Career rushing yards leaders in NFL history 2023

Emmitt Smith is the all-time rushing leader of the National Football League (NFL) with 18,355 career rushing yards. The running back, who spent the majority of his 15-year career with the Dallas Cowboys, became the all-time leader rusher in the NFL in the 2002 season. Frank Gore (New York Jets in 2020) and Adrian Peterson (Detroit Lions in 2021) are the only active players in the top 10 of the ranking.

The running backs in the NFL

Running backs are often an integral part to the offense of an NFL team. The players manning the position carry the ball from behind the line of scrimmage with the aim to gain yards and advance the offensive position of their team towards the opposing team’s end zone. The position is physically demanding as the running back is usually hit by opposing defensive players on every play that they touch the ball. Therefore, it is no surprise that the average career length of running backs is the shortest when compared to other positions on an NFL team.

Longevity as a major challenge

With the average career of a running back in the NFL lasting only roughly two and a half seasons, chances are slim for any player starting out in the league to move onto the all-time rushing leader list at some point. All players in the top 10 played at least ten seasons in the NFL and were rarely injured for more than a few games. Emmitt Smith, for example, recorded 11 consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 yards in rushing yards from 1991 to 2001 for the Dallas Cowboys, missing a total of only seven games during that time span.