What 25 NFL running backs may have lost the most statistics off their career totals because their careers derailed too early?
There’s a reason NFL running backs don’t seem to last as long as players in other positions.
Few positions in the NFL face as daunting a gauntlet from game to game and season to season than running back, and some of the all-time greats to play the sport not only played the position but had their careers cut way too short.
Whether due to debilitating injuries, battles with addiction, or simply walking away at the peak of their stardom, many of the greatest running backs in NFL history’s careers left us wanting more. Much more.
There have been No. 1 overall draft picks who shredded their knees before even stepping onto the field for their first career NFL regular-season game, Hall of Famers who battled through various nagging injuries but couldn’t outrun father time, and other careers — and lives that ended tragically too soon.
Barry Sanders walked away less than a year after his best season and is arguably the greatest player to ever play the position. Meanwhile, Joe Delaney was killed at the devastatingly young age of 24, after a tantalizing glimpse of his talent that might have propelled him to an elite career.
Those are the type of stories you can expect to find on this list … May the countdown begin!
Scroll through for our countdown of the 25 “what if” running backs in NFL history:
Ki Jana Carter might be the ultimate “what if” story in the history of NFL running backs.
Chosen with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1995 NFL Draft following a stellar collegiate career at Penn State, injuries beset Carter before his career even had the chance to really get going.
Carter suffered a torn ACL on the third carry of his first career preseason game and was forced to sit out his entire rookie campaign and he was never quite the same player.
When he finally returned to action and made his NFL debut in 1996, Carter rushed for 264 yards and a career-high eight touchdowns and added 22 catches for 169 yards and a receiving touchdown while only starting four of 16 games.
Carter went on to play four seasons with the Bengals, averaging 3.3 yards per carry over that span and scoring 16 touchdowns before spending one season with Washington and finishing out his career with the New Orleans Saints in 2003 and 2004.
Just as an injury cost Carter his rookie season, they plagued him throughout his career. Carter suffered a torn rotator cuff in 1997 and missed the following two seasons due to a broken wrist in 1998 and a dislocated kneecap in 1999. Carter’s career came to a close when he was among the Green Bay Packers’ final cuts in 2005.
The Bengals signed Carter to a seven-year contract worth $19 million, but he only appeared in 35 games over five years before signing with Washington in 2001.
- Career stats: 319 carries for 1,144 yards with 20 touchdowns, 66 receptions for 469 yards and 1 touchdown
Tragedy cut Joe Delaney’s career — and his life — far too short.
Two years after he was chosen by the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft, Delaney died at the age of 24 while trying to rescue three children in a northeastern Louisiana pond on June 29, 1983.
Delaney’s brief two-season career offered a tantalizing glimpse at potential greatness.
As a rookie, Delaney rushed for 1,121 yards en route to a Pro Bowl berth, AFC Rookie of The Year award, and left an indelible mark on the Chiefs.
Delaney went on to set the franchise record for most yards in a season, in a game, and most 100-plus yard games in a season. He still holds the Chiefs’ record for most rushing attempts by a rookie, with 234.
The following season, Delaney’s last, he only appeared in eight games due to the NFL Players’ strike and a detached retina that required surgery. Delaney still rushed for 380 yards in his sophomore season, while averaging four yards per carry.
The Chiefs inducted Delaney into the organization’s Hall of Fame, Ring of Honor, and have yet to give out Delaney’s No. 37 again, 38 years after his passing.
- Career stats: 391 carries for 1,501 yards with three touchdowns, 33 receptions for 299 yards
- 1981 AFC Rookie of The Year
- 1981 Pro Bowl berth
Rogers was one of the most dominant running backs of his era, but it seemed drugs were always lurking around the corner, robbing him of attaining all-time great potential.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 1981 NFL Draft, Rogers burst onto the scene with a 1,674 rushing-yard and 13-touchdown performance en route to being named Rookie of The Year and his first of three Pro Bowl berths. Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson is the only running back to ever rush for more yards as a rookie.
However, Rogers testified that he and his teammates purchased over $10,000 worth of cocaine and used it during that rookie season prior to checking himself into a rehab facility. Rogers, according to teammates, was the Saints’ biggest supplier of cocaine that season.
Rogers went on to play four more seasons in New Orleans, including sharing a backfield with future Hall of Famers Archie Manning and Earl Campbell, producing a pair of 1,000-plus yard rushing seasons and scoring 23 rushing touchdowns prior to getting traded to Washington in exchange for a fifth-round and 11th-round pick in the 1985 NFL Draft.
When Rogers retired at the age of 29 in 1987 he said that it was nagging injuries that caused him to walk away from the game, after suffering what he believes were multiple concussions during his career.
- Super Bowl champion (XXII)
- Two-time first-team All-Pro
- Three-time Pro Bowler
- NFL Offensive Rookie of The Year
- New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame inductee
Like so many on this list, Okoye — affectionately known as the Nigerian Nightmare because of his hard-nosed, physical running style — had his promising career cut short by injuries.
In 1989, Okoye more than lived up to his moniker during the most dominant season of his NFL career. Okoye became the first Kansas City Chiefs running back to ever win the rushing crown, producing 1,480 yards while leading the league with 370 attempts on his way to a Pro Bowl berth and AFC Offensive Player of The Year Award.
Drafted by the Chiefs in the second round of the 1987 NFL Draft, Okoye averaged 4.2 yards per carry and scored 18 touchdowns in his first three seasons prior to suffering a nagging and debilitating knee injury in 1990. By the time 1992 rolled around, Okoye was relegated to being the Chiefs’ goal-line and short-yardage back.
Elected to the Chiefs’ Hall of Fame in 2000, it’s impossible not to wonder what his potential might have been had he stayed healthy. Despite injuries wreaking havoc on the back-end of his career, Okoye produced a pair of 1,000 yard rushing seasons and scored 40 touchdowns in six seasons. What might have been if Okoye could have played three to four more seasons? How high might he have ranked on the all-time rushing list?
- Career stats: 1,246 carries for 4,897 yards and 40 touchdowns, 42 receptions for 294 yards
- Two-time Pro Bowler
- 1989 First-Team All-Pro
- 1991 Second-Team All-Pro
- 1989 AFC Offensive Player of The Year
- 1989 NFL Rushing Leader
- Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Famer, Ring of Honor member
The arc of Ricky Williams’ career might be among the strangest of any running back of all time, beginning with the New Orleans Saints trading their entire draft to acquire him and ending with the former Heisman Trophy winner simply loving marijuana more than football.
While Williams had a robust career, currently 31st on the all-time rushing list, it’s easy to wonder how much higher he’d have ranked had he not missed the 2004 and 2006 seasons. He played 11 NFL seasons, but his career was broken up due to drugs.
Williams retired from the NFL for the first time, in 2004, after he was ineligible to play after failing a third marijuana test in nine months just prior to Miami Dolphins training camp opening that summer.
During his year away from football, Williams studied holistic medicine, before returning to the NFL the following season. But, was once again banned from the NFL in Feb. 2006, when he violated the league’s substance abuse policy for a fourth time.
When Williams was on the field, healthy, and focused, he was an absolute force. Williams produced five 1,000-plus yard seasons, including winning the rushing title in 2002 with a career-high 1,853 yards and 160 touchdowns. He rushed for over 1,000 yards in three of his first four seasons, and there’s no telling how much more productive he might have been had drugs not derailed his career.
- Career stats: 2,431 carries for 10,009 yards and 66 touchdowns, 342 receptions for 2,606 yards and 8 touchdowns
- 2002 first-team All-Pro
- 2002 Pro Bowler
- 2002 Rushing champion
The “Dirty Bird.”
Anderson was instrumental in the Atlanta Falcons’ unexpected run to the Super Bowl in 1998, rushing for a career-high 1,846 yards and 14 touchdowns that season, capping off an impressive three-season stretch of 1,000-plus yard rushing performances.
The dirty bird dance, Anderson’s signature touchdown celebration, became a cultural phenomenon that year.
However, a pair of knee injuries cut his career woefully short.
The Falcons’ precipitous collapse in 1999 on the heels of losing the Super Bowl to John Elway and the Denver Broncos that February was preceded by Anderson tearing his ACL in Week 3, ending his season. For Anderson, the injury woes only got worse.
After returning in 2000, and rushing for 1,024 yards and six touchdowns, Anderson tore his ACL for the second time in three seasons in Sept. of 2001 in a Week 3 contest against the Arizona Cardinals that wound up being career-ending.
For as much talent and potential that Anderson flashed in his first three seasons, one has to wonder what might have been had his career taken place a decade later when advancements in medical technology made it possible for athletes to return from ACL surgeries in little more than a year and sometimes less.
- Career stats: 1,329 carries for 5,336 yards and 34 touchdowns, 156 receptions for 1,645 yards and 7 touchdowns
- 1998 First-team All-Pro
- 1998 Pro Bowler
Wilbert Montgomery’s legacy in Philadelphia will always be his dash to the end zone for an emphatic touchdown to open the 1980 NFC Championship Game against the Dallas Cowboys that propelled the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance.
However, that run almost didn’t happen because of the thing that dogged Montgomery long before his first NFL carry: injuries.
Snow and brutally cold conditions forced the Eagles to practice for the NFC Championship Game at Veterans Stadium at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ facility, and at one point during the week Montgomery twisted his ankle on a divot on the practice field. He wound up playing and rushing for 194 yards and a touchdown before his knee gave out late in the game.
A two-time Pro Bowl selection, Montgomery rushed for a career-high 1,512 yards with nine touchdowns in 1979 and produced three 1,000-plus yard performances in his career.
Montgomery went on to play nine seasons but was only able to finish four of them as he dealt with shoulder, hamstring, ankle, and knee injuries throughout his career. Given Montgomery’s talent, downhill running style, and productivity during his healthy years, it isn’t a stretch to say that he’d easily have wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame had injuries not constantly been lurking around every corner.
- Career stats: 1,540 carries for 6,789 yards and 45 touchdowns, 273 receptions for 2,502 yards and 12 touchdowns
- Two-time All-Pro
- Two-time Pro Bowler
- Eagles Hall of Fame inductee
When healthy, Andrews was one of the most feared running backs in the NFL, because of his brutally physical running style, but injuries took a brutal toll on his career.
Andrews burst onto the scene, rushing for 1,023 yards as a rookie after being chosen by the Atlanta Falcons in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft, including a 167-yard outburst in his professional debut.
He went on to rush for over 1,300 yards in each of his next two seasons while rushing for 17 touchdowns over that span. Following the strike-shortened 1982 season, when he finished second in total yards from scrimmage, Andrews bounced back with a career-high 1,567 yards and seven touchdowns in 1983.
Then, disaster struck.
Andrews suffered a debilitating knee injury that kept him out of action for two full seasons. He’d only play one more season, in part-time duty for the Falcons, rushing for just 214 yards and one touchdown.
Given that Andrews averaged 1,282 rushing yards in his first four and a half seasons, if he were to have stayed healthy and been able to be fully productive for an average running back’s career, he might be significantly higher on the all-time rushing list and regarded as one of the game’s greatest.
- Career stats: 1,315 carries for 5,986 yards and 30 touchdowns, 277 receptions for 2,647 yards and 11 touchdowns
- 1983 First-team All-Pro
- Two-time second-team All-P
- Four-time Pro Bowler
The No. 3 overall pick out of Penn State in 1983, Curt Warner’s career can largely be defined by his resiliency after suffering a torn ACL just as his second season began.
Warner was every bit an elite running back in his rookie season, rushing for 1,449 yards and a career-high 13 touchdowns, matching his total scores three seasons later. However, Warner tore his ACL in Week 1 of his sophomore season, and while he was a productive player post-injury, he only showed flashes of being the same dominant back.
In his return from surgery in 1985, Warner surpassed 1,000 yards, before posting the most productive season of his career in 1986 when he produced 1,481 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 4.6 yards per carry.
Warner’s resilience from returning from reconstructive knee surgery in an era where knee injuries were considered catastrophic is rather remarkable, given that he went on to appear in three Pro Bowls when other backs might have had their careers ended by such an injury.
While Warner still had a productive career, it’s easy to wonder just how much more prolific he might have been had he not blown out his knee in his second professional season
- Career stats: 1,698 carries for 6,844 yards and 56 touchdowns, 193 receptions for 1,467 yards and 7 touchdowns
- Three-time Pro Bowler
- Three-time Second-Team All-Pro
- Two-time AFC Offensive Player of The Year
For a stretch, Foster looked like he was on a path to becoming one of the most dominant running backs of his generation.
From 2010 through 2012, Foster’s shifty but explosive running style propelled him to 4,264 yards and 41 touchdowns over that span, including rushing for a career-high 1,616 yards and 16 scores in his second NFL season.
What made Foster’s 2011 season even more impressive was that he sprained his hamstring twice during the preseason that summer but still finished sixth in rushing.
Injuries began to take their toll on Foster, as they do on so many running backs, in his fourth season when he suffered a bulging disk in his back that required surgery in November of 2013. The following season, despite only appearing in 13 games, Foster rushed for 1,246 yards and eight touchdowns.
All told, Foster appeared in fewer than 13 games in four of his eight seasons, but, despite the back and knee issues, Foster still surpassed 1,200 rushing yards four times before a lower-body injury led to his retirement in October of 2016. What might Foster’s career totals look like without those injuries and if he were able to play for at least two or three more seasons?
- Career stats: 1,476 carries for 6,527 yards and 54 touchdowns
- 2010 First-team All-Pro
- 2011 Second-team All-Pro
- Four-time Pro Bowler
- 2010 NFL rushing champion
The star of the unbeaten 1972 Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins, Mercury Morris was among the most prolific runners of his era but struggled to outrun some of his darkest demons off the field.
Morris, chosen by the Dolphins in the third round of the 1969 NFL Draft, rushed for a career-high 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns for Don Shula’s Super Bowl champions in 1972. The following season, his second-most productive, Morris averaged 6.4 yards per carry and scored 10 touchdowns.
However, Morris, who was arrested in 1982 at the age of 35 on a series of drug charges, battled addiction off and on throughout his playing career. Morris used cocaine at various times during his career, particularly as injuries began to take their grip leading up to his retirement in 1977.
In addition to his battle with cocaine addiction, Morris suffered severe neck and knee injuries that were further aggravated by a 1976 car accident.
Had it not been for the combination of injuries and addiction, there’s no telling what Morris’ career might have wound up looking like, particularly after how productive it began.
- Career stats: 804 carries for 4,133 yards and 13 touchdowns, 54 receptions for 543 yards and one touchdown
- Three-time Pro Bowler
When was the last time you saw a fullback rush for over 1,000 yards? What about score 15 touchdowns?
Ickey Woods did both. As a rookie.
Woods, chosen by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 1988 NFL Draft, was as prolific a rookie running back as the Bengals or the NFL have ever seen. While leading the Bengals to a Super Bowl berth, Woods set the franchise rookie rushing record with 1,066 yards, most rushing touchdowns by a rookie in a season, most in a playoff game, with four, and most all-purpose yards in the playoffs.
It’s no wonder that the “Ickey Shuffle” went mainstream, and Woods was remembered years later as a commercial star.
Almost predictably, based on his usage early in his career, but injuries quickly wrecked Woods. He tore his left ACL in 1989, and injured his right knee in 1991, before being forced into early retirement after just four seasons and 37 games played in 1991.
Upon his retirement, Woods owned 30 Bengals franchise records. Imagine what his impact and legacy might have been had he been able to stay healthy …
- Career stats: 332 carries for 1,525 yards and 27 touchdowns, 47 receptions for 397 yards
- 1988 Second-team All-Pro
Like a supernova, Maurice Jones-Drew burst onto the NFL scene and seemed to improve, growing more dominant each season before his career built to a crescendo in 2011, before fading into oblivion.
Jones-Drew, chosen by the Jaguars in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, rushed for 941 yards and 13 touchdowns as a rookie and quickly developed into the type of running back that defensive coordinators lost sleepover on Saturday nights.
After regressing a bit in his second season, Jones-Drew rushed for 824 yards, 1,391 yards, 1,324 yards, and finally a career-high 1,606 yards and eight touchdowns in 2011. Three years later, he was out of the league.
Jones-Drew followed up his stellar 2011 campaign by holding out for a new contract that offseason, before ultimately suffering a foot injury in October that ultimately wound up ending his season.
Over his final two seasons, Jones-Drew only managed a combined 899 yards and five touchdowns.
If it weren’t for his torn meniscus suffered in 2010 and his lengthy contract holdout followed by his foot injury, Jones-Drew might have wound up with a truly special career.
- Career stats: 1,847 carries for 8,167 yards and 68 touchdowns, 346 receptions for 2,944 yards and 11 touchdowns
- Two-time First-team All-Pro
- 2009 Second-team All-Pro
- three-time Pro Bowler
- 2011 Rushing champion
One of the most dominant and versatile running back prospects to ever enter the NFL Draft, Garrison Hearst’s NFL career was marred by injuries, but when healthy was among the most productive players in the league.
By his sixth NFL season in 1998, Hearst had produced three 1,000-plus yard rushing seasons and rushed for 14 touchdowns. However, his career can best be described by its second act and the injury that likely cost him the chance to translate his bountiful potential out of the University of Georgia into an all-time great career.
Hearst suffered a fractured ankle in a San Francisco 49ers playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons in January 1999. This wasn’t a run of the mill ankle injury, though, as he developed a rare circulatory condition in the aftermath of surgery to repair his shattered ankle that previously ended Bo Jackson’s playing career.
Unlike Jackson, Hearst was able to overcome his condition thanks to a medical procedure that essentially rebroke his ankle and grafted cartilage from other parts of his body to piece it back together. The condition did, though, cost Hearst two seasons in the prime of his career.
Upon returning, Hearst immediately reascended to the top of the 49ers’ running back depth chart and rushed for 1,206 yards and four touchdowns en route to winning Comeback Player of The Year in 2001.
Hearst’s productivity declined over the final three seasons of his career, and he was ultimately forced to retire in 2004 after suffering a broken hand.
If Hearst had just two more years in the prime of his career in the midst of exceeding 1,000 yards in three of four seasons, perhaps he winds up as a top-25 all-time rusher.
- Career stats: 1,831 carries for 7,966 yards and 30 touchdowns, 229 receptions for 2,065 yards and nine touchdowns
- 1998 Second-team All-Pro
- Two-time Pro Bowler
- 2001 Comeback Player of the Year
Unlike many of the running backs on this list, Ray Rice has only himself to blame for his career being cut far too short.
During a Valentine’s Day trip to the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, Rice was caught on an elevator security camera cold-cocking his fiancee and dragging her body out of the elevator by her hair. Janay Rice was charged with simple assault following the incident, but those charges against her were later dropped.
Rice’s actions forced the NFL to face a reckoning when it comes to domestic violence involving players.
Rice became a cautionary tale of sorts and the face of commissioner Roger Goodell’s newly instituted personal conduct policy.
The incident effectively ended Rice’s playing career, after he was found to have lied to Goodell leading to his release by the Ravens after the video was released, and indefinite suspension by the NFL.
Long before that infamous night in Atlantic City, though, Rice was among the league’s most productive and consistent running backs, averaging 1,030 yards through his first six seasons and scoring 37 career touchdowns.
The Baltimore Ravens built their offense around Rice and a physical brand of football. Injuries were rarely a factor for Rice, and if his career had continued on its trajectory, the combination of his skill-set, the Ravens’ offense, and track record for success as an organization might have propelled him to becoming one of the all-time greats.
- Career stats: 1,430 carries for 6,180 yards and 37 touchdowns, 369 receptions for 3,034 yards and six touchdowns
- Two-time Second-team All-Pro
- Three-time Pro Bowler
Johnson’s NFL career was largely lifted by an injury — to someone else — but ultimately derailed because of his own conduct off the field.
The Kansas City Chiefs chose Johnson with the No. 27 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft out of Penn State, largely as insurance against All-Pro running back Priest Holmes getting injured or departing via free agency. By 2004, the Chiefs needed to cash in that insurance policy when Holmes injured his knee in Week 9, ending his season.
When Johnson got his chance, he was briefly among the NFL’s top backs.
Johnson rushed for 1,750 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2005, his first season as a full-time starter, and followed up that effort with a career-high 1,789 yards and 17 touchdowns the following season.
However, just as Johnson frequently bowled over defenders on the field, he struggled to sidestep controversy off it.
In 2007, Johnson was suspended for a game for violating team rules, he was benched for another, and ultimately suspended for the Chiefs’ Week 10 contest for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy after being charged with assault for the fourth time in five years. Then, in 2009, following a Twitter outburst and using a gay slur to describe Chiefs head coach Todd Haley, Johnson was suspended by the Chiefs and released the day his suspension was set to end.
Johnson signed with the Cincinnati Bengals, but only appeared in two games and played just three more games the following two years for Washington and the Miami Dolphins prior to retiring in 2011.
Since retirement, Johnson’s struggles with violent thoughts and outbursts have been well documented, and he believes that he is suffering from the effects of CTE, which might explain some of his bizarre and alleged criminal behavior as a player.
Still, when he was focused and available, Johnson’s dominance on the field makes it easy to think he could have been far more productive if he could have managed to stay out of trouble.
- Career stats: 1,427 carries for 6,223 yards and 55 touchdowns, 154 receptions for 1,373 yards and six touchdowns
- 2006 First-team All-Pro
- 2005 Second-team All-Pro
- Two-time Pro Bowler
Robert Smith is the first on this list — but certainly not the last — to up and retire when his career was at its apex.
Smith was one of the chief beneficiaries of the Vikings’ high-flying offense with quarterback Randall Cunningham, Hall of Fame wide receivers Randy Moss and Cris Carter, and that season Smith rushed for 1,187 yards and six touchdowns, his second of four consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more yards.
The No. 21 pick of the Vikings in the 1993 NFL Draft, Smith was a part-time player for the first three seasons of his career prior to breaking out and becoming one of the more dominant backs of the era.
While Smith managed to escape the NFL without any of the debilitating, or potentially life-altering injuries many of his peers suffered he did walk away from the game after battling through many minor nagging injuries at the age of 28.
Upon his retirement, Smith was second on the Minnesota Vikings all-time rushing list, and after averaging over 1,100 yards per season, there’s no telling how much higher he’d rank on the franchise and league rushing lists today if he had played a full career.
- Career stats: 1,411 carries for 6,818 yards and 32 touchdowns, 178 receptions for 1,292 yards and 6 touchdowns
- 2000 Second-team All-Pro
- two-time Pro Bowler
Who knew beach football could be so dangerous? At the height of his career, on the cusp of stardom, former New England Patriots running back Robert Edwards quickly found out.
After bursting onto the scene as a rookie, rushing for 1,115 yards and nine touchdowns after being chosen No. 18 overall out of Georgia, Edwards looked like he had a stellar career in front of him.
Then, disaster struck just before the 1999 Pro Bowl.
Edwards, while participating in the final of its “Rookie Beach Bowl” football game prior to the NFL’s annual All-Star game leaped to defend a pass, wound up landing awkwardly and tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL in addition to suffering nerve damage. He also sliced an artery in his left leg, and it would take a miracle for him to ever walk again.
While Edwards, through the miracles of modern medicine, didn’t just walk but return to football again, it took nearly two years. Upon returning to the Patriots, Edwards suffered a groin injury during training camp and wound up getting released prior to the 2001 season.
Edwards signed with the Miami Dolphins the following season, but was only a piece of a backfield timeshare, finishing with 20 carries for 107 yards and a touchdown in 2002 prior to retiring.
The Pro Bowl has never again staged a beach football game, and Edwards was never able to reach the heights that his lofty potential seemed to promise during his stellar rookie campaign.
- Career stats: 311 carries for 1,222 yards and 10 touchdowns, 53 receptions for 457 yards and four touchdowns.
Priest Holmes’ career-arc is intriguing in the matter that he developed from being a piece of a puzzle for an offense that won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens to being the most dominant and feared running back in the league as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Then, as has happened to so many running backs, injuries cut his career short.
As a bit player behind Jamal Lewis in the Ravens’ backfield, Holmes rushed for eight yards in Baltimore’s Super Bowl XXXV victory over the New York Giants, before signing with the Chiefs the following season and having the kind of personal success that mirrored the team success he had been part of in Baltimore.
Holmes rushed for 1,555 yards and eight touchdowns in his first season with the Chiefs, but the best was yet to come.
In 2002, Holmes was named the NFL’s Offensive Player of The Year after rushing for a career-high 1,615 yards and 21 touchdowns, while averaging 5.2 yards per carry. The following season, Holmes rushed for a career-high 27 touchdowns to go with 1,420 yards.
The following two seasons, coinciding with the arrival of Larry Johnson, Holmes’ role diminished slightly before his career was derailed by a spinal injury that cost him the final nine weeks of the 2005 season and kept him out all of 2006.
When Holmes returned in 2007, he was a shell of the player he once was and rushed for just 137 yards in four games.
- Career stats: 1,780 carries for 8,172 yards and 86 touchdowns, 339 receptions for 2,962 yards and eight touchdowns
- Three-time First-Team All-Pro
- 2002 NFL Offensive Player of The Year
- 2001 Rushing champion
- Three-time Pro Bowler
Sims arrived in Detroit with much promise, as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, Heisman Trophy in hand, out of Oklahoma, and after a stellar but grief career was tragically knocked out of the NFL.
As a rookie, Sims rushed for 1,303 yards and a career-high 13 touchdowns. The following season, Sims rushed for 13 more scores and a career-high 1,437 yards. Sims was the driving force behind the Lions making the postseason in 1982 and 1983, rushing for a combined 1,679 yards and 11 touchdowns over that span.
Disaster struck for Sims, who was in the midst of a potential Hall of Fame career when he shredded his right knee during a 1984 game against the Minnesota Vikings. After taking a handoff for a two-yard gain, Sims planted awkwardly and wound up tearing multiple ligaments in his knee.
Four years later, in 1988, Sims attempted a comeback, but ultimately never played another down in the NFL.
Barry Sanders wound up wearing Sims’ No. 20 as a tribute when he was chosen by Detroit. But, there’s no telling just how much higher Sims would rank on the all-time rushing list or of Sanders would have ever been a Lion at all had Sims stayed healthy and on the pace that his career began to win.
- 1,131 carries for 5,106 yards and 42 touchdowns, 186 receptions for 2,072 yards and five touchdowns
- 1981 First-team All-Pro
- 1980 Second-team All-Pro
- 1980 NFL Offensive Rookie of The Year
- Three-time Pro Bowler
The first Hall of Famer to make this list, Earl Campbell was known for his punishing, bruising, aggressive, downhill running style but it’s easy to wonder how much more prolific he might have been had he avoided the kind of injuries that shortened so many other back’s careers.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 1978 NFL Draft out of Texas, the Heisman Trophy winner arrived in Houston and immediately lived up to the potential the Oilers saw in him … and then some.
Campbell quickly developed the reputation as a bowling ball, who would prefer to run defenders over rather than shiftily break tackles, and that style helped propel him to No. 30 on the all-time rushing list, but the potential that he showed early in his career might have vaulted him significantly higher if he would have been able to stay healthy.
In each of his first three seasons, Campbell rushed for more than 1,400 yards, including a career-high 1,934 yards in 1980, his third NFL season. Campbell only rushed for fewer than 1,300 yards once in his first six years.
But, eventually, Campbell’s running style began to take a toll.
There wasn’t one singular injury that did Campbell in, but rather the collective toll of nine seasons with a punishing running style began to chip away at his production. Today, Campbell has been diagnosed with nerve disease, spinal stenosis, and other conditions that have left him reliant on a walker, which is a difficult image for what a brutally physical football career can do to a body.
- Career stats: 2,187 carries for 9,407 yards and 74 touchdowns, 121 receptions for 806 yards
- Pro Football Hall of Famer
- 1979 NFL MVP
- Three-time First-Team All-Pro
- Three-time NFL Offensive Player of The Year
- 1978 NFL Offensive Rookie of The Year
- Five-time Pro Bowler
- Three-time NFL rushing champion
- NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
- NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
Arguably the greatest running back in NFL history, Barry Sanders also has a strong case for the greatest “what if” story the league has ever seen.
Sanders wasn’t just one of the most dynamic and electrifying running backs to play the game, and an inspiration for generations of future running backs, he was one of the most productive players in the history of the sport.
The Heisman Trophy winner, out of Oklahoma State University, Sanders was chosen No. 3 overall by the Detroit Lions in 1989 and hit the ground running. As a rookie, Sanders burst onto the scene with 1,470 yards and 14 touchdowns, with the type of season that would be the high-water mark for most players.
Not for Sanders.
Sanders never rushed for fewer than 1,100 yards in a season and his rookie campaign was his seventh-most productive year.
In 1997, his ninth NFL season, Sanders produced a career-high 2,03 yards and 11 touchdowns while averaging a career-high 6.1 yards per carry. One year later, he retired.
On July 27, 1999, at the age of 30, Sanders penned a letter announcing his retirement.
Poof, just like that, one of the NFL’s premier running backs in the middle of his prime, simply walked away from the sport.
The fourth-leading rusher in NFL history, imagine if Sanders had played for three more seasons. After averaging 1,526 rushing yards per season, if he hadn’t walked away in his prime, and kept up that pace for three more years, Sanders had a chance at producing 19,849 yards … 1,494 more than Emmit Smith’s league record.
Oh, what might have been.
- Career stats: 3,062 carries for 15,269 yards and 99 touchdowns, 352 receptions for 2,921 yards and 10 touchdowns
- Pro Football Hall of Famer
- Two-time NFL MVP
- 1989 NFL Offensive Rookie of The Year
- Six-time First-Team All-Pro
- Four-time Second-team All-Pro
- 10-time Pro Bowler
- Four-time NFL rushing champion
- NFL 1990s All-Decade Team
- NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
A Hall of Famer and one of the greatest running backs to play the game, Gale Sayers might have been even more productive had it not been for a series of devastating knee injuries that interrupted his playing career and ultimately forced him into early retirement.
Chosen No. 4 overall in the 1965 NFL Draft out of Kansas, Sayers immediately became a focal point of the Bears’ offense. Sayers rushed for 867 yards and a career-high 14 touchdowns on his way to the NFL Rookie of The Year Award while setting the foundation for what would become one of the all-time great careers by any running back.
A two-time rushing champion, Sayers averaged just over five yards per carry during his seven-year career, but injuries robbed him of his chance to push for a higher place on the all-time rushing list.
Sayers was leading the league in rushing, for what would have been the second time in his career, in 1968, when he tore his MCL and meniscus in Week 9, ending his season. The following campaign, Sayers dashed for 1,032 yards, eight touchdowns, and the Comeback Player of the Year award.
However, another knee injury proved too much to overcome for Sayers in 1970, and after undergoing surgeries, was forced into retirement in 1971.
One of the greatest open-field runners in the history of the game, as well as his ability to break tackles and get to the second level, Sayers might have been immensely more productive if he would have been able to stay healthy for a more prolonged career.
- Career stats: 991 carries for 4,956 yards and 39 touchdowns, 112 receptions for 1,307 yards and nine touchdowns
- Pro Football Hall of Famer
- Five-time First-Team All-Pro
- 1965 NFL Rookie of The Year
- 1969 NFL Comeback Player of The Year
- Two-time NFL rushing champion
- NFL 1960s All-Decade Team
- NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
- NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
The driving force behind the Denver Bronco’s late-90’s success, Terrell Davis was instrumental in finally delivering Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway off into retirement with a pair of Super Bowl victories.
A Hall of Famer in his own right, Davis was the MVP of Super Bowl XXXII, rushing for a game-high 157 yards and three touchdowns, all while battling debilitating migraine headaches, a testament to his dominance and toughness.
Davis rushed for a career-high 2,008 yards and 21 touchdowns en route to winning MVP that season, capping a run of four consecutive seasons that he rushed for more than 1,100 yards.
However, that was the peak of Davis’ career as a series of debilitating injuries took their stranglehold.
In 1999, Davis tore his ACL and MCL in his right knee in Week 4 while trying to make a tackle against the Jets. The following season, after working his way back from his knee injury, Davis was only able to play in five games due to a leg injury and ultimately required surgery in both knees.
A part-time player for the rest of his career, Davis retired in 2002, but not before setting 46 Broncos franchise records.
Davis was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017 despite only playing seven seasons but it is fair to wonder just how much higher he might have ranked on the all-time rushing list had he been able to stay healthy.
- Career stats: 1,655 carries for 7,607 yards and 60 touchdowns, 169 catches for 1,280 yards and five touchdowns
- Pro Football Hall of Famer
- 1998 NFL MVP
- Super Bowl XXXII MVP
- Three-Time First-Team All-Pro
- Two-time NFL Offensive Player of The Year
- 1996 AFC Player of The Year
- 1998 NFL Rushing champion
- Three-time Pro Bowler
Bo knows football, Bo knows baseball, Bo knows … heartbreak?
One of the greatest athletes of his generation, and perhaps all time, Jackson starred both in football and Major League Baseball from 1987-1994, but his football career was but a flickering moment in time.
The No. 1 overall pick of the Oakland Raiders in 1987, two years removed from winning the Heisman Trophy, Jackson steadily improved in each of his first three seasons. Jackson rushed for 554 yards and four touchdowns while averaging a career-high 6.8 yards per carry as a rookie and two years later posting a career-best 950 rushing yards and four touchdowns.
However, Jackson suffered a devastating hip injury that ended his career in 1991 and required him to receive a hip replacement.
Jackson’s baseball career went on until 1994, but the potential he showed on the gridiron along with his unmatched athleticism put him at the top of this list because there’s simply no telling what his career might have developed into if he had the opportunity to capitalize on both.
- Career stats: 515 carries for 2,782 yards and 16 touchdowns, 40 receptions for 352 yards and two touchdowns
- 1990 Pro Bowler
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.