Ricky - Emmitt FIRST 3 YRS comparison:

[SoCalRaider]

...whoah. I think you misinterpreted my post.

Actually, I regard Bo Jackson as one of the all time greats. Personally, he is the greatest RB I have ever seen play. That being said, I included him in the list because he has the highest yards per carry of any RB over his first 4 years. Since that is the first statistic I look at for a RB, I thought it justified putting up Bo's stats. Unfortunately, he was a part time player (only suited up for 6 to 7 games a season), so he did not have an opportunity to put up the kind of overall stats that Dickerson, TO, or Barry put up... that is why I gave him an asterisks.

 

[DOLBET]

I am sorry that I jumped..... I was pissed when Bo Jackson get hurt as there was a quiet rumor that Raiders would have trade Marcus Allen after season 90', converting Jackson to full time running back.

 

[finfan54]

Here is something noone is considering. Ricky is a perfect healthy speciman who is turning his career around from a disorder. those are very positive traits. If he is healthier this year from last year it means he is staying the course and he has often said that what he did last year is not good enough. that means he is pushing for greatness and is eyeing the prize. It all starts there.
A businessman who starts a business will only be successful if they keep up the intensity from day 1. It does not matter what ricky did in his first year, he was a different person on a diffenent team with a complex about his draft status.
Im telling ya now, ricky being as healthy as he is now, and getting faster, his chances of getting hurt are less and less. He is more of a bull rusher and takes hard hits but his mind and his health are tops right now more than anyone. He is a beast and he is 25. There is no doubt that ricky has the potential to play another 10 years.

 

[Superself]

Originally posted by XoPhinsoX
I cringe when he gets hit in the legs ;\

Really? I find myself mostly cringing for the guy that is trying to tackle him...Ricky is like a piece of iron on the field....you really don't want to go heads up with him..really just want to get in his way and let another player tackle him from the sides.

Taking the wrong angle against Ricky means you are in for some serious punishment paid in pain.

 

[PhinPhan1227]

Just try and bear in mond that ricky has already had a lot of years running the ball when you combine his college and Pro careers. I'm pretty sure that he's already carried the ball more for his age than most RB's in the NFL. What that means to me is that while Ricky may surpass some single season records in the NFL, I just don't see him passing the longevity marks. I'd love to be wrong, but I just don't see Ricky getting more than 10 years out of his professional career.

 

[Da 'Fins]

Exalting a player to be one of the all-time greats b/c of career stats is not accurate. It does show consistency and longevity - but in Smith's case, he had a massive OL that opened huge holes. I liked Walter Payton as a runner, but he did not compare to Jim Brown.

As to Ricky breaking all-time records, I'm not sure his running style will be as effective for a long career. It's not as power oriented as a Campbell, but he will still be slowed down some. However, if he keeps it up over the next 4-5 years, he should have a good shot at the hall of fame. I'll take that.

RB's careers, even great ones, tend to be shortened by the banging and the number of potential injuries (T Davis, Jackson, Campbell, Simpson, etc). What you have to do is look at what a guy did in his best 5-6 seasons to really compare.

Beyond that, many statistical comparisons, and this constantly annoys me, ignore the fact that Jim Brown and OJ and others played 14 game seasons. When announcers site Dickerson holding the all time record of 2106 yards, there ought to be an asterisk, imo. OJ had 2003 in 14 games. He was smokin' those last several games. Give him two more and he'd have had at least 2300 yards.

Not that I'm an OJ fan any more. Just stating the facts.

 

[M-REAL]

I cringe to when Ricky gets his legs taken out from underneath. One game, don't remember which one, he got hit so hard from the side I didn't think he was going to stand up. Wan pulled him out for a few plays and i saw him limping pretty bad to the sidelines. RW is a machine and it showed. Like Emmitt, RW runs low to the ground, plus sideways through the holes. As far as breaking records, who knows, maybe one day this will happen. Right now waiting for 2000+.

 

[MDFINFAN]

Re: Re: Ricky - Emmitt FIRST 3 YRS comparison:

Originally posted by rafael


I think you missed RW's first year where he had @ 800 yds. But your point is valid. RW could potentially become the all-time leading rusher. However, you could probably say that about several other young rushers too. (Tomlinson, Alexander, Henry, etc.) The all-time rusher stat as exemplified by Emmit is not about great individual years but rather about durability and consistency. If RW or any of the other backs I mentioned can put together 14-16 years of performance where they avg over 100 yds then the record will fall.

Actually it was the Phins, who hurt his rookie campaigne in that pre season game in which we gave him a high ankle injury, that led to his down fall the rest of that year, he never quite got back to 100% in his rookie year.