NFL Rushing Leaders

In this day of advanced statistics and analytics, one might forget, perhaps even ignore, good old-fashioned statistics like yardage leaders. As an itty-bitty Minnesota Vikings fan, I remember racing for the Wednesday newspaper to see where Chuck Foreman stood among the league’s top backs. At all times, I knew his yardage totals. I just had to know where those totals ranked in the league. It was a different time. In recognition of those times and good old-fashioned statistics, here are the NFL rushing leaders through seven weeks. 

Player	Games	Attempts	Yards	Average	Touchdowns
Derrick Henry	7	191	869	4.6	10
Jonathan Taylor	7	105	579	5.5	5
Joe Mixon	7	123	539	4.4	4
Nick Chubb	5	90	523	5.8	4
Ezekiel Elliott	6	102	521	5.1	5
Lamar Jackson	7	76	480	6.3	2
James Robinson	6	84	460	5.5	5
Damien Harris	7	95	437	4.6	5
Alvin Kamara	6	114	419	3.7	1
Darrell Henderson Jr.	6	96	417	4.3	4
Leonard Fournette	7	93	413	4.4	4
Antonio Gibson	7	103	408	4.0	3
Aaron Jones	7	89	404	4.5	2
Chase Edmonds	7	68	397	5.8	0
Najee Harris	6	102	388	3.8	2
Dalvin Cook	4	80	366	4.6	2
Tony Pollard	6	61	366	6.0	1

Derrick Henry is a beast. He’s racing towards a third-straight rushing title. He’s also chasing Eric Dickerson’s season record of 2,105 yards. He’s on pace for a 2,110 yard season. It helps that he has an extra game to reach Dickerson’s 37-year old record. 

A record that Henry should shatter is carries in a season. Larry Johnson carried the ball 416 times in 2006. Henry is nearly half-way there with ten games to play. He’s on pace to pass 416 carries during the 15th game of the season. At present, Henry has 68 more carries than #2 Joe Mixon. That’s like two extra games. Each carry seems to make him stronger. As long as he’s still standing, Henry will continue to collect rushing titles. 

It should be startling to see a quarterback among the league’s rushing leaders. With Lamar Jackson, it’s expected. He’s on pace for his third 1,000-yard rushing season.

It’s surprising to see Alvin Kamara averaging less than four yards per carry. 

I had to take the leaders to the Top-16 to include Dalvin Cook. The stats show four games. It should be 3.5. An ankle injury took him out of two games and most of a third. When he’s been on the field he’s been terrific. The stat that shows that best is yards/game.

1. Derrick Henry  124.1

2. Nick Chubb     104.6

3. Dalvin Cook      91.5

The league is better, the Vikings are definitely better, when Cook is on the field. 

Passing is the preferred mode of moving the football down the field. Each year it becomes even more so. Despite that, the league’s running game is in strong, young hands. Of the above rushing leaders, Henry is the oldest. He’s only 27. The 2017 NFL Draft presented a bunch of talented backs to the league.

Christian McCaffrey

Leonard Fournette

Dalvin Cook

Joe Mixon

Alvin Kamara

Aaron Jones

Kareem Hunt

Chris Carson

James Connor

All of those backs are about 26. Most of the rest of the leading rushers are even younger. 

The rules favor the passing game. The offensive play callers favor the passing game. If football ever returns to running game, it’s not happening soon. Despite that, the league is loaded with enough talented, young, versatile backs to keep their position relevant.

Thinking about today’s rushing statistics triggered thoughts of football statistics from decades ago. Analytics has changed the way we look at football numbers. The internet has changed when and how we receive the numbers. For most of my days following football, I had to wait for midweek newspapers to see the league’s statistical leaders. For an expanded look at the leaders, I relied on weekly publications like the Sporting News. Thinking about it from today’s perspective, that’s a lot of waiting, a lot of patience. It was a different time.