Barry Sanders. What made Barry Sanders so great? He was one of the best running backs of all time in terms of stats WHILE playing with one of the worst offensive lines in NFL History. Sanders is 3rd in NFL career rushing yards with 15,269, less than 1500 away from Walter Payton's record, and he did it in only 10 years. Consider that it took Walter Payton 13 years to reach 16,726 yards, and Emmitt Smith 14 years to reach 18,355 yards. Barry Sanders could easily have the NFL rushing yards record.