By admin 
The New York Jets may be one of the most consistently plagued teams in the history of the NFL, but they can certainly develop a running back.
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Led by one of the more promising young units in the league with Breece Hall, Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis, the Jets’ offense figures to be buoyed by their running backs once again this year.
While the Jets’ historical running back podium feels set in stone, it’s tough to rank the remainder of Gang Green’s featured backs, as No. 4 through No. 12 on the Jets’ rushing leaderboard are separated by just 887 yards.
Here are the top five running backs in Jets history.
5. Thomas Jones (2007-2009)
While Jones’ time in East Rutherford was short, he produced one of, if not the best three-year stretch in franchise history, working his way up to seventh in the all-time rushing leaderboard in a fraction of the games played as his peers.
Jones was traded to the Jets from the Bears in March 2007 after two straight 1,200-plus yard seasons to make room for Cedric Benson in the backfield, with the Bears refusing to offer Jones the lucrative extension he sought.
As a result, all the Jets had to give up was a higher second-round pick in the 2007 draft, trading down from No. 37 to No. 63 overall, with Jones thrown in, much to the chagrin of Bears teammates Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher.
Jones certainly proved the Bears wrong, as he steadily improved in each of his three seasons with the Jets, rushing for 1,119 yards in 2007, 1,312 yards in a 2008 Pro Bowl campaign, and 1,402 yards in 2009.
The latter campaign helped send the Jets to the 2009 AFC Championship game, though Jones was overshadowed by then-rookie Shonn Greene in the playoffs.
Still, Jones’ remarkable stint with Gang Green, where he amassed the second-most rushing yards per game in franchise history, will always earn him respect in the Jets’ inner circle of running backs.
4. Matt Snell (1964-1972)
No disrespect intended to 1980s bruiser Johnny Hector, but Snell achieved much of what Hector would later achieve in a fraction of the games.
Snell will always be known as the player who scored the Jets’ only Super Bowl touchdown, finding the end zone in the Jets’ legendary 16-7 upset over the Colts in Super Bowl III. Snell also rushed for 121 yards on 30 grueling carries in the Jets’ long-ago title win.
Snell holds the fourth-most rush yards in franchise history (4,285, just five yards ahead of Hector’s 4,280) and did so in 86 games, far fewer than the top three on this list.
Snell racked up 1,375 receiving yards as well, averaging a respectable 7.1 yards per catch. In 1964, his rookie season after being taken third overall, Snell hauled in 56 catches.
Due to his monumental Super Bowl performance and all-around numbers, it’s not hard to put Snell at No. 4.
3. Emerson Boozer (1966-1975)
While Snell was the bruising fullback who operated in the trenches with immense physicality, Boozer was the 5-foot-11, 195-pound halfback who also played a part in the Jets’ Super Bowl III win, and immediately burst onto the scene with an AFL Rookie of the Year nod in his 1968 rookie season.
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In 1967, one year before the Jets’ lone title campaign in 1968, Boozer put together a monumental season in which he tallied 10 rushing and three receiving touchdowns in eight games, leading the AFL in rushing and total touchdowns.
In 1972, Boozer again led the NFL in total touchdowns, finding the end zone 14 times in 11 games (including 10 starts). When he retired in 1975, Boozer was the Jets’ all-time leading rusher with 5,135 yards.
While Boozer’s per-season numbers might be dwarfed by his peers (his highest single-season rush tally was 831 in 1973), he was a beacon of consistency that defined much of the Jets’ early history.
2. Freeman McNeil (1981-1992)
A lifelong Jet, McNeil more than delivered on his promising third overall selection in the 1981 NFL Draft out of UCLA. His finest season was the strike-shortened 1982 campaign, when he led the NFL in rushing yards (786).
McNeil stepped it up in the 1982 playoffs in Richard Todd’s offense, rushing for 349 yards in three playoff games (with an average of 116.3 yards per game) as the Jets made the AFC Championship game.
He followed up that 1982 season with two excellent campaigns in 1984 and 1985, rushing for 1,070 yards in 1984 and 1,332 yards in 1985, making the Pro Bowl in each.
Like Boozer, McNeil retired with the Jets’ all-time rushing lead, stepping away from the game with 8,074 yards across 11 seasons. McNeil holds the highest yards per attempt figure (4.5) among any player on this list.
1. Curtis Martin (1998-2005)
Before diving into Martin’s Jets tenure, it can’t go unmentioned just how excellent a career Martin had.
Playing alongside Drew Bledsoe in New England from 1995 to 1997 before joining the Jets on a large, Bill Parcells-orchestrated offer sheet in 1998, Martin rushed for 1,000 or more yards in his first 10 professional seasons before failing to hit the figure in his 11th and final season in 2005.
As a result, Martin has amassed the sixth-most rushing yards in NFL history over a career that was mostly spent in East Rutherford with Gang Green.
While Martin made his first and only Super Bowl with Bledsoe’s Patriots in 1996, he did make the playoffs four times in eight years with the Jets. He found the end zone three times in the Jets’ run to the divisional round in 1998, leading the league in playoff touchdowns.
In 2004, at the age of 31, Martin turned back the clock, leading the NFL in rushing yards (1,697) and became the oldest player at the time to win the rushing title.
The accolades speak for themselves: three Pro Bowls, 1,200+ rushing yards in six of eight seasons with New York, a franchise record 10,302 rushing yards, all while starting in 123 of his 128 eligible games.
In 2012, Martin was rightfully inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is easily the best running back in Jets franchise history.
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This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 1:00 PM.