LT shows Emmitt's rushing record may be one of sports' latest unbreakable records...

[Venger]

Adrian Peterson is the only back in pro football who can break this record.

And if he stays healthy, he will shatter it.

Of course, with AP, that's a huge if.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Portis is the only one out there right now who I think has a real legit shot at it but he'll fall short. The Commanders aren't nearly good enough to keep him healthy and they'll run him to death so he'll fall well short.

AP could, possibly, maybe, one day challenge for it but he's going to have to stay healthy for a very long time and with AP that is always a big if and concern.

Emmitt just may hold that record for a very, very, very long time.

 

[Bungarian]

Adding more games to the regular season will make a lot of records fall.

 

[TNCowboy]

And my logical response to that is "why aren't any of those linemen in the hall of fame?"

One of them will be, and one of them would have been if he hadn't wrapped his car around a concrete support (or whatever he hit).

But for the most part, those Cowboys lines were composed of guys who were considered journeymen before Emmitt, Aikman, and Irvin hit their stride.

 

[Reality]

When RBs approach 30 the tread starts wearing off quickly. Emmitt and Marcus Allen were two who played well into their 30's but even they dropped off.

The difference was Emmitt's situation. Emmitt got slower, but because he was a lifelong star of his team, he was still featured as the primary running back longer than a non-lifelong star would have been. He was the last of the triplets so he probably got a little more slack than a younger less prominent running back would have received.

Obviously luck with injuries helped but NFL teams and even fans to some degree had more patience with players back then. Now, a star player has a bad game and the "we need to sign ..." or "we need to start ..." rants begin immediately. While there was some of that attitude back then, Emmitt still had a warm spot in many of our hearts for what he contributed and meant to the Cowboys during the 90's.

Of course it didn't hurt that we had no super star running back on the roster to replace him. I mean Hambrick was his replacement and most Cowboys fans never believed he would be a good running back. Even most of the fans who did want Hambrick to start did so more out of the desire to have a younger and fresher set of legs no matter who was next in line.

The desire, or rather demand, to succeed in today's huge NFL market, high expectation environment combined with a shift toward the running back by committee approach that more and more teams are moving to will make it very hard for even better running backs than Sanders, Smith, etc. to eclipse the rushing record.

Sometimes, being in the right place and being lucky with injuries plays a big role. There are some great running backs that had short careers due to injuries or else the record books might have had a lot of different names for running back records.

-Reality

 

[AdamJT13]

And my logical response to that is "why aren't any of those linemen in the hall of fame?"

Because anyone could block for Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Jay Novacek and Moose Johnston.

/Begin circular argument

 

[skinsscalper]

Portis is the only one out there right now who I think has a real legit shot at it but he'll fall short. The Commanders aren't nearly good enough to keep him healthy and they'll run him to death so he'll fall well short.

AP could, possibly, maybe, one day challenge for it but he's going to have to stay healthy for a very long time and with AP that is always a big if and concern.

Emmitt just may hold that record for a very, very, very long time.

AP seems like a tightly wound athlete, physically (if that makes any sense). It's typically guys like that that end up tearing ACLs and hamstrings. AP also has a punishing running style. He's young and he's getting away with pounding away at guys, but that running style doesn't lend itself to longevity. At some point, the age and the carries will start to take it's toll and Peterson will go the way of Tomlinson. Absolutely amazing for a 4-6 year stretch and then start to fade.

Emmitt's record is safe for a long long time.

 

[AdamJT13]

When RBs approach 30 the tread starts wearing off quickly. Emmitt and Marcus Allen were two who played well into their 30's but even they dropped off.

Allen lasted a long time because he was almost never a full-time back. He had more than 280 carries only once in his career and broke 210 only four times.

 

[AdamJT13]

I was just talking about this yesterday on the commute home. LT looked like he was not only going to break Emmitt's record, but smash it.

Tomlinson has never been close to Emmitt's yardage total at the same age. Until someone can go be AHEAD of Emmitt's total going into age 30, there's almost no chance that they'll break the record.

Tomlinson is 860 yards behind Emmitt at the same age. Portis is 965 yards behind. Adrian Peterson is 932 yards behind (he was more than 1,100 behind going into the season, but Emmitt held out his first two games at this age). Matching Emmitt's production is difficult enough, let alone matching his longevity.

 

[jazzcat22]

This came across my mind watching LT in Week 1. He's clearly lost several steps at 30 years old, and apparently has been relegated to committee back with Sproles. He's still 7,000 yards behind Emmitt. It's hard to imagine a runningback having a more dominating 7 year span of production in their prime years than LT did from 2002 to 2008 ... and he's still only at 60% of the yards needed to catch Emmitt.

Every year defenders get bigger, faster and stronger, and consequently runningbacks careers will get shorter and shorter. RB by committee is getting more and more popular as teams try to limit the abuse their runningbacks take, and utilize the opportunity to put more specialized players and packages on the field. With all these trends it makes me think Emmitt's record may be to runningbacks what Cy Youngs win record is to baseball pitchers. The right player at the right time in the right era of the sport that will never appear again.

Won't be too long before people will start talking about Peterson possibly breaking Emmitt's record. Yes too soon, but it will happen.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The difference was Emmitt's situation. Emmitt got slower, but because he was a lifelong star of his team, he was still featured as the primary running back longer than a non-lifelong star would have been. He was the last of the triplets so he probably got a little more slack than a younger less prominent running back would have received.

Obviously luck with injuries helped but NFL teams and even fans to some degree had more patience with players back then. Now, a star player has a bad game and the "we need to sign ..." or "we need to start ..." rants begin immediately. While there was some of that attitude back then, Emmitt still had a warm spot in many of our hearts for what he contributed and meant to the Cowboys during the 90's.

Of course it didn't hurt that we had no super star running back on the roster to replace him. I mean Hambrick was his replacement and most Cowboys fans never believed he would be a good running back. Even most of the fans who did want Hambrick to start did so more out of the desire to have a younger and fresher set of legs no matter who was next in line.

The desire, or rather demand, to succeed in today's huge NFL market, high expectation environment combined with a shift toward the running back by committee approach that more and more teams are moving to will make it very hard for even better running backs than Sanders, Smith, etc. to eclipse the rushing record.

Sometimes, being in the right place and being lucky with injuries plays a big role. There are some great running backs that had short careers due to injuries or else the record books might have had a lot of different names for running back records.

-Reality

well said.

Being lucky is a factor that is often overlooked.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

All Emmitt cared about late in his career was the rushing record. It was so much of a big deal that our team suffered from giving the old worn out, shell of Emmitt carries when our team should have moved on. Kudos for getting the record, Emmitt. But you should be thankful you had an owner who cared about it as much as you did.

 

[AdamJT13]

All Emmitt cared about late in his career was the rushing record. It was so much of a big deal that our team suffered from giving the old worn out, shell of Emmitt carries when our team should have moved on. Kudos for getting the record, Emmitt. But you should be thankful you had an owner who cared about it as much as you did.

In each of Emmitt's last two years in Dallas, at ages 32 and 33, he had more yards AND a higher YPC while playing for a terrible team than a 25-year-old Marion Barber did last year while playing for a good-to-very good team.

 

[Skinsmaniac]

In each of Emmitt's last two years in Dallas, at ages 32 and 33, he had more yards AND a higher YPC while playing for a terrible team than a 25-year-old Marion Barber did last year while playing for a good-to-very good team.

Which frankly says more about Barber than it does about Smith. 3.8 and 3.9 yards per carry is not very good. Emmitt was out of gas those last two years, but the team couldn't bear to force him out.

Edit: Troy Hambrick's yards/carry was much better than Emmitt's those last two years. That's saying something.

 

[lqmac1]

This came across my mind watching LT in Week 1. He's clearly lost several steps at 30 years old, and apparently has been relegated to committee back with Sproles. He's still 7,000 yards behind Emmitt. It's hard to imagine a runningback having a more dominating 7 year span of production in their prime years than LT did from 2002 to 2008 ... and he's still only at 60% of the yards needed to catch Emmitt.

Every year defenders get bigger, faster and stronger, and consequently runningbacks careers will get shorter and shorter. RB by committee is getting more and more popular as teams try to limit the abuse their runningbacks take, and utilize the opportunity to put more specialized players and packages on the field. With all these trends it makes me think Emmitt's record may be to runningbacks what Cy Youngs win record is to baseball pitchers. The right player at the right time in the right era of the sport that will never appear again.

sorry but I def did'nt think that before but he proved me wrong once again that record will belong to Adrian Peterson, tuh and I passed on him and took forte my #1 overall fantasy pick :bang2: :bang2: :bang2:

 

[speedkilz88]

Which frankly says more about Barber than it does about Smith. 3.8 and 3.9 yards per carry is not very good. Emmitt was out of gas those last two years, but the team couldn't bear to force him out.

Edit: Troy Hambrick's yards/carry was much better than Emmitt's those last two years. That's saying something.

Yeah, that it's easier to be the change of pace backup.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

In each of Emmitt's last two years in Dallas, at ages 32 and 33, he had more yards AND a higher YPC while playing for a terrible team than a 25-year-old Marion Barber did last year while playing for a good-to-very good team.

Your more yards argument doesn't carry much weight because we now use a running back by committee. As far as YPC, it couldn't be by much. Not to mention, in Emmitt's last two years it was easier to give up the run rather than to give up the pass. It's not like we could do either.

In any case, I'll always resent Emmitt playing here late in his career. He wanted nothing but the record. He's a limelight guy. It's not like we ever see Barry Sanders on Dancing with the Stars.

 

[AdamJT13]

Which frankly says more about Barber than it does about Smith. 3.8 and 3.9 yards per carry is not very good.

It's not that bad, either. Tomlinson has averaged that or worse for three of his first eight seasons, and Ryan Grant and Matt Forte both averaged 3.9 last year in their "breakout" seasons.

 

[Skinsmaniac]

It's not that bad, either. Tomlinson has averaged that or worse for three of his first eight seasons, and Ryan Grant and Matt Forte both averaged 3.9 last year in their "breakout" seasons.

If you're arguing that Matt Forte isn't a very good running back (other than for fantasy purposes), you're not going to get any argument from me.

 

[AdamJT13]

Your more yards argument doesn't carry much weight because we now use a running back by committee.

We did then, too.

In 2001, Emmitt had 261 carries, and our other backs had 154.

In 2002, Emmitt had 254, and our other two backs had 111.

Last year, Barber had 238, and our other backs had 124.

They both had 66 percent of the team's running attempts (Emmitt had one season slightly higher and one slightly lower).

Not to mention, in Emmitt's last two years it was easier to give up the run rather than to give up the pass. It's not like we could do either.

So you're saying it's easier to run the ball when teams have to defend Chad Hutchinson and Quincy Carter than when they have to defend Tony Romo?