Do you agree that Emmitt Smith is ranked too low in the top 100?
He is ranked #28.
The player who holds the all time rushing records should be at least top 15.
Emmitt also won a Super Bowl MVP, and the Dallas dynasty that won 3 Super Bowls had the offense built around him. Aikman and Irvin were awesome, but the offensive scheme was designed to maximize Emmitt’s presence and it was simply the best of the decade
And no, I’m NOT a cowboys fan.
We haven’t seen the best Offensive Tackles neither: Walter Jones, Anthony Muñoz, Ron Yary, Dan Dierdorf and Jackie Slater. Only Art Shell and a couple of guys from the 50s.
Note that I am not comparing Emmitt to Sanders. Sanders will definitely be a top 10.
People tend to overrate the Cowboys line……how can a line be the greatest ever when they allowed Troy Aikman to suffer 10 concussions?
And apparently nobody remembers how Emmitt at 35 years old racked up 937 yards and 9 TD in an awful Cardinals team.
You said it yourself, the offense was built around him so the bulk of his stats came as a result of having the best offensive line maybe in history.
That doesn’t mean anybody could have done what he did but there are several all time great RBs who had they had Emmit’s line would have done even better.
Jim Brown, Wlater Payton, Barry Sanders, O. J. Simpson to name a few.
Also, the four I listed had GARBAGE offensive lines for many years and made things happen on their own by reversing field, breaking tackles and expolding through holes that close very quickly.
I would put Emmit in the top 50 all time but when you consider all the great Defensive guys from every defensive position and all the great QBs it’s tough to put him in the top 15.
Had he never reached the all time rushing title his stock would be nowhere as high as it is now because of the reasons I mentioned above and he got it as a result of Barry Sanders retiring early and everyone who knows anything about NFL history is aware of this fact.
Not to mention the single season rushing titles Barry allowed Emmit to have by sitting out of final games where Detroit had already made the playoffs and yet Dallas had easily already made the playoffs and Emmit was out there trying to get the single season title and risking injury for the post season. He was lucky it never happend and poor Barry put the team first knowing they probably wouldn’t go far anyways but at least wanted to be 100 % in the effort.