Running back is a unique position. It’s constantly devalued in today’s NFL as the modern game is centered primarily on pass-happy offenses and high-volume numbers. But when you have a special player like Adrian Peterson – a ball-carrier who can run with the football, catch passes, and block – he’s a franchise player worth keeping around. The greatest of all-time were those who could do everything a running back needed to do, and most importantly, they stayed on the field for many seasons.
What I Looked At to Compile My Rankings:
Running backs on here are judged by their raw skills – power, speed, ability to block, and catch the football. Longevity helps, but a player’s peak is valued more for this position than any others, considering the lifespan of a great running back can be just a few seasons. Postseason accolades didn’t make or break a running back, but they certainly helped.
I ranked 100 running backs on this list, so I broke the article into three parts for easier reading. Part I focused on the running backs ranked 100 through 51; Part II was running backs 50 through 21; and Part III is for the game’s 20 greatest running backs of all-time.
20. Tiki Barber (1997-2006)
Tiki Barber remains criminally underrated; in fact, he’s one of the more underrated players in NFL history. Barber should be in the Hall of Fame (but the awkward way he retired doesn’t help his case). Another productive season definitely would have gotten him in. Barber somehow managed to get better as his career went on – he holds the single-season record for most rushing yards in his last campaign (1,662) and he’s the only 30-year-old player ever to top 1,800 yards in a season. He averaged 1,529 rushing yards and 2,055 yards from scrimmage over his final five years.
He’s fifth all-time among running backs in receptions (586), and the only 10,000-yard rushers with a higher career yards-per-carry average than Barber (4.71) are Barry Sanders, Jim Brown, and Adrian Peterson. Barber fumbled too much in his prime – eight fumbles for four straight years, but then he fumbled just nine times over his final three seasons. His overall abilities as a runner and pass-catcher are enough to get him in the top 20 here.
19. Marion Motley (1946-1955)
Longtime great Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman once called Marion Motley the greatest player in the history of pro football. Motley didn’t get his pro career started until he was 26 years old, largely due to the war, but he made an immediate impact once he joined Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns. Motley averaged an absurd 6.2 yards per rush in the old AAFC (1946-’49), helping Cleveland capture four straight titles. In a transition to the NFL in 1950, Motley led the league in rushing yards (810) and yards per carry (5.8).
His career was derailed due to a knee injury in ’53, but Motley’s career professional total of 5.7 yards per carry is the highest mark in football history. Playing in the easier AAFC certainly helped Motley’s numbers, but he was still able to wreak havoc on the NFL in 1950 at the age of 30. Would he have dominated the league had he entered in his prime? There’s no reason to think anything other than yes.
18. Gale Sayers (1965-1971)
The majority of lists ranking the greatest running backs of all-time have Gale Sayers higher than this. Football Perspective’s article the other year had him 15th, and he received third-and-fourth place votes. My biggest ‘criticism’ of Sayers – fair or not – is that his career was shortened. He only played in 68 games. He received just 991 carries and was out of the game by age 28.
When he was on the field, Sayers was nothing short of electrifying. I’ve seen highlights of him and he was perhaps the greatest open-field player in the league’s history. The NFL had no answer for his 1965 rookie campaign, a year in which Sayers rushed for 867 yards and 14 touchdowns on 5.2 yards per carry, caught 29 passes for 507 yards and six scores, returned 16 punts for a 14.9 average and a touchdown, and averaged a ridiculous 31.4 yards per kick return. He scored 20 touchdowns and led the league with 2,272 all-purpose yards. Jim Brown won the league MVP award, but a case easily could have been made for Sayers.
Sayers won a rushing title in his second season, added two more return touchdowns (10 total scores for the year), and again led the NFL in all-purpose yards. He again led the league in all-purpose yards in ’67 – his third such year doing so – and then rebounded from a late-season knee injury in ’68 to win the rushing crown in ’69. Sayers’ knee didn’t hold up and he barely played the next two seasons. As a result, he was the youngest Hall of Famer in history (34 upon induction), but his career could have been so much more had he been able to stay healthy.
17. Marcus Allen (1982-1997)
Marcus Allen had a fascinating football career. He’s the only man ever to win the Heisman Trophy, an NFL MVP, a Super Bowl MVP, and championships at both the collegiate and NFL level. Allen was the first player to gain more than 10,000 rushing yards and 5,000 receiving yards in his NFL career, he retired with a league-record 123 rushing touchdowns, and he played in more games (222) than any running back in history except Emmitt Smith.
So why is Allen not ranked higher on this list? Simply put, Allen spent too many years of his career as a role player. He played second fiddle to Bo Jackson from 1987-1990, despite Jackson technically being the backup to Allen. Allen holds the all-time record for most seasons with at least 200 carries and under 1,000 rushing yards (six). During a four-year span in the middle of his career (1989-’92), Allen combined for just 1,563 yards.
Some of that can be blamed on Al Davis’ poor relationship with Allen, but there were too many seasons of Allen’s career that he just wasn’t a dominant player. He had just one season of 1,200 rushing yards. His career 4.05 yards-per-carry average is on par with fairly forgettable players like Michael Pittman (4.04), Domanick Williams (4.15), and Duce Staley (4.05). And Allen fumbled way too much – 65 in his career, including a league-high 14 in 1983.
16. Terrell Davis (1995-2001)
If Doak Walker and Earl Campbell and Gale Sayers and Paul Hornung and Floyd Little are in the Hall of Fame, Terrell Davis should absolutely be a member. Davis’ career was short – he played just four meaningful seasons and was out of the league by age 29. But he had a peak that stacks up with any running back to ever play the game.
- Davis’ 1998 season (2,008 rushing yards, 21 rushing touchdowns) was measured by Pro Football Reference as the greatest season by a RB in history.
- Davis’ 1997 season (1,750 rushing yards, 15 rushing touchdowns) is considered the fifth-best season ever. That means Davis has two of the top five seasons.
- Davis’ three-year peak (1996-’98) included 1,106 carries and 5,296 rushing yards. Both are three-year records for a running back. Davis added 49 rushing touchdowns, a mark that has only been topped by four players.
- The complete list of running backs to earn three First-Team All-Pro selections, a league MVP, and a Super Bowl MVP: Emmitt Smith and Davis.
- Davis’ 1997-1998 postseasons were even better than his regular seasons. He led the Denver Broncos to consecutive Super Bowl championships, averaging 150 rushing yards and 1.5 rushing touchdowns per game. He posted a 30/157/3 statline in the first Super Bowl (despite missing a quarter with a migraine), winning the game’s MVP, and then he followed it up with a 25/102 line in the following year’s Super Bowl. He was literally better when he played the best competition in the game.
It’s incredibly unfortunate Davis got injured but what he did should be enough to put him in Canton, Ohio. If he had hung around for four more mediocre seasons (like 2001), posting 700 or 800 rushing yards and five touchdowns, he would 10,000 yards, and he’d be in. In my book, he’s still worthy of a top-16 spot on my list.
15. Bronko Nagurski (1930-1943)
Bronko Nagurski was 6’2”, 226 pounds when he played in the 1930s, which made him the size of a typical throwback offensive lineman. That means he was an absolute physical specimen for a running back. Statistics don’t really do Nagurski justice, but he was a four-time First-Team All-Pro, three-time NFL champion, and a member of the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. He played running back, offensive line, and defensive line, and he even threw seven touchdowns as a passer during his career. Nagurski then went on to be a professional wrestler, winning multiple world heavyweight championships.
14. Tony Dorsett (1977-1988)
Tony Dorsett was a three-time collegiate All-American and Heisman Trophy winner who went second overall in the NFL draft, then lived up to that draft status with a 12-year Hall of Fame NFL career. Dorsett retired second on the all-time rushing list (12,739 yards), and he’s still in the top eight. Dorsett’s season high of 1,646 rushing yards is barely in the top 50 single-season best totals, but he churned out eight 1,000-yard rushing seasons in his first nine years, only missing during the strike-shortened 1982 campaign. Dorsett is the only man in history to record a 99-yard rushing touchdown, and he did it with 10 men on the field. Dorsett was a prime playoff performer too, leading the Dallas Cowboys to a Super Bowl title as a rookie and retiring with the fourth-most postseason rushing yards (1,383) ever.
13. Thurman Thomas (1988-2000)
There weren’t many things Thurman Thomas couldn’t do during his prime. He’s the only running back in history to lead the league in yards from scrimmage four consecutive seasons. He topped 12,000 rushing yards in his career, but also caught 472 passes out of the backfield for another 4,458 yards. Thomas is one of the best pass-catching running backs ever, and he played a big role in the Buffalo Bills’ teams that went to four straight Super Bowls. It’s well-known that the Bills never won a title, but don’t blame Thomas: he accumulated more yards from scrimmage (2,114) than any other running back in postseason history, and his 21 touchdowns are a number matched by just Emmitt Smith. Thomas was the 1991 regular-season league MVP, which makes him one of five running backs to win the MVP award and play in the Super Bowl in the same year.
12. Curtis Martin (1995-2005)
Curtis Martin was never the best running back in the game, but he was spectacularly consistent for his 11-year career. Martin rushed for 1,000 yards in each of his first 10 seasons, averaging 1,337 during that span, and he’s the only player ever to top 1,400 scrimmage yards in every one of his first 10 seasons. He managed to put up a league-best 1,697 yards as a 31-year-old, becoming the oldest player to win the rushing title. You could pretty much bank on 300 carries, 1,200 yards, and 40 receptions every year from Martin, and that’s enough to justify his ranking here.
11. Steve Van Buren (1944-1951)
While his career was brief, Steve Van Buren was an unbelievably dominant player in the 1940s. He went fifth overall to the Philadelphia Eagles in the ’44 draft, then led the NFL in yards per carry (5.6) as a rookie, making the AP All-Pro team. Van Buren went on to lead the league in carries four times, rushing yards four times, and rushing touchdowns four times, plus yards per game on five occasions. He and Jim Brown are the only players ever to lead the NFL in carries, yards, and touchdowns at least four times each; Van Buren is one of just four players to win three consecutive rushing titles.
Van Buren led the Eagles to the NFL championship game in 1947, although they lost to the Chicago Cardinals. But they rebounded to win consecutive titles in ’48 and ’49 (both by shutout), with Van Buren providing the game’s only touchdown in the 7-0 win in ’48 and then putting up a new championship game record 196 rushing yards the following season. Van Buren was even a dynamic return man, running back five total kicks and punts for scores in his career.
10. Earl Campbell (1978-1985)
Earl Campbell had a size/power/speed combination the NFL hadn’t seen since Jim Brown, and Campbell wasted no time in making his mark on the league. Fresh off a Heisman Trophy season, Campbell went first overall in the draft and then led the NFL with 1,450 rushing yards as a rookie. Campbell followed with league-leading totals of 1,697 yards and 19 rushing touchdowns in year two, and then league-best marks of 1,934 yards and 13 touchdowns in his third season. The wear and tear of Campbell’s style of football left him done his prime after just six years, but those were enough dominant seasons to still put him in the top 10.
Campbell didn’t catch passes – remarkably, he never caught a touchdown in eight seasons – but there’s probably no one in history who scared opposing linebackers more than the 245-pound Campbell. He’s one of only three players ever to top 5,000 rushing yards and 45 rushing scores in a three-year span, and Campbell did it despite playing with just two Pro Bowl offensive linemen his whole career (and no Pro Bowl quarterbacks).
9. Eric Dickerson (1983-1993)
Most lists are probably going to have Eric Dickerson higher than ninth, and there’s no denying he was an unbelievably talented runner. Dickerson rushed for a rookie record 1,808 yards in 1983, then set the still-standing mark of 2,105 yards in his second season. That’s the prize that all running backs still strive to break, and Dickerson did it in a year in which his team’s passing offense rated 27th in total yards. Dickerson had an uncanny ability to survive a full workload year after year – he put up four seasons with at least 375 carries; Ricky Williams is the only other player to even do it twice. Dickerson won four rushing titles, led the league in yards from scrimmage four times, and made six Pro Bowls and five First-Team All-Pro squads. Two main factors keep Dickerson from ranking higher – 1) fumbles and 2) the quality of his offensive line.
Dickerson fumbled 13 times as a rookie, then 14 during his record-breaking 1984 campaign. He coughed up the ball 49 times during his first four seasons; by comparison, these are the career fumble totals of other all-time greats – LaDainian Tomlinson (30 in 170 games), Marshall Faulk (36 in 176 games), Adrian Peterson (38 in 120 games), Barry Sanders (41 in 153 games), and Earl Campbell (43 in 115 games). Just as I would penalize Brett Favre for throwing too many interceptions, Dickerson’s fumbles have to play a big factor in his ranking.
Dickerson was also blessed with one of the best offensive lines in the game on an annual basis. He had the fortune of playing behind 22 Pro Bowl offensive linemen in his career; that’s actually more than any running back in history except Emmitt Smith (24). Jackie Slater was a Hall of Fame offensive tackle, Doug Smith was a six-time Pro Bowl center, Dennis Harrah made six Pro Bowls as a guard, and Kent Hill made five opposite Harrah as a guard. That’s not to take away from what Dickerson did – his talent was undeniable and he’s as pure of a runner as there was, and a ninth-place ranking is still pretty darn impressive.
8. Adrian Peterson (2007-Active)
Adrian Peterson is 31 years old and set to enter his 10th NFL season, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down. “Purple Jesus” is fresh off his third league rushing title (1,485), also putting up his eighth season of double-digit touchdowns (one more such campaign will tie him with LaDainian Tomlinson for the NFL record).
AP has numerous accomplishments to his name – seven Pro Bowls, four First-Team All-Pro selections, a league MVP award, and a record 296-yard rushing day as a rookie – but his most impressive achievement may have been the way he rebounded from his 2011 knee injuries. Just nine months after tearing his ACL and MCL, AP was back on the field as if nothing had happened; in fact, he rushed for 2,097 yards that season, the second-highest single-season total in league history. AP can’t last forever, but if he can put together a few more productive years, he has a chance to crack the top five on this list.
7. O.J. Simpson (1969-1979)
Off-the-field issues aside, O.J. Simpson was as pure of a runner as this league has ever seen. He went first overall to the Buffalo Bills in the 1969 NFL draft and put together a five-year run (1972-’76) that ranks up there with any running back in the game’s storied history.
Simpson averaged over 1,500 yards per year during that span, leading the league four times and becoming the first player to top the 2,000-yard mark (2,003 in 1973). Remarkably, he did all this in the era of 14-game seasons, meaning he averaged 110 rushing yards per game in his peak. Simpson scored 54 touchdowns during that span, earning a First-Team All-Pro selection every season and winning the 1973 league MVP award.
His 1973 campaign may legitimately be the greatest single season of any player in history – Simpson was the lone offensive threat on his team; in fact, starting quarterback Joe Ferguson completed 73 passes and threw for four touchdowns all season. Teams knew O.J. was getting the ball on every play, and they still couldn’t stop him. That’s greatness.
6. Marshall Faulk (1994-2005)
Marshall Faulk was the best player on The Greatest Show on Turf, and he may be the greatest offensive weapon in history. Just ask Bill Belichick. In order to upset the St. Louis Rams in the 2001 Super Bowl, Belichick centered his whole game plan on slowing down Faulk – not two-time league MVP quarterback Kurt Warner, not Isaac Bruce, not Torry Holt, but Faulk.
Faulk’s best rushing total is ‘just’ 1,381 yards, but he was so much more than just a running back. He’s the most talented pass-catching running back ever, even better than LaDainian Tomlinson. Faulk’s 767 receptions and 6,875 receiving yards are records for a running back, and he added 12,279 rushing yards in 12 seasons. That makes him the only player ever to post 12,000 career rushing yards and 6,000 receiving yards. Faulk had 80 receptions in five straight seasons; that’s an impressive achievement for a receiver, but Faulk also averaged 1,279 rushing yards on 4.9 yards per carry during that span. He set the league record with 2,429 yards from scrimmage in 1999, a mark later bested by Chris Johnson.
Faulk was the AP Offensive Player of the Year three straight seasons (1999-2001) – he and Earl Campbell are the only running backs to win that award three times, and Terrell Davis is the only other runner to even do it twice. Faulk won the league MVP in 2000 when he set a new single-season record with 26 rushing touchdowns, managing to do so in 14 games and without fumbling one time.
5. LaDainian Tomlinson (2001-2011)
Simply put, LaDainian Tomlinson was the single greatest touchdown scorer in NFL history. He holds the league record by finding the end zone 31 times in a year (2006). He led the NFL in rushing touchdowns on three occasions, he’s the only player ever to rush for 10 in at least nine seasons, and he accounted for 169 total touchdowns in his career (145 rushing, 17 receiving, and seven passing) – more than any other running back but Emmitt Smith, although LT had a much higher TD/game rate than Smith. In his record-breaking MVP campaign in ’06, LT once scored 21 rushing touchdowns in an eight-game span, posting multiple rushing scores every game and totaling three more via receptions or passes.
There’s nothing LT couldn’t do on the football field. He averaged 1,470 rushing yards in his first eight seasons, but also caught passes as well as any running back ever. His 624 receptions are second-most ever for a running back, and he once hauled in 100 in a season. LT was even a terrific passer, throwing seven touchdowns without an interception in his career. LT missed just one game due to injury in his first eight seasons in San Diego, and he handled a workload like few running backs in history – including the postseason, Tomlinson averaged over 400 touches per season from 2001-’08 and he holds the single-game record with 48 touches.
4. Emmitt Smith (1990-2004)
The goal of a running back is to gain yards. All Emmitt Smith did was break Walter Payton’s career rushing record (16,726 yards), finishing with an incredible 18,355 yards over 15 seasons. Smith holds the league record with 11 seasons of 1,000 yards, and he led the NFL in rushing four times – doing so during the peak of Barry Sanders’ career. His 164 career rushing touchdowns and 175 total touchdowns are all-time records for the position, and he was the first running back to score 25 times in one season.
Smith was an unbelievable workhorse during the regular season, handling 250 carries 13 times and 300 on seven occasions. And he carried that success over to the playoffs, regularly playing in 18, 19, or 20 games, as he helped the Dallas Cowboys win three Super Bowls in a four-year span and play in 17 total postseason contests in the ‘90s. It’s fitting that Smith holds the all-time record for career postseason rushing yards (1,586), touchdowns (19), and he averaged an absurd 113.41 yards from scrimmage and 1.24 total touchdowns per game in his postseason career. Smith was the 1993 Super Bowl MVP (30/132/2), but he had strong performances in the Cowboys’ other two Super Bowl wins as well – 22/108/1 in the 1992 game and two rushing touchdowns in the ’95 win. Smith is the only player ever to win the regular-season MVP award, rushing title, and Super Bowl MVP in the same season (1993).
Smith was a special running back in that he wasn’t particularly big or fast, but he had incredible vision and knew how to squeeze through a hole to pick up extra yards. He continued to churn out yards after most running backs begin to decline – Smith rushed for 5,789 yards after the age of 30, which is an all-time record.
The Dallas offensive line certainly helped – Smith played with 24 Pro Bowl offensive linemen in his career, which is more than any other running back who ever lived. Smith was blessed to have a Hall of Fame quarterback in Troy Aikman, a Hall of Fame receiver in Michael Irvin, a five-time Pro Bowl tight end in Jay Novacek, and a two-time Pro Bowl fullback in Daryl Johnson. That certainly has to factor into his ranking, but still, you don’t rush for 18,000 yards and 164 touchdowns without being a truly elite football player.
3. Barry Sanders (1989-1998)
If you had the privilege to watch Barry Sanders play or you’ve seen his highlights on YouTube, you can see why he’s so revered. Sanders had the ability to juke that perhaps no running back has ever possessed; he could stop on a dime, spin, reverse direction, force two missed tackles, and change a two-yard loss into a 24-yard gain. Of course, that means he got stuffed behind the line of scrimmage too many times, but he still finished his career with a 4.99 yards-per-carry average, a better mark than any running back in history (min. 1,000 carries) except Jamaal Charles, Jim Brown, and Joe Perry.
Sanders made the Pro Bowl every season of his 10-year career. He averaged 1,527 rushing yards per campaign, topping 1,000 every year, reaching 1,500 five times (and twice more missing by 30 and nine yards), leading the league four times, and putting up 2,053 yards in 1997, the NFL’s third such 2,000-yard rushing campaign at the time.
Sanders didn’t play on the loaded Dallas Cowboys teams of the ‘90s like Emmitt Smith, and that’s the biggest reason Sanders ranks higher. Sanders never played with a Pro Bowl quarterback in his 10 years. Left tackle Lomas Brown made six Pro Bowls while blocking for Sanders and Kevin Glover was a three-time Pro Bowl center before the team curiously released him after Sanders’ best season. But Sanders was largely the main offensive weapon for the Lions, and other teams knew they could gear up to stop Sanders. If Sanders hadn’t walked away from the game while still in his prime, there’s no telling what his numbers would look like. He would probably have the all-time career rushing record, and there’s an outside chance he would have 20,000 rushing yards.
2. Walter Payton (1975-1987)
Sweetness was a rare running back who was a complete football player. He’s a top-three running talent of all-time as well as being an exceptional pass-catcher, superb blocker, a pretty good passer, an underrated kick returner, and even an emergency punter and kicker. Payton simply was Chicago football for his 13-year career.
He made nine Pro Bowls, five First-Team All-Pro teams, won a league MVP, led the Bears to the 1985 Super Bowl championship, and retired with the NFL’s all-time record of 16,726 rushing yards. After his rookie season, Payton never missed a game due to injury over his NFL career, despite leading the league in carries four straight seasons and averaging 22.7 touches per game in his 13 years. Payton’s single-season rushing high is 1,852 yards, which is ‘just’ the 15th-best single-season total in history, but he did so in a 14-game season; project that to 16 games, and Payton is at 2,117 yards, which would be a still-standing league record.
Payton played with a sorry group of quarterbacks over his NFL career – only Jim McMahon ever made the Pro Bowl and that was in a fairly ho-hum ’85 campaign in which he only started 11 contests. Guys like Mike Tomczak (56.5 passer rating with the Bears), Bob Avellini (54.8 rating), Vince Evans (57.3 rating), Mike Phipps (57.1 rating), and Gary Huff (57.0 rating) didn’t exactly force safeties to play deep in coverage. In fact, Bears quarterbacks combined to throw 157 touchdown passes to 254 interceptions during the 13 years in which Payton played. Payton played with just five Pro Bowl offensive linemen; in a better offense with a stable quarterback situation, Payton’s numbers would have been significantly greater.
1. Jim Brown (1957-1965)
To this day, Jim Brown remains the standard by which all running backs are to be evaluated. His career rushing record (12,312 yards – in just nine seasons) has been surpassed, held for a long time by Walter Payton and now Emmitt Smith. But the majority of knowledgeable football fans still hold true to the belief that Brown is the game’s all-time greatest runner, a supreme blend of power and speed who possessed a remarkable ability to stay healthy. When Sporting News published its 1999 edition on the 100 greatest NFL players of all-time, Brown was ranked #1.
Brown was technically a fullback; at 6’2, 232 pounds, he would be a large running back even by today’s standards. Brown led the NFL in rushing yards (942) and rushing touchdowns (9) as a rookie; he then went on to lead the league in rushing yards in eight of his nine seasons. He made nine Pro Bowls and eight First-Team All-Pro selections in his career; three times he was the league’s MVP and that number could easily have been higher, considering he was dominant every season of his career. He led Cleveland to its last NFL championship (1964), rushing for 114 yards in the 27-0 win.
Brown led the league in rushing attempts, rushing yards, yards per game, and rushing touchdowns a combined 26 times; the next-best total of any running back is a tie between Emmitt Smith and Eric Dickerson at 13 times each. Brown averaged a touchdown per game over his 118-game career; he’s also first all-time with 125.52 scrimmage yards per game. It’s pretty amazing that Brown is ranked as the greatest running back of all-time when he retired at age 29. A few more seasons would have him as the unquestioned greatest football player who ever lived, and that’s an honor he may hold already.
Follow Cody Swartz on Twitter (@cbswartz5).
