LeSean McCoy
recently ignited debate amongst football fans, and even from some players, by
saying that he’s the best running back in the NFL. I tend to agree with him
based off of his production and his versatility. However, conventional wisdom
says that Adrian Peterson is the best back in the league. One could even argue
that Peterson will one day be regarded as the best running back in league
history. Although I contend that Barry Sanders will always hold that title.
Either way, McCoy’s comments and the backlash that followed got me thinking:
Who is the best running back in the league? When considering this, I don’t only
want to look at rushing stats, as running backs need to contribute in the
passing game these days, so I’m going to look at them as well. To make this a
little more interesting, I’m going to compare the top-5 running backs (stats
wise) from the 2013 season. This includes McCoy, Peterson, Jamaal Charles, Matt
Forte, and Alfred Morris. For comparisons sake I’ll be looking at stats from
2011-2013, a good although not completely telling window. All stats for this post were found
courtesy of ESPN at www.espn.go.com/nfl/statistics.
Rush Rush Rush Rec. Rec. Rec. Total Total
Yards Avg. TD Rec. Yards Avg. TD Yards TD
McCoy:
2011: 1,309 4.8 17 48 315 6.6 3 1,624 20
2012: 840 4.2 2 54 373 6.9 3 1,213 5
2013: 1,607 5.1
9 52 539 10.4 2 2,146 11
Average: 1,252 4.7
9.3 51.3 409 7.97 2.7 1,661 12
Peterson:
2011: 970 4.7 12 18 139 7.7 1
1,109 13
2012: 2,097 6.0 12 40 217 5.4 1 2,314 13
2013: 1,266 4.5 10 29 171 5.9 1
1,437 11
Average: 1,444.3 5.1 11.3 29 175.7 6.3 1
1,620 12.3
Charles:
2011+: 83 6.9 0 5 9 1.8 1 92 1
2012: 1,509 5.3 5 35 236 6.7 1 1,745 6
2013: 1,287 5.0 12 70 693 9.9 7 1,980 19
Average: 959.7 5.7 5.7 36.7 312.7 6.1 3
1,272.3 8.7
Forte:
2011: 997 4.9 3 52
490 9.4 1 1,487
4
2012: 1,094 4.4 5 44 340 7.7 1 1,434
6
2013: 1,339 4.6 9 74 594 8.0 3 1,933 12
Average: 1,143.3 4.6 5.7 56.7 474.7 8.4 1.7
1,618 7.3
Morris*:
2012: 1,613 4.8 13 11 77 7.0
0 1,690 13
2013: 1,275 4.6 7 9 78 8.7
0 1,353 7
Average: 1,444 4.7 10 10 77.5 7.9 0 1,521.5 10
All five of
these players should, and very often do, make up the first five picks of
fantasy football drafts. The order that they go in depends on the mindset of
individual fantasy owners, with Peterson being the first pick a majority of the
time. That’s fine and all for fantasy football, but in real life I’ll take
McCoy. Peterson has more rushing yards but McCoy is more involved in the
overall game. For my money McCoy is the best running back in football today, Forte is second, and Peterson comes in third.
Please share
your thoughts about who you think the best running back in the NFL is and why.
+ Although
all of the backs on this list suffered a bad injury at some point, this is the
season that Charles blew out his knee in the second game of the season.
*Morris’ rookie year was 2012. His average is
based on two years worth of stats.
