Posted on 09/14/2005 2:23:26 PM PDT by One Proud Son
QUARTERBACKS: (1) Johnny Unitas (2) Dan Marino (3) Joe Montana RUNNING BACKS: (1) Jim Brown (2) Walter Payton (3) Barry Sanders WIDE RECEIVERS: (1) Jerry Rice (2) Don Maynard (3) Randy Moss DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: (1) Joe Greene (2) Howie Long (3) Randy White LINEBACKERS: (1) Dick Butkus (2) Jack Lambert (3) Mike Singletary DEFENSIVE BACKS: (1) Ronnie Lott (2) Paul Krause (3) Ken Houston
It is still a bit early in Brady's career but boy he is off to by far the best start ever. Certainly already a hall of fame career in my view but if he had a career ending injury this weekend, I not sure he would be quite among the best ever yet.
I scanned the PFW article and it is wrong on two points:
1. Rush LBs were around before Taylor.
2. Anyone who has seen Ray Lewis play and makes anything of his supposed 4.7 speed is an idiot. Lewis plays much much much faster than that. He plays far faster than any MLB I have ever seen regardless of what time he happened to have run in a 40.
Sandy Koufax is considered one of the best despite a short career and less than impressive career stats in terms of wins. The same holds true for Gayle Sayers who spent only 6 years in the NFL. Brady is one of the best regardless of what happens.
As it happens, I was a big Koufax fan in the middle 1960s. But Koufax while a baseball hall of famer would not be listed among the top two or three pitchers in MLB history for that very reason, too short a career. As I said, Brady is a hall of fame QB today. He is not among the top three in NFL history.
Starr, Bradshaw, Tarkington, Kelly, Aikman, Marino, Fouts, Luckman, and Tittle.
Not sure of your criteria. All of these were great quarterbacks. Some won Super Bowls/Championships, while others couldn't get over that hump. I know if I had an all-time draft, I wouldn't mind picking Mr. Favre for my team.
Replace Randy Moss with Cliff Branch and you have a heck of a list.
I have been following prof football since the mid-fifties. LT was the best pass rusher ever from that position. Sure, there were blitzs by linebackers, but basically the linemen were the pass rushers with LBs in pass coverage and as run stoppers. LT changed all of that. Name me an LB who rushed the passer more and better than LT prior to LT.
True
Since 73 we will take a win on monday night beating a great undefeated team any way we can get it (;^)
I started a list from memory and supplemented it from the hall of fame web site. It would take a study for me to rate Farve compared to any of the ones you list. All are hall of famers as will be Farve. I tried to include all different types, stat guys who did not win championships, championship winners etc. Again it would be an interesting study to rate these QBs.
The most obviously correct No.1 is Lott. I'd put Joe M. at No. 1 QB - 11 playoff TDs in a row w/o an INT.
Bart Starr went an entire season with only 3 int's.
Name me an LB who rushed the passer more and better than LT prior to LT.
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Ted Hendricks? He was not as one dimensional as Taylor and like Wilbur Marshall did not get the hype of Taylor mostly because he did not play for the national press' home team.
Here's an interesting trivia question: Who were Andra Franklin, Woody Bennett, Tony Nathan, Lorenzo Hampton, Troy Stradford, Sammie Smith, Mark Higgs, Bernie Parmalee, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, and J.J. Johnson?
Answer: In addition to being pretty inconsequential NFL running backs during their careers, they were also the players who led the Dolphins in rushing during Marino's 17-year career. There was a single 1,000-yard rusher among them (Abdul-Jabbar in 1996) and a single Pro Bowler (Keith Byars in 1992, who isn't even on this list because he was primarily a receiver at the RB position).
If you go back over the first 14 or 15 years of their careers, you'll find that John Elway and Dan Marino were very similar. They were the dominant offensive players on teams with mediocre running games, but they never won any championships. I find it hard to believe that Elway should be considered a better quarterback than Marino just because an old, broken-down Elway had Terrell Davis on his team for the last two years of his career.
Are you saying that Miami wasted a lot of RB talent by letting a QB throw the ball all over the place during Marino's career? I see your point.
I don't think this is true at all. If anything, it was Montana who had the better wide receivers on his team throughout his career, along with good tight ends (Jon Frank, Brent Jones) and one of the best pass-catching running backs (Roger Craig) of all time.
"Let the arguments begin."
No argument, just a fact: Quarterback, Brett Favre. :)
The Dallas Cowboys of 1966-1968 during the off season help give pointers to the high school football players in the nearby towns. Dennis Homan and Dan Reeves coached us the spring of 1969.
I like Bob Griese instead of Dan Marino.
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