Barry Sanders NFL Stats, Career Profile & VAL

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Strong

of 100

Reached 83% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader — a strong all-time profile at the position.

83% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader83

2 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader67

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: 94%.

Encyclopedia Coverage4/8 data layers

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Not available for this player

Defensive StatsNot available for this player

College StatsCollege attribution is present, but this profile artifact does not yet carry a parsed college stat table.

NFL Combine / Pro DayNot available for this player

Proprietary LayersKV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — era-normalized career rating 0–100 calibrated within position group (1999+ coverage). SIS (Snap Impact Score, 2012+) — per-snap production z-scored within position. VORP — value over replacement player. Durability IQ — games-played percentile adjusted for era.

Where this data comes from

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.

nflverse — CC-BY 4.0 — attribution required
Wikipedia — Facts extracted under Feist v. Rural Telephone; courtesy CC-BY-SA attribution
NFL.com — Official league site; facts extracted under Feist, courtesy attribution

Methodology · Trust Center

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Amber = this player (normalized to own peak). Indigo = average RBs aging curve. Group peak age: 21. Source: StatVault KV-H era (1999+).

Playoff vs Regular Season

📉 Regular Season Player

Yards / Carry: 5.0 regular season → 4.3 playoffs (5 playoff seasons)

-14%

vs reg season

From Scrimmage · Career

Scrimmage Yds

18,190

15,269 rush · 2,921 recv

Total TDs

109

99 rush · 10 recv

Total Touches

3,414

3,062 carries · 352 rec

Yds / Touch

5.3

rushing + receiving

Career Milestones13

Major career thresholds crossed, derived from regular-season totals (1999+).

19891K career rushing yards
199025 career rushing TDs
19913K career rushing yards
19911K career receiving yards
1991100 career receptions
19925K career rushing yards

Understanding These Stats

Rushing

Att — Rushing attempts (carries).

Yds — Rushing yards.

TD — Rushing touchdowns.

Y/A — Yards per carry — rushing yards ÷ carries. The core rushing efficiency rate; 4.5+ is solid, 5+ is elite.

TD% — Touchdown rate per carry (TDs ÷ carries × 100) — measures scoring efficiency per touch independent of volume. Red-zone workhorses lead here.

1D — First downs gained on rushing plays.

1D% — First-down conversion rate (first downs ÷ carries × 100) — how often a carry moves the chains. Top RBs convert on 25%+ of attempts.

Fmb — Rushing fumbles lost — the key ball-security stat for running backs. Below 1 per season is elite.

Receiving

Tgt — Targets — how many times the receiver was thrown to, regardless of completion.

Rec — Receptions — catches made.

Yds — Receiving yards.

Postseason Career

Rushing

Att91Yds388TD1Y/A4.3TD%1.1

Receiving

Rec21Yds111Y/R5.3

College Stats

Oklahoma StateCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Oklahoma State), 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.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

Top Teammates

Herman MooreWR8y Robert PorcherDE7y Dan OwensDT7y Tracy ScrogginsDE7y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Barry inherited the Detroit Lions RB room from Billy Sims (1980–1984), and handed it to D'Andre Swift (2020–2022).

Bill Dudley 1947–1949Doak Walker 1950–1955Dexter Bussey 1974–1984Horace King 1975–1983Billy Sims 1980–1984Barry Sanders

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

1998final season
Last recorded season with DET
1989draft
Drafted by DET — Round 1, Pick 3

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

5'8" / 200 lb

Frame

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 10-season peers. See all →

peak 97

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

A+1989

A+1990

A+1991

A+1992

A+1993

A+1994

A+1995

A+1996

A+1997

A+1998

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 10 seasons.

96%

Era Translator

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
1989	1,470	98	2,338+868	137.5
1990	1,304	81.5	2,024+720	119
1991	1,548	103.2	2,469+921	145.2
1992	1,352	84.5	2,006+654	118
1993	1,115	101.4	2,318+1,203	136.4
1994	1,883	117.7	2,477+594	145.7
1995	1,500	93.8	1,995+495	117.4
1996	1,553	97.1	2,058+505	121
1997	2,053	128.3	2,556+503	150.4
1998	1,491	93.2	1,897+406	111.6

Data: nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:players, wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), wikipedia:college-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