Emmitt was an elite RB. No doubt about it. To claim otherwise is foolish.
Emmitt had 5 really good years, the SB seasons, when he had the dominant OL, Moose Johnson, etc. around him.Otherwise he was a good RB, he had 8 seasons over 4.0 YPC, which to me is baseline YPC. If you're less than that, you're not playing very well. Emmitt was a complete back,
great blocker, good runner, decent receiving option. Nothing about him was elite though. Yet, in some ways, the whole ended up better than it's parts.
I'd take a healthy Portis, LT, Edge of modern day backs easily over Emmitt - they just don't have the longevity yet.
But I don't place Emmitt in my top-10 of all time backs, I do put Barry there.