Walter Payton ranks in the all-time elite tier for running backs — a career that places Payton in the top 1% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Payton a career score of 90, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 5 boards

Streaks6 straight · 1,000 rushing yards · 1976–81

RBCHI#0ACT

Walter Payton

"Sweetness"

Top 1% all-time RBsIron Legend📊 Undervalued by voters 📉 Fades · -19% playoffs

Career Value · VORP

380 career value over replacement — #49 all-time of 4,695. 29.2/season above a replacement-level RB.

Draft OutcomeSteal ↑

Pick #4 (Rd 1) · CHI · 1975 · +26.7 vs expected KV-H

90actual

63.3 expected · Δ+26.7

Fan Rating

Rate Walter Payton — All-Time

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Compare Walter Payton vs Player Report data error

📈 Late Developer · 1984

Height5'10"

Weight200 lb

BornJul 25, 1954

Age72

CollegeJackson State University See College Stats

Rookie yr1975

Draft1975 · Rd 1, Pick 4 · CHI

All-Time Standing

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

Elite

of 100

Reached 91% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader — a elite all-time profile at the position.

91% of the all-time Rushing Yards leader91

3 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader100

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

Playoff vs Regular Season

📉 Regular Season Player

Yards / Carry: 4.4 regular season → 3.5 playoffs (6 playoff seasons)

-19%

vs reg season

From Scrimmage · Career

Scrimmage Yds

21,264

16,726 rush · 4,538 recv

Total TDs

125

110 rush · 15 recv

Total Touches

4,330

3,838 carries · 492 rec

Yds / Touch

4.9

rushing + receiving

Career Milestones15

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

19761K career rushing yards
19773K career rushing yards
197725 career rushing TDs
19785K career rushing yards
19781K career receiving yards
1978100 career receptions

Understanding These Stats

Passing

Cmp / Att — Completions and pass attempts.

Cmp% — Completion percentage — completions ÷ attempts × 100.

Yds — Passing yards — total air + yards after catch on completions.

TD / TD% — Passing touchdowns. TD% = TDs per 100 attempts, measuring scoring efficiency.

Int / Int% — Interceptions thrown. Int% = INTs per 100 attempts — the primary ball-security metric.

Y/A — Yards per attempt — passing yards ÷ attempts. The core passing efficiency rate.

AdjY/A — Adjusted yards per attempt: (Pass Yds + 20×TD − 45×INT) ÷ Att. Penalizes turnovers and rewards touchdowns — widely considered the most predictive single-season QB metric.

TD:INT — TD-to-interception ratio — passing touchdowns ÷ interceptions thrown. Elite QBs sustain career ratios above 3.0; HOF greats often exceed 4.0. Not shown when no interceptions.

Rate — NFL passer rating — the official formula combining Cmp%, Y/A, TD%, and INT% on a 0–158.3 scale. Good QB performance ≈ 90+; elite ≈ 110+.

Sk — Times sacked — how many times the QB was brought down behind the line of scrimmage.

Postseason Career

Passing

Yds19TD1

Rushing

Att180Yds632TD2Y/A3.5TD%1.1

Receiving

Rec22

College Stats

Jackson State UniversityCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Jackson State University), 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

Matt SuheyRB8y Dennis GentryRB6y Jim McMahonQB6y Richard DentDE5y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Walter inherited the Chicago Bears RB room from Gale Sayers (1965–1971), and handed it to Matt Suhey (1980–1989).

George McAfee 1940–1950Gale Sayers 1965–1971Walter Payton 1975–1987Matt Suhey 1980–1989Dennis Gentry 1982–1992Neal Anderson

Similar Players

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

Movementderived from season history

1987final season
Last recorded season with CHI
1975draft
Drafted by CHI — Round 1, Pick 4

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

5'10" / 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 13-season peers. See all →

peak 94

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

C+1975

B+1976

A1977

B+1978

B+1979

A1980

B+1981

B+1982

A1983

A+1984

A+1985

A1986

B1987

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
1975	679	52.2	225-454	13.2
1976	1,390	99.3	1,096-294	64.4
1977	1,852	132.3	1,484-368	87.3
1978	1,395	87.2	974-421	57.3
1979	1,610	100.6	1,342-268	79
1980	1,460	91.3	1,470+10	86.5
1981	1,222	76.4	1,345+123	79.1
1982	596	66.2	1,287+691	75.7
1983	1,421	88.8	1,682+261	98.9
1984	1,684	105.3	2,131+447	125.3
1985	1,551	96.9	2,028+477	119.3
1986	1,333	83.3	1,806+473	106.2
1987	533	44.4	1,093+560	64.3

Data: nflverse:players, wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), wikipedia:pfhof-inductee-list · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026

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.

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

50 career rushing TDs

19808K career rushing yards

198210K career rushing yards

1982250 career receptions

198375 career rushing TDs

19833K career receiving yards

198412K career rushing yards

198615K career rushing yards

1986100 career rushing TDs

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.

TD — Receiving touchdowns.

Ctch% — Catch rate — receptions ÷ targets × 100. Measures how reliably a receiver turns opportunities into gains. 70%+ is elite.

Y/R — Yards per reception — receiving yards ÷ receptions. Measures big-play ability; 15+ is elite for WRs.

Y/Tgt — Yards per target — receiving yards ÷ targets. The single most complete receiving efficiency metric: accounts for both drops and incomplete targets. Elite receivers post 8+ yards per target.

AirYd/T — Air yards per target — average depth of route at time of target. High values indicate a deep threat role; low values indicate a slot/check-down role.

1D — First downs gained on receiving plays.

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.

The room is reconstructed from arrival order among durable members (≥4 seasons with the club) at the player’s position group — a lineage by arrival, not a week-by-week depth chart. Distinct from the league-wide positional GOAT torch.

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 13 seasons.

Durability IQ

Composite score across availability, IR frequency, and injury severity. See all →

Iron

Canton Monitor · HOF

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

17%

Building a Case

What carries the case

Era Quality (KV-H) 64.3%All-Time Ranks 22.7%League Leads 13%

Monitor score 61.7 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity93

Peak94

Accolades7

Consistency50

Per-Snap50

Historical Rank · Era-Adjusted

Best single season, projected to Rushing Yards in a modern 17-game schedule. See all →

#30

1984 · RB · all-time

Career Geography

One-Club ManLeague board →

Gave the Chicago Bears an entire corpus-attributed career — 13 seasons (1975–1987), one crest. The rarest loyalty in the sport.

On the boards· Appears on 5 boards

Walter Payton

All-Time Standing

Where this data comes from

Career Aging Trajectory

From Scrimmage · Career

Postseason Career

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Knox

Era Translator

1975 Draft Class· this player went #4

Career Geography