barry vs. emmitt smith vs. walter payton vs. jim brown
brown
12,312 yds, 5.2 career avg. 106 rush tds. 5/9 seasons 5.0 rush avg or higher.
best season 1863 yds 6.4 avg 12 tds
payton
16,726 yds, 4.4 career avg, 110 rush tds, 1/15 seasons 5.0 or higher.
best season 1852 yds 5.5 avg 14 td
smith
17,536 yds, 4.2 career avg, 157 rush tds. 1/15 seasons 5.0 or higher.
best season 1773 yds 4.7 avg 25 tds
sanders
15,269 yds 5.0 avg 99 rush tds. 5/10 seasons 5.0 or higher.
best season 2053 yds 6.1 avg 11 tds.
so really the only discussion here is sanders vs. brown. and remeber barry had no line. he did it all. so its a tough call. brown and sanders should really be tied for best back ever.
If thats the case JP then Brown is definately the best, remember he only had 14 games per year. So 1800 and 12 would have been like 2000 and 14. The thing is that stats dont tell the whole story. Jamal had 2000 yards last year. Emmitt has more td's than any of those guys. And yards per carry is not everything either, cause if you have a lot of carries your yards per carry goes down. How many times was emmitt handed the ball late in the game when the boys had a big lead and his avg went down. Or how about Barry getting less carries cause his team was usually behind.
All I know is I didnt see Jim Brown, but I saw Payton and he was unstoppable, Barry who I LOVE and is awesome too, would have a great Highlight Film play for 50 yards and then lost 10 on the next play when he tried to make something out of nothing. There is nothing wrong with being second best, but Sweetness is the man.
Another Key Stat
payton had almost 900 more carries than Sanders, more carries means less per carry.