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John Martinez Pavliga from Chicago. Cropped by User:Blueag9., Steven-Jackson-vs49ers-Nov-18-2007, CC BY 2.0 
Keith Allison, Marshawn Lynch vs. Redskins 2014, CC BY-SA 2.0
The prototype power running back is an all-around offensive weapon who can carry a team’s offense with his ability to pound the football while also having the ability to catch passes out of the backfield. Over the past 20 years, two of the best power running backs to come around in the NFL have been Steven Jackson and Marshawn Lynch – in their respective primes, each was a true workhorse back known for his punishing running style and consistently producing 1,000-yard seasons year in and year out. With both players having hung up their cleats in recent years, it is perhaps a natural comparison to ask:
Who was better – Steven Jackson or Marshawn Lynch?
The Beginning
From standout high school football careers to NCAA stars, both Lynch and Jackson parlayed their success into being first-round NFL draft picks who were expected to become bellcow running backs.
A native of Las Vegas, Jackson was one of the area’s best high school football players (he also did track and field), earning Sunrise Regional MVP and leading his team to the state finals as a senior. As a result, he went on to attend Oregon State University, where he led the Pacific-10 (Pac-10) Conference in rushing as a sophomore and then set a school record with 2,015 yards from scrimmage as a junior while scoring 22 touchdowns (19 rushing, 3 receiving); overall, he remains second in school history with 4,545 career yards from scrimmage. Upon declaring early after his junior season, he was selected 24th overall in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams; as the backup and heir apparent to Marshall Faulk, Jackson had a productive rookie year, rushing for 673 yards and 4 touchdowns while adding 19 receptions for 189 yards.
Meanwhile, Lynch grew up in Oakland, California and was a four-sport high school star in football, basketball, track, and wrestling; in football, he was a PrepStar and SuperPrep All-American and earned San Francisco East Bay Player of the Year honors while playing running back and defensive back. For college, he stayed local at Cal (UC Berkeley) and rushed for 1,000+ yards with double-digit touchdowns as both a sophomore and junior; notably, as a junior, he was named First Team All-Pac-10, Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year, and First Team All-American. Like Jackson, Lynch declared for the NFL Draft after his junior year and was selected 12th overall in the first round in 2007 by the Buffalo Bills – an immediate starter, he rushed for 1,115 yards and 7 touchdowns as a rookie with 18 catches for 184 yards.
Career Comparison
With their peaks separated by just a few years, Jackson and Lynch were powerful forces in their primes – each dominated the NFC West with a slew of consecutive 1,000+ yard seasons while earning numerous Pro Bowl selections en route to 10,000+ career rushing yards apiece.
With an over-30 Faulk on his last legs, Jackson took over as the Rams’ starting running back in 2005 and proceeded to have his first 1,000-yard season, rushing for 1,046 yards and 8 touchdowns while adding 43 catches for 320 yards and a pair of scores. The next year, he would have a breakout campaign and earn the first of three Pro Bowl selections, as well as a Second Team All-Pro selection, leading the league in yards from scrimmage (2,334) with career-highs of 1,528 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns plus a staggering 90 receptions for 806 yards and 3 additional touchdowns. However, as the team struggled, he missed four games apiece over the next two seasons and barely eked out 1,000 rushing yards each year, with his receiving totals more than halved from 2006. Following these relative struggles, Jackson bounced back with consecutive Pro Bowl seasons and another Second Team All-Pro selection in 2009:
- 2009: 1,416 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns plus 51 receptions for 322 yards
- 2010: 1,241 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns plus 46 receptions for 383 yards
Entering a new decade, Jackson continued to serve as the Rams’ workhorse back, compiling another 1,145 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns to go with 42 catches for 333 yards and a touchdown in 2011. Ahead of the 2012 season, St. Louis drafted a couple of backs, portending an uncertain future with the Rams; nevertheless, he had a final 1,000-yard season (1,045 yards and 4 touchdowns, 38 receptions for 321 yards), thus surpassing 10,000 career rushing yards and becoming the eighth running back in league history with eight straight 1,000-yard seasons. Additionally, he also became the team’s all-time leading rusher and took over as the NFL’s active rushing leader with the retirement of LaDainian Tomlinson. At season’s end, Jackson became a free agent and signed with the Atlanta Falcons, though failed to reach 1,000 rushing yards in either of his two seasons with the team. Released after the 2014 season, he joined the New England Patriots, but only played in two games in his final NFL season; four years later, Jackson signed a one-day contract in 2019 to officially retire as a member of the Rams.
Building on his strong rookie season, Lynch followed up with another 1,000-yard season in 2008 (1,036 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns, plus a career-high 47 receptions for 300 yards and a touchdown), earning his first Pro Bowl selection. However, after pleading guilty to an offseason weapons charge, he was suspended for the first three games in 2009 and ended up backing up Fred Jackson for much of the year, thus only rushing for 450 yards. A few games into the 2010 season, Lynch was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a pair of draft picks and overall, had 737 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns across Buffalo and Seattle.
Given a new lease on life with the Seahawks, Lynch entered “Beast Mode” and reeled off four straight 1,000-yard Pro Bowl seasons with double-digit touchdowns – in his first full year with the team, he had 1,204 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, plus 28 catches for 212 yards and a touchdown. Then, in 2012, he had a career-year with 1,590 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, adding 23 catches for 196 yards and a touchdown, thus earning First Team All-Pro honors. As an encore, Lynch would then lead the NFL in rushing touchdowns in back-to-back seasons:
- 2013: 1,257 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns with 36 catches for 316 yards and 2 touchdowns
- 2014: 1,306 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns with 37 catches for a career-best 367 yards and 4 touchdowns; the 17 rushing and receiving touchdowns also led the league, resulting in Second Team All-Pro honors
The 2014 season would be Lynch’s last 1,000-yard campaign; after struggling through an injury-riddled 2015 season, he announced his NFL retirement at age 29. After sitting out in 2016, though, he returned in 2017 to join the Oakland Raiders, rushing for 891 yards and 7 touchdowns; following another season ended by injuries in 2018, the 33-year-old Lynch returned briefly to Seattle in 2019 to play one game in Week 17, though he has not officially retired for the second time.
While Lynch technically played one more season than Jackson in the NFL (13 to 12), the latter’s better durability led to 11 more total regular season games played; during that span, Jackson rushed for more yards and had better receiving numbers, but Lynch had a slightly better yards per attempt and scored significantly more touchdowns. Breaking the numbers down by season, Jackson leads in 1,000-yard seasons (8x vs. 6x), but Lynch has the advantage in double-digit touchdown campaigns (4x vs. 2x), in the process earning more Pro Bowl (5 to 3) and All-Pro selections (1 to 0). On a per-game basis, the same trends hold: Jackson averaged 95 total yards (72 rushing yards, 2.9 receptions for 23 receiving yards) with 0.49 touchdowns per game over 160 regular season games, while Lynch averaged 85 total yards (70 rushing yards, 1.9 receptions for 15 receiving yards) with 0.63 touchdowns per game across 149 regular season games. At present, both running backs are borderline Hall of Fame candidates whose career numbers and accomplishments will continue to be debated in terms of their worthiness to be enshrined in Canton.
Regular Season Statistics
| Steven Jackson | Player | Marshawn Lynch |
| 12 (2004-2015) | Seasons | 13 (2007-2019) |
| 160 | Games Played | 149 |
| 2,764 | Rushing Attempts | 2,453 |
| 11,438 | Rushing Yards | 10,413 |
| 4.1 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.2 |
| 69 | Rushing Touchdowns | 85 |
| 461 | Receptions | 287 |
| 3,683 | Receiving Yards | 2,214 |
| 9 | Receiving Touchdowns | 9 |
| 3x | Pro Bowls | 5x |
| – | All-Pro | 1x |
| – | MVP | – |
| – | Super Bowls | 1x |
| – | Other Awards | – |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
The postseason is where their careers diverged most – Jackson’s best years were mostly wasted on mediocre Rams teams, whereas Lynch was a key component of a Super Bowl-winning Seahawks team.
Jackson only made the playoffs twice (once at the very start of his career and once at the very end), rushing for fewer than 100 total yards in four games: during his rookie year with the Rams, the team advanced to the Divisional Round before losing to the Falcons in the waning days of “The Greatest Show on Turf”; in his final season with the Patriots, he scored his only career postseason touchdown as the team advanced to the AFC Conference Championship.
In contrast, across six postseason appearances with the Seahawks, Lynch holds the majority of team postseason rushing records and is currently tied for fourth all-time in postseason rushing touchdowns (12) with Hall of Famers Terrell Davis and John Riggins; notably, he helped guide the team to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in 2013 and 2014, rushing for 600+ yards and scoring 6 touchdowns during the runs:
- 2013: crushed the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII; though Lynch only gained 39 yards on 15 rushing attempts, he did score a touchdown
- 2014: lost Super Bowl XLIX to the New England Patriots 28-24 despite Lynch rushing 24 times for 102 yards and a touchdown, while also adding a 31-yard reception; infamously, instead of handing the ball off to Lynch at the Patriots’ one-yard line to potentially score the game-winning touchdown, Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson was intercepted by Malcolm Butler to end the game and seal New England’s victory
Playoff Statistics
| Steven Jackson | Player | Marshawn Lynch |
| 4 | Games Played | 13 |
| 29 | Rushing Attempts | 211 |
| 92 | Rushing Yards | 970 |
| 3.2 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.6 |
| 1 | Rushing Touchdowns | 12 |
| 4 | Receptions | 14 |
| 5 | Receiving Yards | 152 |
| – | 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; after his consistent excellence in St. Louis, Jackson leveled off later on his career, while Lynch similarly tailed off after his peak in Seattle. 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 Lynch is on for the 2010s), 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
| Steven Jackson | Player | Marshawn Lynch |
| 2005-2006, 2008-2010 | (Half)-Decade of Dominance | 2008, 2011-2014 |
| 74 | Games Played | 78 |
| 1,507 | Rushing Attempts | 1,431 |
| 6,273 | Rushing Yards | 6,393 |
| 4.2 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.5 |
| 38 | Rushing Touchdowns | 56 |
| 270 | Receptions | 171 |
| 2,210 | Receiving Yards | 1,391 |
| 6 | Receiving Touchdowns | 9 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Overall, Jackson and Lynch are quite closely matched across their five best seasons – Lynch was the better rusher and more of a touchdown threat, whereas Jackson was the more productive all-around player due to his receiving prowess.
My Thoughts
Between Steven Jackson and Marshawn Lynch, the latter undoubtedly has more brand recognition given his play in Seattle and his somewhat eccentric personality that has become larger-than-life in recent years. In terms of actual on-the-field play, though, I would argue that Jackson was supremely underrated given he toiled in mediocrity for most of his career. On one hand, I would certainly agree that Lynch had a better nose for scoring touchdowns and definitely elevated his game in the postseason while playing for the Seahawks. However, when you look at their production, Jackson’s career accomplishments as a whole stand out more in my opinion: eight consecutive 1,000-yard seasons (a feat accomplished previously by only five other running backs, all of whom are Hall of Famers), the Rams’ all-time leading rusher and the active rushing leader upon his retirement, plus an elite receiver out of the backfield (e.g. a 90-catch season) – overall, the epitome of a true workhorse running back. Regarding the Hall of Fame, both backs to me are right on the cusp, but I do believe each is ultimately deserving – Jackson for his all-around consistency and greatness, with Lynch’s postseason brilliance pushing him over the top.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Steven Jackson
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
- Alumni day: Steven Jackson declares he is greatest Rams running back of all time – Los Angeles Times
More Good Stuff
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