Terrell Davis- What he could have been/ What he was

by Jon Tollerud on Jun 4, 2008 1:12 PM MDT

I thoought I would get a little history and speculation here. Terrell Davis is my Favorite Player all time so you may have to excuse a bit of What if here! His Premature ending fo his career casue some speculation. I loved watching Georgia games just because of him! I was more apt to blame Griese than Lepsis because the whole team had to try and make up for homeboys failure to complete a pass. I was thinking about TD and what could have been the other day.

8 years
78 games
7607 yards
1655 carries
4.6 average

now the average career for a back in tthe NFL who is a "Franchise Back" is about 10 years. TD had one year where he was on teh roster but didnt play AT ALL. So lets give him 7 credible years. 78 games in 7 years is roughly 11 gaems a year. his total yards divided by games averages to 97.6 yards per game so add 3 more years of 11 games and TD ends up with another 3221 yards. But since TD was a "Franchise" back he would have played roughly 13-14 games a year. so that would change the number to 4100 yards to add to his 7607 11,707 yards for his career based on these numbers is a DAMN good back. Also TD only averaged 22 carries per game (for those big 30-40 carry guys to note) which adding 42 more games to his plate would bring total carries to 1697 for his career. which puts his average at 6.9 yards per carry. Not bad stats, Hall of Fame worthy if he had lasted 10 years! Again this is all theory and no one knows how it would have worked out.

So thats what he could have been and a littel of what he was. One thing I willpoint out to you, Terrell Davis was not a 30 carry back. He had occasional games where he would get the rock 25 -30-35 times but his career average is 22 carries. this may be skewed by the earlier and later years of his career but in the end he was the primary back and still split carries with Vaugh Hebron and others. I think even with TD we were a running back by commitee team just not as big of a reliance on the committee as much as reliance on TD and Elway. Anyway thought I would put this up there to debate a little bit.

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TD had 4 good years

Though he only played for 7 years, it’s only the first 4 that made his name. His first 4 years he played in 61 games.

From 1999-2001 he only played in 17 games for those three seasons. Total rushing yards were 1194 yards on 312 carries = 3.8 ypc for those 17 games.

Take away those years and look at his numbers from 95-98 and he has a respectful average of 4.7 ypc carrying the ball 6413 yds.

A lot of guys call for TD to make the HOF, but his tenure will always hold him back from that distinction from many of the so called voting members. The one thing TD has on his side is his Post Season numbers which are among if not the best for a career.

"If Denver beats us, I'll walk back to Detroit"

Alex Karras

by Denver Diehard on Jun 4, 2008 1:41 PM MDT 0 recs

I didnt even include those numbers

There is always a lot of speculation and I agree that “8” years on a team and not averaging 1000 yards a season as well as Playing for Denver can hurt a players chances. This was put up for merely speculation and conversation!

Until Terrell Davis makes it into the Hall of Fame, I refuse to acknowledge the existence of such a place other than the Ring of Fame at Mile High!

Davis to the Hall!

by Jon Tollerud on Jun 4, 2008 1:45 PM MDT up 0 recs