Corey Dillon is undoubtedly one of the most star-crossed players in Cincinnati sports history. A name synonymous with “dominant running back,” Dillon hit a number of big-time achievements in his illustrious career.
While Bengals fans readily recognize his on-field greatness, a situation exists wherein there is tension between him, the fans, and the team. His holdout back in 2001 comments about “flipping burgers” and tossing his gear in the stands at the end of 2003 are all images also engrained in the mind’s eyes of Bengaldom.
He recently went on a tirade with The Athletic’s Paul Dehner, Jr. about not being placed in the team’s new-ish Ring of Honor, feeling that the fans and the club may not have the fuzziest of feelings towards him because of his Cincinnati exit. Of course, his Bengals resume puts him as ROH worthy, he just may have to wait longer than he’d like because the team just instituted this endeavor a couple of years ago, and many fellow players are also being deemed worthy.
Regardless, that’s not what this article is about—we’re looking at his Cincinnati and overall NFL resume to shine light on where he stands in team and NFL history. Here are many of his career highlights (also noted in the video above).
- Four-time Pro Bowl selection (three with Cincinnati, one with New England)
- Set single-game Rookie Rushing Record in 1997 with 246 yards (since been broken five times).
- Set single-game Rushing Record in 2001 with 278 yards (since been broken twice).
- Owns four of the top-10 single-season rushing performances by Bengals’ running backs (1999-2002).
- Owns the Bengals’ season rookie rushing record (1,129).
- No. 18 in NFL history in rushing touchdowns (82).
- No. 20 in NFL history in rushing yards (11,241).
- 1997 PFWA All-Rookie Team
- Bengals career leading rusher, team history (8,061)
- Super Bowl XXXIX champion
- Patriots’ single-season rushing leader (1,635)
- No. 3, Bengals history, career rushing touchdowns (45)
There are some others, but this is a stellar resume. Unfortunately, if you’re looking at the lack of Pro Bowl and/or All-Pro designations, a couple of things worked against No. 28 in that respect.
First and foremost, the Bengals and some of their great players were criminally overlooked during this era. Willie Anderson, Carl Pickens, and others were also victims of this situation because Cincinnati couldn’t consistently put together a winning product.
But Dillon also played in a golden era of running backs. Heck, if you look at the old AFC Central/early AFC North, Dillon was going up against Fred Taylor, Jerome Bettis, Eddie George, and Jamal Lewis in his own division alone.
Bettis is in the Hall of Fame, while Taylor is lobbying for Canton entry, and Lewis was one of the two players who bested Dillon’s single-game record. Chad Johnson is also facing this conundrum as he bids for the Hall, given the multitude of other great receivers that littered the league in the mid-2000s.
Still, Dillon has compelling arguments for both the Bengals’ Ring of Honor and the NFL Hall of Fame. The latter seems more far-fetched than the former, but the names in those NFL all-time rushing leaders in front and around him, historically speaking, are basically all in Canton or similarly bidding for enshrinement.
While he could see entry in both famed circles of greatness, the famed back will have to do what he doesn’t want to do—wait.
Loading comments...