Ask a football fan who the greatest running back of all time is, and you’ll get a different answer every time. But ask the all-time rushing yards leader Emmitt Smith himself, and you’ll get something far more surprising—humility.

Emmitt Smith, legendary running back for the Dallas Cowboys, owns the NFL’s all-time rushing record. He’s got 18,355 rushing yards, three Super Bowl rings, and a Hall of Fame bust for himself. On paper, the debate ends there. But when recently asked if he’s the greatest to ever do it, Smith resisted the crown.

“Using the term great could be overemphasized because there’s been so many great players that come through the game of football,” Smith said on the NXT Chapter podcast with T.D. Jakes. “When I look at what I’ve done, there’s no debating over the yardage at all. But there’s always going to be a debate on who’s the greatest.”

This admission lands a bit differently coming from one of the cornerstones of Dallas’ 90s dynasty. So who’s the greatest in Smith’s eyes? His list starts with Jim Brown, not for statistics, but for what Brown has to endure.

“Jim Brown during his era and settling the foundation for Walter Payton and Gale Sayers and others that come behind him,” Smith explains. “That foundation and what he went through and what he had to deal with during that era when people didn’t want him on the football field. That in itself is great all by itself because he’s standing for justice and injustice and fighting for injustice and everything else that opened up the door for others to follow.”

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Now, Brown wasn’t just a football player. He was fighting for justice while the country fought over civil rights. But if we’re talking football strictly, Brown stands out even more. He led the league in rushing eight of his nine seasons with 104.3 rushing yards per game, a benchmark that no back has ever surpassed.

Right beside him sits Gale Sayers, who scored a rookie record 22 touchdowns back in 1965. But injuries piled up to derail his progress. His career boasts a total of 9,435 combined yards and 336 points put up on the board. Sayers ultimately became the youngest Hall of Fame inductee in NFL history. For Emmitt Smith, these were two of the greatest RBs to ever take the field, right alongside Walter Payton.

“There’s greatness that should be recognized because he led the league in rushing before someone else came behind him and broke it. He retired way too soon,” Smith continues. “But that’s why I look at him and I look at Walter Payton and what he was able to do because he was a man of my stature out of the deltas of Mississippi. The way he trained, the way he worked and the odds against him to do what he was able to do in 13 years. He did it.”

Payton’s resume is equally staggering. Over 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears, he rushed for 16,726 yards along with 4,538 receiving yards. He finished with 133 total touchdowns and 492 career receptions, making him arguably the most complete back ever to play the game. Smith wasn’t exaggerating when he said Payton simply “did it.”

For Smith, greatness isn’t just a stat line; it’s what you had to fight through to get there. So he elevated the conversation instead of shutting it down. He holds the record but refuses to hold the entire debate. That kind of self-awareness is rare from any all-time great, let alone the man who helped forge a dynasty in Dallas.

But when it comes to that same dynasty, Smith’s philosophical grace doesn’t extend to the Cowboys’ decisions. Because Smith recently made another admission, and this one cuts deep for Cowboys Nation.

Emmitt Smith’s verdict on Dallas’ new defensive identity

After a catastrophic 2025 season where Dallas’ defense allowed 511 points, the Cowboys fired Matt Eberflus and hired 34-year-old Philadelphia Eagles pass game coordinator Christian Parker as the new defensive coordinator for 2026. But for Emmitt Smith, this wasn’t the right move.

For Smith, the perfect move would have been to stick with Al Harris, Eberflus’ predecessor.

“I thought we should have kept Al Harris in the first place and never let Al Harris go,” Smith said in a recent USA Today Sports interview. “That’s a big mistake on the Dallas Cowboys. Bringing in some of these so-called gurus on the defensive side and the offensive side. Even though [head coach Brian Schottenheimer] has turned out to be who Schotty really is, we need a guy that’s defensive-minded, really good at connecting with the players and motivating the players. I think Al Harris was that guy for us.”

The numbers make his point hard to argue. After leaving Dallas, Harris helped the Bears’ defense finish among the NFL’s leaders in forced turnovers (33) and interceptions (23). The Cowboys, meanwhile, were hemorrhaging points all season, with Micah Parsons’ absence only making things worse.

When asked if Parker could turn the Cowboys’ defense around this season, Smith was blunt: “We’ll see.”

But the front office is sold on Parker’s upside. He notably edged out eight different DC candidates, winning over the Jones family with his adaptable schemes.

“Very, very smart,” Cowboys EVP and co-owner Stephen Jones said about Parker. “Great communicator… one of our top priorities is to be a great teacher. These defenses are very complicated… he was really good at explaining it not only to coach Schottenheimer and to Will, but to Jerry and myself that you want to make complicated things seem easy… he was just outstanding.”

For now, Dallas is betting their defense on Parker. Meanwhile, the Cowboys Nation is watching to find out if Emmitt Smith’s verdict is wrong.