The Top Ten Greatest Seasons by NFL Running Backs

The ten greatest seasons in yardage gained ever by running backs in the National Football League belong to nine different players, ranging from the unstoppable Jim Brown to the mercurial Eric Dickerson. Five of these NFL running backs eclipsed the 2,000 yards rushing plateau, but of the ten greatest seasons in terms of yardage gained, only two achieved their feat in a fourteen game regular season. The top ten had their wonderful campaigns ranging from 1963 (Brown) through 2003 (Jamal Lewis), and of the nine running backs on this historic roster, three are still active. Here are the top ten greatest single seasons by an NFL running back.

10th- Jim Brown's 1963 season- Brown was at the height of his greatness in the tumultuous year of 1963, at 27 years old. Playing for the Cleveland Browns, Jim rushed 291 times for 1,863 yards and a dozen touchdowns against defenses specifically designed to stop him. Teams played just fourteen games back then, as opposed to the sixteen that are scheduled now. Brown also caught 24 passes out of the backfield, averaging 11.3 yards a catch, but it is his 6.4 average per rush that is the eye-popping stat here, the highest of anyone in this top ten.

9th- Shaun Alexander's 2005 season- This Seattle running back, still at it in 2007 at the age of 30, went for 1,880 yards in 370 carries at a 5.1 yards per carry clip in 2005. Alexander had eleven games in which he ran for at least 100 yards, with three of those in excess of 160. His best contest was in Week Nine against Arizona when he rushed for 173 yards and two of the then record 28 touchdowns he scored that year.

8th- Ahman Green's 2003 season- Green, a former Nebraska Cornhusker, averaged 5.3 yards an attempt when he needed 355 carries to compile his 1,883 yards. Another 30 year old who was recently signed by the Texans after spending his entire career with Green Bay, Green scored 15 touchdowns on the ground in 2003, with five more coming on passes. Amman saved his best for the regular season finale, scorching the Broncos for 218 yards on just 20 carries.

7th and 3rd- Barry Sanders- The only running back in this inventory to appear twice, Sanders, playing for the hapless Detroit Lions, had seasons of 1,883 yards in 1994 and 2,053 yards in 1997. In the latter season, he ran for just 55 yards combined in his first two tilts before then jitterbugging his way to at least 105 in every contest the rest of the way. Included in those games was a pair of 200 yard efforts, as Barry averaged 6.1 yards every time he ran the ball that year. Sanders Lions' clubs were without a doubt the worst of the teams that these nine stars played for, yet he ran for no less than 1,115 yards in every season of the ten that he played.

6th- Earl Campbell's 1980 season- Campbell was a combination of power and speed that was able to wear down opposing defenders. In 1980 he led the Houston Oilers and the NFL with 1,934 yards on the ground and scored 13 times. Never a huge pass catching threat, Campbell never caught a touchdown pass in the NFL. Earl's running style was not conducive to a long career, and after toting the pigskin 373 times in 1980, his stats began to dwindle in the coming seasons because of the poundings he took, and gave.

5th- O. J. Simpson's 1973 season- Before he gained notoriety for all the wrong reasons, Simpson was arguably the greatest NFL running back ever. The USC product was the first to run for 2,000 yards in a single season, a mark previously thought unattainable, and he did it in just 14 games, as teams did not start playing 16 until 1978. His 2,003 yards on 332 attempts meant 6.1 yards per carry for the 26 year old Simpson, who toiled for the Buffalo Bills. He went over the 2,000 yard mark in a game against the Jets on a snowy Shea Stadium field, coming out of the contest once he accomplished the Herculean task in a 34-14 victory.

4th- Terrell Davis's 1998 season- This Broncos' back gained 2,008 yards on 392 tries, but was never the same afterwards, running for just 1,195 yards in the next three years combined before retiring at the age of 29 due to injuries. Davis differs from every back on this list in that he was the only one to run for all those yards and win a Super Bowl in the same season. The former Georgia Bulldog scored 21 touchdowns rushing and twice on passes, eleven times going over the 100 yard mark in the regular season.

2nd- Jamal Lewis's 2003 season- The Baltimore Ravens rode Lewis's 2,006 yards on 373 carries to a 10-6 record before a Wild Card loss to the Titans. Lewis, like Davis, has not been the same player since that magical year in which he scored 14 times. Lewis especially enjoyed playing the Browns, as he ran for over 200 yards against them both times in 2003, including a still NFL standard 295 yards on September 14th. Lewis, who has had his share of legal problems, declined rapidly after 2003 and now plays for, ironically, the same Cleveland team that he set the record against.

1st- Eric Dickerson's 1984 season- Dickerson ran for over 1,800 yards as a rookie with the Rams before setting the all-time single season record of 2,105 yards on 379 carries the next year. Dickerson scored 14 touchdowns that campaign. Eric had four separate seasons where he gained at least 1,600 yards, the most of any player in NFL history. He was 24 years old when he broke Simpson's single season mark, and retired in 1993 with over 13,000 yards rushing.