As I told you in the first running back post, we've reserved two spots on the squad for running backs and fullbacks. Earlier this week we held voting on the first spot and Travis Henry won easily. Now we can move on and select the second running back on our team. Choose the best from the list below.
Larry Centers
Larry Centers was a fullback in the NFL, but you might not know it by looking at his statistics. With Buffalo in 2001 and 2002, Centers rushed for only 216 yards on 45 attempts and four touchdowns. Centers wasn't known for his lead blocking, either. Instead, Centers caught 123 passes in his two years for 1,008 yards and two touchdowns. In 2001, he was named to the Pro Bowl after snaring 80 of those receptions.
Willis McGahee
Despite a severe knee injury in his final college game, the Bills took McGahee in the first round of the 2003 draft and sat him down for a year to recover from surgery. When McGahee came back healthy, the Bills were rewarded for their faith, and he posted back-to-back thousand-yard seasons in 2004 and 2005 before narrowly missing the mark in '06. After that, the unhappy McGahee was shipped to Baltimore for a pair of third round picks plus a seventh rounder that turned into Trent Edwards and Marcus Stroud (and C.J. Ah You). In his three years in Buffalo, he rushed 868 times for 3,365 yards and 24 touchdowns, all second on the team for the decade and tops for the remaining backs. He added 68 receptions for 503 yards.
Fred Jackson
Jackson's first carry for the Bills came in 2007 after his much-discussed path from Coe College. In his three seasons, he has 1,933 yards on 425 carries for a clip of 4.5 yards per attempt, tops among Bills backs during the decade. He topped 1,000 rushing yards in 2009 when he took over for Marshawn Lynch as the featured back. He has rushed for only five touchdowns, but boasts a passing touchdown, 105 receptions for 878 yards and two touchdowns, as well as 56 kick returns for 1,241 yards. In 2009, he led the league in all-purpose yards with 2,516, the fourth-highest total in league history.
Marshawn Lynch
Lynch was drafted No. 12 overall in 2007. In his three seasons in Buffalo, he has amassed 2,601 rushing yards on 650 attempts and scored 17 rushing touchdowns. He's averaged 4.0 yards per rushing attempt, and has a long run of 56 yards while topping 1,000 yards twice. Lynch has adequate hands and has pulled in 93 receptions for 663 yards and one touchdown, and he's also thrown a touchdown pass. In 2008, Lynch made his Pro Bowl debut after being called on as an alternate. He was suspended for the first three games of the 2009 season after being caught with a gun illegally and also plead guilty to hitting a Canadian woman in the summer of 2008.
Now it's your turn to vote on who was the second best Bills running back of the decade. Feel free to leave your rationale in the comments section. Up next is the wide receiver of the decade.