Nobody Saw Him Play

I saw every play of Fred Taylor’s career, live, over the eleven years he played in Jacksonville. I didn’t think that was a big deal until I started researching his numbers and talking to people and realized, not a lot of people saw Fred play.

He was on an expansion franchise that many NFL types considered an outpost, mostly on teams that were mediocre or bad, rarely made a national television appearance, and weren’t regulars in the post-season.

He didn’t have a Peyton Manning or a John Elway as his quarterback. He had Mark Brunell and David Garrard. Byron Leftwich and Jay Fiedler. He didn’t play in NY or, LA or Chicago or for a glamour franchise like Dallas, San Francisco or Miami.

Despite playing on bad teams, and in Jacksonville, Fred amassed those numbers in the National Football League. Even if you never saw him play, he got those numbers against the Steelers and Ravens, the Eagles, the Cowboys, and every other team in the league.

During his career, one offensive lineman blocking for him consistently went to the Pro Bowl and that was Tony Boselli. And that was the first three years of his career. After Boselli retired, Fred’s numbers got better.

But somehow, in near anonymity, he became one of the best running backs ever, ascending to 17th among the leading rusher in NFL history. He gained over 11,600 yards and did that with the second fewest attempts on the list.

How did he do that?

Because every time he touched the ball, he was a threat to score. At 6-1 and 228 he was big enough to run over or through tacklers at the line of scrimmage. Strong enough stiff-arm linebackers and fast enough to run away from any defensive back. Ran a 4.29 at his Pro Day at Florida.

During his career, Taylor averaged 4.6 yards per carry. A pretty gaudy number when you consider only two players in front of him on the all-time list, already in the Hall averaged higher numbers: Jim Brown at 5.2 and Barry Sanders at 5.0. And that list gets more exclusive when you look at running backs who had more than 2500 carries and it whittles down to Taylor and Sanders. (Peterson is the other who’s not in the Hall.)

So how does the anonymity and playing for Jacksonville translate to awards and consideration?

In his rookie year, Taylor had 1644 yards, rushing and receiving and 17 TD’s. Randy Moss had 69 catches for 1313 yds and 17 TD’s. They both made the All-Rookie team that year. Moss won the Rookie of the year voting with 94% of the vote. Fred and Peyton Manning split the other 6%. Why was that? Moss had a big game on Thanksgiving Day, catching 3 TDs against the Cowboys in front of a national television audience. That weekend Taylor played in Cincinnati in a point-to-point broadcast that was blacked out in Cincinnati. Which means it was only shown in Jacksonville. Nobody saw him play.

So, is 16th somehow the cutoff? It would be hard to imagine not putting Taylor in the conversation for the Hall when we talk about “best players from their era.” From 1998-2010, Taylor was the third leading rusher in the NFL, behind LaDainian Tomlinson and only about 550 yards behind Edgerrin James. Despite nearly 500 fewer carries than James. He was consistently among the leading rushers in the AFC, despite 100 fewer carries than the leader each year. He led the NFL in 2000 averaging 107.6 yards per game

I heard Bill Belichick say last month, unsolicited, “Saquon Barkley reminds me of Fred Taylor. And I think Fred’s a Hall of Famer.” Barkley had a monster year this season, dramatically better once he got on a good team like the Eagles.

So, here’s a comparison of their first seven years. And the statistics bear the comparison out:

Barkley 7200 48 TD’s 4.7 yds per carry
Fred 7580 48 TD’s 4.6 yds per carry
Both had 5 runs over 50 yards in their first seven years.

Taylor went on to add nearly 4K yards in the next four years before going to New England.

At the end of the 2007 season Fred carried this pretty average team to the playoffs with nine consecutive 100-yard games, which is 4th all time. Averaged 5.4 yards per carry that year.

When the conversation includes you, and only Jim Brown and Barry Sanders are the others in the conversation, you’re in pretty good company.

Jim Brown thought Fred Taylor was the best running back of his era. Marcus Allen told me the same thing. Troy Polamalu, Derrick Brooks and Ray Lewis said he’s the best running back they played against. Thurman Thomas checked his game against Fred’s every week.

I talked with Tom Coughlin this week about Fred. Coughlin coached in the league’s biggest market, and the smallest. He drafted Fred in the first round in ’98. Coughlin was very animated talking about Fred. He said, “It’s a struggle because of where he played. If he played for me in New York, it’d be a no brainer. The Pro Bowl is a popularity contest, and we all know that. Stop thinking because you didn’t see him on TV, he’s not worthy. Stop thinking because he played in Jacksonville, he’s not worthy. He amassed all those statistics in the National Football League. It didn’t matter how we got him the ball; he was always a threat to score. Easily one of the most dominant players of his era.”

This from a coach who knows the largest media market, the exposure, the national spotlight, and knows the smallest. “In Jacksonville we fight against it, it’s not fair, Fred deserves a fair shot.”