If Barry Sanders was playing in todays NFL would he have been as successful?

[Sugashane]

That level of talent is going to be successful in any type of NFL game. Sanders, Sweetness, Brown, Sayers. Some talents are transcendent and he is one of them.  @onejayhawk is right, he had some negative aspects but he should be the leading rusher in NFL history right now IMO.

[The Third Rider]

He would be amazing in today’s game, his skill set is timeless. Can you imagine him playing behind a real vertical game? It doesn’t matter if defenses are faster or not his agility and ability to cut on a dime are off the charts. Tackling him one on one is still an achievement.

[TheGreatZepp]

I have never seen anyone else with that combination of agility, balance, strength, speed and vision. His agility and balance put him over the top. I remember him tearing apart the Packers’ Reggie White led defenses in the 90’s. If it wasn’t for Barry putting up what seemed like 160/game those defenses would of been no. 1 against the run.

[August4th]

wish I I was old enough to fully appreciate his prime in person

only watched one game of his when I was a kid... the thanksgiving game against the steelers

[Kiltman]

if you just plucked him away using a time machine,  he'd still be probably the best in the game.

You have him train like they do nowadays, he would absolutely destroy teams.

 

He played in an era where they tackled with consistency and he made defenses look silly, now just imagine him in a spread offense getting isoed to just make one guy miss with how bad tackling its nowadays...gonna be no contest

[theuntouchable]

On 7/23/2018 at 7:21 PM, Nabbs4u said:

Why Payton/Reid type offenses? Sanders wasn't a pass catcher. Sure he could catch but he was never ever utilized like a Westbrook, McCoy, Charles, Kamara type RB.

Sanders would be successful in any offense period. The only thing that would hold him back from Dominating would be forcing him to play with a FB but even then, he'd still be the best RB in the league. Which includes Bell , DJ and others.

You put Sanders behind a top 5 OL (Dallas,Eagles,Ect) he's approaching 2,000 yds on a yearly basis even in the pass wacky era.

His Skill set would translate to any era.

You do know what happened once he had a true FB right? 

[theuntouchable]

On 7/24/2018 at 10:14 PM, onejayhawk said:

Not comparable. Shady set up his blocks and followed the lead. Sanders went where the spirit moved. One issue was that the OL never knew where he was going. Another was that he was prone to negative yardage. I love Barry. He is the most famous person ever to attend my high school, but his play had warts.

J

He was just as prone as every other great RB out there. Did you know Emmitt was actually stopped at or behind the LOS MORE OFTEN and MORE IN GENERAL than Barry (and that doesn’t include his final years in Arizona either). 

[Soko]

1 hour ago, theuntouchable said:

He was just as prone as every other great RB out there. Did you know Emmitt was actually stopped at or behind the LOS MORE OFTEN and MORE IN GENERAL than Barry (and that doesn’t include his final years in Arizona either). 

Probably a given, considering their YPC.

[theuntouchable]

32 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

Probably a given, considering their YPC.

I just really dislike that argument. It’s a crutch that people use to say Barry was mostly a feast or famine type runner, even though his percentage of negative runs is actually less than a good number of players out there. Did he take some chances and lose yards at times? Absolutely but he was no where near a feast or famine runner like people make it out to be.

[onejayhawk]

2 hours ago, theuntouchable said:

He was just as prone as every other great RB out there. Did you know Emmitt was actually stopped at or behind the LOS MORE OFTEN and MORE IN GENERAL than Barry (and that doesn’t include his final years in Arizona either). 

Not all carries are equal. In short yardage and goalline situations, Emmitt was much more reliable. That's a bit unfair, since Emmitt Smith is one of the best goalline RB in history, but there it is.

J

[theuntouchable]

52 minutes ago, onejayhawk said:

Not all carries are equal. In short yardage and goalline situations, Emmitt was much more reliable. That's a bit unfair, since Emmitt Smith is one of the best goalline RB in history, but there it is.

J

He absolutely was, that is an argument I can get behind. However, people use the negative yardage stat as a crutch even though most of the time they don’t even know the stats that Emmitt has as far as negative runs. 

As far as not all carries being created equal, that’s a two way street. Emmitt definitely had a better OL in front of him and Barry went without a FB in front of him for the most part until his 1997 season. 

[RandyMossIsBoss]

 I understand this question when it comes to guys from the 60s or 70s, but a guy who was an all-pro 20 years ago at a position that has seen relatively little change? Of course he'd be just as successful. Obviously it's a passing league now, but things like pass catching and pass blocking aren't prerequisites to playing RB, if Barry for some reason couldn't do either, he'd still be the best runner in the NFL.

[Superduperman]

As someone who watched every game Barry ever played in, I kind of want to go off on what the hell kind of a question is this, etc. etc. But wtf, I guess this is the stuff you talk about in the offseason.

Anyway, most people in this thread have enough sense to know that Barry would be amazing in today's game or any other game. Deepest bag of moves of any NFL player, ever. He was doing things in his 7th and 8th season where I'd be like, wow, I never saw him do that one before.

Only a couple of things:

Those saying he didn't have pass catching skills are wrong. The Lions did not have a passing game that involved him a lot, but that wasn't because he couldn't do it. Watch his highlight reel and you'll see a few plays where he caught passes on every route from a screen to a medium-depth sideline route.

Also, I know he looked like he "ran where the spirit moved him" instead of setting up blocks and so on, but I've heard him talk and break down his running style, and he had a very advanced concept of what he was doing out there. A lot of time he made moves, not with the guy he was closest to in mind, but the one coming after him and maybe even the one after that.

[Slateman]

Better. Teams dont stack against the run like they did back then. Decent OCs would have gotten him more involved in the passing game.

[theuntouchable]

23 hours ago, Superduperman said:

As someone who watched every game Barry ever played in, I kind of want to go off on what the hell kind of a question is this, etc. etc. But wtf, I guess this is the stuff you talk about in the offseason.

Anyway, most people in this thread have enough sense to know that Barry would be amazing in today's game or any other game. Deepest bag of moves of any NFL player, ever. He was doing things in his 7th and 8th season where I'd be like, wow, I never saw him do that one before.

Only a couple of things:

Those saying he didn't have pass catching skills are wrong. The Lions did not have a passing game that involved him a lot, but that wasn't because he couldn't do it. Watch his highlight reel and you'll see a few plays where he caught passes on every route from a screen to a medium-depth sideline route.

Also, I know he looked like he "ran where the spirit moved him" instead of setting up blocks and so on, but I've heard him talk and break down his running style, and he had a very advanced concept of what he was doing out there. A lot of time he made moves, not with the guy he was closest to in mind, but the one coming after him and maybe even the one after that.

But doz negative yards tho