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+---- Thread: *Ranking HOF RB's (/showthread.php?tid=46230)
*Ranking HOF RB's - Mossed26 - 07-07-2023
There are 16 running backs in the HOF, and today I will be ranking all of them. First off we have the running backs themselves:
Reg Mackworthy
Darren Smallwood
Owen Taylor
Marquise Brown
Apollo Reed
Mako Mendonca
Forrest Gump
Mathias Hanyadi
Ashley Owens
Sam Torenson
Raphtalia Chan
Jamar Lackson
Tatsu Nakamura
Zoe Watts
Cobra Kai
Boss Tweed
To properly rank RB’s, I’ve created a formula using what I personally think makes a great running back. I’ve ranked them in stats like rushing yards, TD’s, and YPC. The way the points work is that the 16th place in rushing yards means 1 point while 1st in yards means 16 points. I’ve also awarded ½ points for receiving stats like catches, receiving yards, and receiving TD’s, (so 16th in receiving yards is 0.5 points while 1st is 8 points) and given different point totals for different awards. An ultimus is worth 8 points, an MVP worth 10, and a OPY award is worth 5 points. Ok, so now that you know how this works, I’ll start with a few honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
Boss Tweed gets an honorable mention because he is technically a HOF running back and had solid rushing stats, but he is in the hall due to being an elite LB so I won’t compare him to players who spent their entire career at RB. I also want to give honorable mentions to a couple elite RB’s that aren’t in the HOF yet, like Jay Cue Jr, Jarvis Harbinger-Marjin and others. They are incredible players, but they don’t fit the criteria of this list.
15th Place: Mako Mendonca (26.5)
My formula has Mako as the worst HOF RB for a couple reasons. He doesn’t particularly stand out in any category. He’s a better HOF receiving back than about ½ the other RB’s, but he has some of the worst counting rushing stats of any HOF’ers finishing bottom 3 in yards, TD’s and YPC. Don’t get me wrong, he still had an incredible career and was able to snag an ultimus for the copperheads. He took a few seasons to get going, taking until his 4th season to have a 1k rushing season. Overall, he was a great running back but has no personal awards and has some of the lowest rushing stats of any HOF RB’s.
14th: Raphtalia Chan (27.5)
I’ll start with a note that his stats were incomplete so I had to manually count some stats game by game, so I might be off by a little bit off in some of the receiving categories. Chan finished with the lowest total rushing yards of any HOF RB’s which is part of the reason he’s so low on this list. He also finished with below average receiving stats and no personal awards. He does have the most important trophy of all as he does have a ultimus win, but nothing jumps off the stat sheet. The reason he’s not in last is because he does have a pretty impressive 4.229 YPC which is in the top ½ of all HOF RB’s.
13th: Sam Torenson (31)
Sam Torenson is quite the interesting player, because he was one of the biggest workhorse HOF backs. It might seem weird for someone who is 2nd in HOF rushing yards to be this low compared to other HOF’ers, but there are a few good reasons. Despite being 2nd in yards and 5th in TD’s, he underperforms in almost every other category. He’s the 2nd worst HOF receiving back with under 2,000 career receiving yards. But the main problem is his lack of awards. There are a few players with similar or less impressive stats but they have awards or ultimuses that Torenson doesn’t have. He is the only HOF RB without a MVP, OPY award or an ultimus, putting him in 14th place.
12th: Apollo Reed (43)
Apollo Reed was a great player in the best possible situation. He finishes below average (for HOF’ers) in every stat except YPC with the 4th best 4.348. He also is the worst receiving back in the hall finishing last in catches and yards and tied for last in receiving TD’s. Reed’s saving grace is that he was on one of the best ISFL dynasties ever. He was only with the otters for 5 full seasons but won 3 ultimuses in that time. It’s pretty funny because his best statistical years came at the end of his career on baltimore hawks teams nowhere near as good as the team he was on his first couple seasons with the otters. He also is the person lowest on this list with a OPY award. The efficiency plus team success puts him 13th on my list.
11th: Forrest Gump (43.5)
Forrest Gump was a pretty average HOF RB. He had a great career with NOLA, and kind of had the reverse career statistically compared to Apollo Reed. Reed has his best 3 seasons as his last 3 seasons while Gump started off with a bang and 4 consecutive 1,000 yard years. Gump was above average in rushing yards and YPC, but wasn’t an elite receiver and had less touchdowns than expected for someone with his rushing yards. Gump also won a OPY award and also won NOLA’s only ultimus ending his career as a HOF back and my 12th best HOF RB.
10th: Ashley Owens (46.5)
Ashley Owens was an elite but inefficient RB. He finished with solid but lower yards and TD’s stats with the 6th last yards and 5th last TD’s. He also had a very low and the worst in the hall with a limited 3.858 YPC. The thing that separates Owens from the other HOF’ers is that he is probably the best receiving back of all time. He has 40 more catches and 250 yards more than 2nd place but underperformed a little with receiving touchdowns. He had already had a solid career but went to the silverbacks and had a massive breakout year. His first season with the silverbacks was his career high in rushing yards with over 1,500 yards and ended in him winning OPY despite being on a 4-12 team. Next year he had a breakout receiving year with the most yards in his career with 726 and a rebound year for the team. He played one more year and retired with the silverbacks seasons probably boosting him into the HOF. His receiving prowess, the OPY award and an ultimus early in his career launched him to the 11th best HOFer.
9th: Reg Mackworthy (49.5)
Mackworthy was a truly great RB in a great dynasty for the outlaws in S1-S10. He’s 3rd in rushing yards for a HOFer and is also in the top ½ of HOF’ers in rushing TD’s. The main reason he’s so low is his inefficiency finishing 2nd last of all HOF’ers with a measly 3.884 YPC. Another limiting factor is the fact that he’s 3rd worst in all receiving categories. Mackworthy’s saving grace that puts him at 10th instead of around 14th is team success. The outlaws were dominant during his time with 3 ultimus wins boosting his ranking. He also ended his career with a bang with 6 consecutive 1,000 yard seasons and 4 1,200 yard seasons to cement his spot in the hall. I find it interesting that in his 4 most successful seasons yardage wise the outlaws couldn’t make it to the ultimus but in his least successful season they won it all. But clearly everything worked out and he ended up as the 10th best HOFer.
8th: Owen Taylor (58)
8th is about the spot where we reach the cream of the crop. Points wise, Taylor is closer to 2nd place then 9th and is well deserving of a top 10 spot. Taylor was just a great, pure RB. He’s top 5 in yards and 2nd in touchdowns, and has a little lower (but still solid) YPC at 4.136 which is good for 10th out of the HOFers. Taylor also had solid but below average receiving stats, dropping him a few places on this list. Taylor also had one of the most dominant stretches of any player on this list during S6-11. During that span his lowest yardest mark in a season was 1263 and in S8-S11 had at least 15 rushing touchdowns 5 seasons in a row. In his best season, S10, he had 1,713 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground with 4 touchdowns through the air. This impressive statline was enough to win OPY and then he helped his team through the playoffs all the way to an ultimus win. He probably would have also won an MVP that season if Borkus Maximus didn’t throw for 5,000 yards. His peak was great as he followed up that season with a 1,500 yard season and 17 touchdowns, enough to repeat as OPY and join an elite club of 8 players to win multiple OPY awards. He *(as a note, Owen Taylor won an ultimus in his last season but I’m not counting because he only had 2 carries that seasons)
7th: Mathias Hanyadi (60)
Hanyadi just edged out Taylor and others for the 8th spot. Hanyadi was an efficient back with a top 6 YPC but was a bit lower (but still above average) at rushing yards and touchdowns and was a below average receiving back. The main thing is that Hanyadi had awards and luck, winning two OPY awards, an MVP and a ultimus. Hanyadi did have a good peak with 5 1,000 yard seasons winning all of the awards during this span. His MVP season came during a 1,300 yard, 13 touchdown campaign in which he also snagged 3 touchdowns on 539 yards receiving. He capped out his season with a ultimus win as well.
As a note, Hanyadi kind of shows how my algorithm is flawed a little bit because Hanyadi won MVP in a 1300 yard year while Taylor didn’t win it in a 1700 yard season, but blame the MVP voters not me.
6th: Zoe Watts (60.5)
I was already talking about how close everyone was and now we Zoe Watts in 7th place by a razor-thin 0.5 point margin. Watts was great at just plain running the football, finishing 6th in yards and 3rd in rushing touchdowns, but was the most efficient RB in the HOF with an outstanding 4.549 YPC. Watts was also one of the best receiving backs as well, 3rd in catches and yards and 2nd in touchdowns. The only thing Watts didn’t have was luck, only making one ultimus and losing it by 5 to the wraiths. Watts was 80 yards short of 10 straight 1,000 yard years but still managed a streak of 8 1000 yard years. He started off quick with 2 1,000 yard seasons including an 1,100 yard rushing and 800 yard receiving season. Watts was also a pretty good return man for most of his career having 7 straight 2,000 all-purpose yard seasons. Watts was able to snag the only major award of his career in S32 with 1,559 yards on an insane 4.997 YPC. Watts is also interesting because he spent his entire career with the Copperheads but switched positions to WR during the last year of his career. Overall, being a well rounded hyper efficient back made up for his lack of awards.
5th: Cobra Kai (62)
We’ve reached the top 5, and now we're at a truly elite group of RB’s. Kobra Kai was an elite and efficient running back, while also being a menace out of the backfield. Kai was only 10th in yards and 7th in touchdowns but he made up for that with everything else. He’s second in YPC with 4.512 and is one of the best receiving backs, finishing 3rd in catches, 2nd in yards and 5th in touchdowns. Kai started off slow, not going over 700 yards in any of his first 3 seasons. He broke out in his 4th season, finally getting a better share of carries and his chance to shine. He didn’t waste his opportunity, having 6 consecutive 1000 yard years after. In his 5th season honolulu had an incredible year and were able to make it to the ultimus which ended in Kai lifting the trophy. Kai was able to close out his career in incredible fashion with his two best seasons being his last two. Kai had a 1500 yard season on 4.753 YPC and brought his team to the ultimus where they lost in heartbreaking fashion in overtime. Kai wanted his redemption, so he came back for one more season and had one of the best years of his career. Adding an impressive return game to his arsenal he was able to break through to 3,000 all-purpose yards and an ultimus win right before he retired to solidify his resume.
4th: Marquise Brown (64.5)
Marquise Brown comes in at 4th and is an incredible RB on the ground. He overcomes being a below average receiving back by being elite in every other category. He’s 3rd in yards, 5th in touchdowns and has a very respectable 4.345 YPC. I’ve said a couple other players started off quick, but nothing like Marquise Brown. He’s had possibly the greatest rookie season ever, rushing for an absurd 1,902 yards. He had the 3rd best rushing season ever as a rookie. He also had his first 6 seasons all go for over 1,500 yards and his first was the only below 14 touchdowns. S10 was absolutely crazy, so 1900 yards didn’t win MVP or OPY because Owen Taylor had a 1700 yard 23 touchdown year while Borkus Maximus threw for 5000 yards. During S13 he had another incredible season, rushing for 1500 yards and 15 touchdowns which was enough to win OPY and MVP. Brown had started his career for liberty but ended up on the hawks during the S15 49-0 ultimus win. Even though Owen Taylor only had 2 carries that year, the hawks technically had two top 10 HOF RB’s on their roster at the same time. Marquise Brown’s insane 6 year streak and ultimus win puts Marquise Brown as a top 5 HOF RB.
3rd: Jamar Lackson (66)
Now we're at the top 3, and onto the very best. In 3rd we have Jamar Lackson, a legendary RB. Jamar Lackson is in the top ½ of HOFers in every category. He’s 5th in yards and 7th in touchdowns, and is 4th in YPC with 4.465. He’s also a really good receiving back, with an incredibly high amount of receiving touchdowns from a running back, finishing 1st with 37 receiving touchdowns. It’s especially impressive because Ashley Owens has 1600 more receiving yards but 7 less touchdowns. Jackson also was incredibly consistent with his lowest rushing yards total being 703 yards. Jackson ended his career with 8 1,000 yard seasons and was a model for consistency. He might have been a little too consistent, never having a season worthy of OPY or MVP with his peak season being 1,250 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also came into the league as a winner, winning an ultimus in both his 2nd and 3rd seasons. Even though he would never make it back to the big game, but still had an incredible career including having his best receiving years near the end of his career.
2nd: Darren Smallwood (66.5)
Only half a point past Lackson, Smallwood was the hardest person on his list to judge, as he’s just an incredibly weird player. It seems counterintuitive to put the RB with 2nd fewest rushing yards at 2nd, but everything else makes up for it. Despite the 2nd fewest rushing yards, he somehow has the highest amount of rushing touchdowns. He has more rushing touchdowns than Sam Torenson, despite Torenson having 6,000 more rushing yards. Smallwood also had a solid but below average 4.137 YPC, setting him farther back on this list. His main redeeming quality is being possibly the 2nd best receiving RB ever. Smallwood somehow managed a season with 700 rushing yards and 1200 receiving yards which I don’t know how that's possible as a RB with the ISFL sim. The main redeeming factor of Smallwood is his success. He won back to back OPY awards in S8 and S9 with two 1400 yard performances, including his best season with the NOLA in S9 with 1500 yards and an insane 27 rushing touchdowns which is the season rushing TD’s record to this day. Weirdly, he won MVP in S8 and not his best season, but still had an incredibly successful 1,400 yards with 16 TD’s. Smallwood was also able to win an ultimus in his best year and give NOLA their first ultimus trophy. Smallwood was also able to snag a 2nd ultimus win during S11 in a crazy 6 point overtime win over the hawks to get revenge for the ultimus loss the previous year. Smallwood’s crazy career puts him as the 2nd best HOF RB.
1st: Tatsu Nakamura (74)
Tatsu Nakamura is by far the best HOF RB. He’s 1st in yards and TD’s for HOFers, and 2nd and 1st in those categories for all RB’s. Nakamura’s career is defined by longevity, as he played for an insane 13 years. During those 13 years he averaged over 1,000 yards per year with 1,081. He was never bad, never going below 3.8 YPC even during the end of his career. Nakamura also has a career average of 4.5 YPC, 3rd best in the hall which is very impressive for how long he played. Nakamura also had a dominant peak, having 9 straight 10 touchdown seasons and 3 1,500 yard 15 TD seasons in a row. Nakamura was a great accumulator for receiving stats, having a few solid receiving seasons including a 680 yard 7 touchdown receiving season. Nakamura's S28 was worthy of MVP with 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns, which was enough to win MVP. He followed up that season with another 1,500 yard 21 touchdown year and won OPY in S27. The main tragedy of his career is never being able to snag a ring. Nakamura lost an agonizing 1 point ultimus to the Yeti where the otters blew a 21-3 lead. Nakamura was only able to make one more ultimus in his career, a 27-10 loss to the sailfish when he was on the outlaws later in his career. Even without an ultimus title, Nakamura’s personal success and lengthy career is worthy of the spot as the best HOF RB.
Thanks to @infinitempg for the wolfie stats bot, the only reason this is possible. I’d also like to thank @Frostbite and @ztarwarz for making this list more balanced and valuing awards more than in my [url=null +null]Worst HOF QB[/url]. Lastly, here is the link to the stat tracking spreadsheet.
RE: Ranking HOF RB's - zeagle1 - 07-07-2023
Fantastic write-up!
Can't wait to see the next edition of this when Cue Jr. is in the hall
RE: Ranking HOF RB's - Frostbite - 07-07-2023
FYI for Raphtalia Chan almost all career records are broken due to name changes. Was also known as Dax Frost and Chizuru Ichonese and won two OPOTY awards. Not your fault just an issue with name swaps during the career.
Great article though and well researched
RE: Ranking HOF RB's - Mooty99 - 07-07-2023
Can't be the worst HoF RB without being in the HoF
RE: Ranking HOF RB's - qWest - 07-07-2023
(07-07-2023, 01:10 PM)Mossed26 Wrote: 1st: Tatsu Nakamura (74)Pump this into my veins
Tatsu Nakamura is by far the best HOF RB. He’s 1st in yards and TD’s for HOFers, and 2nd and 1st in those categories for all RB’s. Nakamura’s career is defined by longevity, as he played for an insane 13 years. During those 13 years he averaged over 1,000 yards per year with 1,081. He was never bad, never going below 3.8 YPC even during the end of his career. Nakamura also has a career average of 4.5 YPC, 3rd best in the hall which is very impressive for how long he played. Nakamura also had a dominant peak, having 9 straight 10 touchdown seasons and 3 1,500 yard 15 TD seasons in a row. Nakamura was a great accumulator for receiving stats, having a few solid receiving seasons including a 680 yard 7 touchdown receiving season. Nakamura's S28 was worthy of MVP with 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns, which was enough to win MVP. He followed up that season with another 1,500 yard 21 touchdown year and won OPY in S27. The main tragedy of his career is never being able to snag a ring. Nakamura lost an agonizing 1 point ultimus to the Yeti where the otters blew a 21-3 lead. Nakamura was only able to make one more ultimus in his career, a 27-10 loss to the sailfish when he was on the outlaws later in his career. Even without an ultimus title, Nakamura’s personal success and lengthy career is worthy of the spot as the best HOF RB.
RE: Ranking HOF RB's - DarknessRising - 07-07-2023
Give WR Next plz
RE: *Ranking HOF RB's - Eldorian - 07-09-2023
Where's Goat Tank
RE: *Ranking HOF RB's - DarknessRising - 07-09-2023
(07-09-2023, 11:28 PM)Eldorian Wrote: Where's Goat Tank
I assume because you are listed as a DT first on the wiki, and hence when sorted by position you are grouped amongst them, you got missed
RE: *Ranking HOF RB's - Eldorian - 07-09-2023
(07-09-2023, 11:35 PM)DarknessRising Wrote:(07-09-2023, 11:28 PM)Eldorian Wrote: Where's Goat Tank
I assume because you are listed as a DT first on the wiki, and hence when sorted by position you are grouped amongst them, you got missed
Probably. I think Goat Tank would likely fall somewhere between 5-8 on this list.