NFL Top 10 Series: Running Backs

(Credit: Associated Press)

The Top 10 Series switches gears and goes to the backfield today. A running back's importance has been dumbed down the last few years thanks to the shift to a passing league, but it's still considered a luxury to have a very good running back behind you. The ten players featured in this list could be arranged in any order that they want to be, and a lot of it would still remain acceptable. Debate, critique at your will. Here's my Top 10 list of running backs in the National Football League today.

1. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings: After the 2007 season, many believed that Adrian Peterson was the best running back in the league. Since then, he’s taken that title and ran with it harder than anybody else. All Day possesses power, breakaway speed, cutback ability, field vision and agility that nobody in the league can hold a candle to. He has had double-digit touchdown numbers every single season in the league thus far, and at this pace is well on his way to the 10,000-yard mark in a hurry. The only question now is whether or not he can fully recover from his torn ACL that he suffered last season. My thinking is: yes.

2. Arian Foster, Houston Texans: This dynamic all-purpose back is one of the focal points of the Houston Texans offense. Arian Foster may only have two seasons under his belt, but so far, that is all that he has needed to get up to this position. In those two seasons he’s amounted 2,820 yards and 26 touchdowns, and his 2010 season featured league-leading numbers (1,616 yards, 16 TD). He uses Houston’s zone-blocking scheme to his advantage, and is able to outrun and out move defenders with ease. If Adrian is not the same runner anymore, Arian in my opinion takes over the throne.

3. Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville Jaguars: The Bowling Ball might be the Rodney Dangerfield of the NFL. The team that he plays on warrants no respect for the UCLA product that has done nothing but be an elite running back ever since he was given the keys to the car following the departure of Jaguars staple Fred Taylor. MJD has had 3 straight 1,300+ yard seasons, including a league best 1,606 last year on 343 carries when, given the deficiencies at the quarterback position, he essentially was the Jaguars offense. Jones-Drew knows how to carry the load and is a force between the tackles.

4. Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans: CJ2K quickly became CJ1K last year, but I don’t think that that’s a sign of things to come for Johnson. We have to remember what he was before last season, where he was essentially slow to come out of the gates thanks in part to a long holdout during training camp. Johnson’s agility and, as Gus Johnson so poignantly dubbed it once, speed are his main attributes, and he has proven that he can take a big chunk of carries. Playing behind a very solid offensive line does help his cause as well, so I expect a big bounce-back season for CJ this coming year. Maybe CJ1.5K.

5. LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles: Shady McCoy is one of the most dynamic and exciting players in the league today. He has greatly improved year after year since coming into the NFL and last year was by far his best season. He found the end zone 17 times on the ground and three times he hit the end zone on the receiving spectrum, so that amounted to an awesome 20-touchdown season. He could have gotten even more than that had he not only played for 15 games last year. McCoy may be done scratching the surface on his potential, but if this is what he is, expect a lot more from the Harrisburg, PA native.

6. Ray Rice, Baltimore Ravens: Ray Rice just got paid a huge sum of money, and it is worth it. Some consider him to be one of the best backs in the league, and I am in that camp too. The Baltimore Ravens offense would not be what it is without Ray Rice, although it seems like sometimes Cam Cameron does not know that he is on the team. Nonetheless, Rice has been incredible since coming out of Rutgers University in the 2008 (he might be the best product Rutgers has ever produced when it is all said and done) and after four seasons, he’s picked up 4,377 yards on the ground, 2,235 yards on the receiving end (amounting to 6,612 yards from scrimmage) and 29 total touchdowns. Great numbers for an elite dual-threat running back.

7. Frank Gore, San Francisco 49ers: With what Frank Gore has had around him on offense the last couple of seasons, and all of the turnover between offensive coordinators and castoffs, he should be applauded for the work that he has provided the 49er offense. While bad knees have plagued him for much of his career, he still has remarkably produced. His 2006 season was off the charts, when he fell just five yards short of 1,700, on a career-high 312 carries, he found the end zone eight times and his YPG and YPA were both career bests (105.9, and 5.4 respectively). Since then he has not hit that mark but he’s still compiled four 1,000-yard seasons out of the last five including last year when he had 1,211 yards on 282 carries and eight touchdowns, where he once again was the focal point of the San Francisco offense. Had he not missed time in 2010, he most likely would have hit the mark again. We might not ever know how good Gore could be with his bad knees, but even on those knees, he’s still been dynamic and worthy of recognition.

8. Matt Forte, Chicago Bears: Fear not, Chicago fans. Your running back will be in training camp, ad he will continue to be the all-purpose threat he’s shown he can be since 2008. Matt Forte is a player whose success and role to his team cannot be overlooked. For the last few years now, the Tulane graduate has put up over 4,00 yards on the ground and nearly 2,000 on the receiving end. While he’s only crossed 1,200 yards once in his career (his rookie season) last year before going down with an injury, he looked like he was going to get there or surpass it. With the new pieces around him, expect Forte to look great once again for a Bears team that is also going to be very, very good.

9. Steven Jackson, St. Louis Rams: If Frank Gore deserves recognition for what he’s done around him the last few seasons, and also MJD, then Steven Jackson deserves a medal. Jackson has played one playoff game in his entire career, and that’s when he was still an understudy for the Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk. Besides that, Jackson has played in pitiful-to-mediocre St. Louis teams for his entire career, with average players around him, and still has been a very good back. Since taking the reigns, Jackson has compiled over 1,000 yards each season, including his career-high 1,528 yards in 2006 and 13 touchdowns. He also added 806 yards receiving, adding up to a league-high 2,334 yards from scrimmage. Jackson has not nearly reached that since, but still has quietly put together consistently good seasons one after another. Jackson is truly a talent that has been wasted on poor teams.

10. Jamaal Charles, Kansas City Chiefs: While he only has two storng seasons under his belt, Jamaal Charles sneaks onto this list because I think that he comes off of his torn ACL in a big way in 2012. He promised to bruise his way through everyone this year, but I think that that’s a stretch for somebody who is the farthest thing from a power running back. With that said Charles’ speed and agility will get him by if he manages to fully recover from the knee injury he sustained in Week 2 of last year. His insane 6.4 YPC was one of the best in the league in 2010, when he raced for 1,467 yards and had eight total touchdowns (five rushing). With Todd Haley gone to Pittsburgh, there might be a hidden benefit as well: he’ll actually be starting games, as opposed to the slower Thomas Jones.