NFL teams might learn a thing or two from Emmitt Smith.
No one in NFL history has run for more yards than Smith, who gained 18,355 yards during his 15-year career, mostly with the Dallas Cowboys.
Smith also holds the NFL record for most rushing attempts, touchdowns and overall touches. When the NFL was a true ground-and-pound league, Smith dominated everyone in his path.
But football has changed a lot since he retired 20 years ago, and even Smith knows teams are making quarterbacks the stars of the league.
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Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith (22) makes his way through San Francisco 49ers defensive back Merton Hanks (36) and linebacker Bill Romanowski (53) for a 4-yard gain in the second quarter of the Cowboys’ 38-21 NFC championship win Jan. 23, 1994, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Because of that, and perhaps some analytics, the running back position was underused in recent years. Running backs had trouble getting big contracts as general managers prioritized other positions.
However, after significant turnover in the offseason, teams may now get the hint. And they’ll have somebody like Saquon Barkley to look at. The Eagles running back is one win away from a Lombardi Trophy after a 2,000-yard regular season after the Giants decided not to re-sign him to a long-term deal.
“There’s been a commitment to the running game from those guys. Prior to that, they were still doing quality work, but the emphasis from the league was all about the quarterback play and how they want the quarterback to be the face of the league,” Smith said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
He specifically cited Barkley, Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs, all of whom switched teams in the offseason.
“Quarterback play has been mediocre at best in some of these organizations, but yet they still want to talk about the devaluing of the running back position,” Smith said. “I would call it the underutilization of the running back versus devaluing that position. And that’s on the offensive coordinators and the league pushing this narrative that the running back position is not valuable enough.”
What’s not mediocre are the snacks Smith will be indulging during the Super Bowl. He was in New Orleans as part of Pepsi Co’s and Frito-Lay’s “Chips and Sips” campaign.
“Every time you have an event like the Super Bowl, you gotta have your favorite chips with your favorite soda. Everyone has a chance to celebrate something and enjoy themselves with some great quality snacks for the big game,” Smith said, adding he “like[s] a little ranch.”
Former NFL player Emmitt Smith attends a game between the Augustana Vikings and the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium Nov. 4, 2016, in Durham, N.C. (Lance King/Getty Images)
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Smith also seemed to call out the hypocrisy of coaches who wind up relying on the running game when the quarterback play isn’t up to par.
“Here’s how I look at it. Teams talk about the undervalued running back, but yet when teams cannot throw the football, or the No. 1 quarterback goes down, they don’t throw the ball the same way when Cooper Rush is in the game,” Smith said.
“They lower his attempts, and guess what they do? They lean on Rico Dowdle and the running back corps of the Dallas Cowboys. … If you can run the ball without Dak in the game the way the Cowboys did the last four, five games and be effective that way, surely you can do it that way with Dak Prescott and be a better football team than what they are right now.
“Think about Bijan [Robinson] down in Atlanta. He’s the best thing they have. And Michael Penix became a better quarterback all because he had a solid running back behind him. … But people don’t want to talk about that no more. They want to talk about what Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes are doing.”
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This season, five running backs ran for at least 1,400 yards, the most since 2012. In 2023, there was only one. Christian McCaffrey led the league last year with 1,459 rushing yards, while Barkley and Henry (1,921) destroyed that number this season.
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