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During the 2000s, the D.C. area’s NFL teams, the Baltimore Ravens and the former Washington Redskins, were characterized by hard-nosed ground games on offense; spearheading these rushing attacks were two powerful, between-the-tackles runners in Jamal Lewis and Clinton Portis. Both were true workhorse backs who possessed the toughness and skill to rack up 1,000+ rushing yards year in and year out and give an unquestionable identity to their teams. However, this type of punishing running style ultimately took its toll and limited each player to less than a decade in the NFL – looking back on their similarly productive careers, the question is:
Who was better – Jamal Lewis or Clinton Portis?
The Beginning
As products of the football-rabid south, Lewis and Portis were both star running backs for championship teams in college and would go on to star in the NFL immediately in their rookie seasons.
A football and track star growing up in Atlanta, Lewis was one of the country’s top high school running back recruits and committed to Tennessee, then a powerhouse program in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). As a freshman in the same backfield as star quarterback Peyton Manning, he rushed for 1,364 yards and 7 touchdowns and was SEC Freshman of the Year Though he missed most of the 1998 season with a right knee injury, Lewis was nevertheless part of the BCS National Championship team that year and bounced back in 1999 to earn Second Team All-SEC honors. Following his junior season, Lewis declared early for the NFL Draft and was selected fifth overall in the first round by the Ravens – after taking over the starting running back job from Priest Holmes (who went on to have a great career in his own right with the Kansas City Chiefs), Lewis had a fantastic rookie year by rushing for 1,364 yards and 6 touchdowns while adding 27 receptions for 296 yards.
Similarly, Portis parlayed a stellar high school athletic career in Florida (football and track) into a football scholarship at the University of Miami (though he also continued to run track for the Hurricanes); as a true freshman, he seized the starting running back job and was part of a line of great backs to come through the program (Edgerrin James, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, etc., just to name a few). Though he lost playing time as a sophomore, Portis bounced back as a junior in 2001 to rush for 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns en route to First Team All-Big East honors while helping Miami win the National Championship. Like Lewis, he declared early for the NFL Draft after his junior year, but Portis fell to a second-round pick (51st overall) by the Denver Broncos in 2002. Nevertheless, he also took over the starting job as a rookie and rushed for 1,508 yards and a career-best 15 touchdowns with 33 receptions for 364 yards and 2 touchdowns to earn Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
Career Comparison
During their prime years in the early and mid-2000s, Lewis and Portis were perennial 1,000-yard rushers and each accumulated around 10,000 career rushing yards, though like many backs, each would hit the proverbial wall as they racked up mileage on their carries and approached age 30.
Going into his second season, Lewis suffered a serious knee injury in training camp and ended up missing the entire season. Nevertheless, he bounced back in 2002 with 1,327 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns with a career-high 47 catches for 442 yards and a touchdown. This was followed by a career-best year in 2003: with a league-high 2,066 rushing yards plus 14 touchdowns, as well as 26 receptions for 205 yards, Lewis not only earned both Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors and was named Offensive Player of the Year, but he also became just the fifth player with 2,000+ rushing yards in a season (joining O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Terrell Davis, and Barry Sanders; since then, Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, and Derrick Henry have also rushed for 2,000 yards) and his total was second all-time only to Dickerson’s 2,105 rushing yards in 1984 (though later surpassed by Peterson’s 2,097 yards in 2012). Moreover, Lewis also set a single-game record with 295 rushing yards in a game vs. the Cleveland Browns, breaking Corey Dillon’s previous record of 278 yards; again, this was later surpassed by Peterson with 296 rushing yards in a game.
As an encore, Lewis produced another 1,000 yard season in 2004 (1,006 yards and 7 touchdowns with 10 receptions for 116 yards), but his rushing totals continued to wane from his first few seasons. After dipping to just 906 yards in 2005, he had another 1,000-yard season with the Ravens in 2006: 1,132 rushing yards with 9 touchdowns, plus 18 catches for 115 yards. However, Lewis was released ahead of the 2007 season and would sign with the rival Browns (remember that the original Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens); he got off to a strong start with his new team by rushing for 1,304 yards and 9 touchdowns (his best totals since his 2002 season), and adding 30 catches for 248 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 2007. This was followed by a final 1,000-yard season in 2008 (barely – 1,002 yards with 4 touchdowns), but Lewis struggled through injuries in 2009 with nine games played and an even 500 rushing yards, retiring at the season’s conclusion at age 30.
In his second season in 2003, Portis continued his dominance with another 1,500-yard season and his first Pro Bowl selection: 1,591 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns along with 38 receptions for 314 yards. However, in the offseason, he was surprisingly traded to the Redskins for star cornerback Champ Bailey and a second-round draft pick (which Denver used in turn to select another running back in Tatum Bell).
During his time in Washington, Portis began his tenure in 2004 by rushing for 1,315 yards and 5 touchdowns with 40 catches for 235 yards and 2 touchdowns. He improved the next season to 1,516 yards (a franchise record for rushing yards in a season) and 11 touchdowns plus 30 receptions for 216 yards, thus giving him three 1,500-yard seasons in his first four NFL seasons. After missing half the 2006 season with various injuries and only rushing for 523 yards, Portis bounced back in 2007 with 1,262 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, as well as a career-high 47 receptions for 389 yards in the air. Finally, he produced a second/final Pro Bowl season and final 1,000-yard season in 2008 to the tune of 1,487 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns with 28 catches for 218 yards. Unfortunately, Portis struggled through the 2009 and 2010 seasons with various ailments, playing a total of 13 games and rushing for just over 700 yards total; released after the 2011 season, he officially retired in 2012, having last played an NFL game at age 29 in 2010.
Each running back played nine NFL seasons, but Lewis has 18 extra regular season games under his belt due to better durability; as a result, he rushed for more career yards, but Portis had a higher career yards per attempt and scored more rushing touchdowns while also being a better receiver out of the backfield. Similarly, Lewis accumulated more 1,000-yard seasons (7 to 6), whereas Portis scored double-digit touchdowns more often (4x to 2x) – this resulted in more Pro Bowls for the latter (2 to 1), but the former was also an All-Pro and Offensive Player of the Year in his 2003 season. On a per-game basis, Portis was clearly more productive, averaging 106 total yards (88 rushing, 2.2 receptions for 18 receiving yards) and 0.71 touchdowns per game across 113 regular season games vs. Lewis’ 95 total yards (81 rushing, 1.7 receptions for 14 receiving yards) and 0.47 touchdowns per game in 131 regular season games. The Hall of Fame question is an interesting one, as there is a glut of borderline running backs around the 10,000-11,000 career rushing yard mark (Fred Taylor, Steven Jackson, Corey Dillon, Ricky Watters, Warrick Dunn, Thomas Jones, Tiki Barber, Eddie George, Marshawn Lynch, Ricky Williams, etc.).
Regular Season Statistics
| Jamal Lewis | Player | Clinton Portis |
| 9 (2000, 2002-2009) | Seasons | 9 (2002-2010) |
| 131 | Games Played | 113 |
| 2,542 | Rushing Attempts | 2,230 |
| 10,607 | Rushing Yards | 9,923 |
| 4.2 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.4 |
| 58 | Rushing Touchdowns | 75 |
| 221 | Receptions | 247 |
| 1,879 | Receiving Yards | 2,018 |
| 4 | Receiving Touchdowns | 5 |
| 1x | Pro Bowls | 2x |
| 1x | All-Pro | – |
| – | MVP | – |
| 1x | Super Bowls | – |
| 1x Offensive POY | Other Awards | Offensive ROY |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
From a playoff perspective, both running backs generally underperformed in limited appearances, but Lewis was a key contributor on a Super Bowl-winning team.
In three playoff trips with Baltimore (he never made the postseason with the Browns), by far Lewis’ most memorable year was in his 2000 rookie season – behind a stout defense led by Ray Lewis, the Ravens made it to Super Bowl XXXV, where they pitched a defensive shutout over the New York Giants in a 34-7 victory (the Giants’ lone touchdown came via a kickoff return); for his part, Lewis rushed for 338 yards and 4 touchdowns across 4 playoff games, including 27 attempts for 102 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl.
In contrast, though Portis also made three postseason appearances (1x with the Broncos and 2x with the Redskins), he experienced very little playoff success – all in all, his teams won one game, a 2005 Wildcard victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before falling to the Seattle Seahawks in the next round, and Portis himself never rushed for 100 yards in a game while barely averaging 3 yards per carry.
Playoff Statistics
| Jamal Lewis | Player | Clinton Portis |
| 6 | Games Played | 4 |
| 130 | Rushing Attempts | 70 |
| 426 | Rushing Yards | 214 |
| 3.3 | Yards Per Attempt | 3.1 |
| 4 | Rushing Touchdowns | 1 |
| 10 | Receptions | 8 |
| 68 | Receiving Yards | 44 |
| – | Receiving Touchdowns | – |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; as productive as each running back was early in his career, the wear-and-tear of the position led to both Lewis and Portis retiring by age 30. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams, of which Lewis is on for the 2000s as part of the Second Team), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years. However, given the shorter careers most running backs have due to the physical toll of the position (very few running backs are effective after age 30), I have modified it in this comparison to a “(half)-decade of dominance”.
(Half)-Decade of Dominance
| Jamal Lewis | Player | Clinton Portis |
| 2000, 2002-2003, 2006-2007 | (Half)-Decade of Dominance | 2002-2003, 2005, 2007-2008 |
| 79 | Games Played | 77 |
| 1,616 | Rushing Attempts | 1,582 |
| 7,193 | Rushing Yards | 7,364 |
| 4.5 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.7 |
| 44 | Rushing Touchdowns | 60 |
| 148 | Receptions | 176 |
| 1,306 | Receiving Yards | 1,501 |
| 3 | Receiving Touchdowns | 2 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Even when you factor in Lewis’ 2,000-yard season in 2003, Portis was generally more productive (both rushing and receiving) across each player’s five best seasons – remember that in his first four seasons, Portis rushed for 1,500+ yards 3x and he also had another season with 1,487 rushing yards.
My Thoughts
During the 2000s, Jamal Lewis and Clinton Portis were bellcow running backs who were consistently at or near the top of the annual rushing lists (and were first-round or second-round fantasy picks year in and year out). Though Lewis will forever be remembered for his 2003 season and piled up more career rushing yards, Portis in my view was the more consistently productive back – outside of the 2,066-yard year, Lewis never had more than 1,400 yards rushing in a season, whereas Portis did it 4x and with two different teams to boot. Furthermore, the former Broncos/Redskins great had a better nose for finding the end zone and was a superior receiver, thus also making him the more versatile and well-rounded player. Unfortunately, Portis’ legacy may be overshadowed by being on the other side of the Champ Bailey trade and for his off-the-field troubles after retirement, but this should not detract from his on-field production. In terms of the Hall of Fame, I think each running back falls just short – neither was truly the best running back of his era and their career rushing totals put them into a tier with numerous other very good, but not quite great runners.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Clinton Portis
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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