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Best NFL Players of All Time: Emmitt Smith

One of the rare occasions when the NFL neglected to suspend reality and the proper thing actually transpired was during the 1990 draft.

Troy Aikman was the top quarterback available when the Dallas Cowboys selected him with the first overall choice in 1989. Jimmy Johnson, the head coach, was determined to acquire a running back who could relieve some of the pressure on his inexperienced quarterback. The Cowboys had the 21st pick in the following draft, and Johnson had a lot of experience with Emmitt Smith, a back from the University of Florida.

Johnson attempted to recruit Smith while he was a record-setting high school running back at neighboring Escambia (Fla.) High School. Johnson had been the head coach at the University of Miami at the time. He thought he had no chance because the Florida Gators were going to deploy Smith as their star back and the Hurricanes had a pro-style offense. It was Johnson’s bitterest wish that the great back would fall to him with the 21st choice, given Smith’s extraordinary performance in college. Johnson chuckled at scouting reports that the five-foot-nine Smith was too little and too slow, given that he had run an unspectacular forty-yard sprint in 4.7 seconds at the NFL Combine.

“You had to be a fool not to see that Emmitt Smith was going to be a very good player,” Johnson remarked. “I knew he was going to be a great one because I had seen enough of him playing in high school and college. Nevertheless, the details we were unaware of concerning Emmitt sealed up entirely when we conducted our background investigation on him. He was the type of athlete that gave it all throughout drills. He performed poorly. He was concerned about winning by doing the little things and always wanted the ball.

Johnson understood he wouldn’t acquire Smith with the 21st pick. To select Smith with the 17th pick, he moved up with the Pittsburgh Steelers rather than remaining put and pursuing defensive prospects. The Cowboys war room phone rang just before he made his pick. Johnson wouldn’t even entertain a trade proposal from the Atlanta Falcons, who had expressed interest in the pick. Johnson remarked, “It’s too late; we’ve already made our decision.” “Smith is going with us.”

Smith used owner Jerry Jones’s remarks against him, holding out for the duration of his first training camp. The night before the Cowboys selected him, Jones had ranked him as the fourth-best player in the draft. As the 17th-best player, Jones had wanted to pay him, but Smith persisted in reminding Jones of his own statements, so in the end, Jones agreed to his terms. Following his protracted holdout, Smith started his rookie year as the starting running back for the Cowboys in the second game.

But Dallas was not making the necessary use of him. Smith had just one 100-yard performance by the halfway point of the season, and the Cowboys seemed to be falling into a routine of using him ten to fifteen times per contest. Smith made sure the coaching staff was aware of this. “The coaching staff had determined every week in meetings that we needed to gain 100 yards rushing in the game, but they weren’t giving me the ball,” Smith remarked. “I informed them of this and stated that I required the ball to gain 100 yards. After that, they began to pay attention.

As a rookie, Smith amassed 937 yards and 11 running touchdowns; it wasn’t quite a record-breaking pace, but it was good enough to win him the AP offensive rookie of the year award and convince the Cowboys that Smith should be the main player in the game plan. Although wide receiver Michael Irvin was exceptional and Aikman was undoubtedly a big-armed quarterback who could stretch the defense, Smith was able to handle the lead role in the Cowboys offense better than both players.

After that, the choice to give the ball to Smith paid off handsomely. In 1991, Smith finished first in the league in rushing with 1,563 yards and 12 touchdowns; the next year, he dominated again with 1,713 yards and 18 touchdowns. The Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills 52–17 on their way to the Super Bowl. Aikman, Irvin, the offensive line, and the defense all played excellently for the Cowboys, but Smith stood out for his constant pounding and unrelenting onslaught.

“That was Emmitt’s exceptional quality,” Aikman remarked. “The success, the perseverance, and the resolve. He was not going to give in to the thought that he wouldn’t succeed and achieve his objectives. He possessed dominance and was nearly hard to stop.

The year after year, the success persisted. In 1993, he ran for 1,486 yards and won MVP awards in both the league and the Super Bowl. In a time when the pass was king, he ran for 1,484 yards in 1994 and an incredible 1,773 yards in 1995, scoring 46 touchdowns on the ground.

This gave the Cowboys a strong ground game. Expert writers claimed in feature articles that Irvin was the most crucial of the Cowboys triplets because of his ability to prevent defenders from concentrating on Smith and building a stack against him. That argument had some merit, but the truth is that Johnson made Smith the center of the game plan, and new head coach Barry Switzer followed suit when Johnson quit the team following a spat with Jones.

Smith was just never satisfied, and he was on track to break the record for most rushers in NFL history. He had his sights set on his hero, Chicago Bears great Walter Payton. Smith had always been goal-oriented, but he had operated under the idea of a team. The Cowboys had won three titles, and he was getting his yardage. The thought of going up to Payton, who passed away in 1999 from an uncommon liver condition, made him feel small as the yards piled up. Smith was both happy and emotional when he broke Payton’s all-time rushing record of 16,726 yards three years after Payton’s passing. After an 11-yard touchdown run against the Seattle Seahawks, he elevated himself to a new level and offered a tiny point to the heavens. “Walter, for you,” he muttered to himself.

Before stepping down following the 2004 season, he would go on to raise the record to 18,355 yards. Five years after he retired, Smith is the all-time leader in the league for carries (4,409), touches (4,924), and rushing touchdowns (164) in addition to being the all-time leading rusher. In terms of total touchdowns (175) and total yards from scrimmage (21,579), he is second all-time. For a man deemed too little and too slow to play in the NFL, not too terrible.

Smith said, “I just wanted to do my job.” “I never wanted to hear someone argue that Emmitt Smith wasn’t giving it his all. That was my main point.

Best NFL Players of All Time: Emmitt Smith Stats

Regular Season

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Att	Yds	TD	1D	Succ%	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	1D	Succ%	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Ctch%	Y/Tgt	Touch	Y/Tch	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV
1990	21	DAL	RB	22	16	15	241	937	11			48	3.9	58.6	15.1		24	228	9.5	0			57	1.5	14.3			265	4.4	1165	11	7	8
1991	22	DAL	RB	22	16	16	365	1563	12			75	4.3	97.7	22.8		49	258	5.3	1			14	3.1	16.1			414	4.4	1821	13	8	17
1992	23	DAL	RB	22	16	16	373	1713	18			68	4.6	107.1	23.3	74	59	335	5.7	1			26	3.7	20.9	79.70%	4.5	432	4.7	2048	19	4	21
1993	24	DAL	RB	22	14	13	283	1486	9			62	5.3	106.1	20.2	65	57	414	7.3	1			86	4.1	29.6	87.70%	6.4	340	5.6	1900	10	4	20
1994	25	DAL	RB	22	15	15	368	1484	21	100	50.5	46	4	98.9	24.5	61	50	341	6.8	1	15	45.9	68	3.3	22.7	82.00%	5.6	418	4.4	1825	22	1	17
1995	26	DAL	RB	22	16	16	377	1773	25	107	51.2	60	4.7	110.8	23.6	78	62	375	6	0	14	32.1	40	3.9	23.4	79.50%	4.8	439	4.9	2148	25	7	20
1996	27	DAL	RB	22	15	15	327	1204	12	76	47.1	42	3.7	80.3	21.8	57	47	249	5.3	3	11	38.6	21	3.1	16.6	82.50%	4.4	374	3.9	1453	15	5	9
1997	28	DAL	RB	22	16	16	261	1074	4	52	44.4	44	4.1	67.1	16.3	48	40	234	5.9	0	6	35.4	24	2.5	14.6	83.30%	4.9	301	4.3	1308	4	1	8
1998	29	DAL	RB	22	16	16	319	1332	13	90	52.7	32	4.2	83.3	19.9	32	27	175	6.5	2	8	62.5	24	1.7	10.9	84.40%	5.5	346	4.4	1507	15	3	11
1999	30	DAL	RB	22	15	15	329	1397	11	86	48.6	63	4.2	93.1	21.9	32	27	119	4.4	2	4	40.6	14	1.8	7.9	84.40%	3.7	356	4.3	1516	13	5	11
2000	31	DAL	RB	22	16	16	294	1203	9	66	46.3	52	4.1	75.2	18.4	14	11	79	7.2	0	2	50	19	0.7	4.9	78.60%	5.6	305	4.2	1282	9	6	10
2001	32	DAL	RB	22	14	14	261	1021	3	48	37.9	44	3.9	72.9	18.6	21	17	116	6.8	0	6	57.1	22	1.2	8.3	81.00%	5.5	278	4.1	1137	3	1	6
2002	33	DAL	RB	22	16	16	254	975	5	50	41.7	30	3.8	60.9	15.9	24	16	89	5.6	0	4	33.3	17	1	5.6	66.70%	3.7	270	3.9	1064	5	3	4
2003	34	ARI	RB	22	10	5	90	256	2	15	38.9	22	2.8	25.6	9	19	14	107	7.6	0	4	42.1	36	1.4	10.7	73.70%	5.6	104	3.5	363	2	2	2
2004	35	ARI	RB	22	15	15	267	937	9	43	38.2	29	3.5	62.5	17.8	20	15	105	7	0	3	45	18	1	7	75.00%	5.3	282	3.7	1042	9	4	5
Career					226	219	4409	18355	164	733	46.2	75	4.2	81.2	19.5	545	515	3224	6.3	11	77	41.6	86	2.3	14.3	81.10%	5	4924	4.4	21579	175	61	169
13 yrs		DAL			201	199	4052	17162	153	675	47.2	75	4.2	85.4	20.2	506	486	3012	6.2	11	70	41.4	86	2.4	15	81.60%	5	4538	4.4	20174	164	55	162
2 yrs		ARI			25	20	357	1193	11	58	38.4	29	3.3	47.7	14.3	39	29	212	7.3	0	7	43.6	36	1.2	8.5	74.40%	5.4	386	3.6	1405	11	6	7

Playoffs

Year	Age	Tm	Pos	G	GS	Att	Yds	TD	1D	Succ%	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	1D	Succ%	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Ctch%	Y/Tgt	Touch	Y/Tch	YScm	RRTD	Fmb
1991	22	DAL	RB	2	2	41	185	1			19	4.5	92.5	20.5		1	2	2	0			2	0.5	1			42	4.5	187	1	1
1992	23	DAL	RB	3	3	71	336	3			38	4.7	112	23.7	15	13	86	6.6	1			18	4.3	28.7	86.70%	5.7	84	5	422	4	2
1993	24	DAL	RB	3	3	66	280	3			15	4.2	93.3	22	15	13	138	10.6	1			28	4.3	46	86.70%	9.2	79	5.3	418	4	1
1994	25	DAL	RB	2	2	27	118	3	8	59.3	14	4.4	59	13.5	5	4	8	2	0	1	20	5	2	4	80.00%	1.6	31	4.1	126	3	0
1995	26	DAL	RB	3	3	74	298	6	21	43.2	25	4	99.3	24.7	6	6	60	10	0	4	66.7	22	2	20	100.00%	10	80	4.5	358	6	0
1996	27	DAL	RB	2	2	39	196	2	12	61.5	37	5	98	19.5	9	7	24	3.4	0	1	33.3	15	3.5	12	77.80%	2.7	46	4.8	220	2	0
1998	29	DAL	RB	1	1	16	74	0	4	56.3	13	4.6	74	16	3	1	10	10	0	1	33.3	10	1	10	33.30%	3.3	17	4.9	84	0	0
1999	30	DAL	HB	1	1	15	99	1	3	40	65	6.6	99	15	2	1	14	14	0	1	50	14	1	14	50.00%	7	16	7.1	113	1	0
Career				17	17	349	1586	19	48	50.9	65	4.5	93.3	20.5	55	46	342	7.4	2	8	40	28	2.7	20.1	81.10%	5	395	4.9	1928	21

 

 

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