I think he's been overrated as well. I don't care how many yards Tomlinson ends up with, I'd never put him ahead of Emmitt until he has a "heart" game like the one where Emmitt put our team on his back with a separated shoulder.

I can also guess that Gayle Sayers would be listed much higher if he hadn't had his career shortened by injury...also makes you wonder where Campbell and Dorsett are in the overall mix.

 

[FanSince61]

I watched him play and the guy was the most dominant runner I've ever seen.

I agree and I set a the Cotton Bowl and watch him run all over the Cowboys.

A 70+ yard TD run I saw on September 2, 1963 at the Cotton Bowl. The defensive backs could not catch him. Besides being big, he was fast.

Click on picture to see the video.
http://i276.***BLOCKED***/albums/kk12/FanSince61/th_JimBrown2.jpg

 

[THUMPER]

I agree and I set a the Cotton Bowl and watch him run all over the Cowboys.

A 70+ yard TD run I saw on September 2, 1963 at the Cotton Bowl. The defensive backs could not catch him. Besides being big, he was fast.

http://smg.***BLOCKED***/albums/v299/bluegtx/?action=view&current=JimBrown_CottonBowl.flvhttp://i276.***BLOCKED***/albums/kk12/FanSince61/th_JimBrown2.jpg

The other thing about Jim Brown was that he never got hurt. If he would have had more desire to continue playing he could have put the record out of reach.

He was also an excellent receiver. About the only thing he wasn't good at was blocking, he just didn't like to do it. He figured that if he was going to take a hit then he ought to have the ball.