Who Holds the Rushing Record in the NFL?

The NFL’s all-time leading rusher is a familiar name to most football fans. But who else is up there on the list?

Emmitt Smith

Emmitt Smith was a running back for the Dallas Cowboys for thirteen seasons. He is the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing yards with 18,355 yards. He is also the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing touchdowns with 164.

Rushing yards

Emmitt Smith holds the NFL record for most rushing yards in a career, with 18,355 yards. He played for the Dallas Cowboys from 1990 to 2002, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

Touchdowns

Emmitt Smith holds the NFL record for most rushing touchdowns in a career with 164. He played for the Dallas Cowboys for thirteen seasons and is considered one of the best running backs of all time. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

Walter Payton

In the National Football League, many great players have come and gone. Some have made their mark in history, while others have been quickly forgotten. However, there is one player who holds the record for most rushing yards in a career, and that is Walter Payton.

Rushing yards

At the end of the 1977 NFL season, Payton had rushed for 1,390 yards, just short of O.J. Simpson’s league-leading total of 1,404. In 1978, Payton again challenged Simpson for the rushing title, gaining a career-high 1,852 yards on the ground. He also caught 33 passes for 274 yards that season. Though Simpson won the rushing title with a then-record 2,003 yards, Payton was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year by both the Associated Press and United Press International.

Touchdowns

In his career, Payton scored 110 rushing touchdowns, which is the second most in NFL history, behind only Emmitt Smith. In addition, Payton also had 9 receiving touchdowns and 8 kickoff return touchdowns for a total of 127 touchdowns scored in his career.

Barry Sanders

Barry Sanders was a running back for the Detroit Lions from 1989 to 1998. He is widely considered to be one of the best running backs of all time. During his career, he rushed for over 15,000 yards and 99 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rushing yards

In American football, the rushing yards leader is the player who has gained the most rushing yards in a single season. The record for most rushing yards in a season was set by Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans in 2020, when he ran for 2,027 yards.

The National Football League (NFL) began compiling official statistics on rushing yards gained during the 1932 season; prior to that, there were no universally accepted statistical leaders. In 1932, Bronko Nagurski of the Chicago Bears became the first player to gain 1,000 rushing yards in a season. Since then, seventeen other players have gained at least 1,500 rushing yards in a season. O. J. Simpson was the first player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season; he accomplished this feat in 1973. Simpson’s record stood for thirty-six years until it was broken by Adrian Peterson in 2007; Peterson’s record-breaking year included three 200-yard rushing games, something that had never been done before.[1] In 2020, Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans rushed for 2,027yards, breaking Peterson’s single-season record.

Touchdowns

Barry Sanders is considered one of the best running backs in NFL history. In 1997, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Sanders played college football for Oklahoma State University, and was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the first round of the 1989 NFL Draft. During his 10-year career with the Lions, Sanders led the league in rushing four times and was awarded the NFL Most Valuable Player Award in 1997. He also holds the record for most 1,000-yard rushing seasons with 10.

In Sanders’ final season, he ran for 2,053 yards and 20 touchdowns, becoming only the third player to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season. His career total of 15,269 rushing yards is second only to Walter Payton’s 16,726 yards. Sanders also holds the record for most rushing yards in a single season with 2,053.

Eric Dickerson

Eric Dickerson is a former American football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. Dickerson played college football for the SMU Mustangs and was recognized as an All-American. He was drafted in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams and had eight 1,000-yard rushing seasons in his NFL career.

Rushing yards

In 1984, Dickerson set the NFL single-season rushing yards record with 2,105 yards. He broke Walter Payton’s previous record of 1,852 rushing yards, which had been set in 1977. Dickerson’s record remained unbroken until it was surpassed by Jamal Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens in 2003. Dickerson holds the NFL’s rookie rushing record as well. In his first year in the league, he gained a total of 1,808 yards on 390 attempts, an average of 4.6 yards per carry.

Touchdowns

Dickerson scored 46 touchdowns in his NFL career, which ranks 19th all time.

Adrian Peterson

Adrian Peterson holds the NFL’s rushing record with 2,097 yards in a season. He accomplished this feat in 2012, when he was just 28 years old. The previous record was held by Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson, who rushed for 2,105 yards in 1984.

Rushing yards

Rushing yards is a stat that measures the number of yards a player rushes for in a game. The record for most rushing yards in a single game isheld by Adrian Peterson, who ran for 296 yards in a game against the San Diego Chargers in 2007.

In order to achieve this feat, Peterson had to average an extraordinary 8.3 yards per carry, which is a very impressive figure. He also had an impressive day running the ball against the Chargers’ defense, as he broke eight tackles and had six runs of 15 yards or more.

Peterson’s performance was so impressive that it helped him win the NFL MVP award that season, as well as the Offensive Player of the Year award. It’s safe to say that he is one of the best running backs in NFL history, and his single-game rushing record is likely to stand for many years to come.

Touchdowns

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. Through his first 11 seasons in the NFL, Peterson has rushing yards, 19 rushing touchdowns, 106 receptions, 9 receiving touchdowns, and 2 return touchdowns. In 2012, he became the fastest player to reach 10,000 career rushing yards in NFL history.