Freeman McNeil ranks in the all-time elite tier for running backs — a career that places McNeil in the top 3% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns McNeil a career score of 83, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

RBNYJ#0RES

Freeman McNeil

3× Pro Bowl1× All-ProTop 2% all-time RBsIron Legend📊 Undervalued by voters ⛰️ Mountain Arc · 1985

Height

Career Value · VORP

272 career value over replacement — #183 all-time of 4,695. 22.7/season above a replacement-level RB.

Draft OutcomeValue ↑

Pick #3 (Rd 1) · NYJ · 1981 · +19.7 vs expected KV-H

83actual

63.3 expected · Δ+19.7

💔+59.9 stolen VORP·2.64 szns lost

Fan Rating

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Compare Freeman McNeil vs Player Report data error

All-Time Standing

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

Depth

of 100

Reached 44% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

44% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader44

1 category ≥25% of the all-time leader33

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: 92%.

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

From Scrimmage · Career

Scrimmage Yds

11,035

8,074 rush · 2,961 recv

Total TDs

38 rush · 12 recv

Total Touches

2,093

1,798 carries · 295 rec

Yds / Touch

5.3

rushing + receiving

Career Milestones8

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

19821K career rushing yards
19843K career rushing yards
19851K career receiving yards
1985100 career receptions
19865K career rushing yards
198825 career rushing TDs

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.

College Stats

UCLACollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (UCLA), 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

Johnny HectorRB10y Ken O'BrienQB9y Al ToonWR8y Jo-Jo TownsellWR6y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Freeman inherited the New York Jets RB room from Bruce Harper (1977–1984), and handed it to Johnny Hector (1983–1992).

John Riggins 1971–1975Clark Gaines 1976–1980Bruce Harper 1977–1984Freeman McNeil 1981–1992Johnny Hector 1983–1992Richie Anderson

Similar Players

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

Movementderived from season history

1992final season
Last recorded season with NYJ
1981draft
Drafted by NYJ — Round 1, Pick 3

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

5'11" / 216 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 12-season peers. See all →

peak 88

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

B1981

A1982

B+1983

A1984

A+1985

B+1986

B+1987

A1988

B1989

B1990

B1991

C+1992

Availability

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
1981	623	56.6	1,030+407	60.6
1982	786	87.3	1,664+878	97.9
1983	654	72.7	1,399+745	82.3
1984	1,070	89.2	1,828+758	107.6
1985	1,331	95.1	1,992+661	117.2
1986	856	71.3	1,563+707	91.9
1987	530	58.9	1,407+877	82.8
1988	944	59	1,449+505	85.2
1989	352	32	854+502	50.2
1990	458	28.6	818+360	48.1
1991	300	23.1	691+391	40.7
1992	170	14.2	499+329	29.3

Data: nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:players, wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), nfl.com:official-stats (games-played, facts-only reference) · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.

Canton Monitor · HOF

Calibrated Hall-of-Fame probability — fit against actual enshrinement. See all →

21%

Building a Case

What carries the case

Era Quality (KV-H) 45.2%All-Pro 17.3%Longevity 17.3%Pro Bowls 13%League Leads 5.8%All-Time Ranks 1.4%

Monitor score 69.4 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

What Would It Take?

To reach 50% HOF probability (score target: 109.1 · current: 69.4 · gap: +39.7)

4 more selections(First-Team All-Pro · 12 pts each · +48 pts total)

8 more more seasons started(Starter Seasons · 1.5 pts each · +12 pts total)

10 more seasons leading the NFL(League Lead · 4 pts each · +40 pts total)

Paths ranked cheapest first · accolade-based, data-calibrated vs actual enshrinement

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity80

Peak88

Accolades21

Consistency50

Per-Snap50

On the boards· Appears on 2 boards

Freeman McNeil

All-Time Standing

Where this data comes from

Career Aging Trajectory

From Scrimmage · Career

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Knox

Era Translator

1981 Draft Class· this player went #3

Career Geography