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Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

At the end of the 2015 NFL season, who was the best running back in the game? We're not talking about who made the Pro Bowl or even who got the All-Pro votes. Who was really, truly, the best? Forget reputation and how much money each player makes. We want cold, hard analysis that comes from watching the games and grading the players.

That's what the B/R NFL 1000 is for, and it's back for another year.

The B/R 1000 metric is based heavily on scouting each player and grading the key criteria for each position. The criteria are weighted according to importance for a possible best score of 100.

Potential is not taken into consideration. Neither are career accomplishments.

Running backs are judged on speed (25 points), power (25), vision (25), receiving ability (15) and the overall value of the position relative to the other spots on the field (all running backs received eight points). The maximum score for this position is 98.

In the case of ties, our team asked, "Which player would I rather have on my team?" and set the rankings accordingly.

Subjective? Yes. But ties are no fun.

A team of experienced evaluators (Dan Bazal, Luke Easterling, Cian Fahey, Adam Heisler, Duke Manyweather, Marshal Miller and Matt Miller) scouted each player with these key criteria in mind. The following scouting reports and grades are the work of months of film study from our team.

All statistics from Pro Football Focus. Players' heights, weights and seasons played are from NFL.com.