The New York Giants have had some of the greatest running backs in NFL history, and here are the ten greatest of all time.
Over the course of franchise history, the New York Giants have always had an incredible running game that often made the difference between winning and losing.
It’s never easy picking from all the greats to say who the best of all time would be, especially with some of the names who have worn a NY Giants uniform. Who do you leave out and why? Never easy questions to answer.
Yes, stats are important, but what a player meant to the franchise and the city also has to be taken into consideration. Some players may not have put up monster numbers, but were there in crunch time and always came through in the big moments.
Who knows, someday, Saquon Barkley may end up on this list.
Honorable Mention: Ahmad Bradshaw
Ahmad Bradshaw, a seventh-round selection out of Marshall in 2007, first endeared himself into the hearts and minds of the Giants when he broke open a clutch 88-yard touchdown run against the Buffalo Bills to help New York clinch a playoff spot in that Super Bowl-winning season.
Bradshaw would have a career-best 1,235 rushing yards and 314 receiving yards in 2010, and in 2011 Bradshaw would once again rise to the occasion in the postseason. This go-round, Bradshaw totaled 272 yards on 68 carries and 114 yards receiving in their four playoff games and scored the game-winning touchdown that would give the Giants their fourth Super Bowl title and their second straight against the New England Patriots.
Bradshaw left the Giants after the 2012 season, but not before picking up his second 1,000 yard rushing season with 1,015. With 4,232 rushing yards as a Giant, Bradshaw is sixth all-time on the Giants franchise list in that category, just two spots behind teammate Brandon Jacobs.
Alphonse “Tuffy” Leemans was a notable product of the great Giants teams of the 1930s and 1940s under the leadership of head coach Steve Owen. From 1936-43, Leemans gave the Giants plenty of help throughout his career. His first season saw him rush for 830 yards, a staggering number for a fullback in those days.
In 1938, Leemans had 463 rushing yards and four touchdowns. He would add another touchdown to his total in that year’s NFL Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers, which the Giants would end up winning 23-17.
The team would make two more championship appearances during Leemans’ time there but failed to win each time. In just seven seasons and 70 games, Leemans reached 3,000 yards rushing. As it was normal at that time, Leemans was called on to pass the ball. He totaled 2,318 passing yards with 25 touchdowns and 32 interceptions.
Once Leemans retired, he left the Giants as the team’s all-time leading rusher in their short history at that point with 3,132 yards. He is currently 11th on the all-time list. In 1978, Leemans was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
GIANTS CHRONICLES: RON JOHNSON (NY Giants Football Team) from Endless Media on Vimeo.
Under the tutelage of another great Giants running back, Ron Johnson excelled under Giants’ head coach and former NY running back Alex Webster. Johnson holds the dubious honor of being the first Giant to rush for 1,000 yards in a season in 1970 with 1,027. In 1972, he bested that with 1,182. And remember, this is back when the NFL played a 14-game season as opposed to the 16 games played today.
An All-American coming out of Michigan, Johnson continues to hold the school record for most rushing yards in a single game with 347. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 1969 NFL Draft, but by 1970 he was wearing blue for the New York Giants. Johnson’s rushing talents helped spark a Giants squad that didn’t have a winning season since 1963.
Apart from accomplishing his two 1,000 yard seasons, the Giants had winning records in both those seasons. They were also the only two winning seasons the team would have from 1964 to 1980.
With 3,836 rushing yards as a Giant, Johnson left the game after the 1975 season, just before the Giants made their homey transition to Giants Stadium. He would be replaced at the position by former Miami Dolphin and future Hall-of-Famer Larry Csonka, which just goes to show that the Giants knew they had some big shoes to fill without good ol’ Ron.
In a Giants career that spanned from 1974-1981, Doug Kotar’s achievements on the field were overshadowed by that of the team’s misfortunes and mediocrity. During that time, Kotar played for three head coaches: Bill Arnsparger, John McVay and Ray Perkins. Also, in his first three seasons, Koter and the Giants played on a different home field each season: Yale Bowl, Shea Stadium and Giants Stadium.
Despite these difficulties and lack of solidity, Kotar made the most out of a tough situation. In 90 games over that time, Kotar had 3,390 rushing yards. At the time of his retirement, Kotar was the team’s fourth all-time leading rusher. In 1976, while the Giants had just opened Giants Stadium and looking to adjust and appeal to the New Jersey market, Kotar became one of the team’s most famous faces.
That season he had a career-best 739 rushing yards and 319 receiving yards. Teammate, fellow running back and roommate Larry Csonka would later describe Kotar as a guy who ”would dive, claw, scratch – do anything to get the extra yard. He’s a tough cookie.”
Another factor that played in Kotar’s career was injuries. Due to knee injuries, Kotar missed the entire 1980 season and the final nine games of the ’81 season. After retiring from the Giants in 1982, Kotar faced a more daunting challenge. He was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor and died from it in 1983 at the age of 32.
Up until his death, the Giants kept him on their payroll to cover his medical expenses and, of all people, Giants linebacker Harry Carson had a plane reservation set up to visit him at the time of his passing.
In August of that year, while the Giants were in Pittsburgh to play the Steelers in a preseason game, the team visited an ill Kotar, who was living in western Pennsylvania. Many people, including Carson and head coach Bill Parcells, later attributed their team’s success in the ’80s to Kotar’s inspiration.
Though the bulk of his success came with the St. Louis Cardinals, this running back’s second career as a Giant makes him worthy of this list. Feeling that Anderson was limited due to injuries and had already reached his peak, the Cardinals sent their 1979 number-one pick to New York for undisclosed draft picks several weeks into the 1986 season.
Though they felt the same way about Anderson, Bill Parcells and the Giants still looked to use him in reserve spots and not overuse him and make him vulnerable to injury.
Before the 1986 Giants finished out their Super Bowl XXI victory over the Denver Broncos, Ottis Anderson was given the nod to close out the team’s scoring with a one-yard touchdown run. Though it may have looked like a crowning achievement to many, Anderson was not quite done with leaving his mark on the NFL.
By 1989, the 32-year-old Anderson was given the chance to be the team’s starting running back, and if Anderson didn’t live up to expectations, he exceeded them. Anderson started all 16 games and totaled 1,023 rushing yards to help the Giants to an NFC East title and was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year for his efforts.
He would follow that up with a 1990 season where he, along with rookie back Rodney Hampton, rushed the Giants to an NFC East-best 13-3 record and a first-round bye. With an injured Hampton sidelined for the playoffs, Ottis Anderson carried the load for the Giants and his 102-yard, one-touchdown performance in New York’s 20-19 Super Bowl XXV victory over the Buffalo Bills.
It saw Anderson, at age 34, named Super Bowl MVP. Also during that season, Anderson became the eighth ever player to reach the 10,000 rushing yard plateau.
Not that many NFL players can say that they ran the ball with an NFL team and eventually ran them as a coach, but Alex Webster can. One of the Giants’ main stars of the 1950s, Webster came to New York from Canada after spending two years with the Montreal Alouettes in 1955, and in his first season led the Giants in rushing yards with 634.
In the 1956 NFL Championship Game against the Chicago Bears, Webster helped out in the scoring with two touchdowns and 103 all-purpose yards in New York’s 47-7 rout over Chicago. As a Giant, Webster totaled 4,638 rushing yards, caught 240 passes for 2,679 yards, and scored 56 touchdowns (39 rushing and 17 receiving). With 336 points, Webster is currently ranked tenth on the Giants’ all-time career scoring list.
During a dismal time for the Giants in the late 1960s, a reluctant Webster accepted an offer from Wellington Mara to succeed longtime Giants coach Allie Sherman and become the head coach of the New York Giants in 1969. Despite his reluctance, Webster’s arrival was a welcomed one and the team responded with winning records in 1970 and ’72, the only winning records the team would post until 1981.
For his work, Webster was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1970. Webster stepped down after the 1973 season. For both his efforts, Webster was named to the Giants “Ring of Honor” in 2011, just a year before his death at the age of 80.
Brandon Jacobs burst onto the New York sports scene in 2007 when he was one of the faces that helped bring the Giants their third Super Bowl championship. But before that, Jacobs served as Tiki Barber‘s backup in his first two seasons in 2005 and ’06.
Upon Barber’s retirement in 2006, Jacobs assumed the starting spot. Over the course of the 2007 championship season, Jacobs racked up 1,009 yards rushing and in the playoffs rushed for 197 yards on 62 attempts and four touchdowns, one of which was receiving. Also, that season was the premiere of New York’s “Earth, Wind and Fire” backfield that was comprised of Jacobs, Derrick Ward and rookie Ahmad Bradshaw.
In 2008, Jacobs and Ward became the fifth pair of teammates to rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. Jacobs had a career-high 15 touchdowns that season as well. After Ward’s departure in the 2009 off-season, Bradshaw and Jacobs continued their rushing dominance up until 2011 where they each picked up their second Vince Lombardi Trophy. In the playoffs that championship season, Jacobs rushed for 164 yards on 37 carries with one touchdown.
Jacobs and the Giants peacefully parted ways after that season, but his Giants career would receive a brief second act when he returned in 2013 to help out the team’s injury-prone running back situation.
Seven games and four touchdowns later, Jacobs called it a career and retired as a Giant. In his time as a Giant, Jacobs totaled 5,087 rushing yards, making him fourth on New York’s all-time rushing list.
Apart from what he did on the field, Brandon Jacobs was one of the Giants’ most visible personalities during his playing days. He was a fan favorite and one of the team’s strongest supporters in times of trouble.
When it looked like 2011 was going to be a lost year, Jacobs became a catalyst for the team’s rally in the second half of the season. One of the highlights of Jacobs’ rally was when the Giants defeated the Jets on Christmas Eve.
After a week that saw the Jets throwing jabs in the press at their co-tenants, the Giants kept quiet until game time. After the victory, Jacobs broke that silence with an adrenaline-filled post-game interview aimed at the Jets and head coach Rex Ryan, once again endearing himself as a key component of the team’s rallying core that led to their Super Bowl championship.
For eight seasons, Rodney Hampton’s rushing was vital to a New York Giants squad that was looking for an identity for most of the 1990s. Drafted out of Georgia in 1990, Hampton’s youth and quickness balanced out a rushing attack that also consisted of 33-year-old “ground and pound” back Ottis Anderson.
With the two of them handling ground control duties, the team worked their way to a 13-3 record and a first-round bye. Unfortunately for Hampton, he suffered an injury in the Divisional Playoff game against the Chicago Bears, which kept him from participating in the Giants’ championship run.
No matter, though. A healthy Hampton returned to the Giants in 1991 and was named the team’s starting running back. From 1991 to 1995, Hampton rushed for over 1,000 yards each season and had 45 touchdowns in that stretch.
In the 1993 Wild Card game against the Minnesota Vikings, Hampton’s rushing helped out the team out greatly, rushing for 161 yards and his two touchdowns that day were the only touchdowns New York would score. His first touchdown, a third-quarter 51-yard romp, got the Giants to tie the game at 10, and his second was the winning score in the 17-10 victory.
From the time of his retirement in 1998 until 2004, Hampton was the Giants’ all-time career rushing leader with 6,897 yards. In 1992 and 1993, Hampton was named to the Pro Bowl. During his Giants career, Hampton played for four head coaches and reached the playoffs only three times, but Hampton’s dominance on the ground was a constant bright spot on the team despite what was going on around him.
Standing at an intimidating 5’7” and 195 pounds, Joe Morris was too busy anchoring the Giants’ rushing attack than worrying about how he sized up against his counterparts.
A pickup from Syracuse in 1982, Morris began getting some real playing time in 1984 and shortly after became the team’s starting running back. He parlayed that into an incredible 1985 and ’86 campaign where he had back-to-back 1,000 rushing yard seasons and 21 and 15 touchdowns in ’85 and ’86 respectively.
The 1986 playoffs saw Morris at this combative best. In the Divisional Playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, Morris ran for a staggering 159 yards and two touchdowns in New York’s 49-3 romp of Joe Montana‘s golden boys. He would help out the cause as well in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, where he scored a touchdown in each game.
Morris was given the ball 29 times in that NFC Championship against the Washington Redskins as part of the Giants’ strategy to counter the harsh, windy conditions that plagued Giants Stadium that night. He did not disappoint, rushing for 87 yards and his one rushing touchdown was the second and final touchdown New York would score in their 17-0 triumph.
After a strike-shortened 1987 campaign, Morris picked up another 1,000 yard rushing season in 1988. A foot injury before the ’89 season caused Morris to leave his rushing days behind him in New York, but his departure opened the door for another Giants running back, Ottis Anderson.
In the glory days of the New York Giants in the 1950s and early 1960s, Frank Gifford was inescapable from the public eye. He was known to many as one of the main faces of that talented New York Giants squad.
Gifford was a highly-talented athlete coming out of Southern California in 1952 and the Giants picked him up with the 11th pick in that year’s draft. Gifford’s talents were not just limited to one position. Aside from running back, Gifford played wide receiver and defensive back, becoming one of the few remaining players in the NFL at that time to play both offense and defense.
Gifford’s talents helped spark an already-talented Giants squad by appearing in six NFL Championship games over the course of his career. In 1956, he was named NFL MVP in the Giants’ championship season with 819 rushing yards and 603 receiving yards. In 1960, however, Gifford’s career was nearly cut short after suffering a head injury after a hard hit by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik.
Despite announcing his retirement shortly after, Gifford returned to the field in 1962 as a wide receiver. With eight total touchdowns and 796 receiving yards that season, Gifford was named Comeback Player of the Year for his resilience. Gifford was selected to the Pro Bowl every year from 1953-59 and again in 1963.
When all was said and done when he retired after the 1964 season, Gifford had 3,609 rushing yards and 34 touchdowns on 840 carries and 367 receptions for 5,434 yards and 43 touchdowns.
Gifford also had success throwing the ball, completing 29 of the 63 passes he threw for 823 yards and 14 touchdowns with six interceptions. His six picks are tied with Walter Payton for most all-time by a non-quarterback and his 14 touchdowns are the most by a non-quarterback.
Even after his football career, Gifford continued to live a celebrity-status lifestyle. From 1971 to 1997, Gifford was a staple as a commentator on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” where he shared the booth with broadcasting greats such as Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Al Michaels. For all his football career accomplishments, Gifford was awarded a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
As the franchise’s all-time leading rusher, Tiki Barber is a shoo-in for this list. Coming to New York as a second-round draft pick from Virginia in 1997, Barber first showcased his return skills to make himself noticed. By 2000, Tiki had become the team’s permanent starting back and the Giants made it all the way to Super Bowl XXXV behind Barber’s 1,725 total yards, 1,006 of which were rushing.
In 2004, Barber’s Giants career was made when he broke Rodney Hampton’s all-time franchise rushing record and Joe Morris’ single-season franchise rushing record in the same game, a season-finale victory against the Dallas Cowboys in which Barber scored the game-winning touchdown.
In the Giants’ division-winning season in 2005, Barber would break his own single-season rushing record with a career-best 1,860 rushing yards and 2,390 total yards, all the while scoring 11 touchdowns.
After retiring in 2006, Barber’s career totaled 15,639 total yards and 67 total touchdowns. He is still the team’s all-time leader in rush attempts and rushing yards with 2,217 and 10,449 respectively. For all his accomplishments, the Giants honored Barber with a spot in the team’s Ring of Honor.
Though he may have cast a bad shadow on his Giants career after some off-the-field incidents between him and the team after his retirement, Barber’s stats speak for themselves, so much so that it would be unjustifiable to keep him off one of the top spots on this list.