October 18, 201114 yr 1 - Jim Brown 2 - Barry Sanders 3 - Walter Payton 4 - OJ Simpson 5 - Gale Sayers 6 - LaDanian Tomlinson 7 - Eric Dickerson 8 - Emmit Smith My list looks something like this
October 19, 201114 yr How do you know any back, including Sanders, would out perform Smith behind that line? You have nothing to back that up. That's like saying I can name 20 QB's that would have done what Montana did if they Jerry Rice to throw too. Or saying any receiver could do what Rice did if they had Montana throwing to them. Maybe the OL looked that good because they had Emmitt running the ball. Maybe it's because it can't be backed up???? :lol: These are all opinions from everyone and my opinion the Smith was a good back running behind an awesome OL. I think Eddie George would have out performed ES...
October 19, 201114 yr Author I would probably take Faulk before Emmitt to be honest. I think Faulk deserves to be in the discussion, and he is often left out. Emmitt played 15 years and finished with 21,579 yards from scrimmage. Faulk played 12 years and finished with 19,154 yards from scrimmage. In my opinion, Marshall Faulk is a top 5 all-time RB in the NFL. However, I'm in the minority in that I don't penalize Faulk for getting a larger percentage of his yardage as a receiver. My belief is that a RB's job is to get yards and it doesn't matter how he does it within the offense. In fact, to me that's a plus that Faulk was so versatile. Maybe he was the best.
October 19, 201114 yr I completely forgot about Faulk....I'd put him just ahead of LT at #6. That makes Emmitt #9 on my list.
October 19, 201114 yr Author I completely forgot about Faulk....I'd put him just ahead of LT at #6. That makes Emmitt #9 on my list. In all honestly, I forgot about him myself at first. The ironic thing is that looking at your list, and LT specifically, is what made me think of Faulk for some reason. I immediately thought, "I'd rate Marshall Faulk ahead of Tomlinson." :lol:
October 19, 201114 yr 1 - Jim Brown 2 - Barry Sanders 3 - Walter Payton 4 - OJ Simpson 5 - Gale Sayers 6 - LaDanian Tomlinson 7 - Eric Dickerson 8 - Emmit Smith Adding in Faulk before Tomlinson, this list is EXACTLY what I would have made.
October 19, 201114 yr A thread in the college forum brought this up, so I thought I'd start a new thread here to discuss it. First off, the fact that Emmitt was a great player isn't up for debate. At the same time, I don't believe the fact that he owns the all-time rushing record makes him the best by default. Some facts about Emmitt: 21,579 total yards (18,355 rush yards, 4.2 avg), 175 TD 11 seasons of 1000+ rush yards (all in succession from '91-'01) Other than '03 when he was injured, he never finished with less than 900 yards rushing in a season 3 Super Bowls (1 Super Bowl MVP) 1 Regular Season MVP 4-time NFL Rushing Champion It also cannot be denied that Emmitt benefitted from playing on one of the best team's in NFL history. I think it would be hard to argue that any RB ever got to run behind a line as good as Emmitt's for as long as he did, not to mention the other offensive talent around him. QB - Troy Aikman (6 Pro Bowls, 3-time All-Pro) FB - Daryl Johnston (2 Pro Bowls, 2-time All-Pro) WR - Michael Irvin (5 Pro Bowls, 3-time All-Pro) TE - Jay Novacek (5 Pro Bowls, 5-time All-Pro) OT - Erik Williams (4 Pro Bowls, 3-time All-Pro) OT - Mark Tunei (2 Pro Bowls, 2-time All-Pro) OG/OT - Larry Allen (11 Pro Bowls, 7-time All-Pro) OG - Nate Newton (6 Pro Bowls, 2-time All-Pro) OG - Kevin Gogan (3 Pro Bowls) C - Mark Stepnoski (5 Pro Bowls, 3-time All-Pro) Stepnoski and Irvin were voted on the NFL's All 1990's team. Larry Allen was selected for both the All 1990's and 2000's teams. Aikman and Irvin are HOFers, and it's possible some more of those guys will eventually be there. But, it doesn't end there. They were stacked on defense as well. DE - Charles Haley (5 Pro Bowls, 4-time All-Pro) LB - Ken Norton, Jr. (3 Pro Bowls, 2-time All-Pro) SS - Darren Woodson (5 Pro Bowls, 4-time All-Pro) There were numerous other guys on the D-line like Russell Marland, Tony Tolbert and Leon Lett who made a Pro Bowl or two, but were high quality guys. CB Kevin Smith was an underrated player who made one All-Pro team. When placing other guys above Emmitt, this is generally the first argument. Who else ever played with a roster that stacked for the length of time Emmitt did? Deon Sanders played with the Cowboys back then to.
October 20, 201114 yr I completely forgot about Faulk....I'd put him just ahead of LT at #6. That makes Emmitt #9 on my list.:lol: Dude, that is just hilarious. Sorry.
October 20, 201114 yr I would put The Bus in the top 5 of big backs.Who falls into the catagory of big backs? Is there a small back catagory?
October 20, 201114 yr Author Who falls into the catagory of big backs? Is there a small back catagory? That seems like a polite way of saying he doesn't belong in this discussion. Big backs? Eddie George? Christian Okoye?
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