ESPN: Best backs in the league

not a terrible list actually, but addai and barber are too high and johnson's run only lasted 2 years till his OL fell apart and he looked... not so great. he's also 28 now with 2 good years vs portis who's 26 with 5.

so, i'd move portis up to 5 myself, mainly based on track record and production.

I would put Portis at #6.

Adrian Peterson at #2 struck a nerver in me. Yeah he had a great rookie season, but lets see if he gets bitten by the "sophomore slump" before we rank him at #2 in the league.

@ stj: Agreed, let's see A.P. maintain that for a few years before we "crown his ass..."

This does look like something put together based solely on FF numbers.

portis is one hell of a running back,no matter what anybody says.he's going back to play in a system he starred in denver,hopefully he'll put up better numbers,stay uninjured,and
make the pro bowl this year.

PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPE!!!

This writer must be on drugs! How can Adrian Peterson be rated #2 back overall when he is not even the starter on his own team? Peterson is a great talent, but he isn't #2. There are two other names that jump out at me, #3 Steven Jackson and #5 Larry Johnson. Here we have two often injured backs. Steven Jackson is way overrated, he is not that good. Larry Johnson is past his prime. He was once a top five back but just like Shaun Alexander, he is on the downside of his career.

PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPE!!!

This writer must be on drugs! How can Adrian Peterson be rated #2 back overall when he is not even the starter on his own team? Peterson is a great talent, but he isn't #2. There are two other names that jump out at me, #3 Steven Jackson and #5 Larry Johnson. Here we have two often injured backs. Steven Jackson is way overrated, he is not that good. Larry Johnson is past his prime. He was once a top five back but just like Shaun Alexander, he is on the downside of his career.

Oh, really? That's an interesting take, or you could consider that the Chiefs offensive line has been destroyed by retirements and injuries and he's had only 1 down year. He had consecutive 1700+ yard seasons before he went down and only played 8 games last year. Granted he was only averaging 3.5 a carry, but to say the guy is done at 28 after only playing 2 full seasons as a starter is a bit of a stretch.

LJ is running behind garbage and he did look like he quit on some runs last year, but done? I think that's a bit of an exaggeration.

LJ definitely isn't past his prime. And Steven Jackson is the real deal. He was banged up last year and still managed to crack 1,000 yards.

You think Peterson being too high is ridiculous? He got a vote when ESPN was doing the "top 10 best backs of all time" list. That's insane.

As for Portis' ranking, I don't care that he's ranked #9. I don't like the fact that they criticized his pass blocking skills though, pass blocking has actually been one of Portis' better strengths.

LJ definitely isn't past his prime. And Steven Jackson is the real deal. He was banged up last year and still managed to crack 1,000 yards.

I saw a report that the Chiefs are planning on reducing LJ's carries this season to protect him from injury.

Chiefs | Team to lessen workload for L. Johnson
Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:31:01 -0700
Charles Robinson, of Yahoo! Sports, reports the Kansas City Chiefs (http://www.kffl.com/team/21/nfl) are planning to lessen the workload of RB Larry Johnson (http://www.kffl.com/player/5896/nfl) (foot). Head coach Herm Edwards said Johnson is not going to carry the ball 40 times and will be lucky to touch the ball 30 times in a game.