Best runningback of all time

[RememberMe12]

Re: Best runningback of all time

C'mon guys. You should see my bias a mile away. But seriously, I would agree with Jim Brown.

[SPTO]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Long time ago I gave my pick of Walter Payton and I stick by it. I was able to watch a game from his last season where he was basically a glorified FB for Neal Anderson. In this particular game Payton got more action than usual and while you can tell his best days were behind him he still made some good meaningful yardage on the ground and caught a couple passes. He also did some great work in a blocking capacity that most RBs today wouldn't want to do if their lives depended on it.

Walter Payton was the best RB i've seen hands down. No doubt about it!

[iLLmatic]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Are there even 51 people on here who have ever SEEN Jim Brown play in a game live and not just highlights from NFL Films and discussions about him from Chuck Bednarik and other former greats?

This, IMO, should factor into this discussion, as others have noted earlier. Hearsay and word of mouth is good, but to actually have witnessed the players on that list play is stronger than a segment on ESPN showing highlights of these players. I can say i have seen everyone on that list play except for Brown and in fact, I have a hard time seeing Faulk mentioned in this discussion. No knock, but where is Dorsett and Marcus Allen's names? They were both better RB's than Faulk.

Also, the fact that Eric Dickerson has only 2 votes and Faulk has 6 is comical. Faulk wasn't even the best RB in Rams history when compared to Dickerson, who was BY FAR the best running back of the 80's. From 1983, his rookie season, to 1989, he ran for 11,226 yards on 2,450 carries. He averaged 400+ carries in those 6 years. And that is 400+ carries on a 6'4 235 LB body that was taking all sorts of punishment that a smaller back wouldn't come close to taking.

Marshall Faulk in a 11 year career, ran for 12,279 and only carried the ball 300+ times 2 times. Dickerson was clearing ran down by the overuse in those years and it slowed his career down and its because of this, I really think a lot of people don't really understand how good he was. But I guess that's why we love polls.

[SPTO]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Also, the fact that Eric Dickerson has only 2 votes and Faulk has 6 is comical. Faulk wasn't even the best RB in Rams history when compared to Dickerson, who was BY FAR the best running back of the 80's. From 1983, his rookie season, to 1989, he ran for 11,226 yards on 2,450 carries. He averaged 400+ carries in those 6 years. And that is 400+ carries on a 6'4 235 LB body that was taking all sorts of punishment that a smaller back wouldn't come close to taking.

Marshall Faulk in a 11 year career, ran for 12,279 and only carried the ball 300+ times 2 times. Dickerson was clearing ran down by the overuse in those years and it slowed his career down and its because of this, I really think a lot of people don't really understand how good he was. But I guess that's why we love polls.

I think it's basically because most people here were just little kids ore weren't even born during Dickerson's time that's affecting some of the voting. In fact, I believe if there was a larger age cross-section we'd have a far more diverse set of opinions in here.

I've seen quite a bit of Dickerson and I agree the guy was a super talent and the very definition of a workhorse however his legacy is tarnished a bit with the way he left LA and his whining about the O-Line when he was with Indy. The way the last 3-4 years of his career went doesn't help the "institutional memory" for him. I believe if we had some older guys on here his name would be mentioned more often. They wouldn't call him the greatest ever but they'd certainly mention him in passing.

[TheBrothers24]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Yeah out of the people on that list the only RBs I've seen play were Barry, Emmitt, Marshall and Ladainian. I was born in 87 so I missed everybody else. If anything we need two separate polls, one for "Best running back of all time" and other for "Best running back you've seen play" because those are two different answers for me.

Best RB of all time for me is Jim Brown only based on his accomplishments and the stats he had. Averaging 100 yrds per game and over 5 yrds per attempt in your career is legendary. Add on not ever missing a single game is even better. Yes, this all from what I heard an highlights but doesn't change the fact that it's true.

Now the best RB I've seen play is Barry. Two different questions and answers for me.

[Hova57]

Re: Best runningback of all time

The historical choice would be Jim Brown for what he accomplished in a short period of time. OJ is very underated because of his recent current issues, but was a great runningback for the bills he was their offense. Earl Campbell was a work horse and was a big running back hard to bring down, but he had a decent offense to work with. Dickerson I am old enough to have seen him play, though it was toward the end of his career a good player fast. Was a dying bread at the time. That brings me to Barry, Emmitt, Marshall and Walter. In my world Barry and Walter are tied I've seen them both play and make crazy moves and runs. Marshall was the best recieving rb since Roger Craig. Making him more of threat cause he could be covered by a linebacker or safety. Then you have Emmitt he holds the record for most career rushing yards. I have a personal bias cause he was a cowboy, but also he had the best offense of all the runningbacks. But he was great he made plays to get his team in a good position. So I didn't vote plus my favorite runningback of all time isn't on the list that is Thurman Thomas. A great runningback he could run between the tackles he could run outside and next to marshall faulk the best screen rb ever.

[The15thunter]

Re: Best runningback of all time

for me, the best of all time is jim brown. if you're over 30, then the best you've seen is walter payton. if you're under 30, the best you've seen is emmitt smith. the most exciting for the 40 and under crew is barry sanders. all-time, it's probably a tie between barry and gale.

[Lop_Huckawuckie]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Bo Jackson was pretty good...

[SPTO]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Earl Campbell was a work horse and was a big running back hard to bring down, but he had a decent offense to work with.

Let's not overrate the Oilers offense of the time period. Campbell was more or less the whole show though they did have some good tough TEs and had pretty good receivers in Kenny Borough, Mike Renfro and Rich Caster but the problem was the QB play. Dan Pastorini was Chris Chandler before Chris Chandler and when Kenny Stabler came along he was streaky to the point of mass frustration. The other problem was the offensive philosophy, believe it or not in a lot of ways Bum Phillips was MORE conservative than Chuck Noll which is quite a feat considering the era the two men coached in. I do agree with you that Campbell had a pretty good offense around him but all the RBs we're talking about had good offenses for the most part with the exception of OJ for the first half of his career and Payton for the majority of his.

[wheelman990]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Yeah out of the people on that list the only RBs I've seen play were Barry, Emmitt, Marshall and Ladainian. I was born in 87 so I missed everybody else. If anything we need two separate polls, one for "Best running back of all time" and other for "Best running back you've seen play" because those are two different answers for me.

Best RB of all time for me is Jim Brown only based on his accomplishments and the stats he had. Averaging 100 yrds per game and over 5 yrds per attempt in your career is legendary. Add on not ever missing a single game is even better. Yes, this all from what I heard an highlights but doesn't change the fact that it's true.

Now the best RB I've seen play is Barry. Two different questions and answers for me.

Barrys stats werent too far off. 99 yards a game, and 5.0 yards per carry. Considering Sanders played in a more modern game, I might argue Sanders stats actually were better.

[bkrich83]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Barrys stats werent too far off. 99 yards a game, and 5.0 yards per carry. Considering Sanders played in a more modern game, I might argue Sanders stats actually werent better.

Why does playing in a modern era make his stats better?

[SPTO]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Why does playing in a modern era make his stats better?

If anything it'd make his stats worse because the post modern era has emphasized passing much more than the running game.

[Hooe]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Also, the fact that Eric Dickerson has only 2 votes and Faulk has 6 is comical. Faulk wasn't even the best RB in Rams history when compared to Dickerson, who was BY FAR the best running back of the 80's. From 1983, his rookie season, to 1989, he ran for 11,226 yards on 2,450 carries. He averaged 400+ carries in those 6 years. And that is 400+ carries on a 6'4 235 LB body that was taking all sorts of punishment that a smaller back wouldn't come close to taking.

Marshall Faulk in a 11 year career, ran for 12,279 and only carried the ball 300+ times 2 times. Dickerson was clearing ran down by the overuse in those years and it slowed his career down and its because of this, I really think a lot of people don't really understand how good he was. But I guess that's why we love polls.

Faulk's statistical achievements receiving over his career are triple that of what Dickerson put up. That's something you don't really consider. Faulk also recorded more career touchdowns than Dickerson (136 for Faulk, 96 for Dickerson).

I'm not going to make a judgment one way or another, I never watched Dickerson, but from a versatility standpoint the statistics certainly support Faulk as a more well-rounded player than Dickerson.

[iLLmatic]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Faulk's statistical achievements receiving over his career are triple that of what Dickerson put up. That's something you don't really consider. Faulk also recorded more career touchdowns than Dickerson (136 for Faulk, 96 for Dickerson).

I'm not going to make a judgment one way or another, I never watched Dickerson, but from a versatility standpoint the statistics certainly support Faulk as a more well-rounded player than Dickerson.

I rest my case.

[wheelman990]

Re: Best runningback of all time

Why does playing in a modern era make his stats better?

If you watch any video from back in Browns day, it is clear there is extremely poor tackling and technique. A lot of videos look like back yard football to me. I personally think the game back then had much more extremes in terms of talent. Modern football has great players at every position.

Truthfully, we can't say how good Brown would have been if he played today. Physically for his time, he was a beast. Nowdays, jusy physical ability isn't enough. We have seen a lot of power backs come and go. The only one in the last 10 years to really have a name for himself as a possible great is Adrian Peterson. All the other modern backs are more geared towards agility(Peterson has a bit of both). I am actually curious to see how Adrian Peterson holds up over the next 5-7 years.

I think to be succesful in modern football, you have to not only have talent, but tons and tons of vision. IMO Barry Sanders had the most vision/reaction I have ever seen. The way he used blockers, or teamates to be blockers was simply amazing. I personally believe Barry was much better then we got to see. Honestly, do you think Emitt would have had a better carear in Detriot? Would Joe Montana have shined on Detriot? Would Jerry Rice? Surely you see my point. And please nobody say Detriot fit Barrys running style. A huge hole, is a huge hole. I doubt very much Barry wanted to dance around every play just to get back to the line. In fact, if you look early on in his carear he hit the holes. I noticed as the Lions got worse over the years, Barry adapted. The last year Barry played, the line was aweful. Even his dancing around wasn't cutting it.

I think he got out of Detriot at the right time. While I think he had plenty more in the tank, that team was in trouble, and he knew it.