The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread V2

Clementine Scary String wrote: »

in non nfl news one brian dawkins jr committed to his fathers college today id kill for another 10+ years of dawkins in the nfl

For me Ed Reed was (quite comfortably) the best safety of his era and maybe all time - the 2004 passing rules play a big role mind, as he was better suited for a pass-heavy league. At Polamalu's peak he was unreal, but otherwise I found him a bit overrated, and his coverage abilities completely fell off with age if I recall. I would have Dawkins behind both of those, but it's not a shot on the man... incredible that there were three all timers in that spot altogether (Sharper wasn't a million miles off and I feel Nick Collins could have hit Dawkins type heights had he not got injured). It's my favourite position in the game, probably because I played a lot of rugby as an undersized flanker so figure that would be my best fit if I were to have played 'Murcan football. Makes me kinda sad that while there is some serious talent there right now, it just doesn't stack up to the three above.

Also a huge John Lynch fan. You can't like the safety position and not like that guy!

Clementine Scary String wrote: »

For me with my eagles hat off it's
1. Reed
2 Dawkins
3. Polamalu

With it on bdawk is the greatest footballer of all time

Hard or me to rank the lines of Ronnie Lott

Wouldn't argue with people putting Dawkins over Polamalu at all, I just edge to the latter because he was one of the very, very best playmakers of all time. That said, he had good fundamentals, but they were nowhere near Reed and Dawkins (outside of Reed's tackling near the end, which fell right off with age & injuries)

I never saw the likes of Lott live either, but for me it always grates how little extra credit todays DBs are given compared to the older guys, regarding the rules changes. It's always brought up when QBs are pushing for 5,000 yards, on 110+ passer ratings at seasons end, etc as a stick to beat them with ("Marino/Montana etc would have destroyed the league with these rules!"), usually by the older crowd who grew up on those 80s guys. But yet the reverse is rarely mentioned, say for example during Revis' ridiculous 2009 season where he barely gave up anything at all despite facing a plethora of best of their generation/future HOFer types if I recall, or Reed/Bailey's coverage skills, or Woodson's ability to make play after play while conceding very, very little (though he defensive pass interference calls shot through the roof his last year or so at GB... mind you he should have been playing S by then).

I've gone on many a rant about it, but it irritates me no end how someone can say "[old timey QB] would toy with this league because of the rule changes" and then in the next breath say "Lott would put everyone in hospital these days, WRs would sh*t themselves and never go over the middle" when the opposite is actually true. If that were the case, coaches would constantly go over the middle and get first down after first down after first down after first down from the record breaking number of flags Lott would draw. Then he would be benched at the half, and rarely see the field again.

Don't get me wrong, Lott could potentially adjust and prosper also - but that's not what those people tend to insinuate, instead always bringing up his big hits, etc. It's that type of double-think that just drives me mad.

And so it begins... he's going to go full Ryan Leaf/Jamarcus Russell pretty quickly, I reckon (RGIII's availability for Dallas could be a killer for him, especially since he's only two years older and likely will cost very little). You never got full Ryan Leaf/Jamarcus Russell.

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Ah here Ryan leaf is in a league of his own for being off his game for day one.

Only because the Raiders kept Jamarcus "went ahead of Megatron, Beastmode, Revis, Patrick Willisd AND Adrian Peterson" Russell the f*** away from the field as a rookie! :pac:

What's funny is, Peterson and Megatron were absolute Al Davis wet dream type players; I'd reckon it's a slam dunk he would have gone with one of them had Jamarcus not been in the draft. Some serious talent near the top of 2007 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_NFL_draft