Cold, Hard Football Facts.com: The NFL's best Big Backs

By Cold, Hard Football Facts contributor Jonathan Comey

Here's a look at the 10 most productive Big Backs in NFL history. Each weighed at least 240 pounds. The players are ranked by career rushing yards.

Read the full story about the history of NFL Big Backs here. You can also learn about the importance of Yards Per Pound and about the general inability of Big Backs to join the list of elite NFL ballcarriers.

There is one area where Big Backs certainly exceed their undernourished counterparts: garnering nicknames. Half of the Top 10 Big Backs boasted well-known monikers, from "Bam" to "The Bus."

10. Byron "Bam" Morris, 6-0, 244 pounds (1994-99)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
75	974	3,809	3.9	35	0	0

Receiving stats: 103 catches, 790 yards, 1 TD

Yards per pound: 15.6

Say this for the man his mama named Byron – he has had an interesting life. In

1993 at Texas Tech, he won the Doak Walker Award as the NCAA’s top ballcarrier. He then ran for 1,395 yards and 16 TDs during his first two NFL seasons in Pittsburgh. Arrested in 1996 after police found six pounds of weed in his trunk, he took a plea deal. He bounced around to Baltimore, Chicago and Kansas City before finding a home – in jail for violating parole. He was a Big Man in the Big House until the summer of 2004. Now weighing in at 258 pounds, the 34-year-old is playing for the Katy (Texas) Copperheads in the obscure National Indoor Football League. He reportedly wants another shot at the NFL.

9. Carlton "Cookie" Gilchrist, 6-3, 251 pounds (1962-67)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
65	1,010	4,293	4.3	37	1	4

Receiving stats: 110 catches, 1,135 yards, 6 TDs

Yards per pound: 17.1

About the only thing bigger than Gilchrist is his ego, at least if this comical Website is any indication. Gilchrist is described thusly: “This iconoclastic football player

played every position except quarterback, and he would have done that too if he could hand off to himself.” Good reading. He is also alleged to have trademarked the name "Cookie." We're assuming the site is a hoax. What was not a hoax was Gilchrist's impact in the pros. He rushed for over 4,800 yards in the CFL, where he signed out of high school, and kept it up in the AFL for Buffalo, where he played three seasons before ending his pro career with Denver and Miami. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards just once, during his rookie NFL season of 1962 (1,096 yards), but led the AFL in rushing TDs every years from 1962-65. Gilchrist was voted the AFL’s all-time fullback in 1970.

8. Craig "Ironhead" Heyward, 5-11, 260 pounds (1988-98)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
149	1,013	4,301	4.2	30	1	1

Receiving stats: 177 catches, 1,559 yards, 4 TDs

Yards per pound: 16.5

Just imagine the ad execs for Zest body wash trying to sell the company on

Heyward as a spokesmodel. "Yeah, we'll show a big, fat guy in the shower." Although he became the star of their mid-90s TV commercial, Ironhead wasn’t a spectacular player. The roly-poly Heyward was a hard-working everyman, however, which went over well with the target audience for the Zest spots (that would be you people). Ironhead was a true team player, switching between alpha and beta back throughout his career with the Saints, Falcons, Bears, Rams and Colts without much complaint. His lifetime average of 4.2 yards a carry is a tribute to his ability. Among the top Big Backs of all time, the average puts him behind only the physically freakish Jamal Lewis (see below), an exceptionally fast player for his size, and Gilchrist, who spent his career in the AFL.

7. Christian Okoye, 6-1, 260 pounds (1987-92)

Games

Att.

Yards

Avg.

TDs

1,000+ Seasons

Pro Bowls

79

1,246

4,897

3.9

40

2

2

Receiving stats: 42 catches, 294 yards, 0 TD

Yards per pound: 18.8

Okoye weighed as much as any top back in NFL history, but did not appear to have an ounce of fat on him. He didn’t start playing football until he was 22, and was a 26-year-old rookie out of tiny Azuza Pacific in 1987. Blessed with size, speed, and one of the coolest nicknames in sports history, the “Nigerian Nightmare” led the NFL in rushing in 1989. Unfortunately, that 1,480-yard season for the Chiefs would be the pinnacle of his career. Knee injuries limited him for his final three seasons, and he averaged just 3.2 YPC in 1992 before retiring prior to the 1993 season. He is now a motivational speaker and nutritionist.

6. Mike Alstott, 6-1, 248 pounds (1996-present)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
142	1,299	4,917	3.8	55	0	6

Receiving stats: 284 catches, 2,199 yards, 13 TDs

Yards per pound: 19.8

One of the faces of the new-era Buccaneers, Alstott appears unlikely to add many yards to his career total. He carried the ball just 34 times while playing a full season at fullback for Tampa last year, and he'll turn 33 in December. But Alstott was a horse in his prime. From 1997 to 2001, he rushed for an average of 721 yards and 7.4 TDs, sometimes as the fullback in front of Warrick Dunn, sometimes as a jumbo tailback. He was a member of the NFC Pro Bowl team ever year from 1997 to 2002. He is arguably the last of the true fullbacks in the NFL, a guy who blocked more often than he ran, but carried the ball effectively when his number was called.

5. Marion Butts, 6-1, 248 pounds (1989-95)

Games

Att.

Yards

Avg.

TDs

1,000+ Seasons

Pro Bowls

104

1,345

5,185

3.9

43

1

2

Receiving stats: 68 catches, 471 yards, 1 TD

Yards per pound: 20.9

With a name like Marion Butts, you'd better be tough. Butts was – for a while. He was a two-time Pro Bowler with San Diego (1990, 1991), although how he made it to Hawaii following an 834-yard, 6-TD season in 1991 is a topic for another day. He had just one great season, averaging 4.6 YPC and gaining 1,225 yards in 1990. Poor timing plagued him throughout his career. He was cut by the Chargers after the 1993 season, and San Diego went to the Super Bowl the next year. He landed in New England for the 1994 season, where he was memorably awful, averaging just 2.9 YPC but actually leading the team with 703 yards rushing (it was the same season Drew Bledsoe set an NFL record with 691 pass attempts). The Patriots cut Butts after that one season, drafting Curtis Martin to replace him.

4. Natrone Means, 5-10, 245 pounds (1993-99)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
87	1,409	5,215	3.7	45	1	1

Receiving stats: 103 catches, 631 yards, 2 TDs

Yards per pound: 21.3

Means pulled a Grover Cleveland in San Diego, serving two non-consecutive stints with the Chargers. He replaced the equally hefty Butts in 1994 and helped the Chargers to Super Bowl XXIX – where they were stomped like narcs at a biker rally, losing to San Francisco, 49-26. He later played for Jacksonville before returning to San Diego for one good season (883 yards in 1998) and one bad season (2.5 per carry in 1999). If he’s remembered, it’ll be for his sinister dark visor, not his pedestrian 3.7 YPC.

3. Pete Johnson, 6-0, 252 pounds (1977-1984)

Games

Att.

Yards

Avg.

TDs

1,000+ Seasons

Pro Bowls

110

1,489

5,626

3.8

76

1

1

Receiving stats: 175 catches, 1,334 yards, 6 TDs

Yards per pound: 22.3

Johnson was around for some of the good times in Cincy, helping the Bengals reach

Super Bowl XVI in 1981, but there he became the poster boy for the futility and limitations of the Big Back. The Bengals trailed San Francisco 20-7 in the third quarter when they faced a 1st-and-goal at the 49ers 3-yard line. Cincy was stuffed on four straight plays, three of them hand-offs to the plodding Johnson. The Bengals turned the ball over on downs and ended up losing 26-21, despite outgaining San Francisco by a wide margin (356 yards to 275 yards). Johnson followed two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin at Ohio State, and, as a pro, was half of one of the best trades in Cincy franchise history. In 1984, he was dealt to San Diego for James Brooks. Johnson’s career with the Chargers would last three games, while Brooks would have three 1,000-yard seasons for the Bengals. Brooks weighed a mere 180 pounds, but rushed for 7,962 career yards – or 44.2 yards per pound, nearly twice Johnson's total.

2. Jamal Lewis, 6-0, 240 pounds (2000-present)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
75	1,508	6,669	4.4	36	4	1

Receiving stats: 142 catches, 1,250 yards, 2 TDs

Yards per pound: 27.8

Lewis is arguably the truest physical freak on the list of all-time Big Backs, possessing unusual speed and elusiveness for a player of his size. The 2003 Browns can attest to his size and strength. Lewis piled up nearly one-quarter of his amazing 2,066 yards against Cleveland that year, with an even 500 over two games – including an NFL record of 295 yards in the first game. At 27, he could end up being No. 1 on this list someday, assuming he stays away from three things: jail, the trainer’s room and the snack aisle at 7-11. But he’ll have to do some serious work to catch up to the baddest Big Back of all time …

1. Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, 5-11, 255 pounds (1993-2005)

Games	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TDs	1,000+ Seasons	Pro Bowls
192	3,479	13,662	3.9	91	8	6

Receiving stats: 200 catches, 1,449 yards, 3 TDs

Yards per pound: 53.6

Only one things separates Bettis from the other Big Backs in history: an ability to take a big-man pounding over such a long career. Otherwise, his numbers are

rather routine. He was never the best RB in the league, but he was damn close to the top for an awfully long time. He took a pounding to go with his 3,479 career carries, and dished out quite a bit, too. Just ask Chicago's Pro Bowl middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. In what is arguably the singular image of Pittsburgh's 2005, Super Bowl-winning season, on a snowy December day at Heinz Field, Bettis ran straight over Urlacher on his way into the end zone, kneeing the 6-4, 260-pound, 27-year-old linebacker in the head for good measure.

Bettis’ ability to turn himself into a massive pigskin bowling ball for 13 NFL seasons is worthy of superhero status among the all-time Big Back ballcarriers in NFL history.