Comments on: Can Adrian Peterson break Emmitt Smith’s rushing record? http://www.footballperspective.com/can-adrian-peterson-break-emmitt-smiths-rushing-record/ NFL History and Stats Tue, 13 Aug 2013 17:22:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Richie http://www.footballperspective.com/can-adrian-peterson-break-emmitt-smiths-rushing-record/#comment-35792 Tue, 13 Aug 2013 17:22:01 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=12584#comment-35792 In reply to Tim Truemper.

Peterson is 8th in rushing yards through age 27: http://pfref.com/tiny/G0ILy

Three of the guys ahead of him (James, Portis, Tomlinson) weren’t able to get 50% more yards over the remainder of their careers. (Neither did Barry Sanders or Jim Brown, but those guys retired while they were still putting up 1,500 yard seasons.

It’s just so hard to predict sustained success for RB’s once they start aging.

Peterson thinks he’s going to more than double his yardage the rest of the way? I’m sure that most players have not spent much time studying aging patterns of athletes. Peterson feels strong and invincible today, but things sure turn around quickly. It’s really pretty amazing to me that a body starts losing that extra 1% of ability around age 30, that makes the difference between being an NFL-caliber talent or not.

]]> By: Tim Truemper http://www.footballperspective.com/can-adrian-peterson-break-emmitt-smiths-rushing-record/#comment-31142 Tue, 06 Aug 2013 12:31:03 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=12584#comment-31142 Its pretty obvious that the math is doing the talking. Could Peterson break Smith’s record? Sure- who knows FOR SURE. How many thought Emmitt Smith would pass Walter Payton (though I think a break down of age to yardage comparisons might have predicted this possibility). The deal is, Chase is not saying its impossible. He’s saying its unlikely. Sure, Peterson might have an Emmitt Smith/Curtis Martin arc to his career, but the odds are against it. Plus, the other concerns cited as well such as the late start, the significant injury history, etc.

So how high does Peterson go? I say he gets to the top 5 in rushing all-time.

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