Greatest Bengals Runningback

[San Antonio Bengal]

Dillon was the best RB the Bengals have ever had. Brooks comes in second. I like Brooks much more than Dillon, but question was not of likeability, but rather of greatness (meaning overall performance on the field). And for Dillon to do some of the things he did when the rest of the team was in shambles was really amazing. It's easier to be a great player when those around you are great players. For Dillon to do as well as he did is, quite frankly, beyond amazing. I just wish that his departure from the team had been on different terms.

[jjakq27]

Dillon was the best RB the Bengals have ever had.  Brooks comes in second.  I like Brooks much more than Dillon, but question was not of likeability, but rather of greatness (meaning overall performance on the field).  And for Dillon to do some of the things he did when the rest of the team was in shambles was really amazing.  It's easier to be a great player when those around you are great players.  For Dillon to do as well as he did is, quite frankly, beyond amazing.  I just wish that his departure from the team had been on different terms.

Something to consider is that Brooks was not the feature back that Dillon was. Back then he shared time with Larry Kinnebrew and later Ickey Woods. So it wasn't as if he was getting 25 carries per game like CD.

I think I will still vote for CD (did you hear that PushPop?), since I think of a running back as a runner first not a pass catcher. However, I think if you combine Brooks' totals with San Diego and the Bengals, at one time he was in the top 10 all-time in all-purpose yardage. He was a great kick returner and punt returner as well as a versitile back before he came here. Had he been on some championship teams, he might be HOF-worthy.

He had almost 15,000 yards from scrimmage (14,910 by my calculation).

Between 1985 and 1990 (excluding the strike year of 1987-(3.1)) he averaged 4.8 (1985), 5.3 (1986), 5.1 (1988), 5.6 (1989) and 5.1 (1990) yards per carry. Those are some pretty hefty numbers by anyones standard.

http://www.footballdb.com/players/brookja03

[BengalNation1281]

I'm gonna have to go with James Brooks. Corey comes in a close second.

BN1281

[Niles]

I was gonna vote for Dillon, but after reading JPW's stats, my vote goes to James Brooks.

[wookie]

My vote would go to Dillon, stats are a good basis for declaring Brooks the best ever, but circumstances can be just as important as stats. Brooks came to the Bengals supposedly washed out and helped turn the offense around. He was a likeable player, and really tough. Who can forget the gruesome picture of him coming off the field holding dislocated fingers, having them reset, taped, and going back in? However, Brooks was never the featured back, and that says something. He was great at hitting the corner, could usually run up the middle, and he could catch the ball out of the backfield. He was also playing behind a great offensive line, including HOF Anthony Munoz, and he was on better Bengals teams than Dillon ever saw.

Corey set the mark for his carreer as a rookie when he set the NFL record for most yards in a single game by a rookie. He then held the single game record for all time until recently. He is 1 of only a few RBs to gain at least 1000 yards in his first 5 seasons. He had the size, speed, power, and hands to be an all around back and he was a star in the league while playing for horrible, horrible, Bengals teams.

Forget what he did in the locker room. It was a star ego frustrated by 2-14 and 3-13 seasons, and I was pretty disgusted with the Bengals and their front office during that time. I can't say I'd have been dancing around in the locker room too often.

I have to go with Dillon over Brooks.

[HairOnFire]

Yes Dillon did rush for more yards, but he did it with a Lot More Carries.

Yards Per Carry is a HUGE Stat for a Starting RB....

And 4.8 is a Nice Jump Up from 4.3....

I still believe that dramatically increasing the number of carries a RB is given during a season will always lower his average gain per rush. Reasons for why that's true differ with each example, but the end result is almost a given. It's why I laughed earlier at the idea that a fan could promote signing Lamont Jordan based upon his average per rush superiority over Rudi. Sign Jordan to this team and then increase his workload to comparable levels and I'm dead certain that you'd see comparable average gains.

I'll also point out that Brooks played in a balanced offense that was manned by a very good QB. Dillon rarely got to work with competent QB's. That fact alone will tweak every stat and hardly needs to be debated. But I'll add one more point.

Dillon played behind average offensive lines...resulting in a staggering number of attempts that produced little or no yardage. Simply reducing the number of times that occurs will inflate the average gain tremendously. For proof, just look at Dillons numbers with New England. Very healthy average per rush, right? But despite having a much more pedestrian average per rush Rudi Johnson produced more runs longer than 20 yards than Dillon managed, and his best run of the season was longer than Dillons. And get this, it's been that way each of the last two seasons. But this season Rudi's per rush average suffers greatly in comparison due to the reality that he's still facing the same O-line and QB issues that Dillon used to.

And getting back to the original point, James Brooks never had to deal with any of these issues....so it's not surprising or all that impressive that his average gain is better.

[DontPushMe]

Brooks could never be the the feature back on his own. Plus he had a great oline, and pro bowlers at every position on offense. What dillon did here was all on his own. If dillon were on the teams Brooks was on his whole career, dillons numbers would look like they did this year with the patriots every season.

Maybe dillon will invite Brooks to his hall of fame acceptance speach.

[jjakq27]

Brooks could never be the the feature back on his own. Plus he had a great oline, and pro bowlers at every position on offense. What dillon did here was all on his own. If dillon were on the teams Brooks was on his whole career, dillons numbers would look like they did this year with the patriots every season.

Maybe dillon will invite Brooks to his hall of fame acceptance speach.

Maybe you and Brooks can study together in reading and writing class.

[Niles]

Brooks could never be the the feature back on his own. Plus he had a great oline, and pro bowlers at every position on offense. What dillon did here was all on his own. If dillon were on the teams Brooks was on his whole career, dillons numbers would look like they did this year with the patriots every season.

Maybe dillon will invite Brooks to his hall of fame acceptance speach.

Well obviously Dillon did have an Oline considering Rudi broke his record this year w/ the same line. Our line isn't the greatest, but it does its job. Saying that Dillon got all of the yards by himself is BS. Let's see if he could get a yard w/out anyone on the line, just him against 11 defensive players.

[DontPushMe]

Brooks could never be the the feature back on his own. Plus he had a great oline, and pro bowlers at every position on offense. What dillon did here was all on his own. If dillon were on the teams Brooks was on his whole career, dillons numbers would look like they did this year with the patriots every season.

Maybe dillon will invite Brooks to his hall of fame acceptance speach.

Well obviously Dillon did have an Oline considering Rudi broke his record this year w/ the same line. Our line isn't the greatest, but it does its job. Saying that Dillon got all of the yards by himself is BS. Let's see if he could get a yard w/out anyone on the line, just him against 11 defensive players.

What are you talking about? The only linemen who have consistently been on both lines is Anderson and Braham.

btw when is this poll going to be posted, at the rate you are moving on this thing you will have the all time bengals team by next offseason.

[bengalboy]

Stats schmats. Dillon has the numbers but he turned into one big dick. Long live Boobie Clark.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Call me kookie, but I really liked Ickey Woods. More for his personality, not so much for his numbers because obviously he didn't last too long in the league. That man changed the game of football with that awesome dance of his! And you can't forget he made the cover of S.I. twice! Both for positive things! That's hard for any Bengal player to accomplish. Especially the positive part.

I remember them (and by "them," I mean the heads of the "No Fun League.") making a big deal over Ickey, and his harmless little shuffle that he did after a score, so they ruled he could no longer do it in the endzone. He had to take his moves and go bust 'em on the sideline instead!

Now what was the point of that!?! He still did the same dance, and he still did it in front of the same crowd!

[jjakq27]

Brooks could never be the the feature back on his own. Plus he had a great oline, and pro bowlers at every position on offense. What dillon did here was all on his own. If dillon were on the teams Brooks was on his whole career, dillons numbers would look like they did this year with the patriots every season.

Maybe dillon will invite Brooks to his hall of fame acceptance speach.

Well obviously Dillon did have an Oline considering Rudi broke his record this year w/ the same line. Our line isn't the greatest, but it does its job. Saying that Dillon got all of the yards by himself is BS. Let's see if he could get a yard w/out anyone on the line, just him against 11 defensive players.

What are you talking about? The only linemen who have consistently been on both lines is Anderson and Braham.

btw when is this poll going to be posted, at the rate you are moving on this thing you will have the all time bengals team by next offseason.

Lets see the guy sets a rookie record in 1997 with a crappy line.

That's the same crappy line he had when he took himself out of the Baltimore game in week 3 in 2000. Bruce Coslet quit the next day. Then in week 7 he gets 278 yds and sets the alltime record. Coslet must have been holding him back or something or LeBeau was more of an offensive genius than we give him credit for.

I guess it was all him on the good days and his line's fault on the bad days.

[JPW]

What dillon did here was all on his own.

That is simply absurd....

[LABengalsFan09]

Jeff Cothran. Case Closed.

[rob_justdmb]

Brooks came to the Bengals supposedly washed out and helped turn the offense around. He was a likeable player, and really tough. Who can forget the gruesome picture of him coming off the field holding dislocated fingers, having them reset, taped, and going back in? However, Brooks was never the featured back, and that says something. He was great at hitting the corner, could usually run up the middle, and he could catch the ball out of the backfield.

Corey ... He had the size, speed, power, and hands to be an all around back and he was a star in the league while playing for horrible, horrible, Bengals teams.

Forget what he did in the locker room. It was a star ego frustrated by 2-14 and 3-13 seasons, and I was pretty disgusted with the Bengals and their front office during that time. I can't say I'd have been dancing around in the locker room too often.

I have to go with Dillon over Brooks.

Dude, Brooks was a rookie in 1981. Remember that insane catch he made in the back of the endzone in the famous SD - Miami game? We got him in 1984. How in the world is that washed up? Basically, after 1 sentence, your entire post was relegated to opinion not fact. But I'll finish...

Brooks was always the featured back when he was here, but never got every carry. Whether it was Kinnebrew, Bill Johnson or Ickey.

Since when has Corey had good hands? Really can a post about Corey Dillon in a Corey Dillon vs. James Brooks debate even mention the word hands? Jame Brooks ran fly patterns and caught 30 yard passes. And I'm not talking about 2 yard passes and 28 yard runs. 30 yard catches. Once we start getting gametape trees going, you will see it. You don't think that's big? He also couldn't block. I will say that Dillon's blocking has gotten much better since he left, but it was bad here. That's why Bennett was so important. You didn't see Brooks sub out on 3rd down until 88 it was 3rd and 1 then Stanley Wilson came in, once Ickey emerged after the Cleveland game, he didn't leave much at all. But I guess 3rd down is only really 33% of the offensive downs, and not an important one at that...

INTANGIBLES

Brooks played on teams with bad records also.

The bottom line is you are paid to do a job. Dillon made mad cash. He said he'd flip burgers until we gave him mad cash. Brooks played hurt, Dillon did not. Does being less of a team player, make you less of a running back, or safety, or punter or waterboy or owner...? uh... yeah.

[LABengalsFan09]

I love all of this heated debate/ discussion... ! can't wait until we get to long-snapper!!!!!

I'm still torn between Brooks and Dillon, with a little Michael Basnight sprinkled in there...

[JPW]

For the record, Brooks also played on Bengal teams that went 3-13 and 4-12.

But then again, since when is Helping Your Team Win a Bad thing ?

Brooks was a Big part of the Reason Why the Bengals went to the play-offs and to a Super-Bowl, durn his years with the team.

As good as he was, I don't think that there is anyone who can make much of a case for Dillon ever having been a team-player, durn his years as a Bengal.

Let's not forget what we are doing here.

We are picking a Bengal's All Time Team ...

Brooks put up numbers that are as good or better than Dillon's.

But more than that, I am trying to picture how this Team would look if it could actually be put on the field to play.

It is easy for me to see a backfield with James Brooks at HB and Pete Johnson at FB.

And what a Great Combination that would be ...

For the life of me, I just can not see Dillon being a "good-fit" with anyone.

At least not with the Dillon that we knew in Cincinnati ...

But maybe it is just that I am Old-School.

I mean shoot, I wanted Greg Cook as my Quarterback ...

[bengalboomer7]

Hey, I don't balme you about greg Cook. We would have a couple of those Super Bowl rings if Greg Cook played 10 or so years!