Rookie RBs w/1300 rushing yards; only 1000 yard season

[Gary Najman]

Olandis Gary gained 1,159 yards in his rookie season in 1999, then he never gained more than 384 in four more seasons.

[Rupert Patrick]

Reuben Mayes rushed for 1353 yards as a rookie for the Saints in 1986, rushed for 917 in 1987 (the strike wiped out his chances of 1000), and his career went downhill after that point.

Steve Slaton in 2008 was the only other rookie to go over 1200 yards (1282) and never top 1000 yards again.

I have found 21 running backs who topped the 1000-yard mark as a rookie but never rushed for 1000 yards again. The most famous one-year wonders were Ickey Woods and Joe Delaney, and one could argue Beattie Feathers. The best career of the 21 was either Cookie Gilchrist or Kevin Mack. I left out active running backs like Saquon Barkley.

I did a quick little historical study of 1,000 yard rushers. Here are the bullet points:

From 1933 to 2018 there have been according to my count a total of 639 1000-yard rushing seasons, and in the average 1000-yard season, he rushed for 1252 yards.

A total of 248 different players have rushed for 1000 or more yards in a season.

Breaking it down by quantity, 110 have only rushed for 1,000 once, 51 have done it twice, 31 three times, 17 four times, 11 five times, 7 six times, 9 seven times, 7 have done it eight times, 1 nine times (Frank Gore), three have done it 10 times (Sanders, Curtis Martin, Payton) and Emmitt Smith rushed for 1000 yards 11 times.

One point I left out - there were 67 different rookies who rushed for over 1000 yards in a season. Of those, about 20 percent of them went on to HOF careers. Barry Sanders, Curtis Martin, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, Franco Harris, Jerome Bettis, LaDainian Tomlinson, Marshall Faulk, Terrell Davis and Tony Dorsett. That does not include Adrian Peterson, who is a lock to join them, or Edgerrin James, another probable lock. A number of others who are more in the general HOVG area include Corey Dillon, Clinton Portis, Fred Taylor, Matt Forte, Rickey Watters and Marshawn Lynch.