Workhorses: Career Leaders in Percentage of Team Yards

by Chase Stuart on June 19, 2015

Was Walter Payton the biggest workhorse in NFL history? In 1977, he gained 43.5% of Chicago’s total offensive yards. The next year, it was 39.5%, and the year after that, it was 39.1%. Payton also was responsible for 37.8% of the Bears output in ’76, 36.2% of the team’s yards in ’84, and 35.8% of Chicago’s offense in 1980.

But wait, there’s more! In ’82 and ’85, Payton was responsible for 33.1% and 33.5% of his team’s offense, and in ’81 and ’83, it was 32.7% and 32.8%. For ten seasons, Payton was responsible for at least thirty-three percent of his team’s offense! And in 1986, he gained 30.6% of all Chicago yards.

Yesterday, we looked at the single-season leaders in percentage of team yards. Today, the career list, using a 100-95-90 weighting method. What’s that? To avoid giving too much credit to compilers, I did not assign full credit to each season, and instead used the following methodology:

1) Calculate the total yards from scrimmage by each player in each season since 1932.

2) Calculate the total team yards (excluding sacks) by that player’s team. Players who played for multiple teams in a season were therefore prejudiced by this methodology.

3) Calculated the percentage of team yards gained by each player in each season since 1932. This was the basis of yesterday’s post.

4) Order each player’s career from best season (per step 3) to worst.

5) Give each player 100% credit during his best season, 95% credit during his second best season, 90% during his third best, and so on. So for Payton, we give him 100% of 43.5%, 95% of 39.5%, 90% of 39.1%, 85% of 37.8%, and so on.

6) Sum the values in step 5 for each player for each season to get a career grade.

That career grade doesn’t mean much in the abstract — Payton’s grade is 318% — but when we order the list, it does provide some limited insight as to which players have been the biggest workhorses in NFL history. This is far from a perfect formula, but I do think it’s interesting. Note that I also performed the same analysis using a 100-90-80 method — to give even less value to compilers — and not a single player moved up or down in the top 15. The table below shows the top 150 players by this metric:

Rk	Player	First Yr	Last Yr	Value
1	Walter Payton	1975	1987	3.18
2	Emmitt Smith	1990	2004	2.89
3	Barry Sanders	1989	1998	2.7
4	Jim Brown	1957	1965	2.68
5	LaDainian Tomlinson	2001	2011	2.64
6	Marshall Faulk	1994	2005	2.58
7	Curtis Martin	1995	2005	2.54
8	Eric Dickerson	1983	1993	2.49
9	O.J. Simpson	1969	1979	2.45
10	Marcus Allen	1982	1997	2.42
11	Tiki Barber	1997	2006	2.37
12	Jerry Rice	1985	2004	2.36
13	Thurman Thomas	1988	2000	2.27
14	Warrick Dunn	1997	2008	2.27
15	Steven Jackson	2004	2014	2.24
16	Frank Gore	2005	2014	2.23
17	Tony Dorsett	1977	1988	2.2
18	Ricky Watters	1992	2001	2.2
19	Jerome Bettis	1993	2005	2.19
20	Franco Harris	1972	1984	2.16
21	Edgerrin James	1999	2009	2.14
22	Jamal Lewis	2000	2009	2.09
23	John Riggins	1971	1985	2.08
24	Fred Taylor	1998	2010	2.06
25	Ottis Anderson	1979	1992	2.05
26	Don Hutson	1935	1945	2.01
27	Corey Dillon	1997	2006	2.01
28	Thomas Jones	2000	2011	1.99
29	Tim Brown	1988	2004	1.97
30	Eddie George	1996	2004	1.95
31	Terrell Owens	1996	2010	1.95
32	Don Maynard	1958	1973	1.94
33	Ricky Williams	1999	2011	1.93
34	Herschel Walker	1986	1997	1.92
35	Steve Smith	2001	2014	1.91
36	James Lofton	1978	1993	1.91
37	Marvin Harrison	1996	2008	1.9
38	Isaac Bruce	1994	2009	1.9
39	Bobby Mitchell	1958	1968	1.9
40	Lenny Moore	1956	1967	1.89
41	Jim Taylor	1958	1967	1.89
42	Joe Perry	1948	1963	1.88
43	Henry Ellard	1983	1998	1.88
44	Randy Moss	1998	2012	1.87
45	Charley Taylor	1964	1977	1.87
46	Andre Johnson	2003	2014	1.86
47	Frank Gifford	1952	1964	1.85
48	Steve Largent	1976	1989	1.85
49	Clinton Portis	2002	2010	1.85
50	Matt Forte	2008	2014	1.84
51	Adrian Peterson	2007	2014	1.83
52	Ollie Matson	1952	1966	1.81
53	Maurice Jones-Drew	2006	2014	1.8
54	Earnest Byner	1984	1997	1.8
55	Earl Campbell	1978	1985	1.79
56	Reggie Wayne	2001	2014	1.79
57	Ahman Green	1998	2009	1.79
58	Leroy Kelly	1964	1973	1.78
59	Lydell Mitchell	1972	1980	1.76
60	Jimmy Smith	1995	2005	1.76
61	Anquan Boldin	2003	2014	1.76
62	Roger Craig	1983	1993	1.75
63	Larry Fitzgerald	2004	2014	1.75
64	Chris Johnson	2008	2014	1.75
65	Michael Irvin	1988	1999	1.75
66	Cris Carter	1987	2002	1.75
67	Torry Holt	1999	2009	1.75
68	Tony Gonzalez	1997	2013	1.73
69	Andre Reed	1985	2000	1.73
70	Joey Galloway	1995	2010	1.7
71	Larry Brown	1969	1976	1.69
72	Irving Fryar	1984	2000	1.68
73	Lance Alworth	1962	1972	1.68
74	Priest Holmes	1998	2007	1.67
75	Marshawn Lynch	2007	2014	1.67
76	Shaun Alexander	2000	2008	1.67
77	James Wilder	1981	1990	1.66
78	Art Monk	1980	1995	1.66
79	Chad Johnson	2001	2011	1.66
80	Freeman McNeil	1981	1992	1.65
81	Hines Ward	1998	2011	1.65
82	Derrick Mason	1997	2011	1.65
83	Muhsin Muhammad	1996	2009	1.65
84	Billy Howton	1952	1963	1.64
85	Floyd Little	1967	1975	1.64
86	Bill Brown	1961	1974	1.64
87	Chris Warren	1990	2000	1.64
88	Wilbert Montgomery	1977	1985	1.63
89	Harold Jackson	1969	1983	1.63
90	Chuck Foreman	1973	1980	1.63
91	John Williams	1986	1995	1.62
92	Willis McGahee	2004	2013	1.6
93	Cliff Battles	1932	1937	1.6
94	Charlie Garner	1994	2004	1.6
95	Keyshawn Johnson	1996	2006	1.59
96	John David Crow	1958	1968	1.59
97	Hugh McElhenny	1952	1964	1.58
98	Terry Allen	1991	2001	1.58
99	Clem Daniels	1961	1968	1.58
100	Gerald Riggs	1982	1991	1.57
101	Larry Csonka	1968	1979	1.57
102	Greg Pruitt	1973	1984	1.57
103	Rod Smith	1995	2006	1.57
104	James Brooks	1981	1992	1.55
105	Tommy McDonald	1957	1968	1.54
106	Calvin Johnson	2007	2014	1.54
107	Brian Westbrook	2002	2010	1.53
108	Stanley Morgan	1977	1990	1.53
109	John Brockington	1971	1977	1.53
110	Stephen Davis	1996	2006	1.53
111	Charlie Joiner	1969	1986	1.52
112	Keenan McCardell	1992	2007	1.52
113	Raymond Berry	1955	1967	1.51
114	Steve Van Buren	1944	1951	1.51
115	Eric Moulds	1996	2007	1.51
116	John Henry Johnson	1954	1966	1.51
117	Donny Anderson	1966	1974	1.51
118	Andre Rison	1989	2000	1.5
119	Jamaal Charles	2008	2014	1.5
120	Harold Carmichael	1971	1984	1.5
121	Gary Clark	1985	1995	1.5
122	Santana Moss	2001	2014	1.49
123	Abner Haynes	1960	1967	1.49
124	Rick Casares	1955	1966	1.49
125	Lawrence McCutcheon	1973	1981	1.49
126	Duce Staley	1997	2005	1.49
127	Neal Anderson	1986	1993	1.48
128	MacArthur Lane	1968	1978	1.48
129	Michael Pittman	1998	2008	1.48
130	Roddy White	2005	2014	1.48
131	William Andrews	1979	1986	1.48
132	Rodney Hampton	1990	1997	1.48
133	Ray Rice	2008	2013	1.48
134	Rob Moore	1990	1999	1.47
135	Garrison Hearst	1993	2004	1.47
136	Carroll Dale	1960	1973	1.46
137	Roy Jefferson	1965	1976	1.46
138	Brandon Marshall	2006	2014	1.46
139	Alex Webster	1955	1964	1.46
140	Laveranues Coles	2000	2009	1.46
141	Paul Warfield	1964	1977	1.44
142	Mike Pruitt	1976	1986	1.44
143	Art Powell	1960	1968	1.44
144	Calvin Hill	1969	1981	1.43
145	Chuck Muncie	1976	1984	1.43
146	Herman Moore	1991	2001	1.43
147	Lionel Taylor	1960	1968	1.42
148	Ken Willard	1965	1974	1.42
149	Jackie Smith	1963	1977	1.41
150	Dick Bass	1960	1969	1.4

I don’t know what qualifies as a “surprise” but the top 10 is pretty much what I expected to see. Nine of the top 10 players are Hall of Famers, and the 10th (Tomlinson) will be one very soon.

Number 11 is pretty interesting, though. Tiki Barber was not thought of as a workhorse early in his career, but he sure became one later on. Barber gained more yards from scrimmage during his 6th-through-10th years than any player in NFL history; even more incredibly, among the top 15 players in yards from scrimmage in years 6 through 10, Barber gained less yards during his first five years than all but Charlie Garner (8th in years 6-through-10) and Thomas Jones (11th).

Another player who certainly doesn’t fit the traditional “workhorse” mold is Warrick Dunn. And no, this analysis doesn’t make me think he was a workhorse. But Dunn was a big part of his team’s offenses for over a decade, which is pretty rare. Dunn, Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith are the only players to have at least 950 yards from scrimmage in 12 seasons.

Among all HOF running backs to enter the NFL since the merger, Earl Campbell fares the worst in this analysis. That’s somewhat ironic given that he’s one of the more obvious examples of a workhorse in NFL history. But this methodology hurts Campbell, who was not much of a receiver and who had a shorter career. We’ll be performing this analysis but only looking at rushing yards at a future date, and rest assured, Campbell will look a bit better there.

Other HOF backs who struggle here include Floyd Little (#85), Larry Csonka (#101), and Gale Sayers (not on the list). Some of that has to do with era, though, as all three split time. For non-Jim Brown backs, that was the way the pre-merger era worked.

Among non-HOFers, after Barber and Dunn, many of the borderline HOF running backs appear: Steven Jackson, Frank Gore, Ricky Watters, Edgerrin James, Jamal Lewis, Fred Taylor, and Corey Dillon. Watters is a fascinating case: from ’92 to ’00, he and Emmitt Smith were the heads of the class in terms of yards from scrimmage. And Watters succeed with three different teams. He’s also part of a select group of players who averaged at least 100 yards from scrimmage per game over their entire career. But his 103.4 average isn’t the best of the HOF snubs.

Clinton Portis averaged 105.7 YFS over his 113 games. Just behind him is Edgerrin James, at 105.5 over 148 games. James played with the best passing game of any running back ever, which may be what’s keeping him out of the Hall. But he does fairly well in the workhorse test here today. Even putting aside the “What Might Have Been” questions about his ACL, even if he just played a full year in 2000, he might now be a Hall of Famer. James was on pace to have another monster season, and he would have finished with five seasons of 1,800+ yards.

What stands out to you on today’s list?

Tagged as: Running backs, Yards From Scrimmage

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