The 20 Best NFL Running Backs of the 2000s, Updated for 2026

This list first went up in two halves, and it has been out of date for a while. A back who was still "one to watch" in the original has since gone to a Super Bowl, and the man we had at number ten has climbed into the top ten of the all-time rushing list. So here's the whole thing in one piece, updated through the 2025 season.

One rule worth stating up front: this covers careers that ran into the 2000s and later, and each player is judged on his whole career rather than the part that happened to fall inside a decade. That's how Emmitt Smith ends up here despite most of his damage being done in the 1990s.

20 through 11

20. Fred Taylor. Had the Jacksonville backfield mostly to himself early, then shared it with Maurice Jones-Drew. He finished with close to 14,000 yards from scrimmage and 74 total touchdowns, and he was a Hall of Fame finalist for the class of 2025.

19. Jamaal Charles. A fixture in Andy Reid's offense and, when healthy, one of the most explosive players of his era. His career yards-per-carry average is among the best in NFL history, which is what happens when a back can take any crease the distance.

18. Chris Johnson. Crossed 2,000 rushing yards in 2009, one of only nine men ever to do it. Most of the rest of his career couldn't live up to that, but the speed at his peak was something the league had not seen in a while.

17. Shaun Alexander. Spent his first season as a backup, then rushed for at least 14 touchdowns in five straight years, including 27 in his 2005 MVP season. Nobody has matched that 2005 touchdown number since.

16. Matt Forte. Running backs who catch 100 passes in a season are rare. In 2014 Forte rushed for 1,038 yards, caught 102 passes for 808 more, and scored 10 times.

15. Ezekiel Elliott. The fourth overall pick in 2016 led the league in rushing twice in his first three seasons, which almost nobody does. The back half of his career never matched the front, and he retired in 2025.

14. Tiki Barber. Cleared 1,000 yards only once in his first five seasons, then finished with five straight years above 1,200, including 1,860 on the ground in 2005. Few backs have improved that sharply that late.

13. Alvin Kamara. Made the Pro Bowl in each of his first five seasons on a fraction of the carries most feature backs get, because the receiving work was always the point. Injuries limited him to 11 games in 2025, his ninth season in New Orleans.

12. Saquon Barkley. Rushed for 2,005 yards in 2024 and 2,504 including the playoffs, which is the most anyone has ever run for in a single season. He took Offensive Player of the Year and a Super Bowl ring out of it, and he did all of it on 5.8 yards a carry.

11. Christian McCaffrey. The best pure dual threat of his generation. He went for 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving in 2019, which only two other players have managed, and even in a quieter 2025 he still caught 102 passes. Injuries are the only thing keeping him out of the top ten.

10 through 1

10. Marshawn Lynch. Drafted by Buffalo, but his career really started when Seattle traded for him in 2010. The Beast Quake run is the most replayed carry of the last twenty years, and he remains one of the few backs whose reputation rests as much on how he ran as on the numbers.

9. Edgerrin James. Came into the league overshadowed by Ricky Williams, then won Offensive Rookie of the Year, outgained him by a distance and finished in Canton. One of the more underrated careers of the era.

8. LeSean McCoy. Over 11,000 rushing yards and almost 3,900 more through the air across twelve seasons, with a highlight reel made almost entirely of defenders falling over.

7. Derrick Henry. The list has moved him up for good reason. He has more 200-yard rushing games than anyone in NFL history, he cleared 2,000 yards in 2020, and he was still running for 1,595 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2025, at an age when most backs are long retired. He sits tenth on the career rushing list and is still adding to it.

6. Curtis Martin. Rarely comes up in these arguments and probably should. Eleven straight 1,000-yard seasons, a rushing title at 31 with more than 1,600 yards, and sixth place on the all-time list with 14,101.

5. Frank Gore. Tore both ACLs in college and then played sixteen NFL seasons, finishing third all-time with 16,000 rushing yards. Longevity is its own kind of greatness and nobody did it better at this position.

4. Marshall Faulk. The engine of the Greatest Show on Turf. More than 12,000 rushing yards and 6,875 receiving, which is still the standard every dual-threat back gets measured against.

3. Adrian Peterson. Led the league in rushing three times and sits fifth all-time with 14,918 yards, one spot behind Barry Sanders. His 2012 season, coming back from a torn ACL to finish nine yards short of the single-season record, is the most absurd line on this page.

2. Emmitt Smith. The all-time rushing leader at 18,355 yards, and it's hard to picture anyone getting enough carries to threaten that again. In fifteen seasons he had exactly one year under 900 yards, and that was an injury year.

1. LaDainian Tomlinson. The first eight years are as good as this position gets. He caught 100 passes in 2003, then ran for 1,815 yards and scored 31 total touchdowns in 2006. He finished seventh all-time in rushing yards and second in rushing touchdowns, and he did it in the powder blues.

Who just missed

Todd Gurley was on the original list and comes off this one. For two seasons he was the most feared back in football, and then his knee ended it at 26. Jerome Bettis, Clinton Portis, Steven Jackson, Nick Chubb and Jonathan Taylor all have arguments too, which is the nature of a list with a hard cutoff at twenty.

Collecting these guys

Most of this list is retired, and retired is what makes a signature behave predictably: the supply stops growing and the career stops changing. We get into why that matters in sports memorabilia versus stocks and bonds, and it's also the reason a Hall of Fame back often costs less than a quarterback who was never as good.

If you want one of these on the wall, our signed football jerseys, signed helmets and mini helmets are the places to look, and the five checks we run before buying anything apply before you spend a dollar.