You have to look at an entire career and judge. It cracks me up to hear people say that Adrian Peterson is the best RB of all time or that Aaron Rodgers is the best QB of all time. There is a skill to play later in your career. All time running back is Emmitt Smith... plain and simple. He may not have had the cuts of Barry Sanders or the flash of Walter Payton, but he had a consistency over his ENTIRE career. He had a great O-Line, but that can't be used as a judge of the players achievements, otherwise Steve Young isn't that special as he had Jerry Rice and T.O. If we are talking about pure skill, Walter Payton, if we are talking about moving the chains, Jerrome Bettis.
The best running back I've ever seen is Bo Jackson....the combination of speed, agility, strength, and size is unmatched by anyone else who has played the position IMO He is likely the fastest man who has ever played in the NFL...his 40 time at the combine has never been beat
I don't have to put Emmitt anywhere he doesn't make my top 5 for sure and I don't know where he would be on my top 10.
He played like 4 short seasons in his career...not enough to rank anywhere A Non-Prostaffer posting from my Samsung Galaxy s4
I don't care how long he played...Bo is the best I've seen play the position...that's all I'm saying...he was a freak of nature...imagine if football wasn't just a hobby to him?
My brother in law when he played High School ball. Don't believe me? Just ask him. He will tell you how good he was...over and over and over.
A guy that had 11 straight years with over 1,000 yards on the ground.... 14 years total with over 925 yards.... most rushing yards all-time, 164 rushing TD's, 11 receiving TD's, 21,579 yards from scrimmage..... yup, you're right... dudes a scrub. Name another guy at any skill postion (besides QB) that has almost 1,000 yards and 9 TD's.... in their 15th year in the league.
No one is saying he is a scrub he was a really good player. Go back and read the comments only a couple even mention Smith. He was not as good as Sanders and he should call and thank Sanders every day for retiring early so he has the rushing records. Put Sanders on that team and the numbers he would have put up are CRAZY!
Barry Sanders hands down. Why, because the Lions sucked his whole career and he was still able to put up amazing numbers. He single handedly kept the Lions in and around the playoffs. He walked away from the game when he was still the best running back in the league. Could have put another 5 or 6 years into his career and destroyed every record.
This ^^^^^^ Emmit Simth would have not rushed for Diddle with the Lions, Barry was the best running back period!!!!!! For those that think any other back was better, show us clips of them running like this:
The discussion begins and ends with Walter Payton. Emmitt was good, but he benefited from playing behind a really great offensive line for a number of years. Barry was good, but he had a lot of negative yards from when he danced around instead of planting a foot and driving forward. He could break one for eighty yards, but he'd also have two in a row for negative yards. To me, Jim Brown is the only one that can be mentioned in the same breath as Walter. Walter played on some pretty awful teams early in his career, and still put up great numbers. I also think it is pretty amazing, considering how he ran, that he only missed one game in his career and that was a coach's decision. He always maintained he was good to go for the game, but the coach held him out. It's a shame that the Fridge scored a TD in the Super Bowl, but Walter didn't. I know that is something that Ditka really regrets.
i think im going to stir the pot a little... If we are talking about the greatest backs of THEIR time. I agree... Payton, Brown, Sanders were amoung the greatest of THEIR time. But you have to throw some new age guys in there if your talking about the greatest of ALL time. The only reason i say that is because the physical ability of athletes has grown so damn much since the days of Jim Brown and even Sanders. I have a hard time saying any of those 3 could compete with Adrian Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, Frank Gore, Matt Forte, Maurice Jones-Drew... annnnnnd go...
