Barry Sanders, Detroit Marshall Faulk, Indianapolis/St. Louis Emmitt Smith, Dallas/Arizona Curtis Martin, New England/Jets Jerome Bettis, Los Angeles/Pittsburgh Be prepared to defend your order.
1. Barry Sanders - IMO the best ever. Put up absolutely ridiculous numbers with a garbage oline and zero supporting cast his whole career and stopped still at his peak. Could have had the rushing record; should have had the rushing record. I don't care if he cut back too much and had big losses more than most.. his gamebreaking rushes were un-f*ckin-believable. 2. Emmitt Smith - All purpose back with the longevity and durability to boot. Could take over a game and his numbers don't lie. 3. Curtis Martin - Obviously biased but I think his consistency, hard work, and attitude make him a first ballot HOFer for sure. Not enough people know he's #4 all-time. 4. Marshall Faulk - Definition of weapon. His pass catching abilities were as good as his rushing skills which made him f'n scary in his prime. Injuries slowed him a bit but legit as hell nonetheless. 5. Jerome Bettis - Solid career and has good numbers + a ring but I always considered him overrated.
1. Barry Sanders... That can't be denied with any reasonable intelligence.. 2. Marshall Faulk... One of the best offensive players in football history. Nearly 7,000 receiving yards, and 136 combined TDs in just 11 seasons. His Pass catching abilities puts him ahead of Smith for me. 3. Emmitt Smith... I wanted to make a case for him to be last.. But its impossible, a combined 175 TDs, only 22 lost fumbles in 14 seasons.. Fucking impressive, and I hate Emmitt. 4. Curtis Martin... 10 seasons, 100 TDs. 4th all time, Some argue he would have been better than Emmitt if he didnt get abused under Herm. Regardless of that, he's one of the all time greats. 5. Bettis... Above average, 5th all time in rushing, and under 100 TDs in his career.. He was a solid worker, class act. But can't be ranked higher than 5. I'd like to add, Tiki Barber would easily beat out Bettis for 5th if he was included. 9 seasons, 68 TDs. Maybe a bigger offensive threat than Faulk with his 5,000+ receiving yards, and 1725 return yards. Thats 17357 all purpose yards in 9 seasons.
I'm a firm believer that Faulk's 4-year prime (1998 - 2001) are the best 4 years for any offensive skill position player, ever. Over those 4 years (60 games), Faulk had... 1428 touches | 9010 yds | 6.3 avg | 69 touchdowns | 8 fmb Nine-thousand yards in 60 games. Almost seventy touchdowns. That averages to 150 yards and over a touchdown per game for four years. No one else really even comes close... Earl Campbell's 62-Game Prime 1479 touches | 6082 yds | 4.1 avg | 55 touchdowns | 31 fmb Roger Craig's 62-Game Prime 1258 touches | 6863 yds | 5.4 avg | 36 touchdowns | 22 fmb Thurman Thomas' 63-Game Prime 1398 touches | 7893 yds | 5.6 avg | 49 touchdowns | 24 fmb Herschel Walker's 60-Game Prime 1200 touches | 6537 yds | 5.4 avg | 38 touchdowns | 22 fmb Eric Dickerson's 62-Game Prime 1465 touches | 7824 yds | 5.3 avg | 57 touchdowns | 49 fmb Barry Sanders' 64-Game Prime 1436 touches | 8122 yds | 5.6 avg | 45 touchdowns | 13 fmb Emmitt Smith's 61-Game Prime 1629 touches | 7921 yds | 4.8 avg | 76 touchdowns | 16 fmb
1) Barry Sanders 2) Emmitt Smith 3) Marshall Faulk 4) Curtis Martin 5) Jerome Bettis The first two are easy. Arguably the best RB of all time, and the NFL's all-time leading rusher. Putting Bettis last is easy too. Faulk and Martin was a toss up. Martin had the longevity, and the consistency, but Faulk arguably revolutionized the position with his abilities out of the backfield. Faulk by a nose.
1.barry sanders...did the most with nothing 2. emmitt smith....i'm tough on emmitt (didnt like how he got the record), but putting him 2nd is low enough 3. faulk....changed the rb position won championship/awards/and dominated position...easy choice over others 4. terrell davis...throwing him in b/c his 2 years is the best i've seen a rb have and resulted in championships 5. martin...consistent, but didnt have the talent sanders had or the teams the others had...not his fault, but doesnt help in the rankings 6. bettis...great back, but lacks what the others have
1. Sanders 2. Emmitt 3. Faulk 4. C-Mart (lacked the crazy explosiveness of Sanders and Faulk but was one of the best workhorse backs ever (Emmitt is the best)) 5. Bettis (shouldn't really be in this conversation - he could always get you that one yard when you really needed it but didn't bring much more to the table)
QFT. Sanders = GOAT. Faulk = Monster. Smith, Martin, and Bettis are more known for their longevity, durability, and solid play than their ability to blow you away with talent. As much as I respect that, thats as much a mark of a great O-line as it is a great RB.
Tried to do this list in terms of choice of RB before I even know who would be blocking for him. Thats why I put Curtis ahead of Emmitt. 1) Barry Sanders 2) Marshall Faulk 3) Curtis Martin 4) Emmitt Smith 5) Jerome Bettis
Sanders first and Bettis last is IMO obvious. The other three are closer, but I go with Barry Sanders Marshall Faulk Curtis Martin Emmitt Smith Jerome Bettis although I could easily flip Smith and Martin.
Can't believe not one person has it like this: 1) Curtis Martin: 'Cause I'm a fucking Jets fan, that's why. 2) Barry Sanders: To put into perspective just how bad the Lions were when Barry was there, if he were on the Lions today, crappy/mediocre though they may be, they'd be Super Bowl contenders year in, year out. 3) Emmitt and Marshall: Two of the greatest runningbacks ever. SO GODDAMN DEPRESSING watching these guys play after everybody but them knew they were done. 5) Alan Faneca.
