HOF: Let's discuss RB Ricky Watters
(Editor’s Note: This is part of a series on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s quest to select the Class of 2025 with a new process and personnel. Written by Frank Cooney, a Seniors Blue Ribbon Selection Committee member in his 32nd year as a selector. Charts in this post are best viewed on a computer screen rather than a phone.)
There is a school of thought that running back Ricky Watters played his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame threshold but talked his way out.
Watters, a standout running back and receiver for three NFL teams, is once again poised just outside the Hall of Fame as a semifinalist for the fifth time as selectors consider the cutdown from 25 to 15 for the Class of 2025.
I would like to see him survive the cut to 15 so we can discuss his complicated contribution to pro football, which was significant on the field, the only place we are supposed to judge him.
Ah, but if that were only true.
Watters rushed for 10,643 yards in 10 seasons, including rushing for at least 1,000 yards seven times and at least once for each of the three franchises for whom he played — the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Seattle Seahawks. Watters also caught 467 passes for 4,248 yards (13 TDs), giving him 14,891 yards from scrimmage and 91 touchdowns in his career. Those numbers are better than many running backs in the Hall of Fame.
Watters came up big in big games. In a 1994 NFC Divisional Round playoff game, Watters set an NFL postseason record with five rushing touchdowns as the 49ers trounced the New York Giants, 44–3. His 30 points scored in one game set a postseason record that still stands.
In Super Bowl XXIX the following season, Watters scored three touchdowns in San Francisco's 49–26 victory over the San Diego Chargers, tying a Super Bowl mark shared by, among others, fellow former 49ers running back Roger Craig.
Craig may be one reason Watters isn’t getting much Hall of Fame support from the 49ers. Although Craig already fell out of the Modern Era category, he receives annual backing from 49ers fans and ex-players. Craig is a beloved alumnus of the 49ers, partly because of his play and because he always said the right thing.
Watters had an abrasive personality and said the wrong thing far too often. One remark, in particular, earned him a spot in the Hall of Infamy. On Sept. 3, 1995, following his first game as an Eagle, Watters was asked why he didn’t stretch out for a pass from quarterback Randall Cunningham. The obvious reason was that two Tampa Bay defenders would have crushed him in a disappointing 27-6 loss in the home opener.
“For who? For what?’’ Watters said.
That four-word response followed him for the rest of his career and beyond. He later said he regretted saying those four words. But in a move that offers insight into his personality, resilience, or perhaps sheer stubbornness, Watters named his Autobiography For Who? For What?
Maybe he didn’t see the error of his ways. After all, it should have been For Whom? For What?
Right?
🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈
Enough of that. Let’s discuss Watters’ place in the history of running backs.
Fellow Senior Committee selector Ron Borges is one of the few who ignores the noise and continues to advocate that we at least get Watters “into the room” as a finalist so we can officially discuss his candidacy for the first time.
Borges: It seems football has forgotten him. But that’s not easy to do considering Watters scored those 91 touchdowns in 10 seasons and rushed for more than 1,000 yards seven times with the 49ers, Eagles, and Seattle Seahawks, one of only two backs in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards for three teams.
Another selector, Mike Sando, puts together charts to help evaluate the relative production of wide receivers and running backs by averaging percentiles for players. He focuses on the eight best seasons for wide receivers. For running backs, who generally have shorter windows of elite production, Sando opted for six seasons instead of eight.
To qualify, players had to rank among the top 100 rushers of all time. To account for receiving production among these top rushers, he averaged percentiles for where each ranked in scrimmage yardage, not just rushing yardage, during their six best seasons from scrimmage. As a result, versatile backs such as Watters, Marshall Faulk, Tiki Barber, Matt Forte, and Roger Craig ascended on the list. Others, like Joe Perry and Jim Taylor, would have ranked higher if only rushing yards were considered.
The great Jim Brown came out on top with a 1.000 average percentile, a reflection of the fact he led the league in scrimmage yards six times. Barry Sanders, Walter Payton and Eric Dickerson were next, followed by Thurman Thomas and Faulk.
Sando will redo the chart after this season, but this one (below) from 2022 is revealing. It shows that of the 50 running backs on this chart, only one eligible right now for the Hall of Fame — Tiki Barber — rates higher than Watters. Barber was eliminated from this year’s list in the cut from 50 to 25.
There are 25 running backs in the Hall of Fame. On Sando’s chart, culled from the top 100 rushers in NFL history, Watters is definitely among the elite, rated 14th overall. That is ahead of, among others, Hall of Famers Tony Dorsett, Edgerrin James, and Marcus Allen.
However, with Watters one year away from falling into the Senior Abyess, now is the time to discuss his candidacy because the HOF Modern Era running back room is about to become crowded. Not only is Barber still a viable Modern Era prospect, but Adrian Peterson and LeSean McCoy — listed above Watters on the chart — will be eligible for the Class of 2026.
Sando’s chart from 2022
Rates running backs regardless of Hall of Fame Status
Here are Sando’s comments regarding the chart.
*= Hall of Fame inductee
1. Jim Brown*
Brown led the NFL in rushing eight times in nine seasons. He led the league in scrimmage yards six of those seasons and went out on top as league MVP. His 104.3-yard average per game rushing ranks best in league history by nearly five yards per game.
2. Barry Sanders*
Sanders ranks second to Brown in rushing yards per game. Others were better on passing downs, but it seems safe to say no back could match Sanders’ running style, especially his ability to stop, start and repeat the process.
3. Walter Payton*
Payton amazingly led the NFL in rushing just once and in scrimmage yards twice, but his 10 seasons with at least 1,200 yards reflected a level of consistent excellence few have achieved. His career-high 1,852-yard season in 1977, headlined by a then-record 275 yards against Minnesota, came during the 14-game scheduling era.
4. Eric Dickerson*
Dickerson led the NFL in scrimmage yards three times and tied with Craig for the top spot another time (1988), which is why his fourth-best season reads as 0.996 instead of 1.000. His record for rushing yards in a season, set in 1985, still stands at 2,105 yards. His 3,913 yards rushing through his first two seasons is an NFL record by nearly 700 yards (Edgerrin James had 3,262 over his first two seasons; Jonathan Taylor stands seventh at 2,980).
5. Thurman Thomas*
Thomas’s production as a receiver pushed him up this list. He would rank 12th if we were measuring only each player’s six best seasons for rushing yardage instead of their six best for yards from scrimmage. Thomas led the league in yards from scrimmage four successive seasons from 1989-1992 but never led the league in rushing.
6. Marshall Faulk*
Faulk peaked across the 1998 and 1999 seasons with 2,700 yards rushing, 1,956 yards receiving and 22 total touchdowns. He ranks ahead of Kellen Winslow, Julian Edelman and Cris Collinsworth on the all-time receiving yardage list, with Tyreek Hill passing Faulk just this season. If we excluded receiving yards from consideration, Faulk would stand 23rd on this list. No back has more than his 6,875 yards on receptions.
T-7. Adrian Peterson (HOF eligible 2026)
Peterson led the league in rushing three times and in scrimmage yards twice. His 2,097-yard season in 2012 nearly broke Dickerson’s record. His 296-yard game against the Chargers that season set the single-game record. Peterson owns six 200-yard games but wasn’t a prolific receiver.
T-7. LaDainian Tomlinson*
Beyond his prolific production as a rusher and receiver, Tomlinson also was a scoring machine. He had double-digit rushing touchdowns in each of his first nine seasons and scored 78 rushing touchdowns over a four-year period from 2004-2007.
9. Emmitt Smith*
The NFL’s all-time rushing king put together 11 consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 yards. He led the league in rushing yards four times and in scrimmage yards twice. His sustained production over such a long period of time isn’t captured here in a measure of each player’s six best seasons, although his six best were plenty good.
10. O.J. Simpson*
Simpson sandwiched a five-year run of dominance between three so-so seasons to start and end his career. His 7,699 yards rushing from 1972-1976 were 2,566 more than runner-up Franco Harris over that period. He would rank fourth behind Brown, Dickerson and Sanders if this were a measure of each player’s five best rushing seasons only.
11. LeSean McCoy (HOF eligible 2026)
Sometimes changing teams can dilute perceptions of a player, but elite production is elite production, and McCoy was an elite producer in both Philadelphia and Buffalo. His top qualifying season was 2013, when he led the league in scrimmage yards (2,146) with the Eagles.
12. Tiki Barber (Eligible since 2012)
Some running backs wear down late in their careers. Barber posted his three highest totals for scrimmage yards to finish his career. Barber’s elite production places him in Hall of Fame company.
13. Curtis Martin*
Martin rushed for at least 1,094 yards in each of his first 10 seasons. He led the league in rushing once, at age 31, in his second-to-last season.
14. Ricky Watters (Eligible since 2007; becomes Sr. in 2027)
Watters and Barber are the two highest-ranked Hall-eligible players not yet enshrined in Canton. Watters could do it all and also had memorable playoff production, including a five-touchdown post-season game against the Giants and a three-TD Super Bowl against the Chargers.
15. Tony Dorsett*
Dorsett surprisingly never led the league in rushing yards or scrimmage yards. He was third in MVP voting in 1981, when he set career highs for rushing yards (1,646) and scrimmage yards (1,971). That season and his 1978 season, when he led the league in Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value metric, were Dorsett’s top two qualifying seasons here.
16. Clinton Portis (Eligible since 2021)
Portis topped 1,500 yards rushing three times and had three other seasons with between 1,262 and 1,487 yards. He retired following the 2010 season and hasn’t gained much Hall of Fame traction yet. Why is that? His career was odd in that he rushed for 3,099 yards in his first two seasons, a figure that ranks sixth in NFL history, then was traded to Washington as part of the Champ Bailey deal. Perceptions surrounding that trade, coupled with Portis playing for more than one franchise, could work against his narrative, but this study suggests the elite production was there.
17. Edgerrin James*
James produced his top four qualifying seasons with Indianapolis before finishing his career with Arizona. He led the league in rushing during each of his first two seasons. As noted earlier, only Dickerson rushed for more yards over the first two seasons of a career than James’ 3,262-yard total.
18. Marcus Allen*
Allen ranks quite high for having only three seasons with more than 890 yards rushing, thanks partly to how Al Davis curtailed his usage with the Raiders. Allen also led the league in yards from scrimmage during his rookie strike-shortened 1982 season.
18. Matt Forte (Eligible since 2023)
Forte ranks 33rd on the all-time rushing list, one spot below Portis. He’s 11th among running backs in career receiving yardage, which helps boost him into the top 20. For example, his 2014 season ranks high despite a relatively modest 1,038-yard total on the ground. Forte’s 808 yards receiving were a huge part of his production that year.
20. Ottis Anderson ( Eligible since 1998; Seniors candidate)
Anderson’s late-career revival with the Bill Parcells-coached Giants pushed him into the top 20. He exceeded 1,000 yards rushing and had 1,291 yards from scrimmage in his age-32 season (1989), which became his sixth-best qualifying season for this evaluation. Anderson won a Super Bowl with the Giants the next year.
21. Roger Craig (Eligible since 1999; Seniors candidate)
Valuing receiving yards for running backs was critical for assessing Craig, who would rank 60th if rushing yardage were the only measure here. He’s famous for topping 1,000 yards in both receiving and rushing during the 1985 season.
The Hall of Football is not affiliated with the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Opinions expressed are those of the Hall of Football (HallofFootball.substack.com)