PonyExpress

35 Most dominant pure runners of all time, over the course of their careers.
Where will Maroney end up?
based on yards per carry, yards per game, and TDs per game.
Active players (*) will fall in this ranking as they pass their prime.
1. Jim Brown: simply the best
2. Barry Sanders: lionheart
3. T. Davis: cut down in his prime
4. S. Alexander*: man on the way up
5. Tomlinson*: starting to wear down?
6. Dickerson: underrated troublemaker
7. Payton: biggest little man in the world
8. P. Holmes*: please retire
9. F. Taylor*: big-market HOFer.
10. E. James*: plenty left
11. E. Campbell: battering ram frozen in time
12. G. Sayers: brief but brilliant
13. Simpson: didn’t score many TDs
14. E. Smith: strung a lot of garbage years together at the end
15. J. Taylor: forgotten gem
16. C. Dillon*: if only he hadn’t played for Cinci…
17. M. Faulk*: disintegrating before our eyes…
18. T. Dorsett: Landry limited his opportunities
19. A. Green*: fumbling away his rep…
20. W. Andrews: almost lost a leg
21. C. Martin*: steady warhorse
22. F. Harris: heart of a champion
23. R. Watters: overlooked A-hole.
24. Joe Perry: old school
25. T. Thomas: still looking for his helmet
26. T. Barber*: like fine wine
27. R. Smith: got out unscathed
28. Csonka: bulldozer
29. Riggs: workhorse bowling ball
30. R. Williams: coulda woulda shoulda
31. F. McNeil: shifty thoroughbred
32. J. Riggins: not as good as he thought he was
33. M. Allen: 2 good years; an overrated compiler
34. J. Bettis: Bus was outta gas 4 years ago.
35. E. George: tough guy crawled to the finish line

zippo59

Is this purely based on statistics or is it your opinion?

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Unofficial Kevin Faulk supporter.

Patsfanin Philly

If it's on stats alone, Gale Sayers is ranked low due to his brief career. Anyone who ever saw him run/juke on the football field has to rate him among the best'pure' runners ahead of some of the others.....

dryheat44

I'm guessing this is opinion. I missed Dickerson the first time, and was going to pipe up. But he is underrated by the masses, like you say. In fact, I think you've underrated him as a pure runner. He should be MUCH higher than the likes of Shaun Alexander. He might be the most fluid ballcarrier I've ever seen.

Props for William Andrews. One of my favorites from the early 80s who never gets mentioned. Extremely underrated. The other Falcon RB of note, Jamal Anderson, should probably be on the list.

One of my other favorites from the early 80s who belongs on this list is Billy Sims. I would also submit Jim Nance.

Entertaining.

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Boston Boxer

I cant take this serious if you have Payton #7...please

Pats726

The one thing that has slanted this towards the last few decades is that before there were less games played..so obviouus less yards gained. So I think one has to look at it more on a per game basis to make a fair comparison.

patsfan13

Stats are deceptive because of the changes in Medical tech which keeps guys productive for longer.

Not a bad list. I would move up Sayers 7 Simpson, their presence on thefield altered the D more than many others on the list. I would also add John Henry Johnson who played in the 50 & 60's for the Lions and Steelers.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

AdamJT13

Among the problems with this list is that it rewards players whose career ended (for whatever reason) when they were in their prime or barely past it. I wouldn't consider a player any more dominant, or in any way better, if he quit when he was in his prime than if he had played five more years, even if his career per-game averages went down. Barry Sanders and Jim Brown wouldn't have been any less dominant if they had played five more seasons (although their averages undoubtedly would have gone down), and Emmitt Smith wasn't any less dominant of a player just because he did play longer.

JoeSixPat

No Red Grange? How quickly we all forget.

I guess four touchdowns and 262 yards in 12 minutes just isn't all that impressive in this day and age.

His HB career was somewhat slowed after a strong and fast start - in which he nearly singlehandledly popularized Pro-Football - with an ACL tear - and of course there was no surgery to fix it them - but the tough SOB still played another 6 years on both sides of the ball, becoming a valueable DB even WITH a torn ACL.

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PonyExpress

I definitely took some of your suggestions into account, especially the great Billy Sims...
I think once a runner reaches a certain base quantity of yards, like top 50 all-time, it should no longer be about “compiling” numbers to show how great he is, but about his per game averages, i.e. the overall dominance of your game, similar to a pitcher’s ERA. This way of looking at careers would discourage the “Willie Mays Syndrome”, because the longer a player hangs on past his prime, the less dominant his career becomes. I think the best way to figure out who the most dominant pure runners are, and I’m not talking about pass-catchers, but just pure runners, is to rank them against each other based on their averages PER GAME throughout their careers. So I compiled this list ranking each player in three categories against his peers: yards per carry, yards per game, and TDs per game over the course of his career. I reserved some authors license, for instance downgrading Robert Smith because his numbers were inflated running against 6 man fronts in a pass-dominated offense. You will find that many active players rank very highly. This is to be expected, because they are still in their prime. If Earl Campbell or Dickerson had been ranked after 5 years, like Tomlinson, they would have been off the charts. Needless to say, these active players will meet the same decline as the retired players once did and lapse back toward the mean. So here is the new top 40 list as it stands.
Active players *.
1. Jim Brown: simply the best
2. Barry Sanders: lionheart
3. T. Davis: cut down in his prime
4. S. Alexander*: man on the way up
5. Tomlinson*: starting to wear down?
6. Dickerson: underrated troublemaker
7. Payton: biggest little man in the world
8. P. Holmes*: please retire
9. F. Taylor*: big-market HOFer.
10. E. James*: plenty left
11. E. Campbell: battering ram frozen in time
12. G. Sayers: brief but brilliant
13. Simpson: didn’t score many TDs
14. B. Sims: forgotten cowboy
15. J. Lewis*: out of the joint, but looking for one
16. E. Smith: strung a lot of garbage years together at the end
17. J. Taylor: forgotten gem
18. C. Dillon*: if only he hadn’t played for Cinci…
19. M. Faulk*: disintegrating before our eyes…
20. T. Dorsett: Landry limited his opportunities
21. A. Green*: fumbling away his rep…
22. W. Andrews: almost lost a leg
23. C. Martin*: steady warhorse
24. F. Harris: heart of a champion
25. R. Watters: overlooked A-hole.
26. Joe Perry: old school
27. T. Thomas: still looking for his helmet
28. T. Barber*: like fine wine
29. R. Smith: got out unscathed
30. Csonka: bulldozer
31. Riggs: workhorse bowling ball
32. R. Williams: coulda woulda shoulda
33. F. McNeil: shifty thoroughbred
34. J. Riggins: not as good as he thought he was
35. M. Allen: 2 good years; an overrated compiler
36. J. Bettis: Bus was outta gas 4 years ago.
37. E. George: tough guy crawled to the finish line
38. C. Muncie: Cokehead TD machine
39. W. Tyler: overshadowed in the early 80s
40. J.H.Johnson: Old-timer from the "million dollar backfield"

Just missed the cut:
J. Brooks: scat-back nightmare
L. MCutcheon: Rams home run hitter
J. Anderson: a knee injury short of the HOF
W. Dunn: Flutie of Rbs
H. Walker: USFL stole his prime
T. Allen: overlooked underdog
E. Byner: overcame the fumble
R. Craig: high kick to glory
N. Anderson: followed a tough act to follow