Will Portis Be the Greatest Ever?

[dag]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

The only thing that gives me pause is the beating that Portis has taken the last several years. Heavily used runningbacks tend to burn out after a couple seasons. Smith's record career statistics owe more to his anomalous ability to avoid injury than to his brilliance as an athlete.

That, and the fact that it's not even a done deal that Emmit Smith is the greatest of all time. Unlike baseball, the game of football changes a great deal from year to year so that it's difficult to compare numbers. Is Emmit Smith flat-out better than Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, and Walter Payton? The only thing about Emmit Smith you can say is that he's in that elite class of all time backs that includes Brown, Simpson, Payton, Marcus Allen, and Barry Sanders.

And as much as I love Clinton Portis, I would take any of those guys over him. And I think Joe Gibbs would too.

[sportscurmudgeon]

"Greatest Ever" includes folks who played prior to 1990. I know that may be a shock to a few folks here; but, sadly, it is the case.

There is a gentleman named Jim Brown who AVERAGED more than 100 yards per game for his ENTIRE CAREER. I believe his career average was 105.5 per game but I could be off by a yard or so.

Oh, and that was in the day when most teams played FIVE man defensive lines with only two linebackers and most of Brown's yards were between the tackles.

I don't think Emmitt Smith is nearly as good as Jim Brown was - nor was he as good as Walter Payton was. Smith played for a team that had a really good OL for 90% of his career and for a team that had a credible passing attack.

Brown played for a team with a marginal passing game.

Payton's career was spent with people like Bob Avelinni or Vince Carter at quarterback. Go look them up to find out what the "least common denominator for pro QBs" happens to mean.

And if you want to let your mind wander and think what might have been if Gayle Sayres had not blown out his knee in the days before surgeons knew how to reconstruct a knee...

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by sportscurmudgeon

"Greatest Ever" includes folks who played prior to 1990. I know that may be a shock to a few folks here; but, sadly, it is the case.

There is a gentleman named Jim Brown who AVERAGED more than 100 yards per game for his ENTIRE CAREER. I believe his career average was 105.5 per game but I could be off by a yard or so.

Oh, and that was in the day when most teams played FIVE man defensive lines with only two linebackers and most of Brown's yards were between the tackles.

I don't think Emmitt Smith is nearly as good as Jim Brown was - nor was he as good as Walter Payton was. Smith played for a team that had a really good OL for 90% of his career and for a team that had a credible passing attack.

Brown played for a team with a marginal passing game.

Payton's career was spent with people like Bob Avelinni or Vince Carter at quarterback. Go look them up to find out what the "least common denominator for pro QBs" happens to mean.

And if you want to let your mind wander and think what might have been if Gayle Sayres had not blown out his knee in the days before surgeons knew how to reconstruct a knee...

Yeah I definitely don't think that Emmitt is the greatest running back ever. Maybe not even top 5. All I meant by the thread was look at Portis' numbers at this point compared to Emmitt's, do you think he might break Emitt's records? Though someone else might before he does.