In 2019, the Baltimore Ravens broke the NFL record for the most rushing yards in a season with 3,296 yards. Just last year, they set a new all-time record for the highest yards per carry in a season at 5.8 yards. Through a technicality, they now no longer own either record—and those who do are dead.
Earlier this week, the NFL announced it was incorporating the records of the All-American Football Conference into its own history. The short-lived league only existed between 1946 and 1949, dominated by the Cleveland Browns. Within that league was the San Francisco 49ers, who now own the rushing records the Ravens briefly owned.
During the 1948 season, the 49ers rushed for 3,663 yards, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. As of this week, these are the official NFL records, to the Ravens’ chagrin. San Francisco finished that season 12-2 but second in the division to the 14-0 Browns. Coincidentally, the 1948 49ers serve not only as an agitant to the 2025 Ravens, but also a case study on playoff re-seeding.
If you’ll pardon the digression, the 49ers were clearly the second-best team in the AAFC in 1948. But in those days, the league had two divisions, with the division winners competing for the championship. They had the misfortune of being in the same division as the Browns, and the two teams combined to go 26-2 that year. In comparison, the top two teams in the other division finished 14-14. They had to play a one-game playoff to decide which 7-7 team would face the Browns for the championship. Cleveland ultimately beat the Buffalo Bills…49-7. Yet the 49ers had an even bigger points differential for that season than did the Browns.
This has nothing to do with the Ravens except to acknowledge that the 1948 49ers were a great team. If they didn’t have their fair shot in the post-war era, at least now they have these records. And they did it in 14 games, without a 1,000-yard runner.
Johnny Strzykalski rushed for 915 yards, with Joe Perry contributing 562 and Forrest Hall 413. QB Frankie Albert also rushed for 349 yards, though that’s nothing compared to the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson. In all, San Francisco had 10 players who rushed for at least 100 yards that season.
Conversely, the 2019 Ravens had two 1,000-yard rushers, including Jackson with 1,206. At the time, the Ravens still had Mark Ingram at running back, who picked up 1,018 yards. Gus Edwards picked up most of the rest with 711 yards, Justice Hill contributing 225.
The 2024 Ravens didn’t fall short of their own previous mark, rushing for 3,189 yards last season. Jackson only finished with 915 yards (despite an extra game), but Derrick Henry rushed for 1,921. Hill, still with the Ravens, nearly mirrored his total of five years prior.
But the 2024 Ravens also ran with striking efficiency, averaging 5.8 yards per attempt. As mentioned, that was an NFL record—for a few months. Now a 49ers team in a non-NFL league that played more than a decade before Joe Montana was born holds the distinction as the greatest rushing team in NFL history.
