by Seth Fellenz

Created on: August 01, 2010   Last Updated: August 03, 2010

Every year for the nearly 80 years of the NFL's existence, there have been standout players. The best of each season play in the Pro Bowl, are named All Pros, and more recently, are selected early in fantasy football drafts. There are a handful of players though, who routinely dominate their position, game after game, year after year. One of those players, running back LaDanian Tomlinson, has been gaining yards and scoring touchdowns at a phenomenal rate during his nine seasons (and counting) in professional football. Certainly one of the most electrifying players in history, and the gold standard of running backs of his generation, Tomlinson is a truly great player. But the best running back of all time? Let's take a look at how he measures up to some of the other backs whose names are in the conversation.

If LaDanian Tomlinson is going to be considered the best ever, he has to be the best of his era, and there is little doubt that he is. Edgerrin James, Jamal Lewis, and Tomlinson were first round picks in 1999, 2000, and 2001, respectively. They played the best years of their careers with teams that featured them on offense, and they thrived, making a combined ten Pro Bowls and five All Pro first teams. Tomlinson, though, has been head and shoulders above the other two. Despite playing fewer seasons, LDT has more yards rushing and receiving than either James or Lewis, and he set the record for most touchdowns in a season with 28 in 2006. In the race to be the best running back of the decade, Tomlinson has left all others eating his dust.

The real question, then, is how he compares to the other unquestionably great backs of history. For the sake of this discussion, let's look at the two players most people would consider the best ever, Jim Brown, and Barry Sanders. Brown played in a far different era, when he was as big as anyone trying to tackle him. Still, he had the combination of speed, strength, and agility to run through, around, and away from any defender. In just nine, fourteen game seasons, Brown ran for a then record 12,312 yards, an average of 104 yards per game.

Sanders, meanwhile, may have been the most exciting player to ever grace the gridiron. His legendary agility and breakaway speed, combined with his under-appreciated power, meant he could score a touchdown any time he touched the ball. On a Lions team that never had much of a passing game, he would do exactly what opponents expected, and they still couldn't tackle him. He rushed for over

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