Story of the Greatest RB ever.

[skinsfanthru&thru]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

My top 5 RB's:
1) Walter Payton (CHI)
2) J. Brown (Browns)
3) O.J. Simpson (Bills
4) Earl Campbell (Hou)
5) Gale Sayers (CHI)


I think is Barry Snders is great and is one of the top 10 best RB's in the history of the NFL. But he does not crack my not top 5. I know you guys say Barry Sanders played on some awful teams, but his awful teams made the playoffs five years (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997), so they could not have that bad. Walter Payton's Bears only made the playoff six times in his long career.
Barry Sanders post season rushing stats (see below) are awful.
Most noteworthy the 1994 playoff game against Greenbay he had -1 yard on 13 carries. Another against our 1991 Joe Gibbs' Redskins had 44 yards on 11 carries.

Year Opp Result | RSH YD TD | REC YD TD
---------------------+-----------------+-----------------
1991 dal W,38-6 | 12 69 1 | 5 30 0
1991 was L,10-41 | 11 44 0 | 4 15 0
1993 gnb L,24-28 | 27 169 0 | 2 0 0
1994 gnb L,12-16 | 13 -1 0 | 3 4 0
1995 phi L,37-58 | 10 40 0 | 2 19 0
1997 tam L,10-20 | 18 65 0 | 5 43 0
---------------------+-----------------+-----------------
TOTAL | 91 386 1 | 21 111 0

while I agree that his postseason performances weren't great, a couple of those r misleading since the team fell behind so far they had to give up the run but in both of those games he average around 4 yards per carry.

and on a side note, r we ranking rbs as far as actual stats or just who we think were the 5 best rbs?

[Defensewins]

Originally Posted by skinsfanthru&thru

while I agree that his postseason performances weren't great, a couple of those r misleading since the team fell behind so far they had to give up the run but in both of those games he average around 4 yards per carry.

and on a side note, r we ranking rbs as far as actual stats or just who we think were the 5 best rbs?

I was just listing them as 5 favorite RB's, not stats wise. Stats can be misleading. For example Emmit Smith played most of his career on some great teams and with some of the best offensive lineman in the game. Walter Payton, O.J Simpson and Earl Campbell did not always play with a dominating O-line like Emmit Smith did for most of his career.

Ragarding Barry Sanders post season stats, the Green Bay game and his minus 1 yards on 13 carries is exactly what the one thing I do not like about him.
Let me preface this by repeating Barry is one of the top 8 greatest RB's to ever play the game. HIs highlight reel is one of the best.
But the one and only thing I did not like about Barry is he was very one dimensional back. He was always trying to break the long run. He would sometimes run side ways and backwards behind the line of scrimage way to much. It seemed ALMOST selfish on Barry's part when the team only needed 1 to 2 yards for a first down and Barry lost 5 yards because he was darting and weaving behind the line looking for the perfect hole. His inability to just dive into a small hole and take the small 3 to 4 yard gain was sometimes frustrating. I am not sure if the NFL or anyone else tracks this stat, but I bet Barry would lead all the top 10 RB's of all time in running plays that took a loss. It seemed like for every great long run he broke off he would get 2 to 3 runs for losses.