Who's the better career running back: Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders?

Sanders

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by Jared Smith

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After ten seasons of agonizing defeat, the greatest running back of all time, Barry Sanders, decided that the time to end his career was then. Ten seasons, however, was enough for the 5-8 running back to solidify his professional football career as the greatest of all time - even greater than the prestigious careers of Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Jim Brown.

Eluding the NFL's most physical players at every defensive position, Sanders collected each of his 15,269 yards in the greatest fashion possible for an NFL running back to do so. The statistical measures often bore readers and learning debaters, but facts are more reliable than opinions and for that reason alone they should be used to determine the better running back.

Emmitt Smith may have totaled 164 rushing touchdowns but he also took greater than 43% additional handoffs from the quarterback in the backfield than Barry Sanders did (1,347 more). A rounded down 3.2% of the time, Sanders took the pigskin to the house as his competitor, Smith, took a rounded down 3.7% of his carries the distance. Many fail to realize that the running styles and strategies allow Smith to gain a greater number of short goal line touchdowns from just one to five yards out of the opponents' end zone. The running style of Emmitt Smith's does no more greater damage on rival defenses than Barry Sanders' style does, but it allows the touchdown stat column to appear rather inflated in comparison to Sanders' even though the true progress on the field demonstrates the touchdowns Smith collects are easily gained.
Only once did Barry Sanders fail to reach the season mark of 1,300 rushing yards: Emmitt Smith fell short of the mark eight times in just five more seasons. The ignorant claims that the meaning, behind Emmitt Smith's all time record for career rushing yards, obviously points to Smith as the greatest back of all time do not paint, but a small part of, the picture. When the career of Barry Sanders was abruptly and unexpectedly ended, he cemented his career numbers averaging 5.0 yards per carry, 0.8 yards more than Emmitt Smith. 0.8 yards may not appear to be an eye-opening difference although it is more than 19% of the yardage Smith averaged per carry - 19% difference in yards per carry favoring Barry Sanders versus the 0.5% difference in the number of carries it takes to score a rushing touchdown favoring Emmitt Smith. One can also add that Barry Sanders' style of running required him to run backwards until finding an opening hole in the offensive line. This style of running eventually directed to an NFL record of lost yardage: Sanders lost 952 yards on 336 carries by his 9th season which means that 14% of his carries were for losses. The fact that Sanders overcame the amount of lost yardage and managed to still collect more than 19% of Emmitt Smith's total yards per carry is completely staggering and absolutely breathtaking.

Writers ' Note: To further extend my argument, against the importance of the "career rushing yards leader" title, I will add that Barry Sanders set an NFL record for most 100 yard games in a single season: 14 consecutive games. He also established another NFL record collecting ten consecutive 1,000 yard seasons and in 1997 the NFL 2,000 yard mark club welcomed Barry Sanders to its distinguished group.

Emmitt Smith and the Dallas Cowboys obtained a dominant offensive line and a much greater supporting cast than Barry Sanders and the Detroit Lions. The balanced offensive layout of the team, under head coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, only benefited the team's running success. The Detroit Lions only managed to produce one or two pro bowl caliber offensive linemen in the time period when Barry Sanders played. Several avid professional football fans believe the common opinion that Barry Sanders' offensive line was horrible is a misconception - I agree, but in retrospect avid professional football fans admit that Emmitt Smith's offensive line was dominant in run blocking. There is another widely accepted theory that Barry Sanders' style of running did not require an offensive line consisting of pro bowl caliber players, however it is again generally acknowledged that his results would still benefit and flourish exponentially lining up, hands on knees, behind one.

Emmitt Smith's style is frequently addressed when debating the two running backs Smith obtained a more bruising style of running and with that being said, Emmitt Smith fumbled the football twice as often as Barry Sanders did Smith fumbled 54 times in comparison to the 27 times Sanders did. Holding onto the ball is a trait that running backs need to possess in the NFL and the elusive style of running that Barry Sanders demonstrated by running through and in between potential tacklers made the opportunity for him to fumble the football just as often as the bruising running style of Smith.

Several sports writers and debaters often forget to mention Barry Sanders' receiving ability. Sanders averaged 8.3 yards per reception in comparison to a 6.3 yard per reception average of Emmitt Smith. In 5 more professional football seasons than Sanders, Smith tallied only one more touchdown through the air and only 303 more receiving yards on 163 more receptions. Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith were both considered to have multiple dimensions to their game, but Sanders' multiple uses were of greater damage to an opposing defense and that is the defining factor in the debate of "Who is the Greater Running Back: Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders?".

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