A brief history of mediocre Packers running backs
We now live in a world where the Bears are the only undefeated team in the NFC. I can’t believe it either, but I feel a strange sense of calm about it nonetheless. Yes, the Packers disgraced themselves on national television Monday night by committing a team-record number of penalties and essentially giving an important game away to a less-talented opponent. But we played about as lousy as you could expect on the road and were still just one James Jones fumble away from Mason Crosby kicking the Packers to victory. This was a tough loss, but it’s not all that tough to rationalize away.
While I’m not convinced the Packers deserve all the Super Bowl-contender hype they’ve been getting, I’m also not pushing the panic button over the team’s most glaring deficiencies, which are exactly the same as the team’s most glaring deficiencies from last year: penalties and a so-so running game. Maybe my sense of serenity comes from nobody looking like world-beaters right now, with the possible exception of the Steelers—an inspiration to companies everywhere trying to solider on without highly productive yet sexually problematic employees.
Maybe I’m just used to the Packers overcoming their weaknesses and making due, at least when it comes to our running backs. Outside of the early ’00s, when Ahman Green lead a top-notch ground attack to the tune of 1,883 yards in 2003—one of the 10 best single-year rushing performances ever—Packers running backs have generally followed a consistent standard of no-name mediocrity. I’ve spent most of my life watching lumbering, injury-prone clompers hit holes in the offensive line with the speed and agility of tranquilized elephants after a long, hearty meal. Packers’ running backs from the past 30 years are kind of like hair metal bands—most of them aren’t very good, but they’re mostly harmless, which ultimately makes them lovable.
Since we’re all going to be spending a lot of time this season watching our team try to put more than two rushing yards together on a single play, I thought I’d take slow trot down memory lane and look back on my five favorite mediocre Packers running backs of my lifetime.
1. Eddie Lee Ivery
Résumé: Played 1979-86, gained 2,933 rushing yards and scored 23 touchdowns
Career highlight: Ivery is the prototypical mediocre Packers running back of the ’80s, taking over for the equally awesomely monikered Terdell Middleton and ushering in a 15-year period where no Green Bay player ran for more than 1,000 yards in a season. (Middleton gained 1,116 yards in 1978, averaging 3.9 yards per carry.) For Packers fans in their mid-30s like me, Ivery is likely the first running back you remember watching, and he set an appropriately low bar that many of his predecessors didn’t exceed.
2. Gerry Ellis
Resume: Played ’80-’86, gained 3,826 rushing yards and scored 25 touchdowns
Career highlight: Ellis was a solid threat as a running back and receiver, gaining nearly 1,300 yards combined on the ground and through the air in 1983, back when the Packers were contractually obligated by the NFL to go 8-8 every year. With that kind of production, it’s no wonder that an autographed, 8-by-10 color photo of Ellis will set you back a hefty $9.99 on eBay. (For the budget-minded, a signed index card is only $3.24.)
3. Brent Fullwood
Resume: Played ’87-’90, gained 1,702 rushing yards and scored 18 touchdowns
Career highlight: Affectionately known as “Fumblewood,” Fullwood’s best season came in 1989—the year of the Don Majkowski-lead “Cardiac Pack” team that went 10-6 but missed the playoffs—when he rushed for 821 yards. (Hitting the 800-yard range was the best Packers running backs could hope for in the ’80s; Ivery’s career-best was 831 yards in 1980, and Ellis topped out at 860 yards in 1981.) In 1990, Fullwood played in only five games and rushed for 124 yards; he ended his career with stints in Cleveland and Miami, where he didn’t gain a single yard.
4. Vince Workman
Resume: Played ’89-’96 (first four seasons with the Packers), gained 1,737 rushing yards and scored 13 touchdowns.
Career highlight: Is there a more appropriate name for a Packers running back than Vince Workman? The 9-year NFL veteran straddled two different Packers eras, starting out in the doldrums of the Lindy Infante years and acting as the team’s top ground-gainer during the first year of the Brett Favre and Mike Holmgren era in 1992, when he ran for a career-best 631 yards. He was quickly ushered off the team the following year, but still, the guy was totally workman-like.
5. Edgar Bennett
Resume: Played ’92-’99, gained 3,992 yards and scored 31 touchdowns
Career highlight: I’m not 100 percent sure Edgar Bennett actually belongs on this list, because by Packers standards he’s definitely not a mediocre running back. He was the first Packers’ RB to go over 1,000 yards in my lifetime, and he was a contributing member to the ’96 Super Bowl team, gaining 899 yards. But take away those two seasons, and you have a fairly middling runner who averaged 3.6 yards per carry. Nevertheless, I have undying love for what Bennett did as a player, and for passing on his adequate ways to current players as the team’s running backs coach.
