Rushing yards and rushing touchdowns each tell part of the story of a running back's career, and the best backs in NFL history typically show up near the top of both lists. Here's a look at the top six running backs in NFL history by that combined standard, followed by a full breakdown of the career rushing yardage and touchdown record books.

1. Emmitt Smith — 18,355 Rushing Yards, 164 Rushing TDs

Emmitt Smith holds the all-time rushing record, finishing his 15-year career with 18,355 yards, split mostly between the Dallas Cowboys and a short final stretch with the Arizona Cardinals. Smith won NFL Rookie of the Year in 1990 after rushing for 937 yards, then reeled off 11 straight seasons of at least 1,000 rushing yards. He led the league in rushing four times, including three straight seasons from 1991 to 1993, and won NFL MVP in 1993. His best statistical season came in 1995, when he rushed for a career-high 1,773 yards and 25 touchdowns. Smith also holds the record for career rushing attempts, with 4,409, and his 164 career rushing touchdowns are also the most in NFL history, making him the all-time leader in both categories. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

2. LaDainian Tomlinson — 13,684 Rushing Yards, 145 Rushing TDs

LaDainian Tomlinson spent the majority of his 11-year career with the San Diego Chargers before closing it out with two seasons for the New York Jets. His 145 career rushing touchdowns rank second all-time behind only Smith, and his 13,684 rushing yards are more than both Peterson and Henry managed. His signature 2006 season remains one of the most dominant in NFL history: Tomlinson led the league with 1,815 rushing yards and set a then-record 28 rushing touchdowns (31 total), winning NFL MVP. He won two rushing titles (2006, 2007) and led the league in rushing touchdowns three times, and he was also one of the most dangerous receiving backs of his era, adding 624 career catches for 4,772 yards and 17 more scores.

3. Walter Payton — 16,726 Rushing Yards, 110 Rushing TDs

Walter Payton spent his entire 13-year career with the Chicago Bears, retiring with 16,726 rushing yards, a record at the time. Payton reached over 1,200 rushing yards in a season 10 times, a mark unmatched in NFL history. His best individual season came in 1977, when he was named MVP after rushing for 1,852 yards and a league-leading 14 touchdowns at 5.5 yards per carry. Payton's career culminated with a Super Bowl XX title as part of the dominant 1985 Bears team, and his 4.4 yards-per-carry average for his career remains higher than Smith's 4.2 mark. His 110 career rushing touchdowns still rank sixth all-time.

4. Barry Sanders — 15,269 Rushing Yards, 99 Rushing TDs

Barry Sanders finished with 15,269 rushing yards despite retiring after just 10 NFL seasons, all with the Detroit Lions, while still near the top of his game. He won four rushing titles, was named to 10 Pro Bowls in his 10 seasons, and posted a 5.0 yards-per-carry average for his career, the highest of anyone in the all-time top 10. His 1997 season alone produced 1,895 yards at 6.1 yards per carry, and he finished his career with 99 rushing touchdowns.

5. Adrian Peterson — 14,918 Rushing Yards, 120 Rushing TDs

Adrian Peterson spent most of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, finishing with 14,918 rushing yards. His signature season came in 2012, when he rushed for 2,097 yards, just nine yards shy of Eric Dickerson's single-season record, in a performance that came only a year removed from a torn ACL. Peterson won NFL MVP that season, one of three rushing titles he won in his career (2008, 2012, 2015), and remains one of the most powerful, physical runners the league has seen.

6. Derrick Henry — 13,018 Rushing Yards, 122 Rushing TDs

Derrick Henry is the only back in this top six still actively playing. Now with the Baltimore Ravens after eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans, Henry ranks 10th all-time in career rushing yards, but his overall body of work stacks up with anyone on this list. He's won two rushing titles, three rushing touchdown titles, and the 2020 AFC Offensive Player of the Year award, and his 122 career rushing touchdowns rank fourth all-time, one behind Marcus Allen's 123 and ahead of Hall of Famers like Adrian Peterson (120), Walter Payton (110) and Jim Brown (106). Henry is under contract with Baltimore through 2027 and coming off a 2025 season in which he rushed for 1,595 yards and 16 touchdowns on 307 carries, an average of 5.2 yards per attempt at age 31, and he continues to climb the career yardage and touchdown lists as he heads into 2026.

Where Frank Gore and the Career Rushing Yards Record Book Fit In

Frank Gore isn't in the top six above, but his numbers still belong in any conversation about the position's history. Gore built an unusually long 16-year career split mainly between the San Francisco 49ers, with additional stops including the Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets, finishing with 16,000 career rushing yards, third all-time, ahead of Sanders, Peterson and Henry on the pure yardage list. That total came from remarkable durability rather than a stretch of league-leading dominance: across his 16 seasons, Gore never won a rushing title, never led the league in any major statistical category, and never won an MVP award, and his 81 career rushing touchdowns are the lowest of any back near the top of the yardage list. His five Pro Bowl selections came almost entirely from a three-year stretch with the 49ers from 2011 to 2013. Gore's case is a reminder that total career rushing yards rewards longevity as much as it rewards peak dominance, which is why he sits outside the top six here despite ranking ahead of several of those backs in raw yardage.

Rounding Out the Top 10 in Career Rushing Yards

The rest of the all-time top 10 in career rushing yards: Curtis Martin (14,101 yards, 90 rushing TDs), Jerome Bettis (13,662 yards, 91 rushing TDs), and Eric Dickerson (13,259 yards, 90 rushing TDs). Dickerson still holds the single-season rushing record at 2,105 yards, set in 1984, despite ranking ninth on the career rushing yards list. Bettis, nicknamed "The Bus," built his total as a punishing, downhill runner who wore down defenses over the course of games rather than relying on breakaway speed. Curtis Martin, like Gore, is more of a career-volume story than a dominance one: his 14,101 yards came over an 11-year career with only one rushing title, which came in his next-to-last season, in 2004.

Derrick Henry passed Tony Dorsett's 12,739 career rushing yards earlier in the 2025 season to claim 10th on the all-time yardage list, even though his overall résumé places him in the top six above. Dorsett now sits just outside the top 10 at 12,739 yards, still remembered for a 99-yard touchdown run, one of the most iconic single plays in NFL rushing history, made possible only because his offense had just 11 players on the field after a substitution mix-up left them without a fullback.

Just Outside the Top 10

A handful of other Hall of Fame-caliber backs sit just below Dorsett on the career rushing list: Jim Brown finished with 12,312 yards despite retiring after only nine NFL seasons, Marshall Faulk totaled 12,279 yards while also becoming one of the most productive receiving backs of his era, Edgerrin James finished with 12,246 yards, and Marcus Allen closed his career with 12,243. Brown's per-season average remains one of the most efficient of anyone on this extended list, a big reason he's still frequently cited among the position's most dominant players despite playing the fewest seasons of the group.

Why Touchdowns Matter Just as Much as Yards

Rushing yards measure volume and durability, but touchdowns measure scoring impact, and the two lists don't always match up. Smith and Tomlinson lead both categories among the top six above, but further down the career rushing touchdown leaderboard, the order looks different from the yardage list: Marcus Allen ranks third in touchdowns with 123 despite not cracking the yardage top 10 at all, having finished his career with 12,243 rushing yards. Henry's 122 rushing touchdowns rank him fourth all-time, one behind Allen and ahead of Hall of Famers like Adrian Peterson (120), Walter Payton (110) and Jim Brown (106), even though several of them rank ahead of him in career rushing yards.

That gap is exactly why Henry ranks above Gore here despite trailing him by roughly 3,000 career rushing yards: Henry has 50 percent more rushing touchdowns than Gore (122 to 81), plus two rushing titles, three rushing touchdown titles, and an AFC Offensive Player of the Year award that Gore's résumé doesn't include. Judging a running back's career by total yardage alone misses a real part of the picture.

Where Today's Backs Stand

Beyond Henry, the league's next wave of workhorse backs are still building their résumés. As the league has shifted toward a pass-heavier style of offense, compiling the kind of workload needed to challenge Smith's record has become increasingly rare, which is part of why several names near the top of this list have held their spots for decades. Even so, the continued track records of backs like Bijan Robinson, Jonathan Taylor and Jahmyr Gibbs show the position still produces workhorse-caliber talent capable of putting up major rushing numbers on a yearly basis.

Records That May Never Be Broken

Smith's 18,355 career rushing yards has stood as the NFL record since 2002, and the gap between him and the rest of the field remains substantial. Smith sits 1,629 yards ahead of Payton in second place, and the modern NFL's emphasis on the passing game and running back committees makes it harder than ever for a single back to accumulate that kind of workload over a full career. Dickerson's single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, set in 1984, has also proven remarkably durable, surviving more than four decades despite countless attempts by elite backs to break it.

Rushing touchdowns tell a similar story. Smith also holds the career rushing touchdown record, adding another crown to his resume beyond total yardage. Between his volume of carries, his touchdown production, and the length of his career, Smith's overall body of work remains the benchmark by which every other running back on this list is measured, even as the way the position is used continues to evolve across the league.