Tomlinson is halfway to Emmitt

[Alexander]

I can still admire Emmitt with much respect while being amazed at what Tomlinson has accomplished.

Obviously, you are not a true fan then.

 

[burmafrd]

there are true FOOTBALL fans, then there are true COWBOY fans, and occasionaly, someone who is both.

 

[THUMPER]

I thought it might be nice to compare where Emmitt was after 6 seasons to where Tomlinson is now...

ES - 2007 carries, 8956 yards, 4.46 avg, 96 TDs, 4.78 TD%
LT - 2050 carries, 9176 yards, 4.48 avg, 100 TDs, 4.88 TD%

That is pretty darn close if you ask me! Emmitt wasn't the "feature" back in his rookie year until part way through and had @100 carries less than LT did as a rookie but Emmitt averaged 3.9 yards compared with LT's 3.6 per carry. Emmitt played in 93 games compared with LT's 95, those two games are likely the difference between them as they were the ones Emmitt held out in 1993 when he was at his best.

I think the biggest difference is how much Tomlinson is involved in the Chargers passing game. He has just under 400 receptions compared with Emmitt's 301 after 6 seasons, and nearly 1000 yards more than Emmitt as well.

He could very well end up with more combined yardage but it could shorten his career as well with all those touches.

Someone brought up a great point about LT having a shot if the Chargers stay good. Teams run more when they are ahead and pass more when they are behind. It helped Emmitt that the Cowboys were great for a while and at least good after that and he was able to keep his carries per season above 250 but that's a big drop from the 350 he was averaging in his prime.

LT is averaging 342 carries per season so far and will only keep that up if the Chargers stay good.

 

[Papichulo]

Personally, I don't think LT will age well in this league. He depends on speed to beat people around the corner, and while he does make people miss, once his legs go there is no way he will be able to keep up. Especially after the hits he gets every year from 400+ touches

 

[eduncan22]

Emmitt- 3 Super Bowls
Tomlinson- 0 Super bowls

I don't believe that Emmitt will ever be seriously challenged for the record.

 

[Canadian BoyzFan]

I don't believe that Emmitt will ever be seriously challenged for the record.

LT just had the single best season I have ever seen by a RB to be fair.
Emmitt is and was the man though.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I just saw that LaDanian Tomlinson has 9176 rushing yards and needs 9179 yards to catch Emmitt's 18355 yards

The 9179 will be harder for him to get than the 9176 he already has. He can overcome anything but age. Sooner or later it will catch up to him. It does to everyone.

 

[MONT17]

In the Cold, Wind and Rain... on the road... for the NFC EAST and Homefield advantage!!!


Give me Duece Duece!

 

[scottsp]

LT's was utterly amazing this past season. Love him as a runner!

Hard to believe, but Dominic Rhodes beat him out in all-state honors his senior year in high school. Not that it matters, but I always found that interesting.

 

[joseephuss]

I believe he is far more of an offensive weapon. Running and catching, he is superior.

He had his best season with what amounts to a rookie quarterback, a good tight end, a rookie left tackle and virtually no wide receiver threats on his offense. And he dominated. Take Aikman, Irvin and the OL away from Emmitt Smith, I wonder if you see the same type of production.

I don't like the O-line part of your arguement. The Chargers O-line is pretty darn good. Take that away from LT and see what he can do. That rookie left tackle played very well. Emmitt played well when he had a rookie right tackle in Erik Williams. He also played well when rookie Larry Allen came into the league. The expectations may be lowered because those guys were rookies, but they didn't perform like rookies. LT and Emmitt have very similar lines.

I agree with the QB part because Aikman is better than Rivers, but it isn't as if Troy was a very experierenced vet when Emmitt was coming on. Troy played his rookie season without Emmitt and then they grew together.

No question at all on the receivers. Irvin tops the entire San Diego corp.

Gates > Novacek in my opinion.

 

[superpunk]

Records are made to be broken. If it's got to be broken by someone, Tomlinson is as good a guy as any to do it.

 

[Cliff]

Emmitt- 3 Super Bowls
Tomlinson- 0 Super bowls

Amen!.... This, my friends, is THE difference....

 

[DawnOfANewD]

Amen!.... This, my friends, is THE difference....

So Trent Dilfer is better than Dan Marino ever was because Dilfer has more SB rings? Don't think so.

Plus, Tomlinson doesn't have a HOF WR like Irvin to take some of the load off him.

 

[Cliff]

So Trent Dilfer is better than Dan Marino ever was because Dilfer has more SB rings? Don't think so.

Plus, Tomlinson doesn't have a HOF WR like Irvin to take some of the load off him.

apples and oranges.... ES carried his teams.... LT is a great runner, don't get me wrong - but, c'mon, his whiney behavior after they were eliminated - no excuse for that.... THAT's the difference - ES never comported himself in such a biotch manner

 

[THUMPER]

Plus, Tomlinson doesn't have a HOF WR like Irvin to take some of the load off him.

I find this to be a pretty weak argument actually. I saw a lot of this back in the Emmitt vs Barry debates and it really doesn't hold water.

A RB is judged by how productive he is when he gets the ball. It really doesn't matter that much if he has 3 Pro-Bowl receivers on the field with him or not, he still has to hit the hole and make yardage. Now it may benefit him some to have the safety playing deep cover but they usually don't on 1st down regardless of who the WRs are.

Most teams with great RBs like to run more than pass, why not when your RB can gain yards consistently. The Lions with Sanders, the Bears with Walter, and the Chargers with LT are that way by design.

Barry had Herman Moore and Brett Perriman at WR, he also had a couple of perennial pro-bowlers blocking for him but he rarely used them. Lions Center Kevin Glover said he hated blocking for Barry because he never went where the play was designed to go and all of the OLs had to scramble to figure out who to block as Barry was dancing around in the backfield. He also said that it hurt the team too many times because he would kill drives by losing yards but that when he broke loose there was no one who was more exciting to watch. The worst part about blocking for Barry was that the likelihood of an OL getting injured was greater because they were out of position and couldn't set their feet properly.

LT has some excellent receivers in Gates and McCardell as well as some very good OLs (2 in the PB), a PB QB in Rivers, and the best lead-blocking FB in the game today in Lorenzo Neal. So I don't think the argument holds water that Emmitt had better talent around him which made it easier for him to do what he did.

The same is true of Walter Payton. People who didn't get to actually watch him play don't realize that the Bears were designed as a running team with excellent OLs and a complimentary RB alongside Payton. In fact in 1978 when Payton led the league in rushing with 1395 yards, his running mate, Roland Harper had 992 yards rushing.

No one makes excuses for the Dolphins RBs of the early 70s (Csonka, Kiick, & Morris) when they ran 65% of the time because that was how the team was designed. Payton was on a team designed to run the ball. LT is on a team designed primarily to run the ball. If anything, Emmitt was on a team that was designed to be balanced and so got fewer opportunities to carry the ball than LT.

The only thing the talent around a RB does for him is get a lead or not. If you are behind then you are more likely to throw a lot trying to catch up. If you have a lead then you run more to eat up the clock. But now you are talking about the entire team, offense, defense, & STs, not simply WRs.

 

[TheSkaven]

I've been watching football for 30 years now and I believe that he's the best that I have ever seen. Yes, that includes Emmitt. I never saw Jim Brown or Gale Sayers so I can't compare him to those old school type backs.

Like Emmitt, Tomlinson is also very durable.

So yes, I think that he breaks the record. I don't want to see him do it, and I hate rooting against players, but I think that it will happen.

 

[2much2soon]

I believe he is far more of an offensive weapon. Running and catching, he is superior.

He had his best season with what amounts to a rookie quarterback, a good tight end, a rookie left tackle and virtually no wide receiver threats on his offense. And he dominated. Take Aikman, Irvin and the OL away from Emmitt Smith, I wonder if you see the same type of production.

It would of been pretty tough without an oline :laugh2:

Seriously, though, I always thought Emmitt set the table for everyone on Dallas' offense. And even for the defense to some degree since those clock eating drives that Emmitt was a large part of kept them off the field for long stretches.
I know this has been argued to death on this board, but the oline was mostly a bunch of castoffs and underacheivers before they started blocking for Emmitt. Nate Newton, for one, has always taken that position.
That '90s team won a few games without Aikman (Garrett, Kosar) but they were less likely to win without Irvin and when Emmitt sat out those 2 games over his contract they looked like a completely different team.

 

[jazzcat22]

I say NO. But if he does, congrats to LT. And he did grow up idolizing Emmitt. Now the TD record, is very possibe, more than the rushing record. Wear and tear will not let him average 1500 yards a season for the next 6. He will have some more very good years and may seem on the pace to break it. But all of a sudden it can change. Look at Curtis Martin. Looked as if he had a chance. Even though I never thougght realistically he did. Then an injury took him out of the running. [no pun intended]

 

[CATCH17]

I believe he is far more of an offensive weapon. Running and catching, he is superior.

He had his best season with what amounts to a rookie quarterback, a good tight end, a rookie left tackle and virtually no wide receiver threats on his offense. And he dominated. Take Aikman, Irvin and the OL away from Emmitt Smith, I wonder if you see the same type of production.

Emmitt was going to be good regardless of who was around him.

He was one of the best Highschool runners of all time and he was great in college too.

Plus Dallas sucked until Emmitt got there.

Emmitt when he was young was going to produce bigtime and be one of the leagues best anywhere he would've gone. Including if he started his career with the Chargers of today.

 

[CoCo]

LT is certainly a very real threat to that NFL career rushing record. But as many have pointed out, another 9k yards is a long way to go and it is impossible to know how LT will age.

I think the odds are against any RB gaining another 9k yards once they reach 27 years old. But then those odds are also against any RB gaining 9k by age 27 and LT already did that. It'll be fun to watch and I think Emmitt's place as one of the all-time greats will be secure no matter what.

I think its really cool that he owns that record but it won't be the end of the world if someone steps up and breaks it. And yeah, LT is a class act to boot.