Rushing Yardage: What is a "Good Year"?

Usually 1000 yards or 1200 yards are the benchmarks for a good rushing season in the NFL. To see just how well this holds (i.e., what percentage of RBs actually attain these goals) I plotted how the most active 59 RBs (i.e. top RBs in attempts) stacked up.


The figure above shows the yards (and adjusted yards) cumulative distribution functions for the 2008 season. The median is roughly around 727 yards (or 629.9 adjusted yards), while the 3rd quartile (75 percentile) is around 1014 yards (932.5 adjusted yards). Interestingly, the top 90% of rushers, however, rush for 1246.8 yards (1216.21 adjusted yards).

In summary, 1000 and 1200 yard seasons are good estimates of 'extraordinary' rushing seasons.