Saturday, January 23, 2016

Adrian Peterson < Herschel

Adrian Peterson is clearly one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, setting record after record. A lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Peterson was amazing in college as well. How does he compare to Herschel Walker? Like many before him, Adrian falls short.
 
In college Walker outgained Peterson by 1,263 yards and ten touchdowns. Both only played three seasons.
 
Y.AP YD TD…HW YD TD
1 1937   15   1686   15
2 1154   14   1975   20
3 1148   13   1841   17
T 4239   42   5502   52
 
In their first nine professional seasons Walker outgained Peterson by 2,067 yards and 26 touchdowns. If you want to throw out Herschel’s USFL numbers and tack on the three NFL seasons when Herschel was older, Peterson did outgain Herschel by 1,229 yards and 21 touchdowns. Adrian is already contemplating retirement, so it’s doubtful he will ever approach the 18,537 NFL yards (much less the 25,214 professional yards) posted by Herschel.    
 
Y..…AP..….HWw/USFL…HW NFL
1 1609   13   2301   18   1574  14
2 1885   10   1867   21   1606  08
3 1819   18   2878   22   2019  07
4 1639   13   1574   14   1338  09
5 1109   13   1606   08   1085  09
6 2314   13   2019   07   1029  10
7 1437   11   1338   09   1348  10
8 0093   00   1085   09   1356  07
9 1707   11   1029   10   1028  07
13612 102 15679 118 12383 81
 
17851 144 21181 170 17885 133 college & pro
 
Herschel also bested Peterson for most yards, college and pro combined, for their first nine seasons (NFL-only or USFL/NFL combined, see above). All numbers above are combined rushing and receiving yards. This doesn’t take into account the more than 5,000 NFL return yards Herschel also gained. And unlike Walker, Peterson never ventured downfield on the punt coverage team.
 
Recently Herschel told Dan Patrick not to believe claims that Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson has run a 4.1 second 40 yard dash. Walker says he’s never ran a 4.1, and he’s never been beaten in a race with another football player.  http://www.danpatrick.com/2015/12/22/herschel-walker-says-no-player-ever-could-beat-him-in-race/

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