Best RB of all time?

#1
Indianavol4eva

Indianavol4eva

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#1
looked around and couldn't find a thread for this. A discussion was sparked in the barry sanders jr. thread in the recruiting forum about the best running back of all time. who do you think it is? i say barry sanders. base answers mostly off their NFL career.
 
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#2
#2
I think maybe this should be in the NFL forum

But yes, I'd have to say between Barry Sanders and Walter Payton
 
#8
#8
Barry. I truly believe he would be our all time rushing leader had he not retired so early
 
#9
#9
After doing some minimal research, I will say that if Gale Sayers played a full career, he would be the best RB of all time.
 
#11
#11
Well the consensus amount so called experts is that Jim Brown was the best player ever. It would seem he's a shoe-in for best running back ever.

I can't say I disagree.





Honorable mention.

Tony Dorsett. OJ Simpson.
 
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#14
#14
Barry Sanders

He wasn't a big guy and was quiet to the point of nearly being introverted. Didn't play RB until the 4th game of his Sr yr in HS but then ripped off 188ypg for the rest of the season and earned All State.

All State or not he didn't get much attention from the big names and ended up at OK St where he backed up AA Thurman Thomas for two years. He did lead the nation in KOR in '87. As a starter in '88 he averaged 7.6ypc and 200+ypg, including 4 games over 300 and benchmarked a slew of single season records while winning the Heisman.

Listing Sanders NFL stats would be silly so there's no point in belaboring the issue. The only thing worth pointing out is that he had all that success with a pretty lousy team and with every defense knowing "If you stop Sanders you stop the Lions". They all tried, and often succeeded, in stopping the Lions. But like beating Jordan and the Bulls you knew Sanders would almost always get his yards, you're just trying to beat the rest of the team.

The only gripe I could begin to raise is his style didn't lend itself to any individual play. In other words if you absolutely had to have 3yds on this particular play he wasn't necessarily your guy. Having said that I don't think there's ever been anybody that was a bigger threat to leave defenders grabbing air and ripping off a big run on any given play than Sanders. He was simply wondrous to watch. As another poster said, with all due respect to Emmitt Smith if Sanders had been behind that Cowboys line of that time period I believe any and all RB conversations would begin with "Other than Barry Sanders...".

Dickerson probably deserves more credit than he's usually given.
 
#15
#15
Walter Payton...

The guy ran behind an absolutely atrocious line for the first 5 years of his career. He WAS the Bear's offense for many years. No running back could catch a ball, absolutely truck defenders to gain 5 yards and then turn around and throw a perfect spiral to the end zone the very next play like he could. Payton missed 1 game his entire career. How many RB's today could take the wear and tear he did( especially since he sometimes had to run 300 yards a game to actually gain 175) and be half as productive as him? None...that's how many.
Now if you are talking pure running backs then yes, Barry Sanders is the man. I will always respect Barry Sanders...he retired early so that he wouldn't break Walter's record...that's how much respect Sanders had for Payton's talent. But if you are talking about the best athlete that ever played the RB position? Payton is in a class by himself.
 
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#16
#16
I can't think of any way Jim Brown finishes anywhere but first and by a substantial margin. Guess we could take limited time periods and some folks might approach him, but dude was a man among boys, even in the NFL.
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#17
#17
Preds&Vols said:
Walter Payton...

The guy ran behind an absolutely atrocious line for the first 5 years of his career. He WAS the Bear's offense for many years. No running back could catch a ball, absolutely truck defenders to gain 5 yards and then turn around and throw a perfect spiral to the end zone the very next play like he could. Payton missed 1 game his entire career. How many RB's today could take the wear and tear he did( especially since he sometimes had to run 300 yards a game to actually gain 175) and be half as productive as him? None...that's how many.
Now if you are talking pure running backs then yes, Barry Sanders is the man. I will always respect Barry Sanders...he retired early so that he wouldn't break Walter's record...that's how much respect Sanders had for Payton's talent. But if you are talking about the best athlete that ever played the RB position? Payton is in a class by himself.
Click to expand...

Barry Sanders retired because he was tired of watching the Lions do nothing to improve the team.
 
#19
#19
justingroves said:
Barry Sanders retired because he was tired of watching the Lions do nothing to improve the team.
Click to expand...

I'm sure he was tired of watching the Lions do nothing (very similar to today's Lions :) ), but he retired because he did not want to break Payton's record. He stated publicly at the time that he would never break that record...it was Payton's and someone else would have to break it because it would not be him.
 
#20
#20
justingroves said:
Barry Sanders retired because he was tired of watching the Lions do nothing to improve the team.
Click to expand...

it's been back and forth from everywhere honestly, i've seen news and sports articles saying:

he got sick of losing

his coach misunderstood him saying "he was tired" and he just chose not to correct him

he didn't want to break the record

he was just getting tired of playing the game and felt it was best to stop playing then

he felt it was the right time

and the list goes on....honestly god only knows what his reason was
 
#22
#22
TrueOrange said:
it's been back and forth from everywhere honestly, i've seen news and sports articles saying:

he got sick of losing

his coach misunderstood him saying "he was tired" and he just chose not to correct him

he didn't want to break the record

he was just getting tired of playing the game and felt it was best to stop playing then

he felt it was the right time

and the list goes on....honestly god only knows what his reason was
Click to expand...

this. living in the area during those years, there was so much speculation as to why it happened. no one ever really knew except for Barry. Maybe he just wanted to hang out at the strip clubs more.
 
#23
#23
Preds&Vols said:
No I mean the 1975 through 1979 lines. Anderson didn't get drafted by the Bears until after their Super Bowl season.
Click to expand...

oh, my bad. coulda sworn I read "last" 5 years. sorry. I'm a tool. I even highlighted it and everything. d'oh!!!

:blush:
 
#24
#24
My top 5 Rbs

1. Barry Sanders
2. Walter Payton
3. Jim Brown
4. Eric Dickerson
5. Earl Campbell
 
#25
#25
Barry Sanders. Some of the cuts he used to make would have had other RBs being carted off the field with broken ankles.
 
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