Raiders Want Barry?!

[Fender]

Yes the cafe started an Apr 1st joke about him coming back and all the other football sites picked up on it

LOL

[Azrael]

Barry's not coming back for anyone. It's a shame he retired so soon. He's the guy who rightfully deserves the rushing title. Best back of all time bar none.

[MCG321]

Barry's not coming back for anyone. It's a shame he retired so soon. He's the guy who rightfully deserves the rushing title. Best back of all time bar none.

*insert endless arguments for Smith, Payton, Brown, etc*

[Azrael]

Barry's not coming back for anyone. It's a shame he retired so soon. He's the guy who rightfully deserves the rushing title. Best back of all time bar none.

*insert endless arguments for Smith, Payton, Brown, etc*

Some statistics.

Emmitt Smith (1990-current) - 14 years, 17,418 yards rushing
YPC 4.2
YPG 82.55
Years with 1,400 + yards rushing - 5
TD/Game ratio .787
*Dallas Cowboys had 7 winning seasons in his 13 years playing for them. Also note that there is a direct correlation as to how well Emmitt did and how good the Cowboys were.
*Crossed 15,000 yard plateau in 169th game

Barry Sanders (1989-1998) - 10 Years, 15,269 yards rushing
YPC 5.0
YPG 99.8
Years with 1,400 + yards rushing - 7
TD/Game ratio .712
*Detroit Lions had 4 winning seasons in his 10 years
*Crossed 15,000 yard plateau in 149th game

Walter Payton (1975-1987) - 13 Years, 16,726 yards rushing
YPC 4.4
YPG 88.0
Years with 1,400 + yards rushing - 6
TD/Game ratio .658
*Chicago Bears had 6 winning seasons in his 13 years
*Crossed 15,000 yard plateau after 162nd game

Jim Brown (1957 -1965) - 9 Years, 12,312 yards rushing
YPC 5.2
YPG 104.3
Years with 1,400 + yards rushing - 5
TD/Game ratio 1.068
*Played four 12 game seasons and five 14 game seasons
*Cleveland Browns had winning season every year. Not only that but they were pretty darn good every year too.
*Never crossed 15,000 yard plateau but clearly didn't play enough games.

Jim Brown is statistically superior to Smith, Sanders, and Payton if you use averages. The only argument you could use against Brown is that his team was very good almost every year he played.

I don't think you can make an argument for Smith. He is statistically weaker in all categories except TD's. It took him 20 games longer to reach 15,000 yards than it took Sanders. And he played on awesome teams half his career. Also as I stated you can see (if you look at his stats) that his success coincided with the Cowboys.

Sanders and Payton were in similar situations. They both played on crappy teams much of their careers. But Barry's was statistically better than Payton. They were both spectacular regardless of the worthlessness of their teams.

If you want to use stats though, it's hard to make a case against Brown.

[bigGAME101]

azrael, definately a good post there, great comparisons of the best backs in the history of the nfl...and brown is truly the best in terms of averages (probably would have been the best had he continued playing), however the game of football is about durability and putting up stats consistently, for as many games as possible...so i would give that edge to all the other running backs on the list...and if you compare reamaining stats, sanders gets the nod... in general, for pure football talent and game production, i think sanders is the best the nfl has ever seen, especially in the short time he played

[bungle613]

I will say Barry is the best I've ever seen play. Went down to Detroit every year for the Vikings/Lions game... the guy was incredible, awesome...perfect.