Ahman Green
Inducted: 2014
Running Back: 2000-06, '09
Height: 6-0; Weight: 218
College: Nebraska, 1995-97
Honors:
Pro Bowl Selection (played from 1950-2022): 2001, '02, '03, '04
Ahman Green joined the Packers with the stigma of being a fumbler. He departed as their all-time leading rusher.
What transpired from beginning to end wasn't a case of Green undergoing a transformation as much as there was a period of enlightenment where it became obvious that his overall worth far outweighed his biggest flaw.
General manager Ron Wolf acquired Green from the Seattle Seahawks in one of the biggest steals in Packers history. In exchange for Green and a fifth-round draft choice, Wolf gave up second-year cornerback Fred Vinson – a player he had already written off as a bust, which turned out to be the case – and a sixth-round pick.
Green was entering his third season at the time and had been mired in Mike Holmgren's doghouse for fumbling four times in the final two preseason games before his first season as Seattle's coach.
"I targeted Green," Wolf later said. "Know why? I timed him so fast, it was unbelievable. I had him 4.16, 4.19 at a pro day at Nebraska. Everybody said, 'No way. He's not that fast.'
"Then he was available and I talked to Mike Sherman (whom he had recently hired as Packers coach from the Seahawks' staff). I said, 'Mike is there something wrong with Green in Seattle?' He said, 'No.'"
With 1,000-yard rusher Dorsey Levens missing 11 games with injuries, including the opener, Green immediately seized the opportunity in his new surroundings and entrenched himself as the Packers' featured back for the next five seasons. He did it by surpassing 100 yards rushing in three of the final six games in 2000 and finishing with 1,175 yards. He also led the Packers in receiving with 73 catches.
Not only was Green's speed legit, he also proved to be a strong, punishing downhill runner with just enough wiggle to elude linebackers at the second level.
"What a playmaker, huh?" quarterback Brett Favre gushed early in Green's career in Green Bay. "There just aren't many guys like him around the league. He's a difference-maker, that's for sure."
Four more thousand-yard rushing seasons followed. In 2001, Green led the Packers in receiving again and then finished second in both of the next two years. Occasional fumbles continued to haunt him – he totaled 29 in his first five seasons in Green Bay – but his touches and production were off the charts.
From 2000-04, no player in the NFL had more rushing yards than Green's 6,848 or total yards than his 9,036. In the process, he averaged 293 carries and 56 pass receptions a season. And he fought for every yard he could get.
"His running style – and it has been embedded in all of our heads – is that we never finish a run falling backward," Tony Fisher, one of Green's backups for four years, said at the time.
Among other achievements, Green became only the second back in NFL history besides Bo Jackson to have multiple touchdown runs of 90 or more yards. Green broke the Packers' 64-year-old team record of 97 yards with a 98-yard race to the end zone in 2003 and exploded again for a 90-yard TD run in 2004.
Even more prestigious rushing records fell, as well.
In 2003, Green twice broke the Packers' record for most yards rushing in a game: first with 192 yards on 29 carries against Philadelphia and then with 218 yards on 20 attempts, a 10.9 average per carry, against Denver.
In 2009, in his second go-around with the Packers and final NFL season, Green eclipsed Jim Taylor's 43-year-old club record for career rushing with 8,322 yards. Taylor had rushed for 8,207.
"I was lucky enough to coach Barry Sanders, and he was as good as it gets," Sylvester Croom, Packers backfield coach from 2001-03, said at the height of Green's career. "But there aren't many out there like Ahman. I'm sure of that."
Besides all the traits that made Green a home run-threat on every carry – straight-ahead speed, speed to the edges, toughness, vision, body lean, etc. – he was just as much of a threat in the passing game, not so much on downfield throws but in the screen game.
At the time, the Packers ran the screen as well as any team in the league thanks to Favre's willingness to wait until the last possible second to lure in defenders before releasing the ball, and the threat that Green posed once it was in his hands.
"I think Ahman is probably the best back I played with. … Explosive plays, broken tackles and when he catches the ball on screens, he can do something with it, too," said Wesley Walls, who spent his last season with Green Bay in 2003 after playing 13 years with San Francisco, New Orleans and Carolina, and making five Pro Bowls.
In 2005, Green suffered a ruptured tendon in his right quadriceps and played in only five games. The following season, at age 29, he rebounded to have another 1,000-yard season, but he wasn't the same back and broke only four runs of 20 yards or more.
That offseason, Green opted to sign with the Houston Texans, where Sherman was now running the offense as coordinator. Green played two years there, rushing for a total of 554 yards, before being released in February 2009.
A little more than eight months later, the Packers re-signed him for added depth, and Green played sparingly, rushing for only 160 total yards. However, he broke Taylor's career record against Tampa Bay on Nov. 8.
In eight years with the Packers, Green played in 104 games and started 91. He averaged 4.5 yards per carry on 1,851 attempts for his 8,322 yards, scored 68 touchdowns and caught 350 passes for 2,726 yards, a 7.8 average.
In eight playoff games, Green rushed for another 521 yards, averaging 4.4 per attempt, and caught 21 passes, averaging seven yards a catch. Although he never made first-team all-pro, Green was chosen on the Associated Press second team in 2001.
When the Packers opted not to re-sign him in 2010, Green played with his hometown Omaha Nighthawks in the newly formed United Football League. In 2011, he signed with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League but was cut when he showed up for training camp with a hamstring injury. He announced his retirement later that year.
Given name Ahman Rashad Green. Born Feb. 16, 1977.
