Emmit Smith vs. Barry Sanders

i know we've argued on this so lets FINALLY settle this. I dont wanna hear about how he had a shitty o-line, we know this already so stop using it as an excuse cause its lame!


Emmit Smith:

Carries Yards Avg. Yards per carry TD's
4,409 18,355 4.2 164


Barry Sanders:

Carries Yards Avg. per carry TD's
3,062 15,269 5.0 99


if your gonna argue in this thread bring up stats. Dont bring "If he had this or that", cause it doesnt matter. Stats are the truth, so yea lets here your thoughts.

1k less carries 5.0 average that means he wouldve had close to 5k yards if he has those 1k carries

he breaks smiths record EASILY if he continues playing

that is why sanders isnt stamped as the consensus number 1 all time rb cuz he quit early in his career

2ToNald Trump wrote:

1k less carries 5.0 average that means he wouldve had close to 5k yards if he has those 1k carries

he breaks smiths record EASILY if he continues playing

that is why sanders isnt stamped as the consensus number 1 all time rb cuz he quit early in his career

Just like Peyton Manning will shatter records in the next 5 years. He'll surpass even the best of QB records and be like Jerry Rice having almost 400-500 more receptions than the second. If you could find an equivalent for that statistic.

I love how Sanders ran. The guy is literally the Houdini of the game. Much respect for the man that can break outta almost every tackle. I do admire Smith's toughness, though.

Ask yourself who would you want on your team - Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Walter Peyton, or Emmit Smith. How many people are going to say Emmit Smith before any of those three?

Barry isn't #1 because he quit early. Please Jim Brown quit early and played in a era when black athletes were rare in the game and most people still consider him #1 without question.

Barry was also the all-time leader in yards for a loss in a career as a RB when he retired at -1114 yds so yeah, stats are the truth.

You know Sanders quit because he was tired of being on a sucky team right? That's not the kind of guy I'd want on my team. He wasn't gracious enough that he was living the dream.

I say Barry over Emmit. Emmit had like 1,500 more carries and only 3,000 more yards. So if they had the same amount of carries going along with the yards per carry Barry would have shattered his record

hof8231 wrote:

You know Sanders quit because he was tired of being on a sucky team right? That's not the kind of guy I'd want on my team. He wasn't gracious enough that he was living the dream.

Brown left because his heart wasn't in the game either. He moved on to greater and better things according to him primarily because he wanted to go into acting and charity work. He saw acting as a salary increase for him

"He maintained then and now that he knew what he had done and what he wanted to do. He looked at acting and film as a salary increase and social activism as his way to help society. "

He wasn't fully into it either and he was actually winning.

You question commitment but you guys like Romo on your avatar. Dude takes vacation during the season while guys like Manning obess over playbooks and gameplanning and plays golf during the off-season while other QB are working with their WR that are yet to even be drafted like Manning working with Anothy Gonazlez before he was even drafted.

Genno wrote:

2ToNald Trump wrote:

1k less carries 5.0 average that means he wouldve had close to 5k yards if he has those 1k carries

he breaks smiths record EASILY if he continues playing

that is why sanders isnt stamped as the consensus number 1 all time rb cuz he quit early in his career

Just like Peyton Manning will shatter records in the next 5 years. He'll surpass even the best of QB records and be like Jerry Rice having almost 400-500 more receptions than the second. If you could find an equivalent for that statistic.

I love how Sanders ran. The guy is literally the Houdini of the game. Much respect for the man that can break outta almost every tackle. I do admire Smith's toughness, though.

thats my point tho in the yards gained means nothing when some people play a long ass time and just continue to rack up the yards/catchs/passing/etc

thats why i look at the other stats rather than the flawed overall yards and so on

leader of all time yards lost behind torrid offensive line....

jim brown was also from an era where the players werent on his level or even close to it in terms of tackling, defense, and just an overall football game but i wont discredit the man of what he did

point is it was a different era

no one can go wrong with the top 5 choices, its just a matter of which type of back you prefer

but lets not discredit all of these rbs' talents

The part agrument a Smith fan would have is that he almost rush for 1000 yards on a crappy Arizona team when he was 36. That's like Brett Favrish there with the durability as most backs are out by then. All the usual top 5 RB in the agrument are out of the league by 33 either by injury or retirement.

Retirement ages
Brown (29)
Sanders (30)
Peyton (33)
Smith (36)

good points noob- brown and sweetness both ahead of emmitt imo

I agree with 2ton about Brown being from a different era. He was a man playing in a boys league. The defense is way better now than it has ever been as far as people's ability. Athletes train from when they are young in hopes of making pro player salaries. They are much bigger, faster, stronger than years ago. Not to say there weren't beast players because we don't have stats and much footage of the older players. Just from the highlights of Jim Brown, you can tell most would not cut it in this day and age.

lol barry is the most overrated back in this entire convo. gale sayers was barry years before barry around. had gale played the same amount of games, and had the same amount of carrys then he would have the same exact numbers as barry but somehow he doesnt get any credit or get any love on this list? i would argue that gale was more elusive, and could bring more to the table as a player. i dont even like emmit and i would put him in front of barry

Stats are the truth?

If your comparing who had a better career, than its Emmit. But, Barry was the better running back.

Listen to Elite.

Stats matter NOT! The only thing that matters is who won and how. Lions had a HORRIBLE team and Sanders was one of the ONLY exceptions. I would not like to give my 100% to a team that cannot be better than a turd. I'm sure Sanders had in his mind "You cannot polish a turd"

Emmitt, of course, had the better team, played longer and accumulated the best stats. But he was not the best RB. I love how he gave the Cowboys depth when he played. But Sanders had the better highlights. You can say whatever you want of Emmitt being better because of his stats but it's like putting another trophy into a trophy collection (Cowboys).

Favre is 40 and his records WILL be broken. I think he only plays to rack up his stats to make them harder to break so he'll live in deeper eternity. Likewise to Smith. No dis to the man, but I like Sanders.

Who would you want?
THE ALL-TIME LEADER FOR RUSHES FOR A LOST OF YARDS OR
THE ALL-TIME LEADER FOR RUSHING YARDS GAINED?

I'm da ish in madden wrote:

Who would you want?
THE ALL-TIME LEADER FOR RUSHES FOR A LOST OF YARDS OR
THE ALL-TIME LEADER FOR RUSHING YARDS GAINED?

I'll take the second option i thank you.

i have been asking a lot of people i know who is better and not one has said emmit is better. imo barry is far better then emmit put barry in a cowboys uniform and emmit in a lions uniform and i bet emmit does nothing. barry did lose a lot of yards but he was a playmaker and was always trying to make holes b/c his o-line failed to do so.

if this or if that. thats all the fans of barry have in this arguement. dont hate the man and discredit his stats because of the team he played on. you never hear how montana isnt the best cause he played on the best teams. you dot hear people saying rice isnt the best cause he played with 2 of the best QBs ever. why is it that were doing it with emmit? its all about if this or if that. and for those of you are going to say he would have broke emmits record had he kept playing, well so would gale sayers. he was barry before barry ever happend. he had a 5 YPC (the same as barry) and helped out in more ways then barry did.

BARRY IS OVERRATED

i would say rice isn't the greatest u can argue that brown could have been the best he had terrible qb play and put up great numbers anyways saying sanders is overrated that is ridiculous it would be hard to take u serious when it comes to talking football. avg 5.2 ypc and having a season were u rush for over 2000 yards behind an o-line that wasn't that great doesn't qualify u as overrated. u want overrated than look to terry bradshaw.

and its kind of hard to take you serious when you cant even get the stats right for your argument

I thought I was done with this until I seen your last comment. Overrated? Cmon man. I respect anyone who thinks Emmitt was better than Barry, the stats do say alot. But OVERRATED? NO

sorry. i dont like a loss of yards every other play

MiamiXCanes wrote:

sorry. i dont like a loss of yards every other play

Barry tried to make alot of plays cause he had to in order for his team to have any chance of winning of course hes going to lose yards sometimes but he averaged 5.0 a carry for his whole career playing for the LIONS lol and Emmit averaged 4.2 playing for the COWBOYS lol. I think that says alot. In my opinion Barry was better than Emmit but Emmit was still very good of course

emmit was a different kind of back so him averaging less isnt valid

when u average 5 yards a carry and u have the most negative yards? thats crazy good he isnt overrated by any means

emmitt was that consistent guy and that helpe dhim rack up the yards cuz he could just keep running and running and running

some guys like the home run hitters and some guys like the consistency ala bettis

point is theyre all great all did their thign and its too difficult to say who is the best of the best since some were from different eras had different situations different whatever

but the majority will agree top 5 would at leas involve brown sanders payton and smith or a combination of those rbs