Running Back Factory—The Top Single Seasons by Broncos Runners

 By John Turney  

Terrell Davis

In the 1990s and 2000s the Broncos has a line of running backs that piled up the yards. Line coach Joe Gibbs' perfected the zone blocking scheme, the one-cut hit-the-gap style that running backs thrived on.

Sometimes they were called "system backs". When they lost someone, another was right there to pick up the slack. Whatever you call them they had some outstanding seasons in the Hile High City.

But are those Broncos backs to have great seasons? No, there were others. 

Plenty of them.

By taking the top season of each player and ranking them it is evident that there were strong runners in the early 1970s as well. 

The criteria are more than just rushing yards, it takes into account circumstances, use in the passing game, postseason honors and even some eye test.

This is one take on ranking the top season by Broncos running backs - remember only one per customer.

The list: 

15. C.J. Anderson, 2014—Anderson gained 1,000 yards in 2017 but his career year was 2014. He went to the Pro Bowl and had a higher yards per carry average (4.7 to 4.1) and was more active in the passing game of the Broncos. 

So 2014 is the pick.

14. Willis McGahee, 2011. Coming over from the Bills, McGahee went to the Pro Bowl and was a yard under a 1,200-yard rushing season, and had seven 100-yard rushing games -  all at 30 years of age. 

His yards rushing per game is thirteenth in team history and was eleventh in the NFL that year.

13. Phillip Lindsay, 2018. All-Rookie, A Pro Bowler and All-AFC, Lindsay had a 5.4 yards per carry average - second in the NFL, was an AFC Player of the Week once and was ninth in the NFL in rushing with 1,037 yards. He also didn't fumble.

The 5-8, 190-pound "Tasmanian Devil" went undrafted and his rushing total is still the third-most by an undrafted rookie and his nine rushing scores are tied for the most ever by a rookie UDFA.

12. Reuben Droughns, 2004—The 5-11, 220-pounder ran for 1,240 yards (ninth in the NFL) and six touchdowns and was decent in the passing game.

After barely playing in the first month (ten carriers) in games five through eleven he rushed for 916 yards - 130.9 a game - with a high of 193 versus the Panthers -and averaged 27 carries a game.

Twenty-seven.

In his final twelve, he averaged 100.8 yards a game. 

11. Knowshon Moreno, 2013—In his career year Moreno ran for 1,038 yards but caught 60 passes. No other 1,000-yard runner in team history had as many as 50. receptions.

There are a few scat-back types with more receptions but they were more or less receiving specialists making Moreno's 2013 as among the best three-down seasons by a Broncos back. 

He totaled 1,586 yards from scrimmage and scored 13 touchdowns and fumbled just once.

10. Gaston Green, 1991—Considered a bust in Los Angeles where he was a first-round pick and part of the bounty of the famed Eric Dickerson trade. Rams coach John Robinson didn't like his running style, was against the Rams drafting him and rarely used him. 

He got a new lease on life in Denver. 

The 4.3 speedster gained 1,037 yards (despite missing three games) and went to the Pro Bowl.

In Week Five he was the AFC Player of the Week running for 158 yards against the Vikings in a Broncos victory. The previous week he ran for 127 yards and three touchdowns in a win over the Chargers.

Yes, a one-year wonder, but one of the ten best in Broncos annals.

Gaston Green

9. Sammy Winder, 1984. A grinder, pardon the rhyme. He was never going to light a defense up, his career-long was a 52-yard run. His career yards per rush average was 3.6 and his highest was 3.9 - he never met the league-wide average in any single season.

He's the epitome of the back that as the saying goes - if you need four yards he will get you four. If you need ten yards he will get you four. 

Don Meredith reportedly said that about Walt Garrison and it was widely coopted after that but it fit Winder, though he was not a power back, only 203 pounds, he kept chains moving. 

Why is he so high on this list, ahead of others with more yards and better yards per rush?

Because he was a grinder, the running game on a 13-3 team gaining 1,153 yards, a vital cog in the 1984 Broncos offense. 

8. Bobby Humphrey, 1990—A first-round pick in the 1989 supplemental draft he was a stud as a rookie and a Pro Bowler in his second season—the pick for his career year.

His 1,202 yards were fifth in the NFL and his yards from scrimmage were seventh.

The next year he held out, then was traded had some off-field issues and was gone from the NFL but for a couple of years he was excellent and 1990 was the top year.

7. Olandis Gary, 1999—Talk about pressure. Gary was in the untenable position of filling in for superstar Terrell Davis who blew out a knee. 

He met the challenge  - averaging 96.6 yards rushing a game. Only Davis, Clinton Portis and Otis Armstrong have averaged more in team history. The same goes for yards from scrimmage.

First Davis, then Gary were the seeds of the idea that germinated in the heads of folks that a running back does not have to be a high pick to gain yards in the NFL as long as there is proper blocking. 

Now that is conventional wisdom - don't pick running backs high in the draft, don't sign running backs to big free agent contracts, don't trade high picks for a running back like they did back in the day al la Eric Dickerson, Herschel Walker and others.

6. Mike Anderson, 2000—The 6th-round pick was the second guy to fill in for Terrell Davis while he was on the mend. He ran for 1,487 yards on 297 attempts (5.0 average) and had 15 rushing touchdowns.

Only Davis has carried the ball more in a season and has rushed for more touchdowns in a single season for the Broncos.

Anderson was a great story - a former Marine who served overseas, went to a junior college where he dominated then went to Utah State where he set plenty of the school's rushing records.

His rushing attempts and rushing touchdowns (tied) are still a Broncos' rookie record and his rushing total is still second-best. 

For his efforts Anderson was the AP and PFWA Rookie of the Year was All-Rookie - pretty good for a 27-year-old first-year player.

5. Cookie Gilchrist, 1965. Acrimony in Buffalo led to Cookie being traded to the Broncos and he gave them a great year.

Gilchrist was All-AFL, was voted to the AFL's version of the Pro Bowl, was second in the AFL in rushing. He led the AFL in rushing attempts for the third consecutive year - no one carried the load more than he did - and tied for the league leadership in rushing touchdowns. 

And he did it all for a 4-10 club.

4. Clinton Portis, 2003—In his top season, on a per-game basis, his yards from scrimmage per game is the highest in team history - 146.5. It was also the second-most in the NFL behind LaDainian Tomlinson's 148.1 per game.

The 205-pound (at the time) former Miami Hurricane ran for 1,591 yards and 14 touchdowns despite missing three games. Even so, he was still fifth in rushing and his 5.5 yards a pop was tops in the league.

His 122.4 yards rushing a game was second to Jamal Lewis's 129.1 average. Remember Lewis ran for 2,066 yards that year. If Portis was healthy all year he would have challenged the 2,000-yard plateau.

Portis caught 38 passes for 314 yards, was a Pro Bowler and was a Player of the Week once.

3. Floyd Little, 1971—Little had fewer rushing yards than some of the backs ranked lower on this list but he did more with less. 

He led the NFL in rushing and yards per carry and yards per scrimmage.  He was a Pro Bowler but not a consensus All-Pro. He was first-team according to Pro Football Weekly and was second-team on the Writers' All-Pro team.

Though 1,133 yards may not sound like a lot by today's standards remember that teams used two backs in that era, both carrying the ball and both blocking. In his career year Little had about 55 percent of the Broncos' carries - splitting carries more than most of the recent guys.

Terrell Davis in the seasons he started all sixteen games carried it anywhere from 65-75 percent of the time. In his only full season with Denver Portis carried the ball almost 60 percent of the time.

Also consider that his line was composed of mostly players who were not going to be first-team All-Pro to say it kindly, most were journeymen.

The quarterbacks struggled - they combine for eight touchdown passes and 27 interceptions so the  passing game was no help. 

Lou Saban, fired at midseason, was probably screaming, "They're killing me Whitey, they're killing me" and not referring to the officials this time. (If you know you know)

Little doing what he did in that atmosphere is truly making lemonade out of lemons.

2. Otis Armstrong, 1974. O.J. Simpson led the NFL in rushing every year from 1972 through 1976 except for 1974. That year Otis Armstrong paced the NFL with 1,407 yards and a league-leading 5.3 yards a carry average. 

Before him, only Jim Brown (an amazing seven times), Simpson, Jim Taylor, Jim Nance (AFL) and Spec Sanders (AAFC) had ever averaged 100 yards or more per game in a season - it was that rare a season at the time.

He was not a one-trick pony, either. He caught 38 passes for another 405 yards, totaling 1,802 yards from scrimmage, also the league's best that year and his 129.4 yards per scrimmage average a game is still fourth in franchise history. 

He was a consensus All-Pro and a Pro Bowler and for that year at least, the best running back in the NFL.

Otis Armstrong

1. Terrell Davis, 1998—MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Unanimous All-Pro, Pro Bowl starter, Super Bowl MVP, four times the Player of the Week, twice won the AFC Player of the Month - What award didn't he win?

The numbers? He led the NFL in rushing yards, yards per carry and rushing touchdowns. His 2,008 rushing yards were, at the time, only the third time a player surpassed the two thousand-yard mark and is still sixth all-time. 

In the playoffs he was even better. If his postseason averages were prorated to a sixteen-game season he'd have had a stat line like this:  448 carries for 2,324 yards, a 5.2 average and 24 rushing touchdowns. 

How good was his 1998 season? 

Well, if his year was "only" a great one and not magnificent, like his 1997, and all else was the same not have made the Hall of Fame. He was felled by a devastating knee injury and we were never able to see what he might have accomplished but what got him in, what put him over the top and got him what historians call the "Gale Sayers exception" was his 1998 season.

Not only the best in Broncos history but on the short list of the best-ever by any running back,