Who Holds the NFL Rushing Record?
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Who holds the NFL rushing record? That would be Emmitt Smith, who racked up an impressive 18,355 yards during his time in the league.
Emmitt Smith
Emmitt Smith is a former professional American football player who was a running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) for fifteen seasons. During his career, he became the NFL’s all-time rushing leader, breaking the record previously held by Walter Payton.
Rushing Yards
In 1993, with the Dallas Cowboys, Emmitt Smith set the NFL record for most rushing yards in a season, with 1,773 yards. This record stood for over a decade, until it was finally broken by LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006. In his career, Emmitt Smith racked up an impressive total of 18,355 rushing yards. He is currently the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.
Touchdowns
Emmitt Smith holds the NFL record for most rushing touchdowns in a career with 164. He played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals over the course of his 15-year career.
Walter Payton
Walter Payton, also known as “Sweetness”, was a running back for the Chicago Bears from 1975-1987. He was known for his quickness, agility, and ability to make people miss. He was selected to 9 Pro Bowls and was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1977. Payton retired as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 16,726 yards.
Rushing Yards
In the National Football League (NFL), the player who has the most rushing yards in a career is Walter Payton. He played for the Chicago Bears from 1975 to 1987 and gained 16,726 yards on 3,838 carries.
Touchdowns
Payton is sixth on the NFL’s all-time regular season rushing touchdowns list, behind Emmitt Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson, Marcus Allen, Jerome Bettis, and Adrian Peterson. As of the end of the 2017 season, Payton’s 110 career rushing touchdowns are the most by any player in NFL history who did not also score a receiving touchdown.
Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders was a professional American football player who played for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him #1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.
Rushing Yards
In Sanders’ 10 NFL seasons, he had more than 1,000 rushing yards in a season eight times (1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997), broke the 2,000-yard barrier twice (1997: 2,053; 1998: 2,358) and was voted NFL Most Valuable Player in 1997 after setting then-league records for single-season rushing yardage (2,053) and single-season total yards from scrimmage (2,831).
Touchdowns
In 1997, Sanders became just the 3rd player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season. He did it by scoring 20 touchdowns, which was also an NFL record at the time. He would go on to score 22 touchdowns the following season.
Eric Dickerson
Eric Dickerson is a retired NFL running back who played for the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, and Oakland Raiders. He was drafted in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft. He holds the NFL single-season rushing yards record with 2,105 yards, which he set in 1984.
Rushing Yards
In 1984, Dickerson broke the NFL single-season rushing record that had been set by O.J. Simpson in 1973. Dickerson’s mark of 2,105 yards remained the NFL’s rushing record until it was eclipsed by Barry Sanders in 1997. These days, Dickerson is the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing yards per game, with an average of 99.8 yards per contest.
Touchdowns
Dickerson scored in 11 different games his rookie season, highlighted by a three-touchdown game against the New Orleans Saints. In that contest, he scampered for TDs of 54, 2, and 1 yard. He also had a pair of touchdown runs in a 34–31 overtime victory over the Washington Redskins. Dickerson finished his historic rookie season with 1,808 yards and 18 touchdowns on 390 carries (4.6 avg.), along with 21 receptions for 404 yards (19.3 avg.) and two receiving scores. He was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and was selected to the NFL All-Rookie Team at running back
Adrian Peterson
Adrian Lewis Peterson (born March 21, 1985) is an American football running back for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oklahoma and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings seventh overall in the 2007 NFL Draft. Peterson set the NFL single-game rushing record in his rookie season, and became the only player in NFL history to have three games with at least 250 rushing yards in his first season.
Rushing Yards
In the National Football League (NFL), the rushing title is awarded to the player with the most rushing yards gained in a season. This is generally considered the most prestigious award for a running back, as it requires both physical strength and durability, as well as skill to gain significant yardage while evading tacklers.
The record for most rushing yards in a season is 2,105, set by Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams in 1984. Dickerson’s record was broken by Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings in 2012, when Peterson rushed for 2,097 yards. The current holder of the record is Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans, who rushed for 2,278 yards in 2020.
Touchdowns
In his NFL career, Adrian Peterson has amassed a total of 106 rushing touchdowns, which is the 8th most in NFL history.
