Top-4 All-Time RBs...

[74_75_78_79_]

No, won’t use the ‘Mt Rush’ tag; just simply ‘Top 4 Ever’!

I’m sure this has already been a topic (and sorry for the repeat), but still.

JIM BROWN starts things off! And THEN...(next 3)...

[ChrisBabcock]

Payton, Sanders, Dickerson. (I'll put Orenthal at #5)

[TanksAndSpartans]

Wow, this is a really subjective one. I'll give 3 no one else will have: Jim Thorpe, Steve Van Buren, Hugh McElhenny.

[JuggernautJ]

1. Jim Brown
2. Steve Van Buren,
3. Walter Payton
4. ...your personal preference

I believe the consensus from the last such post was something like the above.

Thorpe, McElhenny, Sanders, Campbell, Dickerson, O.J. are all good choices.
How about Ollie Matson, Joe Perry or Red Grange?
Dr Z would, of course, choose Marion Motley.

[JohnH19]

Brown, Payton, Sanders and any one of many. Emmitt was pretty good and so was O.J. and Van Buren and the King and the Jet and Jim Taylor and Dickerson and on and on and on...

[Rupert Patrick]

In order, Brown, Sanders, Payton, OJ.

[TanksAndSpartans]

How about Ollie Matson, Joe Perry or Red Grange?
Dr Z would, of course, choose Marion Motley.

I wasn’t around here for the last discussion, but football perspective did a wisdom of crowds and my choices didn’t make it. It was: Brown, Sanders, Payton, Emmitt Smith, Dickerson, O.J. Simpson, Tomlinson, Faulk, Campbell

In the two-way era, Grange did well after his injury, but he probably didn't have the career he could have had. Maybe Paddy Driscoll over Grange or Dutch Clark.

Among the players who blocked as much or more than they ran it, I like Motley, Perry, Nagurski, Latone. It could be a separate thread what criteria to use to put a back into the fullback group. Brown, Taylor, Csonka, others were fullbacks who carried it more than the halfback. Perry got his carries, but always seemed to be sharing the workload with the other back - he could probably go in either group.

Matson was always a curious case to me. Looked dominant in his own highlights, but when watching game highlights, never got the sense the Cardinals made him central to the gameplan.

[JuggernautJ]

I'm sure it was my impressionable age at the time but Leroy Kelly always impressed me greatly.
He was like Sayers-lite but with longevity (well, longer-gevity).

And that brings us to the Kansas Comet.
Does the brevity of Gale Sayers' career preclude him from consideration in discussions like this?

[TanksAndSpartans]

Does the brevity of Gale Sayers' career preclude him from consideration in discussions like this?

Good call. Not for me. I thought of Sayers, but went with McElhenny. I actually assumed others would have Payton, Sanders, Sayers. Sayers is down at 15 in the wisdom of crowds thing. I bet that would have been higher in the late 1990s - people want to include players they saw like Tomlinson and Faulk.

[JohnTurney]

What is criteria?

Are we picking best runners? Or best running backs, meaning all around.
I like to use these:
running (Brown, Simpson, Dickerson, etc)
receiving (the specialists, but *among the great runners = Faulk, LT, etc)
lead blocking (the modern FBs, but Payton could so it, John Henry Johnson, etc)
pass protection (John Henry Johnson, Faulk, Payton, Emmitt Smith, Edgerrin James, LT, etc)
short yardage, goal line (the TD scorers and bigger greats, Brown, Emmitt, Faulk
ball security (not Dickerson, Allen, etc, Faulk, Payton, etc)

The kind I would want on my team
Jim Brown
Walter Payton
Marshall Faulk
Emmitt Smith
LT

The kind that were great runners, so-so in other areas
Barry Sanders (taken out in SY/GL and so-so receiver, so so blocker)
Dickerson (no pass pro, no receiving, fumbler)
Dorsett (a cross between Sanders and Dickerson)

Anyway, that's just me