Top 10 Minnesota Vikings Running Backs
1. Adrian Peterson
Nothing is certain with the current collection of Pro Football Hall of Fame voters but Adrian Peterson should be honored in the Canton sun next summer. Simply put, he’s one of the best running backs ever to play football and an easy pick as the best back in Vikings franchise history.
2. Chuck Foreman
Adrian Peterson should be joining Chuck Foreman next summer as Vikings running backs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Peterson will get into Canton in his first of eligibility. Foreman should’ve been inducted long ago and somehow he hasn’t. From his 1973 rookie year through 1977, he was one of the best running backs in the league. More significantly, he was the league’s most versatile running back. He caught passes in the 1970s like scattered backs are doing today. In that sense, Foreman was way ahead of his time. It’s way past time to finally see Chuck Foreman inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
3. Dalvin Cook
4. Robert Smith
I feel that the top two running backs in Vikings franchise history are easy. #3 and #4 are easy as well. The order is difficult. One day, Robert Smith is #3 and Dalvin Cook is #4. The next day, Dalvin Cook is #3 and Robert Smith is #4. Today, it’s the second one. Both had stuttering starts to their careers due to injuries. After a terrific start, Cook’s rookie season ended in Week 4 with a knee injury. Smith had a run of puzzling maladies that kept him from really breaking out until his fifth season. Once both got rolling, they were explosive, game-breaking runners. Both ended up having four terrific seasons with the Vikings. If injuries hadn’t gotten in the way, both easily could’ve had twice that.
5. Bill Brown
Bill Brown’s great Vikings career was winding down as I was a youngster discovering football and this team. He’s one of the Vikings greats that I most wish that I’d seen in his prime. He was among the league’s best fullbacks at a time when fullbacks were often a team’s top runner.
6. Tommy Mason
The Vikings first ever draft pick was the team’s top playmaker over the franchise’s first five seasons. He was All-Pro once and made the Pro Bowl three times in those five seasons.
7. Darrin Nelson
Because he wasn’t Marcus Allen, I don’t think Darrin Nelson ever got proper respect from Vikings fans. Nelson was the seventh pick of the 1982 NFL Draft. Allen was still available but the Vikings opted for the little, versatile back out of Stanford. Nelson fit the Vikings offense of that era. While he wasn’t Marcus Allen-great, for ten years, Nelson was a very good football player for the Vikings.
8. Dave Osborn
Dave Osborn was a solid backfield partner to Bill Brown. While the Vikings of the late-1960s very much relied on a running back-by-committe, Osborn and Brown were the headliners. Osborn’s 972 yards in 1967 was the team’s single-season record until Chuck Foreman topped 1,000 in 1975.
9. Terry Allen
It’s a real shame that Terry Allen left the Vikings in the early days of free agency after only four years and three seasons. After a breakout 1,200 yard season in his second year, Allen had his third season erased with a knee injury. He returned with a 1,000 season and then bolted to Washington in free agency.
10. Chester Taylor
Chester Taylor joined the Vikings in 2006 as a free agent. He left Baltimore for Minnesota for the opportunity to finally be RB1. With 1,200 yards, he was an immediate hit. The Vikings run game was in good shape with the versatile Taylor. Then Adrian Peterson was selected in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. Taylor was suddenly RB2 for the team that signed him to be RB1. For the next three seasons, he was a tremendous team player and of the best RB2s in the league.
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