Who do you think is the top running back of all time?

Question

Never mind what the record books say, in your opinion, who is the best running back of all time?

Answer 1

Barry Sanders, hands down.

At the time of his retirement, Sanders' 15,269 career rushing yards placed him second behind Walter Payton's 16,726 yards. At Sanders' then-current yearly yardage pace, he would have eclipsed Payton within one or two years. Barry retired in his prime, which shocked the whole NFL community.

Now that was seven years ago. Averaging 1500 yards per season, with his last 5 seasons of 1883, 1500, 1553, 2053, 1491, respectively. Now over these seven years, lets say he only played for 4 of those seven years at 1500 per year, or that over those seven years he only averaged 900 yards a season (a small injury hurt his performance or what have you). His total yards would still have been over 22,000. He would have surpassed Payton and Smith would never have come close to being the all time rushing champion.

That's why I feel that Sanders was the greatest back of all time.

Answer 2

Jim Brown. He played nine seasons and led the NFL in rushing eight times. His 12,312 career rushing yards were the best all-time when he retired, putting him almost 4000 yards ahead of Jim Taylor. His first four seasons were 12 game seasons and his last five were 14 game seasons. He played in a time not driven by statistics and his stats are incredible. Every opponent keyed on stopping Brown and most of them could not. He was a combination of strength, speed and determination that allowed him to dominate the league like no other running back ever has. The more modern running backs have 16 game seasons, bye weeks and work at compiling statistics. Brown retired at the top of his game after nine seasons and it still took over twenty years before someone broke his record (Walter Payton). The fact that he is no longer number one on the all-time rushing list does not diminish the fact that he is the greatest running back of all-time.

Answer 3

Barry Sanders. Easily. He is one of two running backs of all time to have a career AVERAGE of 5+ yards per carry. He and Jim Brown are the only two that have done it. Jim Brown played on a better team than Barry Sanders. Barry Sanders didn't have an offensive line or really anybody that could block at all. All of his stats came from raw talent. It's too bad the Lions weren't willing to draft anybody else useful so that he could have been on a good team. Had Barry Sanders been drafted by the Cowboys instead of Emmitt Smith (arguably the best offensive line of all time), he would have put up numbers nobody would ever be able to reach.

Answer 4

Jim Brown will always be the best running back in my mind. Brown was a beastly rusher who was almost impossible to tackle. For his career, he has the highest Yards Per Carry average (>5). No one has been able to match his skill at running the ball. One year, he set the NFL record with 1883 yards rushing in a 12 or 14 game season. He also had healthy touchdown totals. Because of Brown's uncanny ability to make would-be tacklers miss, he is the greatest back in the history of the NFL.

--The Sports Guru

Answer 5

I have always liked Curtis Martin and Tiki Barber. Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith are the top running backs of all time.

Answer 6

Walter Payton

Answer 7

Emmit Smith

Answer 8

Barry sanders, the only guy to have a 2000 yard season in college AND in the NFL.

Answer 9

it is a no brainer JIM BROWN look at his numbers and how little time it took him to accomplish them if he would have played as long as emmitt he would be the all time leading rusher plus look at all the championships he brought to cleveland there has been none since that means the browns need to draft adrian peterson to get the running game back

Answer 10

Eric Dickerson or Walter Payton