Shaun Edward Alexander (born August 30, 1977)
Played for: Seattle Seahawks (2000–2007), Washington Redskins (2008)
9,453 rushing yards, 4.3 yards per carry, 100 rushing touchdowns
215 receptions for 1,520 yards and 12 touchdowns
NFL Most Valuable Player (2005)
NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2005)
2× First-team All-Pro (2004, 2005)
3× Pro Bowl (2003–2005)
NFL rushing yards leader (2005)
2× NFL rushing touchdowns leader (2001, 2005)
NFL scoring leader (2005)
You might wonder to yourself: Shaun Alexander? NFL Films even did a whole video about him and referred to him as "The Best Running Back You Forgot About". Born in Kentucky, Alexander actually excelled in football only in the middle of his sophomore season at Boone County High School, to the point where he left high school with 110 touchdowns on just over 6,000 yards. At the University of Alabama, he ran for less than 600 yards in each of his first two years, but he had a 1,000-yard season as a junior in 1998 with 12 touchdowns. Coming back for his senior year, it saw him lead the NCAA in points with 144 while having 19 rushing touchdowns (tied for the most that season) as Alabama won the 1999 SEC Championship. In 2000, the Seattle Seahawks (of the AFC, until 2002) had the 19th pick in the draft when they traded Joey Galloway to Dallas. They used that pick to select Alexander, where he had all of 64 carries as a rookie for the 2000 season behind another unsung legend in Ricky Watters; in his one start that year, in Week 5 against Kansas City, Alexander had 11 carries for 74 yards and his first touchdown as a player in the 24-17 loss. Shoulder injuries to Watters by the third week of the 2001 season led to Alexander getting the keys to being the main back against Jacksonville in Week 4 and he never looked back. He had 31 carries that day for 176 yards with two touchdowns in the 24-15 win. With a quarterback room of Trent Dilfer (four games) and Matt Hasselbeck, Alexander was tasked to run heavily, which saw him run 29+ times in five of his 12 starts. His monster game by far was against Oakland in Week 9 where he ran for 266 yards on 35 carries for three touchdowns in the 34-27 win to break the franchise record for rushing yards that had been set by Curt Warner in 1983 (Alexander's record still stands). Overall, Alexander ran for 1,318 yards on 309 carries for 14 touchdowns for 4.3 yards a carry (he also added 44 receptions for 343 yards and two touchdowns). Alexander would finish in the top 10 for carries in a season five times from 2001 to 2005 (9th, 10th, 7th, 3rd, 1st) on a team that topped out as the third best running team for yards in 2005.
In the 2002 season (now in the NFC), Alexander reached further heights, setting a new record for rushing touchdowns for a Seahawk (breaking the 1995 record by Chris Warren of 15), doing so with a league-leading 16 touchdowns on 295 carries for 1175 yards. Alexander ran for under 40 yards in each of the first three games of the season, but he had a game for the books against Minnesota on September 29: He ran for 139 yards on 24 carries and caught three passes for 92 yards for a combined total of five touchdowns, all in the first half of a 48-23 win. Sure, the Seahawks went 7-9, but a chunk of that came with Alexander's scoring bonanza, which saw him run for five combined touchdowns in the final three games (all wins) to get to 16. It came together in 2003 on two levels: In 16 games (15 starts, as he was late to a game due to family emergency), he ran for 1435 yards with 14 touchdowns and got named to the Pro Bowl. He reached the playoffs for the first of five straight years and had an unusual game for the books. He ran 20 times for just 45 yards but had three touchdowns, all of them coming in the second half (his last one came with :55 to tie the game) as Seattle lost 33-27 to Green Bay in the "We want the ball and we're gonna score!" game. He continued to rise in yards with 1696 in 16 games of the 2004 season (106 yards per game) with 16 touchdowns while leading the way with 20 combined rushing/receiving touchdowns. The 2004 season ended on a strange note. Alexander was not given the ball with the team at the 1-yard line (2nd and goal, mind you) in a 21-20 game. Seattle got the yard with a Hasselbeck run and never got the ball back in a 28-26 win that saw Alexander fall one yard short of Curtis Martin for the rushing title that saw Alexander grouse for a moment at Holmgren. In the Wild Card round, he ran for just 40 yards on 15 carries in the 27-20 loss.
And then, 2005. With career/league highs of 370 carries and 1,880 yards, he ran away with the MVP and the Offensive Player of the Year awards and had 27 touchdowns (with one receiving TD) as Seattle went 13-3 and won every single home game that year. The 2005 playoffs saw him have varied success. He only had six carries in the Divisional round win against Washington before exploding for 132 yards on 34 carries with two touchdowns to lift Seattle to their first NFC Championship title. In Super Bowl XL against Pittsburgh, he had 95 yards on 20 carries that saw Seattle miss a few field goals (and maybe get stiffed on a call or two) in the 21-10 loss. When comparing every player in a random span of 50 games for touchdowns, there's LaDainian Tomlinson and Priest Holmes leading the crowd...and then Alexander with 68 from 12/15/2002 to 12/24/2005. The 2005 season saw him become the first player with five straight 15-touchdown seasons in NFL history (Tomlinson passed him with his sixth in 2007). And yes, there's Alexander on top of a few legends for both awards:
A broken foot (in week 3) and a big contract (eight years, over $60 million) overshadowed Alexander and his 2006 season, where he ran for 896 yards in 10 games with 7 touchdowns. He had a 100-yard game in the Divisional Round game against Chicago that they lost 27-24. His 2007 season saw him suffer injuries to his wrist, knee, and ankle to get 716 yards in 10 games with four touchdowns. In the December 30th game against Atlanta, he became part of history when his two-yard run for a touchdown gave him his 100th career rushing touchdown. In the two playoff games that year, he ran for a total of 66 yards on 24 carries, which included a touchdown against Green Bay that ended up being his last ever one as a pro player in the 42-20 loss. He was then released. Incidentally, he still leads the franchise for most 150+ rushing yard games with 11. Now 31 years old, he signed with Washington for 2008 and played four games with no touchdowns and retired.
You might wonder: how does he compare for players that ran from their 1st to 9th season? Alexander actually fits at 26th, right in the middle of a few Hall of Fame players such as say, Earl Campbell (who ran the same 2,187 times as Alexander, but for only 9407 yards). He also ranks 29th in yards per game by that same measure with 76.9, which is not too shabby. And the easy question: how many players had 100 rushing touchdowns in their first nine seasons? Just five, and Alexander is one of them alongside Tomlinson, Emmitt Smith, Jim Brown, and Derrick Henry (yes, not even Barry Sanders had 100 touchdowns in his first nine seasons - he had 95). You might think, oh, well, he had two Hall of Fame blockers with Walter Jones (the nine-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle) and Steve Hutchinson (the seven-time Pro Bowl guard he played with until 2005). If having great blockers is meant to be a detriment saying who had the better career, well, they put in Terrell Davis for having four 1,000-yard seasons as a peak before injury...while Alexander had five 1,000-yard seasons to go along with being one of 36 players (as of 2026) with five seasons of 10 touchdowns (also of course he had good blockers, how many great running backs go around with poles for blockers?). Did I mention the rare club of multiple 20-touchdown seasons (six people)? Or that when Alexander retired in 2008 that his 28 games with 2+ touchdowns actually was in the top 15 for a career? Why should a player with over 100 total touchdowns, a mark achieved by less than three dozen players in a league that has been around for 100+ years, be ignored? (he has never even been a finalist)
Alexander and his place in the 100 TD club is assured for history to judge, and if being on the Seahawks Ring of Honor and the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team (second-team) is enough to honor Alexander's place in football, well, that's more than most people get in their career.
On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Shaun Alexander to the Hall.
N O T E S
Photo credit: https://50.seahawks.com/players/shaun-alexander
*On an unrelated note, Torry Holt is still waiting for the Hall of Fame as a 2000 All-Decade guy while Marvin Harrison, Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens, all selections to that team, are in the Hall.
*You know, Priest Holmes might deserve a case here too.
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