For a time, Randall Cunningham was viewed as the greatest running quarterback in NFL history. Lamar Jackson has arguably surpassed Cunningham for that title, and will soon surpass Cunningham’s career rushing yardage.
Cunningham retired with 4,928 rushing yards. Jackson currently has 4,877 rushing yards. So with 52 yards — a total Jackson could get in the Ravens’ game on Sunday against the Browns — Jackson would move ahead of Cunningham on the career rushing list.
Only three quarterbacks have more career rushing yards than Cunningham: Michael Vick is first all time with 6,109, Cam Newton is second with 5,628 and Russell Wilson is third with 5,167.
All the quarterbacks ahead of Jackson on the list played a lot longer than Jackson has: Vick played 143 games in his career, Newton played 148, Wilson has played 181 and Cunningham has played 161. Sunday will be the 80th game of Jackson’s career, so he could have more rushing yards than Randall Cunningham in less than half as many games.
Jackson is only 26 years old, so it seems to be a near-certainty that he’ll be No. 1 on the quarterback career rushing list eventually. And he may even put the record out of reach for any other quarterback for many, many years.
