Derrick Henry has been on an absolutely absurd pace so far in this season. Ravaging opponents left and right. He currently stands at 783 Rushing Yards and 10 Rushing TDs through just six games and it seems that his war path of rushing domination is only just beginning.
Entering Week 7 of the 2021 NFL Season, Derrick Henry needs only 217 yards to join Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson in an incredibly exclusive club of rushing domination. While 200 Yards seems like an intimidating task for the average running back. Henry is anything BUT the average running back, the dude can rip out a 200-yard game at any time. And KC has one of the worst rushing defenses in the league, ranked 27th in the league, allowing 133.2 yards per game. So it's very much in the realm of possibility that Henry could rush for over 200 yards. If he wanted to go all the way and set the record, he'd need to run for 243 Rushing Yards, which is a tougher task but not impossible.
So the task at hand is to see if Henry can actually do it and I, for one, am very excited. Derrick Henry is almost singlehandedly keeping the storied tradition of the classic workhorse "do-it-all" running back alive, which is all the more impressive in the passing-oriented league of today
Top 5 Rushing Yards (Through 7 Games)
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O.J. Simpson - 1973 - 1,025 rushing yards - [Finished with 2,003 Yards (14 Games)]
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Jim Brown - 1958 - 1,011 rushing yards - [Finished with 1,527 Yards (12 Games)]
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O.J. Simpson - 1975 - 1,005 rushing yards - [Finished with 1,817 Yards (12 Games)]
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Jim Brown - 1963 - 972 rushing yards - [Finished with 1,863 Yards (14 Games)]
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DeMarco Murray - 2014 - 913 rushing yards - [Finished with 1,845 Yards (16 Games)]
On a side note to further increase the madness, if Henry rushes for 4 TDs against KC, he can join Jim Brown for most rushing TDs through 7 games, with 14 TDs.
Top 5 Rushing TDs (Through 7 Games)
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Jim Brown - 1958 - 14 Rushing TDs - [Finished with 17 Rushing TDs (12 Games)]
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Emmitt Smith - 1995 - 13 Rushing TDs - [Finished with 25 Rushing TDs (16 Games)]
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Eric Dickerson - 1983 - 12 Rushing TDs - [Finished with 18 Rushing TDs (16 Games)]
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Priest Holmes - 2002 - 12 Rushing TDs - [Finished with 21 Rushing TDs (16 Games)]
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Shaun Alexander - 2005 - 12 Rushing TDs - [Finished with 27 Rushing TDs (16 Games)]
EDIT: Only time Jim Brown didn't lead the NFL in rushing yards during his career. My bad.
Jim Brown had arguably the most dominant career in NFL history, leading the NFL in rushing yards 8 times during his nine year career from 1957-1965. The only year he didn't lead the league in rushing yards, however, was 1962, when he finished the season ranked fourth in rushing yards.
Here are Jim Brown's statistics for the season:
- 230 carries, 996 yards, 13 touchdowns
- 47 catches, 517 yards, 5 touchdowns
- Pro Bowler
- Only season where he was not named an All-Pro by the Associated Press
- Hall of Famer
Here are the statistics of the three players who outrushed him that season:
Jim Taylor - Green Bay Packers
- 272 carries, 1,474 yards, 19 touchdowns
- 22 catches, 106 yards
- Pro Bowler and First Team All-Pro
- NEA MVP
- Hall of Famer
John Henry Johnson - Pittsburgh Steelers
- 251 carries, 1,141 yards, 7 touchdowns
- 32 catches, 226 yards, 2 touchdowns
- Pro Bowler and Second Team All-Pro
- Jim Brown once called him "the greatest running back [he'd] ever seen"
- Hall of Famer
Dick Bass - Los Angeles Rams
- 196 carries, 1,033 yards, 6 touchdowns
- 30 catches, 262 yards, 2 touchdowns
- Pro Bowler and Second Team All-Pro
- His name is Dick Bass
- Not in the Hall of Fame
Interestingly enough, PFR lists everyone here as being fullbacks, which goes to show just how different the game was back then compared to nowadays.
I just thought this would be an interesting piece of trivia to share with you guys.
I know some are superstitious. Iβm even a little stitious. We have yet to win a game with Romo and Nantz together on the call.
I should note, however. They typically call big games. This is a big game!
Our last win with Jim Nantz on the call (while Romo was still QB with the Cowboys) was in 2014β¦in Cincinnati. That infamous TNF where Andy Dalton probably had the worst game of his career.
I should note, the Bengals have yet to win a game with Romo/Nantz either. They have not had as many chance, with their only game being @GB back in 2017. That was Aaron Rodgers first win against the Bengals which was the only team he had never beaten (besides GB, and COVID now).
We also broke some other streaks recently. Al Michaels had not called a game where the Browns won between 1993-2021, when we beat the Steelers in the playoffs.
Streaks can and will be broken. Itβs time to do it Sunday.
Jim asks if he can smoke and the vet said sure, his exact words βhe pulled out the fattest submarine Iβve ever seenβ. Haha.
Classic Rock has always been one of my favorite genres but I kind of stuck to the same people all the time (Jethro Tull, Rolling Stones, Janis, Jimi, Neil Young, Zep, CSNY, The Animals, etc).
I just recently ran across some Jim Croce songs and I can't get enough lol.
Songs like:
Bad Bad Leroy Brown
You Don't Mess Around With Jim (probably listened to this one 20 times today already lol)
Speedball Trucker
Rapid Roy
So with that being said, do you have any suggestions of similar artists/songs/groups I could check out?
One thing that's often brought up is that it's hard to compare players from different eras since the game has changed so much. One of the most notable differences is that the league that Jim Brown played only had 12 teams when he first entered the league. These teams were the Lions, 49ers, Colts, Rams, Bears, Packers, Browns, Giants, Steelers, Washington, Eagles, and Cardinals.
So let's eliminate the other 20 teams and see how Nick Chubb stacks up against the 1957 version of the NFL.
2018:
1: Saquon Barkley, Giants. 1,307 yards, 11 TDs, 5.0 YPC
2: Todd Gurley, Rams. 1,251 yards, 17 TDS, 4.9 YPC
3: Adrian Peterson, Washington. 1,042 yards, 7 TDs, 4.2 YPC
4: Nick Chubb, Browns. 996 yards, 8 TDs, 5.2 YPC
5: James Conner, Steelers. 973 yards, 12 TDs, 4.5 YPC (Also selected to the Pro Bowl because lolwut?)
2019:
1: Nick Chubb, Browns. 1,494 yards, 8 TDs, 5.0 YPC
2: Marlon Mack, Colts. 1,091 yards, 8 TDs, 4.4 YPC
3: Aaron Jones, Packers. 1,084 yards, 16 TDs, 4.6 YPC
4: Saquon Barkley, Giants. 1,003 yards, 6 TDs, 4.6 YPC
5: Adrian Peterson, Washington. 898 yards, 5 TDs, 4.3 YPC
2020:
1: Jonathan Taylor, Colts. 1,169 yards, 11 TDs, 5.0 YPC
2: Aaron Jones, Packers. 1,104 yards, 9 TDs, 5.5 YPC
3: David Montgomery, Bears. 1,070 yards, 8 TDs, 4.3 YPC
4: Nick Chubb, Browns. 1,067 yards, 12 TDs, 5.6 YPC
5: Kenyan Drake, Cardinals. 955 yards, 10 TDs, 4.0 YPC
2021:
1: Jonathan Taylor, Colts. 821 yards, 8 TDs, 5.9 YPC
2: Nick Chubb, Browns. 721 yards, 6 TDs, 6.0 YPC
3: Darrell Henderson, Rams. 507 yards, 5 TDs, 4.6 YPC
4: Jalen Hurts, Eagles. 494 yards, 5 TDs, 6.0 YPC
5: Najee Harris, Steelers. 479 yards, 3 TDs, 3.7 YPC
Conclusion: While Nick Chubb's dominance isn't quite as staggering as Jim Brown's was, it's clear that he's a league ahead of this version of the NFL. Not only is he the only player in the top 5 every single year of his career, no other player has even cracked the top 5 more than twice during that time. The one thing he DOES have over Jim Brown is his YPC. Jim Brown averaged 5.2 YPC in his career. Chubb is currently at 5.3 and the trajectory seems to be going up for him in that category. It's very possible that we haven't even seen the best of Nick Chubb yet.
Does anyone know why Jim Brown, insurance commissioner for Louisiana 1991 - 2000 does not have a Wikipedia page? Every other insurance commissioner since 1957 has one.
Edit: corrected dates in office.
