| Team | Name | Att | Yds | Avg | Lng | Tds | 2pt |
| Detroit | Billy Sims | 137 | 871 | 6.36 | 57 | 4 | 0 |
| Chicago | Walter Payton | 170 | 846 | 4.98 | 59 | 6 | 3 |
| New York AFC | Freeman McNeil | 134 | 605 | 4.51 | 57 | 5 | 0 |
| St. Louis | Ottis Anderson | 137 | 597 | 4.36 | 24 | 3 | 0 |
| Los Angeles AFC | Marcus Allen | 110 | 579 | 5.26 | 37 | 3 | 0 |
| Washington | John Riggins | 134 | 556 | 4.15 | 24 | 4 | 0 |
| San Diego | Earnest Jackson | 117 | 535 | 4.57 | 32 | 5 | 0 |
| Denver | Sammy Winder | 106 | 508 | 4.79 | 22 | 3 | 0 |
| Cincinnati | Larry Kinnebrew | 108 | 482 | 4.46 | 36 | 6 | 0 |
| New England | Craig James | 89 | 407 | 4.57 | 27 | 1 | 0 |
| Miami | Joe Carter | 64 | 399 | 6.23 | 27 | 2 | 0 |
| Seattle | Dan Doornink | 81 | 372 | 4.59 | 26 | 0 | 0 |
| New Orleans | Hokie Gajan | 67 | 366 | 5.46 | 26 | 3 | 0 |
| Seattle | David Hughes | 77 | 342 | 4.44 | 27 | 3 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | Frank Pollard | 77 | 331 | 4.30 | 52 | 1 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | Randy McMillan | 67 | 311 | 4.64 | 31 | 1 | 0 |
| Miami | Tony Nathan | 54 | 308 | 5.70 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Bay | Jessie Clark | 49 | 303 | 6.18 | 26 | 1 | 0 |
| Detroit | James Jones | 68 | 290 | 4.26 | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Bay | Eddie Lee Ivery | 56 | 289 | 5.16 | 26 | 2 | 0 |
| Philadelphia | Wilbert Montgomery | 70 | 289 | 4.13 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Bay | Gerry Ellis | 57 | 284 | 4.98 | 36 | 2 | 0 |
| St. Louis | Neil Lomax | 59 | 265 | 4.49 | 36 | 3 | 0 |
| Chicago | Jim McMahon | 47 | 256 | 5.45 | 28 | 3 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | James Wilder | 43 | 250 | 5.81 | 21 | 2 | 0 |
| Cincinnati | Stanford Jennings | 40 | 250 | 6.25 | 48 | 0 | 0 |
| New York NFC | Joe Morris | 54 | 234 | 4.33 | 26 | 1 | 0 |
| Los Angeles NFC | Eric Dickerson | 48 | 233 | 4.85 | 26 | 2 | 0 |
| Seattle | Eric Lane | 52 | 229 | 4.40 | 66 | 2 | 0 |
| San Francisco | Roger Craig | 46 | 206 | 4.48 | 25 | 1 | 0 |
| Washington | Joe Theismann | 48 | 204 | 4.25 | 19 | 3 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | Curtis Dickey | 50 | 203 | 4.06 | 19 | 1 | 0 |
| Chicago | Matt Suhey | 52 | 184 | 3.54 | 15 | 1 | 0 |
| Los Angeles NFC | Dwayne Crutchfield | 34 | 182 | 5.35 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| St. Louis | Stump Mitchell | 34 | 171 | 5.03 | 15 | 2 | 0 |
| San Francisco | Wendell Tyler | 40 | 171 | 4.28 | 18 | 1 | 0 |
| New Orleans | George Rogers | 58 | 158 | 2.72 | 20 | 1 | 0 |
| New York NFC | Tony Galbreath | 36 | 146 | 4.06 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| Cincinnati | James Brooks | 33 | 142 | 4.30 | 16 | 1 | 0 |
| New England | Mosi Tatupu | 36 | 134 | 3.72 | 15 | 2 | 0 |
| Dallas | Tim Newsome | 36 | 129 | 3.58 | 36 | 0 | 0 |
| Washington | Joe Washington | 43 | 128 | 2.98 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| New England | Anthony Collins | 32 | 125 | 3.91 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Dallas | Tony Dorsett | 42 | 115 | 2.74 | 15 | 1 | 0 |
| Miami | Pete Johnson | 55 | 114 | 2.07 | 14 | 6 | 0 |
| Miami | Woody Bennett | 27 | 112 | 4.15 | 16 | 1 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | Mike Pagel | 34 | 109 | 3.21 | 16 | 3 | 0 |
| Denver | John Elway | 23 | 106 | 4.61 | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | Walter Abercrombie | 28 | 103 | 3.68 | 17 | 1 | 0 |
| Denver | Rick Parros | 22 | 103 | 4.68 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| New York NFC | Rob Carpenter | 25 | 98 | 3.92 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Chicago | Calvin Thomas | 13 | 91 | 7.00 | 31 | 2 | 1 |
| Seattle | Dave Krieg | 21 | 66 | 3.14 | 37 | 2 | 0 |
| New York AFC | Johnny Hector | 17 | 64 | 3.76 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | Frank Middleton | 22 | 61 | 2.77 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| New England | Tony Eason | 15 | 60 | 4.00 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles AFC | Kenny King | 16 | 49 | 3.06 | 15 | 1 | 0 |
| Detroit | Ken Jenkins | 13 | 40 | 3.08 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | George Wonsley | 14 | 40 | 2.86 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles AFC | Frank Hawkins | 18 | 39 | 2.17 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| New York AFC | Tony Paige | 12 | 37 | 3.08 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles NFC | Barry Redden | 8 | 36 | 4.50 | 12 | 1 | 0 |
| San Diego | Lionel James | 8 | 35 | 4.38 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| Cincinnati | Charles Alexander | 12 | 31 | 2.58 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| New York AFC | Ken O'Brien | 17 | 31 | 1.82 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles NFC | Jeff Kemp | 9 | 29 | 3.22 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| New Orleans | Earl Campbell | 11 | 27 | 2.45 | 13 | 3 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | Mark Malone | 13 | 26 | 2.00 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | Alvin Moore | 6 | 24 | 4.00 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Cincinnati | Ken Anderson | 9 | 23 | 2.56 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| St. Louis | Earl Ferrell | 6 | 21 | 3.50 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Bay | Ray Crouse | 6 | 19 | 3.17 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Philadelphia | Hubert Oliver | 6 | 18 | 3.00 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Seattle | Franco Harris | 6 | 17 | 2.83 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| San Francisco | Joe Montana | 10 | 16 | 1.60 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| San Francisco | Bill Ring | 5 | 15 | 3.00 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Washington | Keith Griffin | 2 | 15 | 7.50 | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Detroit | Gary Danielson | 13 | 13 | 1.00 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | Steve DeBerg | 3 | 12 | 4.00 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| New York NFC | Phil Simms | 10 | 12 | 1.20 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Philadelphia | Ron Jaworski | 3 | 10 | 3.33 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Cincinnati | Turk Schonert | 3 | 8 | 2.67 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Chicago | Dennis Gentry | 5 | 8 | 1.60 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Detroit | Mike Black | 1 | 7 | 7.00 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | Adger Armstrong | 2 | 7 | 3.50 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Seattle | Randall Morris | 3 | 7 | 2.33 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| St. Louis | Randy Love | 1 | 6 | 6.00 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Detroit | Dexter Bussey | 4 | 6 | 1.50 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | Mel Carver | 1 | 5 | 5.00 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles AFC | Jim Plunkett | 8 | 5 | 0.63 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Pittsburgh | Rich Erenberg | 1 | 4 | 4.00 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Detroit | Dave D'Addio | 1 | 3 | 3.00 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Indianapolis | Art Schlichter | 1 | 3 | 3.00 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Bay | Lynn Dickey | 6 | 1 | 0.17 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Denver | Steve Watson | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles AFC | Marc Wilson | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dallas | Gary Hogeboom | 4 | -1 | -0.25 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New England | Steve Grogan | 2 | -1 | -0.50 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dallas | Ron Springs | 1 | -1 | -1.00 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| San Diego | Buford McGee | 1 | -1 | -1.00 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| San Diego | Dan Fouts | 11 | -3 | -0.27 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Miami | Don Strock | 3 | -3 | -1.00 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay | Jack Thompson | 3 | -3 | -1.00 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| New Orleans | Dave Wilson | 9 | -7 | -0.78 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Miami | Dan Marino | 7 | -7 | -1.00 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 3612 | 15750 | 4.36 | 66 | 110 | 5 |