True you don’t want to rely on any one stat. But with Charles, his YPC is SO OVERWHELMING that you have to be in awe of it. Essentially, he is the greatest YPC back in NFL history. 5+ every year. He was on the short list of MVP-candidates in 2013, so how was he not feared then? How do you not fear a guy who can take it to the house at any moment, with td runs of 91, 86, 76, 63, 56, 56,47,44 as well as several long td catches?

In any measurement, sports or business or anything, high quantity combined with high output per unit of measure = a high level of success. So what if he wasn’t a “game closer” as you claim. Was Gale Sayers? Every RB doesn’t have to fit the same mold. Bo Jackson may have been feared…for the 8 games he played in a few seasons. The man did not even have a career! Was he “finishing games” splitting time with Marcus Allen? You might as well go back and say Greg Cook was one of the greatest QB. At least he put in an entire season before tearing up his shoulder

Yards per carry is only one aspect of measuring RB performance, so we don’t want to put all our eggs in that basket. How often did Jamaal Charles have to close games, or gain valuable short yardage when everyone in the stadium knew he was carrying the ball? He’s had a very good career, but at his age, will need a miracle to be a HOF back. Bo Jackson was feared in a way Charles never was, a rare combination of power and speed, even if the hip injury short-circuited his career.