Antowain Smith ranks in the all-time elite tier for running backs — a career that places Smith in the top 10% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Smith a career score of 73, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.
Reached 37% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.
A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leader at this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 90%.
Career Value · VORP
164 career value over replacement — #560 all-time of 4,695. 18.2/season above a replacement-level RB.
Career Profile
Pick #23 (Rd 1) · BUF · 1997 · +16.7 vs expected KV-H
Fan Rating
Rate Antowain Smith — All-Time
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StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.
Pre-1999 players have bio + draft data but counting stats are not available from any freely-licensed source. Players with ★ Career Only see verified career aggregates from nflverse draft_picks.
Modern-era stats (1999+) come from nflverse's open data releases. Pre-1999 seasons are backfilled additively from Wikipedia and NFL.com's own official season pages — never from rights-restricted sources.
Amber = this player (normalized to own peak). Indigo = average RBs aging curve. Group peak age: 21. Source: StatVault KV-H era (1999+).
Major career thresholds crossed, derived from regular-season totals (1999+).
Rushing
Receiving
Defense
Proprietary StatVault Metrics
College stats are not imported for this profile yet.
StatVault has the verified college attribution (Houston; East Mississippi JC), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.
Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.
Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).
Joined NO (from TEN)
Last recorded season with NO
Joined TEN (from NE)
Joined NE (from BUF)
Drafted by BUF — Round 1, Pick 23
StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →
Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 9-season peers. See all →
Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 9 seasons.
Composite score across availability, IR frequency, and injury severity. See all →
Rush Yds translated to the 2025 NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.
| Season | Actual Rush Yds | Rush Yds/G | → 2025 Rush Yds | → 2025 /G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 840 | 52.5 | 1,202+362 | 70.7 |
| 1998 | 1,124 | 80.3 | 1,670+546 | 98.2 |
| 1999 | 602 | 43 | 921+319 | 54.2 |
| 2000 | 354 | 35.4 | 731+377 | 43 |
| 2001 | 1,157 | 72.3 | 1,212+55 | 71.3 |
| 2002 | 982 | 61.4 | 1,008+26 | 59.3 |
| 2003 | 642 | 49.4 | 825+183 | 48.5 |
| 2004 | 509 | 46.3 | 757+248 | 44.5 |
| 2005 | 659 | 41.2 | 683+24 | 40.2 |
Data: nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats, nflverse:player_stats_def, nflverse:advanced-epa (CC-BY 4.0), wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), espn.com:stats-api (games-played, facts-only reference) · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026
Sammie Smith
RB
88% match
1997 Draft ClassmatesFull class →
Wore 4 distinct franchise crests across 9 seasons (1997–2005) — a true nomad. The crest trail: