Record Records - Part 8, NFL-III: Eric Dickerson
The last two times we were on the gridiron, we looked at unbreakable career records by players who pass the ball or catch the ball. This week we’re turning our attention to the most remarkable individual who ran the ball instead. Not remarkable for career totals, but remarkable for a few years of peak performance that are truly unparalleled.
Scrutinising sport is a funny thing. It’s a competition of physical prowess, mental toughness, team work, preparation, all that jazz that coaches go on about. But it’s hard to put a number on mental toughness, hard to precisely define how prepared an athlete is, hard to objectively state the team work at play. But we want to know these things! The inherent nature of competition drives the desire to quantify who is competing the best, and those really invested in the culture and fabric of a sport know that winning titles and medals doesn’t always reflect this. And so we get statistics, analytics, numbers based solely on output and production by the athletes, an imperfect but inescapable surrogate for what we really want.
This series is a celebration of those in their sports that have statistical achievements so impressive I don’t think they’re likely to ever be bettered or even repeated. This is by no means supposed to fulfil some perfect list of the most impressive records and statistics across the sporting world, these are just records that are interesting and incredible in my opinion, and are therefore of course very much centred on the sports that I love or pay attention to. This series of articles is focused on sports that I am attached to, so, apologies for inevitably missing some incredible record in a field I’m ignorant of.
For other articles in this series, so far we’ve covered:
the many records of Tom Brady
the incredible feats of Wilt Chamberlain
an intro to cricket stats and the parallel achievements of Shane Warne and Muthiah Muralidaran
a discussion on the unparalleled dominance of Captain Meg Lanning
Now we return to the sport we started with, the NFL, and take a look at a man who did more rushing the ball in a few years than anyone ever has and probably ever will. We’re talking of course about…
Eric Dickerson - Peak Performance
The NFL today is so heavily geared towards the pass, that running the ball is sometimes overlooked. The guys throwing the ball, the quarterbacks, are the faces of their teams, the highest paid players, the leaders of the offence. The guys who catch it get a lot of hype too, and they tend to accumulate huge portfolios of highlight reel footage. Heck, the first two pieces from this series were focussed on a receiver and a quarterback respectively, both of whom have insane records associated with maintaining elite performances over long careers. Jerry Rice doesn’t have the record for most receiving yards in a season (that would be Calvin Johnson, AKA Megatron), or even receiving touchdowns (that would be Randy Moss). Tom Brady likewise doesn’t have the records for most passing yards or touchdowns in a season (both belong to Peyton Manning). But Rice and Brady were always up there, routinely leading the league in those categories, and they did it for so, so long, longer than anyone else in their position at such a high level. This is why their career numbers are so unbreakable.
Well, this piece isn’t about such concepts. First, because it’s about a running back, a player who dominated the league without throwing the ball or catching it very often. Second, because it’s about a player who’s career numbers are good, but his best numbers are so much better. We’re talking about Eric Dickerson, running back for the LA Rams and Indianapolis Colts.
Eric “you can still be cool wearing glasses” Dickerson, Picture taken from here
Dickerson is a great study because while he played in the 80s and 90s, he exemplifies the issues facing running backs in the modern era. That is, explosive talent that reshapes a team’s fortunes in the short term, but an inability to maintain that output leading to unfair expectations not being met. This is because of the very nature of the position and the unique load of physicality placed on running backs.
NFL is a full contact sport, and despite (or maybe because of) the protection they wear, the collisions are usually more forceful and reckless than in similar codes, such as rugby or Aussie rules. But, like rugby, these forceful collisions are not evenly distributed among the team. In the older ball carrying football code, it’s the forwards who take the brunt of contact, both in attack and defence. If your flyhalf is getting tackled very often then your team is doing something wrong. Well, in the NFL the closest thing to a flyhalf is the quarterback, and the same rule applies. There’s even a special term used for tackling the opposition quarterback, it’s called a sack, and it’s such an important event that defenders and offensive blockers are often rated by how many they achieve or deny respectively. For example, 5 sacks is a bad night for the blocking guys, and a good night for the defence. Most quarterbacks don’t really get hit more than 2 or 3 times per game. Indeed, beyond the super specialised players whose job is solely to kick the ball, the quarterback is the least ruffled player on the team. Even if you do manage to get past the blocking guys (the offensive line) there are rules in place regarding how hard you can hit the QB and how late after he throws the ball. They are a protected species.
The players receiving the next least contact are the receivers, primarily because there are a bunch of them and they only get tackled if they catch the ball. A quarterback might throw the ball upwards of 30 or 40 times in a game, but these are distributed (unevenly mind you) between around 3 to 6 different players. 8 catches is a good night for a receiver, and defenders can’t hit him if he’s going out of bounds, which he will on a good chunk of those catches. That said, the hits are usually harder than the QB receives. So overall, most receivers will only take a decent tackle 3 or 4 times per game, maybe a little higher depending on the style of the player.
The defenders obviously take a lot of contact, but it’s a lot more forgiving on the body to be the tackler and not the tacklee. Then, in the line of scrimmage (where the big boys push and shove), there are very little high speed collisions, with most of the contact being sustained pressure. Which leaves the running backs, the workhorse of the offence, the guy who takes the hand-off from the quarterback and runs square into the teeth of the defence. Most RBs will do this around 20 times a game, and unlike their receiving peers, few of these carries will allow them the mercy of going out of bounds before the collision. And, unlike the quarterbacks, the tackles are not mitigated, they are barely policed to be honest. The majority of these carries will result in high speed collisions between usually a few defenders on one running back. Many of these hits would be ruled illegal or dangerous play in rugby (union or league), but on the gridiron, no-one bats an eyelid and the running back gets up to do it again. He’ll probably be tackled around 15 times a game, with vastly more force on average than any other player tackled, and, while the tackling is spread across many defenders, most teams use one running back for the majority of carries. There has been a trend recently where many teams are implementing a running back committee, with 2 or 3 primary ball carriers, but this just means they’re taking 7-10 intense tackles a game instead of 15-20. In either case, the numbers and context of collisions are staggeringly worse for rushing ball carriers opposed to receivers, passers, and even defenders.
Is it any surprise then that running backs tend to have shorter careers? Even if they miraculously avoid major injury, this style of play takes a toll on the ability of the player. The best quarterbacks peak a good 8 to 10 years into their career, as their physical powers haven’t waned but their experience and skills have improved. Receivers obviously rely on raw athleticism more, and so peak early, but the best can do it for a very long time. Running backs however; they start incredible for a while, then get by as average for a bit, and are then burnt out by 10 years in. To illustrate this issue with longevity let’s look at an example. Both receivers and running backs tend to accumulate yards from scrimmage (that’s any yards gained on a play, either by catching or running) at similar rates. Every year the best RBs and WRs (running backs and wide receivers) tend to hover around the 1,500 mark, give or take. The best seasons of all time for running backs are a bit better, with a few guys cracking the 2,000 yards in a year, while the best ever seasons by receivers are more around the 1,800 and 1,900 range. But they’re close. Well, with that in mind, there have been over 50 players who accumulated 10,000+ career receiving yards; but for 10,000+ rushing yards, the number of players is only 25. Literally half as many! Even though they tend to get more yards per year, half as many have reached the 10,000 yard career mark. This is because they have insanely productive bursts, but can’t maintain it over a long career as the physicality takes its toll.
This phenomena has only helped drive the league into an even more pass oriented era, as teams would rather build their fortunes around great QBs who they know will produce at a high level for a long time. And, it’s why RBs have such a hard time getting paid the same as their other offensive team-mates. There’s an in-joke among NFL fans that the league treats running backs like Leonardo DiCaprio treats his girlfriends, not interested once they turn 25. You see, the college system keeps throwing up great young running backs who are explosive as they’ll ever be, and come with a cheap rookie contract. So how is a veteran ball carrier who’s lost some of that edge supposed to negotiate the mega contracts that the quarterbacks and receivers take for granted? Well, this issue is perfectly highlighted by Eric Dickerson, our focus today. Because Dickerson had an early career peak performance to trump all early career performances. This was leveraged to make him the highest paid running back in the league. Then his numbers declined, he battled injuries, and he retired after only 10 and a bit years in the NFL.
Eric Dickerson was drafted in 1983 by the Los Angeles Rams, selected 2nd overall. The 1983 was a truly stacked draft, Dickerson was 2nd overall because the number 1 pick was legendary quarterback John Elway, and also going in the 1st round was almost as legendary quarterback Dan Marino. All three would end up in the hall of fame (along with a few others from that draft), but neither Elway or Marino have records like Dickerson does. He would play 4 seasons for the Rams, 1983-1986, and was traded only 3 games into the 1987 season. Those 4 and bit seasons with LA are arguably the greatest span a running back has ever played. His next few years with Indianapolis were pretty damn good too, though due to injuries and suspensions he only played one full season with them. He was traded again, this time to the Raiders, where he managed a full season but with limited time and carries to manage injury. Yet another trade saw him play his last 4 games for the Falcons in Atlanta, and when they tried to trade him again he retired, having played 10 seasons and 4 games, though, of those ten seasons he only played the full 16 games 5 times.
That rapid-fire tour of his career demonstrates the issue most running backs have, where they have a few very good years, their value is set accordingly, and then as they lose their explosive edge and fail to meet this inflated value they are moved on. Dickerson’s first 6 years were truly exceptional, and his 7th and 8th were still better than many running backs can ever hope for. But, like so many of his peers since, Dickerson was a victim of both his early success, and the unjust distribution of physicality dolled out to running backs. Longevity is not what they’re known for. A few manage to avoid significant injury, and have enough tricks up their sleeve to counter the effects of age on their athleticism, and these select few have long careers and achieve records like Tom Brady and Jerry Rice. Chief among these is Emmitt Smith, the legendary rusher for the Dallas Cowboys. Smith is as far ahead of the next best in terms of career rushing yards as Brady is of the 2nd most passing yards. But, Smith never had season’s like Dickerson did. All-in-all, there are 8 players with more career rushing yards than Dickerson, but none can boast anything as dominant as Dickerson’s peak. You’ll see.
Before we dive too quickly into the stats, let’s circle back to the man himself for a minute.
Eric was born (1960) and raised in Sealy, Texas, and as he neared the end of high school was a prize athlete courted by colleges around the country. His out and out pace meant he won multiple state track and field titles, including clocking a 10.3 second 100 m and 20.9 second 200 m sprint. That 200 m number is only 1.5 seconds behind the world record for men, and is faster than the world record for women. Which he did as a teenager... But he truly shined on the football field, helping his highschool team to an undefeated 15-0 season in his senior year, including a 298 yard and 4 touchdown effort to win the state championship. No wonder he was sought after by college football scouts! This was made the more impressive in that he had severe myopia and wore prescription goggles while playing football.
His highschool years weren’t just out of the ordinary for athletic achievement, they were also unusual regarding his home life. You see, when he was 15 he learned that the woman he had been calling mum all his life was in reality his great-great-aunt; while his biological mother was the woman he had been raised to believe was his older sister. His great-great-aunt would continue to be the mother figure though, having a major influence on his choice of college. He initially committed to Texas A&M, a very strong college football program, but through his mother’s (you know who I mean) influence he ended up enrolling at Southern Methodist University (SMU), in Dallas, Texas. There was a bit more to it than that, Texas College football recruiting in the 70s and 80s was absolutely mental, with every major school reportedly breaking the guidelines on player incentives left right and centre. SMU just went extra hard for the era, and assembled a ridiculous pool of young players almost overnight under an ex-NFL coach, Ron Meyer.
Taken from Google Maps
SMU had signed the second best running back in Texas, Craig James, and then landed the best running back in not just Texas but all of the United States in Eric Dickerson. So in an unusual situation, the brightest prospect of his class ended up sharing running duties throughout college. The proportion naturally drifted towards Dickerson as he put up awesome numbers, and despite splitting carries he was third in votes for the Heisman trophy (the annual award for best college football player) in his final year. As an aside, SMU went from relative obscurity to national champs in just 2 years thanks to the aggressive recruiting and the system developed under Meyers that leaned on their twin running threat, called the Pony Express (the team name was the Mustangs). This rapid growth in success brought scrutiny and they were investigated numerous times by the governing body for college sports in the US, the NCAA. 5 years after Dickerson graduated the football program was shut down by the NCAA for their insane history of violations. To this day, Dickerson refuses to shed light on the situation at SMU and how he came to sign with them instead of the more elite football programs in the state and around the country that were courting him. Check out the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “the Pony Excess” for the full story.
Eric DIckerson and Craig James, the Pony Express, who together propelled SMU to incredible heights almost overnight. Picture taken from here
But, ignoring the dodgy administration around him, clearly his numbers impressed the NFL scouts, as he was drafted number 2 overall as we covered at the start of the article. His assessment by talent scouts was glowing, he wasn’t a one trick pony as most running backs are. He had the pace to turn an open play into a long touchdown (I mean, his sprint numbers show that), and he had the agility and finesse to step and duke around defenders, but he also had the strength, keeping defenders at bay with a powerful stiff arm, or just straight up breaking tackles and refusing to go down. He was big for a running back, but still light on his feet and blindingly fast. He could do it all. The Los Angeles Rams were drafting second overall because the previous year had been a disaster. The 1982 season saw them finish last in their conference and second last in the whole NFL, this coming off the 1981 season, their first year missing the playoffs in 20 years. They were in dire straits, but it was a good year to have a top of the draft pick. Sure they didn’t get Elway, but they did get Dickerson, who had just finished a span of 4 years at SMU with a record of 34-11-1, including undefeated in his final year, while the Rams were bottoming out in the pro league.
Well, drafting Dickerson did the trick. He put together the greatest rushing season by a rookie of all time (and still to this day, as we will cover soon), and the team went from a win rate of 28.5% to 56.25% and a playoff spot. An incredible turn around even if they didn’t progress in the playoffs. The next year was even better, as Dickerson ran for more yards than anyone ever had or ever would again, the all-time rushing record for a single season. The Rams improved from 9-7 to 10-6, but again, they exited the playoffs in the first round. This would be the pattern for Dickerson’s tenure in LA, with their win record in the top 3 or 4 of their conference every year, but never making a deep playoff push. Then, in 1987, after ongoing tensions around contract disputes, they traded Dickerson to the Indianapolis Colts. The Rams finished 6-9 and missed the playoffs. Maybe they should’ve worked harder on those contract negotiations…
The Colts meanwhile benefited straight away, improving massively on their 1986 result of 3-10 to end 1987 with 9 wins and 6 losses, and they had been 3-3 before the trade. They made the playoffs for the first time since 1977 (when they were still in Baltimore), so, you know, that’s a good trade! Well, at first. While they would post winning records the next two years, they narrowly missed the playoffs both times, and relations between Dickerson and team management were sour. Then, in his 4th year there, the Colts finished with a disastrous record, 1 win and 15 losses, with Dickerson turning in his worst season by far on the ground. This, when compared to his huge salary, didn’t sit well with management or fans. He had also been missing games due to a combination of injuries, contract holdouts, and suspensions from his team for insubordination. He was trouble, and expensive trouble at that. The Colts traded him to the LA Raiders for a middling return of draft picks, but Dickerson would only play one season there. While it was an improvement on his efforts the previous year, it was more in the vein of flashes of greatness, as he split carries with a younger running back to manage his health and work load. He was traded again, this time to the Atlanta Falcons, who used him as a veteran back-up, and he only had a handful of carries across 4 games, before he was, yet again, traded. This final move was meant to be to the Green Bay Packers, but his physical with the team doctor revealed a painful bulging disc in his lower back. He retired without playing a game for the Packers, though he did technically retire as a Ram, signing a one day contract with his first team 24 years later.
Dickerson would retire with the 2nd most career rushing yards, though he would slide down that list as other great running backs accumulated more over their careers. Dickerson’s real claim to fame is not his career numbers, no, it’s his insane few years at the start of his career with the LA Rams. I strongly believe that there has never been a running back better or more dominant than Dickerson as a Ram between 1983 and 1986. His record is blemished by a lack of championships, ongoing controversies around contracts and attitudes towards fans, and missing games due to injuries and suspensions. But judged purely on his main job, running the football, he was the best there ever was, even if only for a few golden years.
Dickerson in his NFL prime. Picture taken from here
Now, back to the numbers.
First, let’s talk about the start of Dickerson’s career; what made it so good that I kept harping on about it? Well, to set the stage, let’s have some running back context.
In most years, the NFL running back who accumulates the most rushing yards in a given season clocks in somewhere around the 1,500 mark. For example, this year the 49ers across-the-field threat, Christian McCaffery, led the league with 1,459. The year before, Josh Jacobs of the Raiders topped the tally with 1,653. For the past 60 years, the player with the most yards gained on the ground has had 1,000+ for all but 3 seasons. So 1,000 yards is a useful measure of a good season for a team’s primary running option. Aforementioned legend Emmitt Smith has the record for consecutive seasons of 1,000+ yards, achieving the feat for a whopping 11 straight years. No wonder he has the most career yards in history!
Then, of the last 60 years, the player with the most rushing yards in the season passed the 1,500 mark a total of 37 times. Or, a random season from the past 60 has the rushing crown going to someone who achieved 1,500+ more often than not. Barry Sanders (one of THE all-time running back legends), has the record for consecutive seasons of 1,500+ yards, which he managed for a crazy 5 years straight.
But 1,800+? That’s only happened 23 times, and is a feat Emmitt Smith never achieved. But the next step is the hardest, of those 23 seasons cracking 1,800, only 9 managed to reach 1,900+, and 8 of those are part of the mythical 2,000 yard club. 8 players have managed to rush for 2,000 yards in a season; here are the club members:
Pictures taken from: Simpson, Bills, Dickerson, Rams, Sanders, Lions, Davis, Broncos, Lewis, Ravens, Johnson, Titans, Peterson, Vikings, Henry
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O.J. Simpson’s court case is amongst the most infamous ever, partly because of the crazy racial tensions at the time, but partly because he was so famous himself, and for good reason. The Juice was the first player to crack the 2,000 barrier, just scraping in with 2,003 yards in 1973, 10 years after Jim Brown was the first to crack the 1,800 barrier. What makes these numbers even more impressive is that they achieved those totals in 14 games, as the seasons were shorter in that era. It would take another decade, and the inclusion of 2 more games per season, before someone else joined the club, our man Eric Dickerson.
O.J. never achieved 2,000 yards again, though he crossed the 1,800 mark one other time. But he’s not alone, 8 players have rushed for 2,000 yards, but never has it happened twice in a career. Though even Simpson making 1,800 again is amazing. Of the 8 players to achieve 2,000+ yards in a year, only Sanders, Simpson, and Dickerson achieved the 1,800+ mark more than once. Dickerson however stands alone, the only player to do it three times. But that’s not all he has over his fellow 2,000 club members, he’s also number 1 all time:
By 8 yards!
Poor Adrian Peterson, he put together one of the greatest rushing campaigns of all time in 2012 and came an agonising 8 yards shy of the record. His average that year was 6 yards per carry! Just 2 more rushing attempts across the whole year and he would’ve had it. Instead, Dickerson’s 1984 season stands supreme. The crazy thing? That was only Dickerson’s second season in the league!
I know, I know, I used the whole youthful explosive argument before, how is it a shock that his second year set the record? Well, I stand by the point I made about loss of edge being a factor for RB’s more than other positions, but they don’t peak straight out of college. First of all they’re still growing, most are in their early 20s when they are drafted and have some more weight and pace to gain in their first few seasons. Second, adjusting from college football to the big leagues is insanely hard, for all positions, including running backs. Those 8 players to crack 2,000 yards, the earliest any of them not named Eric achieved the feat was in their 4th season, but for most it was the 5th, 6th, or later. These players had multiple seasons after being a rookie before making the club, Dickerson did it the year after his rookie season.
Speaking of his rookie season, this might be his craziest record. All those guys alongside Dickerson in the 2,000 club, well none of them managed 1,500 yards their first year in the league (Sanders was close with 1,470). But in their defence, only 14 rookies have ever managed 1,400+ yards, and only half those made it to 1,500+. Interestingly, of the 7 players to crack 1,500 in their first year only Dickerson ended up in the top 10 career list. Does that lend weight to the early explosiveness coming at the cost of longevity argument? Maybe…
But Dickerson’s rookie year was truly insane. We talked earlier about how a season of 1,800+ yards has only happened 23 times, out of literally thousands of running back seasons? Well, one of those 23 was a rookie in Los Angeles named Eric:
Just incredible. He also has the record for most rushing touchdowns in a rookie season! It is far and away the greatest rookie season in the history of the NFL, by any offensive position, and arguably any position ever, though it’s harder to compare between offence and defence.
As an aside, my first thought was that this has to be one of the best rookie performances in all of sport, I mean to be so far ahead of the next best, and to crack the 1,800 mark in his first year, something only done 22 other times out of literally thousands of rushing seasons, surely that’s the best rookie year ever? Well, I should’ve known better… We covered in an earlier piece how truly insane Wilt Chamberlain’s records are, and sure enough he has Dickerson beat in terms of rookie performances. Chamberlain’s rookie season broke the record for points scored, not just by a rookie but like, ever. Dickerson’s rookie effort is the 23rd best rushing season in history, (and two of the entries above it are also Dickerson, including the top spot), whereas Chamberlain’s rookie effort was the 15th best ever, and he also has the top spot, as well as 3 other entries… But still, Chamberlain’s truly freakish scoring output aside, Dickerson’s rookie year is phenomenal, unlike anything else we’ve seen in the NFL.
To show you what I mean, here are some incredible NFL running backs who’s career best rushing yards in a season fall short of Dickerson’s rookie year (1,803 yards):
Emmitt Smith* (1,773)
Marcus Allen* (1,759)
Edgerrin James* (1,709)
Frank Gore (1,695)
Jerome Bettis* (1,665)
Tony Dorsett* (1,646)
Ezekiel Elliot (1,631)
And here are some more legends of the game who’s career best rushing touchdowns in a season fall short of Dickerson’s rookie year (18 touchdowns):
Jim Brown* (17)
Derrick Henry (17)
LeSean McCoy (17)
O.J. Simpson* (16)
Barry Sanders* (16)
Walter Peyton* (14)
Franco Harris* (14)
The entries marked * are hall of fame players, and Frank Gore is a guaranteed first ballot entree once he’s eligible (he’s only been retired 3 years). Henry is also very likely to be a hall of famer (part of the 2,000 club after all), and McCoy and Elliot shouldn’t be ruled out either. Look at all of those hall of fame careers that were never once able to match Dickerson’s rookie year for yards or touchdowns. Emmitt Smith, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Walter Peyton, if you were to have a running back Mount Rushmore, these guys would be first candidates. And yet, their very best efforts fell short in one way or another of Dickerson’s rookie year!
And his second year was even better. Not in terms of touchdowns, he would actually never hit that mark again, but in just his second year he ran for 2,105 yards, still the record 30 years later. He missed a few games in his third year, and then again crossed the 1,800 mark in his 4th season. No other player has ever achieved 1,800+ on three occasions, Dickerson had done it within his first 4 years in the NFL. His 5th and 6th years were still exceptional; in his 6th year he led the league for a 4th time, the same number of times O.J. Simpson, Emmitt Smith, and Barry Sanders ever achieved in their respective careers. (Not the record though, the 50s were so dominated by Jim Brown that he led the league in rushing a crazy 8 times!)
Dickerson’s 7th season was his first real dip in production, but he still had 1,311 yards on the year at an average of 4.2 yards per carry, which is fantastic, as in better than the league best in 15 of the past 60 years. In other words, Dickerson’s least effective season in his first 7 years in the league would still have been the best in the NFL in around a quarter of the last 60 seasons. In fact, the rushing leader that year had 1,480, and the year after 1,304, so Dickerson’s “downturn” was right up there for the era’s best each season.
But, the next years were genuine downturns. In his 8th year he still averaged 4.1 yards per carry, but he only played 11 games, and didn’t get full game time in all of those, failing to crack 1000 yards for the first time in his career. Then, his 9th season was the first year he averaged under 4 yards per carry, which would continue until he retired. Check out his year by year yards from scrimmage per game, separated into rushing and receiving:
That blue bar in year number 2 is how he cracked the 2,000 club, averaging over 125 yards per carry. The blue bar in year number 1 is how he set the rookie rushing record, averaging almost 110 yards per carry in his first year. But check out his receiving in that first year! Stunningly, and again highlighting how insane he was as a rookie, he almost accumulated as many total yards from scrimmage in his first year as in that record setting second year.
I’m bringing up yards per game as it’s a useful way to compare players between generations as well as not punish players too much for missing time due to injuries etc. As you can see in the graph above, his yards per game start to dip in year 7, and then really go down from year 8 onwards. Though, his best season for receiving in year 9 helped his total scrimmage yards.
So let’s compare rushing yards per game for the best running backs of all time. Here are the only players to accumulate 12,000+ career yards:
Our man Dickerson is middle of the pack on this all-time career rushing yard list, and boy is Emmitt Smith way out in front. This is I believe an unbreakable record by the way, Frank Gore, number 3 on the all time list, is the most recent player to retire with 12,000+ yards. And, of the 16 guys who’ve achieved the 12,000 mark, only 2 played in the past 10 years, Peterson and Gore, everyone else on the list retired by 2011… The change of the NFL to such a pass heavy approach to offence means no-one will accumulate as many yards as Smith.
But we’re supposed to be talking about Dickerson!
Ok, well look what happens when we change the Y axis of that graph from total career rushing yards to yards/game over their careers:
Ok, that’s more like it. Dickerson has the third best yards per game of all players to reach 12,000 yards. Thomas, Allen, and Frank Gore are great examples of longevity paying dividends as they made the top career lists despite not great yards per game. Jim Brown and Barry Sanders on the other hand have truly incredible career yards per game numbers. Just nuts.
But, as we mentioned above, Dickerson’s strength was in the first part of his career, with a back-end decline much more severe than most. What happens if we omit the last 4 seasons of his record? Well, obviously his numbers get better, but it also makes it an unfair comparison. So let’s get rid of everyone’s last 4 seasons to make it fair, and then see how it affects the numbers:
If you watch that a few times there are some interesting observations:
Dickerson jumps to the top, the number 1 yards per game amongst this group when excluding the last 4 seasons
Some players don’t gain as much as others, in fact the two best, Brown and Sanders, either don’t change or lose a little, which is insane, and speaks to a truly impressive string of seasons and knowing when to retire at the top of your game
Dickerson really did have an end of career decline far greater than other running backs
This concept of Eric Dickerson kicking ass at unbeatable levels for the first 7 seasons of his career is well illustrated by plotting the growth of his and other great running back’s career totals. Here is the career rushing yards for arguably the 7 greatest running backs ever plotted season by season:
Yes, that's a bit of a confusing figure. If you’re wondering why Jim Brown is at the back of the pack for much of this graph after dominating the per game data above, it’s because the NFL played 14 games per season in his era, as opposed to 16 games per era for the rest of those players. This is also starting from the 4 year mark by the way, to illustrate my point about his insane first half of career and then back end decline. Look at how grouped up the other 6 players are after 4 and 5 years, and how far above them Dickerson is. Then, as the years progress, Tominlinson and Sanders chase down and then exceed his totals. A late burst from Walter Payton, and straight up consistency from Emmitt Smith, means they crossed the ten year mark with more yards than Dickerson as well. I love this figure because a) I’m a nerd and a sucker for a good plot, and b) it really demonstrates visually what I’ve been going on and on about, Dickerson’s first 7 years were truly historic. He has the record for most yards after 8 seasons, even though his form had started dipping by then!
Though really, the best way to show how insane his early season was is with these records:
Fewest games to reach 1,000 rushing yards: Adrian Peterson
Fewest games to reach 2,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 3,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 4,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 5,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 6,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 7,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 8,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 9,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 10,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 11,000 rushing yards: Eric Dickerson
Fewest games to reach 12,000 rushing yards: Jim Brown
Fewest games to reach 13,000 rushing yards: Barry Sanders
I mean that’s crazy right? It wasn’t like he and a few peers had ups and downs of productivity so they were fighting it out for fastest to different milestones. Once he got going, he was miles ahead of the rest, and stayed there until that back-end decline. The 10,000 yard one is often focussed on, because it’s a hefty and neat milestone to reach, and he reached it so much faster than any of the other all time greats. Indeed, only 10 players have managed to crack 10,000 inside of 120 games played. And while Dickerson has the record locked down, the most impressive part is just how big a jump it is from best to 5th, or 10th best:
And again, on that list, only Tomlinson and Peterson began their careers this century, modern players might be explosive at first, but they’re not getting the long streaks of incredible seasons that Dickerson, Brown, and Sanders achieved. The best of the past 30 years is still a whopping 10 games behind Dickerson in the race for 10,000 yards.
So, are his records breakable? Or even repeatable?
Well, as I think I’ve covered a lot already, the league has changed massively since Dickerson’s era. Never before has passing been such the emphasis, and never before have teams specialised running backs so heavily. This means many teams have a go-to RB for passing plays, short yard situations, or more explosive outside routes. The one-stop shop, bell-cow running back is a dying breed, more and more teams instead divvy the load up between a committee of RBs. This, coupled with just less load to divvy up, means most rushing records are pretty safe. There are still huge games by individuals, one off efforts that break records, like most yards or touchdowns in a single game. But the season long and (especially) career long records, these are getting harder and harder to break.
To make a call on which might fall, let’s breakdown Dickerson’s most impressive records:
Most rushing yards in a rookie season
Most rushing touchdowns in a rookie season
Most rushing yards in a season
Only player with three or more seasons of 1,800+ rushing yards
Equal most seasons with 2,000+ yards from scrimmage (4, tied with Marshall Faulk and Walter Payton)
Fewest games to reach 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 thousand yards
Most rushing yards after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 seasons in the NFL
Most rushing yards in a playoff game
Many of these are unbreakable. The first one for sure, and definitely the third, his most famous record. The three or more seasons of 1,800 yards is slightly more doable, but still, borderline unbreakable. The 4 seasons of 2,000+ yards from scrimmage record is in the same boat. The most rushing yards in a playoff game, that’s his most breakable record, I wouldn’t be surprised if that one is beaten sometime in the coming years. But the fewest games per milestone records, these are unbreakable, especially the larger ones. I guess I could see a scenario where a player starts their career like he did, faster maybe, potentially reaching 2k or 3k with less games, but because of the nature of the modern game I think it’s borderline impossible that anyone will break his fewest games to the higher milestones records. Especially the famous 10,000 in 91 games record, the same way no-one will break Jim Brown or Barry Sanders efforts to reach 12k and 13k the fastest. The inverse of these records (most yards after a given number of seasons instead of games to reach a given number of yards) might be a little more breakable since the recent increase of regular season length. Players in today’s league get 17 games a season instead of 16 in Dickerson’s era, so potentially a dynamite young running back might eclipse Dickerson’s totals for most yards after a few years, but just go back and look at that graph before (the lines trending upwards one) to see why that is very hard to imagine.
No, barring a massive shift in the way the league plays offence and/or handles running back career longevity, almost all of Dickerson’s records are truly unbreakable, and truly incredible. Personally, I found his rookie season and his records surrounding the fewest games and most yards after each season to be truly astounding. Clearly he agreed, as during his Hall of Fame enshrinement speech he said:
I think the one (record) I look at most and means the most to me is my rookie rushing record. You get one shot at that. You don’t get several. You don’t get 10. You get one.
Researching Dickerson I couldn’t help but wonder what might have been if he’d found a way to keep doing what he’d been doing beyond the 7 year mark. No-one has ever put together a span like his first 7 years in the league, indeed, no-one has ever had a rookie season like his first year, and no-one has ever had a season as good as his second year. Or what might have been if he’d been paired with a better quarterback or defence, maybe he could have won titles. But, in reality he never won a Superbowl, just like almost every player in the 2k club. Of those 8 running backs to make the lofty heights of 2,000 yards, only Lewis and Davis have a championship to their name, and only Davis won a Superbowl the same year they rushed for 2,000 yards. This is perhaps the most telling example of why the NFL so rarely gives the MVP award to a running back, and why they’re not treated as well as quarterbacks when it comes time to negotiate a contract. Eric Dickerson did things rushing the ball that no-one had ever done before and that haven’t been bested since, and it still wasn’t enough to carry his team to championships.
But regardless of his lack of silverware, when I inevitably have to assemble my all-time roster to take on an alien team threatening Earth’s destruction unless we beat them at a game of NFL using magically re-animated players from any era; well, 1984 Dickerson will be my running back without a doubt.
Eric Dickerson at his Hall of Fame enshrinement, not magically re-animated (as far as I can tell). Picture taken from here
Here are some highlights from his incredibly highlight worthy career. Notice how these demonstrate the concepts we talked about earlier, how he wasn’t just one type of running back. He was big and powerful, but light and elusive. He had speed to beat anyone, but the power to break tackles too. Enjoy:
Thanks for reading.