Yesterday, I looked at Gray Ink for running backs. You can read the details there, but today I wanted to delve into the specifics behind each player’s grade.

The table below shows the results for each running back in each season where he finished in the top 10 in rushing. It’s fully sortable and searchable. Let’s use Edgerrin James as an example.  If you type his name into the search box, you’ll see the following: In 2000 and 1999, he led the league in rushing, and received 9.8 points for each year. In 2004, he ranked 4th in rushing, and gets 7 points for that finish. In ’05, he ranked 5th and in ’07 he ranked 7th; he gets 6 and 4 points for those performances.  In total, James receives 36.7 points of Gray Ink, the most of any non-HOFer among eligible running backs.

What’s also interesting are the HOFers who don’t fare well in this study.

Larry Csonka ranked outside of the top 35 in points yesterday, and we can see why: his peak here was from ’70 to ’73, where he ranked 5th, 3rd, 4th, and 5th during those four seasons.  He split time with Mercury Morris and Jim Kiick, but running back by committee was the norm during the ’70s.  Csonka was a great runner in the playoffs, particularly in 1973, when he was Super Bowl MVP.  He had a short prime that doesn’t quite hold up to the Sayers/Davis standard, and he is someone who would probably not be considered the best RB not in the Hall of Fame if he was never inducted.

Cliff Battles, Tuffy Leemans, and Clarke Hinkle all played int he ’30s, where shorter careers were the norm. Yes, all three had fewer than 25 points of Gray Ink, with Battles having the most impressive Gray Ink (three seasons in the top 2) and Hinkle the least (just one top-4 finish), but Hinkle had a ton of All-Pro selections: in the ’30s, being a running back involved a lot more than just rushing.

Marcus Allen has a different excuse: an owner who didn’t want to turn him into a feature back. Allen did lead the NFL in rushing in ’85, and ranked 4th in ’82, but those were his only seasons in the top 9 in rushing yards.  Like Csonka, Allen had significant postseason honors, and Allen also added a lot of a scorer and a receiver.  But the best explanation is that Allen is just better than his Gray Ink would indicate, as Bryan Frye wrote about well here.

Floyd Little is someone I didn’t think was a good choice for the Hall of Fame, but the senior’s committee finally inducted him in 2010.  I profiled him back then, and the main argument was always that his terrible teammates depressed his numbers.  There’s no doubt that Denver was a bad organization and talent-poor during Little’s time, but his Gray Ink is really weak: he did lead the NFL in rushing in ’71, and ranked 4th in ’70, but his third-best year was a 9th-place finish.  Little did add value as a returner and a receiver, but any statistical analysis of his rushing is always going to make him look like a bad HOF choice.

Ollie Matson was another runner who played on terrible teams; he was a tremendous athlete and like Little, added value as a returner and a receiver.  He was better than his numbers and also had a good YPC and spent actual time as a receiver. Evaluating him purely as a runner is not wise when thinking about his HOF case.

John Riggins is a bit like Csonka in that he was a tough, powerful runner, not much of a receiver, and made the playoffs in part because he was a dominant postseason running back.  He also led the NFL in rushing touchdowns twice, and stuck around forever.  He had a very unique career and ranked 4th in career rushing when he retired.  Like Csonka, I don’t think the football community would be up in arms had he never been inducted, but he also feels like a worthy member: as long as you don’t just focus on his rushing yards Gray Ink.

What do you guys think? What players stand out to you?