Lawrence Taylor top 3 NFL greatest RBs

[MarcusRock]

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

What did I say about slander? At the point you need to do that before making an argument, your argument is the weaker one and needs help.

As I've said before, when you have the most yards of any running back ever yet still feel the need to go on the offensive about others who don't have as many, that is pretty telling that even those people know the yardage ain't enough.

 

[AstroPilota]

Agree with the statement that it's almost impossible or unfair to rate any player across eras. At the end of the book, the only concrete evidence we have are stats. I think we all can at least agree, Brown, then Payton and finally Smith all worked for and deserve the stats they generated. There are other guys that maybe, probably, would have generated the same results given similar situations:

Eric Dickerson - deceptively fast, was a gazelle. Beautiful stride made everyone look slow.
Tomlinson was more like Emmitt than anyone else in this discussion.
OJ Simpson and Dorsett were very similar RB's - pure, prototypical perfect backs. They both had more potential on tap.
Earl Campbell - what a man! Dude was a freight train. His style was not condusive to a long career, but fun while it lasted.
Bo Jackson - a lightweight Earl Campbell with speed. Too bad he jacked around with two sports and then the hip went out.

I could go on, there's a few more that deserve accolades. This discussion is like any other greatest-at-their position arguement.

 

[mrmojo]

Emmit was the best Big Game RB I ever saw and one of the greatest pure football players I ever saw. He did everything that was needed to win a football game. He hardly came out of the game and was always making plays when the game was on the line ( I love Dorsett, but he wasnt always in there in these moments, its was either Springs, Preston or Laidlaw).

Barry has all the Oooo's and Ahhh's but if I want to win a championship, its Emmitt every day and Sunday.

 

[TheMightyVanHalen]

No argument here but some may switch the order.........

4th and goal at the 1, down by 4, with a second left in the SB, with an average O-line, I'm giving the ball to Earl Campbell. I know I'm biased because I wanted to be like him, I wore his number, and I watched him play in person many times as a Longhorn since my dad was a HUGE Longhorn fan, that's who I'm giving the ball to. IYKYK

Soon as my coaches saw me run knock-kneed and slew footed with the athleticism of Navin R. Johnson, I never got to play RB. Boo!

Earl carried the Oilers on his back for years. If it wasn't for the Steelers, we would've had a Texas Super Bowl. His O-line wasn't that good. The whole team wasn't that good. My God, they were coached by a Bum. Lol They ran him into the ground. Not saying he's the GOAT, but he's my pick for the most underrated RB of all time. With a good team, who knows. But that can be said about a lot of RB's.

 

[fivetwos]

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?

Really the same stuff as when it was going on.

The bottom line, for me anyway, is that if you swapped the two of them, the Lions would have won more and the Cowboys may not have been as effective as they were. The peak Emmitt teams controlled the LOS, and the clock, and consequently the game. Not sure they do that with Sanders but we will never know.

I’m shocked I got this deep into this topic lol.

 

[AstroPilota]

Emmit was the best Big Game RB I ever saw and one of the greatest pure football players I ever saw. He did everything that was needed to win a football game. He hardly came out of the game and was always making plays when the game was on the line ( I love Dorsett, but he wasnt always in there in these moments, its was either Springs, Preston or Laidlaw).

Barry has all the Oooo's and Ahhh's but if I want to win a championship, its Emmitt every day and Sunday.

In Dorsett's defense, Landry didn't lean on him like Johnson leaned on Smith. Emmitt did have heart though, he was the engine that drove the team.

 

[fivetwos]

Agree with the statement that it's almost impossible or unfair to rate any player across eras. At the end of the book, the only concrete evidence we have are stats. I think we all can at least agree, Brown, then Payton and finally Smith all worked for and deserve the stats they generated. There are other guys that maybe, probably, would have generated the same results given similar situations:

Eric Dickerson - deceptively fast, was a gazelle. Beautiful stride made everyone look slow.
Tomlinson was more like Emmitt than anyone else in this discussion.
OJ Simpson and Dorsett were very similar RB's - pure, prototypical perfect backs. They both had more potential on tap.
Earl Campbell - what a man! Dude was a freight train. His style was not condusive to a long career, but fun while it lasted.
Bo Jackson - a lightweight Earl Campbell with speed. Too bad he jacked around with two sports and then the hip went out.

I could go on, there's a few more that deserve accolades. This discussion is like any other greatest-at-their position arguement.

Dickerson stands alone for me, especially out of that group. Not the greatest, but Ive never seen anyone run the way he did. That upright power mixed with deceptive speed. He was great.

Debating the best RB ever is similar to who was better out of Mantle, Ruth, Mays, Williams…etc.

They were all great in different ways.

 

[Chuck 54]

Putting longevity away.
Putting away the big speed plays by guys who didn’t run short yardage or goal line well.

I’ve never seen any RBs better than Jim Brown and Gayle Sayers.

 

[JW82]

I think it's a mistake IMO to not have Faulk/Dickerson/Peterson/Brown on any RB list. But 22 is always number one in our hearts!

 

[MarcusRock]

Really the same stuff as when it was going on.

The bottom line, for me anyway, is that if you swapped the two of them, the Lions would have won more and the Cowboys may not have been as effective as they were. The peak Emmitt teams controlled the LOS, and the clock, and consequently the game. Not sure they do that with Sanders but we will never know.

I’m shocked I got this deep into this topic lol.

As for swapping places, I don't know about that either. When you think of all the untouched home runs Emmitt had, I think Barry would have had all those plus others Emmitt missed or just wasn't quick enough to make the window or make a guy or two miss. I'm not seeing how Emmitt makes the Lions better when they had nothing like Aikman or Irvin/Harper over there. Won't even mention the line or defenses of which Dallas' was clearly superior. He'd have been running against stacked boxes all day. Thing is, Barry did and still pulled a 2,000 yard season.

 

[fivetwos]

As for swapping places, I don't know about that either. When you think of all the untouched home runs Emmitt had, I think Barry would have had all those plus others Emmitt missed or just wasn't quick enough to make the window or make a guy or two miss. I'm not seeing how Emmitt makes the Lions better when they had nothing like Aikman or Irvin/Harper over there. Won't even mention the line or defenses of which Dallas' was clearly superior. He'd have been running against stacked boxes all day. Thing is, Barry did and still pulled a 2,000 yard season.

Emmitt consistently got 4-8 yards and kept that team ahead of the chains.

Barry had more carries for lower gains but was more of a home run threat for sure. Yards per carry was useless in assessing his game.

 

[dupree89]

4th and goal at the 1, down by 4, with a second left in the SB, with an average O-line, I'm giving the ball to Earl Campbell. I know I'm biased because I wanted to be like him, I wore his number, and I watched him play in person many times as a Longhorn since my dad was a HUGE Longhorn fan, that's who I'm giving the ball to. IYKYK

Soon as my coaches saw me run knock-kneed and slew footed with the athleticism of Navin R. Johnson, I never got to play RB. Boo!

Earl carried the Oilers on his back for years. If it wasn't for the Steelers, we would've had a Texas Super Bowl. His O-line wasn't that good. The whole team wasn't that good. My God, they were coached by a Bum. Lol They ran him into the ground. Not saying he's the GOAT, but he's my pick for the most underrated RB of all time. With a good team, who knows. But that can be said about a lot of RB's.

give Earl a dip of SKOAL and he could run over everyone! I hope he is okay, I think his health was bad.

 

[cmoney23]

No argument here but some may switch the order.........

Sounds like and looks like AI slop.

 

[csirl]

Dont see Marcus Allen mentioned on tbis thread. Id go with Emmitt, but of the non-Cowboys, Allen is up there with the best.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Adrian Peterson deserves to be on any all-time best running back lists. He reminded me a lot of Walter Payton.

 

[MarcusRock]

Emmitt consistently got 4-8 yards and kept that team ahead of the chains.

Barry had more carries for lower gains but was more of a home run threat for sure. Yards per carry was useless in assessing his game.

For sure agree with you that Emmitt was going to fall forward and probably get you more if nothing was there.

 

[MarcusRock]

Adrian Peterson deserves to be on any all-time best running back lists. He reminded me a lot of Walter Payton.

Me too. I used to say that Peterson ran like an angry Payton.

 

[TheMightyVanHalen]

give Earl a dip of SKOAL and he could run over everyone! I hope he is okay, I think his health was bad.

OMG. Lol Yep. I was going to tell this story, but my post was already too long. But since you mentioned his SKOAL habit. I used to be a night stocker at Handy Andy in San Antonio. He came into our store to give free samples of his sausage. Handy Andy had a football team (Playing in street clothes) that would play other stores who had a team too so everyone in the store knew I admired him. I got to meet him. Super cool dude. Unlike Coach Pop and Tim Duncan who's are pricks to fans on the street, Earl is the opposite. But damn, the dude had the biggest lump of SKOAL I've ever seen in my life. He wore a Cowboy hat and boots and has a ranch; the dude is a true Texan. I've met a lot of sports stars, but Earl and Magic Johnson are my favorites. Magic was super cool too.

 

[MarcusRock]

OMG. Lol Yep. I was going to tell this story, but my post was already too long. But since you mentioned his SKOAL habit. I used to be a night stocker at Handy Andy in San Antonio. He came into our store to give free samples of his sausage. Handy Andy had a football team (Playing in street clothes) that would play other stores who had a team too so everyone in the store knew I admired him. I got to meet him. Super cool dude. Unlike Coach Pop and Tim Duncan who's are pricks to fans on the street, Earl is the opposite. But damn, the dude had the biggest lump of SKOAL I've ever seen in my life. He wore a Cowboy hat and boots and has a ranch; the dude is a true Texan. I've met a lot of sports stars, but Earl and Magic Johnson are my favorites. Magic was super cool too.

Tim Duncan was rude to fans? Or did he just not want to sign everything they shoved in his face? He was not all that engaging of a personality when he played so I wouldn't expect him to be a "life of the party" type in public.

 

[dupree89]

OMG. Lol Yep. I was going to tell this story, but my post was already too long. But since you mentioned his SKOAL habit. I used to be a night stocker at Handy Andy in San Antonio. He came into our store to give free samples of his sausage. Handy Andy had a football team (Playing in street clothes) that would play other stores who had a team too so everyone in the store knew I admired him. I got to meet him. Super cool dude. Unlike Coach Pop and Tim Duncan who's are pricks to fans on the street, Earl is the opposite. But damn, the dude had the biggest lump of SKOAL I've ever seen in my life. He wore a Cowboy hat and boots and has a ranch; the dude is a true Texan. I've met a lot of sports stars, but Earl and Magic Johnson are my favorites. Magic was super cool too.

Yep. Back in the day (70s/ 80s) Earl Campbell was one of the guys that did radio and TV spots for smokeless tobacco. Earl, Walt Garrison, Bobby Murcer, Carlton Fisk...maybe others too but I remember those 4.