POX: Top Ten RBs in the league since 1980 on

Barry Sanders
Jerome Bettis
Curtis Martin
Eric Dickerson
Emmitt Smith
Thurmon Thomas
Corey Dillon
Marshall Faulk
John Riggins
Rickey Watters

No room for Sweetness?

erm ... started his career in '75? Guess I didn't think of him as an 80s guy. Same reason I didn't include Earl Campbell.

so do we just count the actual 80s seasons? even the great Walter's six or seven 80s seasons .. not sure they *do* crack the list with those guys. so fuckin hard though to pick 10. it's all about longevity as far as I'm concerned .. (although ED does fall slightly short of the mark in that regard... still, he was so damn awesome.) LT will be on the list in due time, god willing.

True. LT is truly exciting to watch. It's hard to believe the Bolts have the current W/L record they do, because the team is brimming over with amazing talent.

I could be biased where Payton's concerned, because I worshipped the guy as a kid. He wasn't as reliably flawless in the 80s as he was between 75-79, but I could make room for him in my top 10 possibly maybe.

oh yeah, don't get me wrong .. I think he was the greatest back of all time. And I hate the Bears. But I always respected Walter and loved to watch him play. I guess I just don't think of him as "an 80s back" even though he did play more seasons in that decade..

gotta have earl campbell.

                 +--------------------------+-------------------------+
                 |          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1978 hou |  15 |   302   1450    4.8   13 |    12     48   4.0    0 |
| 1979 hou |  16 |   368   1697    4.6   19 |    16     94   5.9    0 |
| 1980 hou |  15 |   373   1934    5.2   13 |    11     47   4.3    0 |
| 1981 hou |  16 |   361   1376    3.8   10 |    36    156   4.3    0 |
| 1982 hou |   9 |   157    538    3.4    2 |    18    130   7.2    0 |
| 1983 hou |  14 |   322   1301    4.0   12 |    19    216  11.4    0 |
| 1984 nor |   8 |    50    190    3.8    0 |     0      0   0.0    0 |
| 1984 hou |   6 |    96    278    2.9    4 |     3     27   9.0    0 |
| 1985 nor |  16 |   158    643    4.1    1 |     6     88  14.7    0 |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
|  TOTAL   | 115 |  2187   9407    4.3   74 |   121    806   6.7    0 |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+

Barry Sanders, #1 no doubt

Emmitt Smith
LT
Eric Dickerson
Marshall Faulk
Curtis Martin
Jerome Bettis
Shaun Alexander
Thurman Thomas
Riggins

Barry Sanders is overrated. But that's for another thread. LT is great, but not an immortal, yet. These ten are.

1. Emmit Smith
2. Walter Payton
3. Eric Dickerson
4. Barry Sanders
5. Terrell Davis
6. Marshall Faulk
7. Jerome Bettis
8. Curtis Martin
9. Marcus Allen
10. Thurman Thomas

When I started watching pro football, Jim Brown was still the all time rushing leader. I remember when Franco Harris started getting close to his record and there was talk from Brown that he might come out of retirement to challenge Harris, because he was picking up too many yards running out of bounds late in his career. I think Brown may have also challenged Franco Harris to a race if I remember right. Mind you, at this point Jim Brown was in his late 40s!

Like all parts of football stats, the offensive numbers have really blown up in the past twenty five years. Back around 83 there were four players with over 10k yards rushing, with Brown, Harris, Payton and The Juice. Now, there are 18 players over 10k rushing and seven players have passed Jim Brown.

People that have not been mentioned who could be on this list:

Tony Dorsett -- Like Sweetness, he started in the 70s, but TD was still a very good back into the mid 80s and had a very long career for his time. He was also a quite a good reciever which I think would have been utilized even more in today's game. Marshall Faulk's running style always reminded me of Dorsett.

Edgerrin James -- The guy has lead the NFL in rushing twice, finished 2nd last year by a handful of yards and might lead the NFL in rushing again this year, even after having a major knee injury. I've watched nearly every game of this James' career and I think he really is a crucial key to Manning and the Colts success in the passing game. The two seasons where he missed a bunch of games, they really were not nearly the juggernaut than the four+ seasons when The Edge was on. James is great at picking up the blitz and then getting open for little swing passes. Like Curtis Martin and Emmitt Smith, Edge gets his yardage these days by being smart and banging them out more than speed like early in his career.

Eddie George -- This guy was a workhorse. Jeff Fisher road a solid defense, not turning the ball over and giving the rock to Eddie George 30 times a game for a long time and it worked pretty well.

Franco went out of bounds a lot. And it's a tough call; obviously he's a Hall of Famer, but how do you rank him against a guy like Earl Campbell who punished defenses? On the one hand it's smart, on the other it's weak. I'm a Steeler fan and I tend to dismiss Franco for stepping out; Earl Campbell was dominant but only lasted a handful of years because he insisted on picking up that extra yard and taking a beating. And obviously Franco benefited from the team that surrounded him, but still...

I would like to hear more about Barry Sanders being overrated, I don't think it's for another thread!