Buffalo Junction

Which is saying something because Wolford, Ballard, Richter, Hull, and Davis were a damn good unit. Probably the second best o line at the time.

Definitely one of the most dominant positional groups I’ve ever seen.

It’s a fun thought experiment, and it’s interesting to see other people’s views and how they remember the players. As for Thorpe... 6 foot and 200 pounds. His size would translate. The cool thing is that his athleticism is documented thanks to winning two Olympic gold medals (pentathlon and decathlon). His speed is documented... 100 yard dash in 10 seconds flat and a mile in 4:35. Throw in a long jump over 23’ and you’ve got a serious athlete that would probably compete with the combine performances of modern players without any of the advanced supliments and training. A lot of the freak HOF players would likely translate across eras. It’s just hard to say definitively who would be best.

We definitely agree on Emmitt. IMO he’s basically Curtis Martin with a HOF offensive line. I still put Barry in my top 3. Despite me defending his line, he did what he did against front 7’s stacked with HOF players who were out to stuff him.

I certainly can’t and won’t take Brown off my list for the reasons you stated. However, I feel that Brown’s physical dominance is also what undermines your argument; at least with those of us who didn’t see him play in person. He simply never played against a modern roster. In the same vein, Peterson never played under the older rules and field conditions. There’s no definitive answer, but that’s why the conversation is fun. We’ll probably never agree on this, although I think we’re recalling different sections of Sanders career. I’ll definitely concede that the Lions never replaced the Oline talent, and that line deteriorated after the 95’ season. Prior to that they suffered from poor depth, but average starters. The problem they had was that none of the D-lines in the NFC north were average then except the Buccaneers before Sapp (95’). An average O-line isn’t going to look good when the front 7 across from them has Reggie White, Sean Jones, and Bryce Paup on it and is anchored by a NT that demands a double team. Same goes for the John Randle and Chris Doleman lead Vikings lines. Heck, Richard Dent was the worst starting D-lineman on that 93’ Bears team and he made the pro bowl that year.

Shaw, the biggest argument against Brown is the era. When you consider a guy like Peterson you have to wonder what his stats would look like if he’d have played against the smaller and less athletic guys in the 50’s through 60’s NFL. As a result you have to have this argument defined by era. Maybe construct a “lineage” that starts with Jim Thorpe and goes up to Adrian Peterson. ?‍♂️

The only real argument against Sanders is all the negative runs. People definitely recall the highlights, but what the don’t recall are the 3-4 carries before the 50 yard touchdown. He’d average 5 yards a game, but he had a penchant for negative yardage which was often caused by impatience and a desire to hit home runs. It’s why he often got pulled in short yardage situations and the red zone. Of course people also forget how good a lot of those 90’s defenses were.

It does, but for the majority of Barry’s career that line was substantially better than our Incognito and Wood led O-line that Shady thrives behind. Not to mention that Herman Moore was an all pro WR keeping the safeties honest with help from guys like Perriman. I’m not saying that Barry wasn’t the GOAT... Just that comparing last seasons Bills team to a Lions squad that was routinely in the playoff hunt and had a minimum of 6 probowlers (2all pro) is disingenuous. Their biggest flaw was facing Favre and Reggie White twice a year.... A Packers team that held Sanders to negative yardage in the playoffs and won the game by carrying Moore out of bounds after a clutch catch.

Come on man. ?. Lomas Brown was an all pro tackle. Kevin Glover was a probowler Center. Herman Moore was an all pro wideout. Kramer and Peete were both infinitely better than Peterman. The Lions had some weapons, and the offensive line wasn’t that bad until Sanders last two seasons.

Sayers, had he never blown his knees out, possibly would have gone down as the best. He was simply the best offensive weapon of his era until injuries undid his career. On top of his running you have to factor in his ability to return kicks and catch the ball. His patience and field vision was top 3, and when coupled with his patience and athleticism... The man was a freak and as fluid of an athlete as there ever was. A 6 touchdown game. A career kick return average over 30 yards. A rookie season of over 2,200 yards with 22 touchdowns... Everyone should watch that Chicago vs San Francisco game. I’ve never seen anything like it... Sayers made everyone else on the field look like they were in slow motion.

IDK why everyone is so obsessed with moving Edmunds and/ replacing MM this offseason. I can’t see any reason why the team would be looking to upgrade at their spots this year. Edmunds made a substantial amount of rookie mistakes with fills and seemed to lack strength and leverage at times while taking on blockers. The flipside is that his height and athleticism need to be game planned for because of the amount of area he can take up in zone coverage. Now... If Edmunds doesn’t improve at MLB or Milano ends up getting injured again I can see them taking care of that in 2020 by using a 1st on a LBer. Until then they’ll be looking at depth and a possible Alexander replacement. That said, they like competition so I could easily see them going LB in the 3rd or even moving up to the late second if someone they have a hard-on for falls.

This years class seems very similar.... Round 2 lottery.

The Packers are definitely on the short list, and their fans have proven it. “On Nov. 22, 1959, however, in an official league game against the Washington Redskins, just 297 tickets went unsold, so it was a little more difficult to notice even at the reduced capacity of 32,150 at the time. That was the last home game at the stadium — not counting the replacement games — that failed to sell out based on the team’s count of 317 straight games through the 2015 regular-season finale against the Minnesota Vikings.” https://247sports.com/nfl/green-bay-packers/Article/The-Packers-Last-Non-Sellout-at-Lambeau-Field-74998271/

I’m pretty sure that comment is sponsored by Nike... Imbedded advertising.

Meh. I’m not worried about it. He’ll get his share of crap from Bills Mafia if his performance suffers in Oakland. Not to mention the media circus that’ll ensue if we make the playoffs and they don’t.

Good points. The other aspect is LB, S, CB, and TE depth. The backups at those positions often make up the core of your “teams” groups, and we had a serious lack of talent at those spots last season. Hopefully Beanes depth changes and the new coach bring us back up to par with the rest of the league.

Hence the use of past tense. Their GM did show that he’ll go all out to fix a single position group in a single offseason though. Last OS they signed 2 CBs then went CB in r1 and r2. With Fackrell on the roster OLB is probably done. ILB/Will though... they need a guy to play next to Martinez. I think they may go with Devin White if he’s still on the board.

I’ve had Sweat going to GB in my brain for a while. He seems like the perfect 3-4 OLB/4-3 DE tweener for Pettine’s defense. I honestly think he has more value for a 3-4 unless he can perform at the higher weight.

Not concerned about the heart. My concern would be that he packed on a substantial amount of weight between the season and the combine. He’s not a young player as he went to MSU, got booted, then did JUCO. As a result I’d be more concerned that his body doesn’t actually want to carry the extra muscle (like Maybin). I’d be a lot less concerned about that if he was a 19-20 year old sophomore. For reference he’ll be 23 in September.

In general I agree, although I don’t really recall any real injuries before the retirement other than the broken leg. I was surprised that they extended Wood, but I could understand the methodology behind the move. Hughes is interesting because his production over the past few years is a case of horseshoes and hand grenades. I honestly haven’t sat down and watched him individually, but it’s almost anomalous that he can repeatedly get that close without finishing the job. The strange part is that it’s not a single year, but every year since Mario left. How much of that is him vs the rest of the defense I can’t say. Perhaps we should have shipped him to GB when they hired Pettine and we were trading everyone on offense. ?‍♂️

I wasn't a big fan of the extra money, but I think extending Wood made sense within the structure of their plans. McBeane knew they were going to draft a QB, and having a veteran like Wood at center assisting with calls, protections, etc. is definitively beneficial. They scrambled last offseason and grabbed Bodine who had experience, but failed to perform at a needed level. Fortunately they rectified the problem with the Morse signing unless something unexpected occurs.

The question is, why did he struggle? Was he still recovering from his off-season knee surgery? Was it the injured finger? Failed communication between him and Darnold? Poor guard play next to him? Some combination of the issues listed? Long’s Performance standard is likely somewhere between his Jets and Redskins tape. However, I’m going to assume that Beane knows more about this than we do. Still... Long is not a guaranteed starter. He could be beat out by a draft pick or vet. At the moment he’s probably going to replace Groy as our interior swing guy. He’s going to have to win a starting spot. Keep in mind that he was let go by Gase, the opposing HC during his worst game... It’s also worth noting that PFF’s o-line ratings often deviate from reality by significant margins because their analysts don’t have intimate knowledge of schemes, assignments, and adjustments. I haven’t seen PFF say whether Long’s snapping woes factored into his rating. What we do know is that Long had a crap year with an underperforming team after playing significantly better on his first contract, he’s only played center for two years, and he was injured last year. How he does here is anyone’s guess, but he plugs a hole by being at least a depth guy that can fill in at three positions. I imagine that’s the plan. Full on competition at every spot except center. They’ll let Morse and J Allen get into a groove early, and fill all of the spots around that. We’ll likely add some rookies into the mix as well. This is going to be fun to watch.

Background... “Spencer Long At the midseason point, I was very impressed with Spencer Long. After all, he had just come into the starting lineup in Week 3 to strengthen the team’s weakness at center. In our midseason grades, I said the following of Long: All of that rings true to the end of the season. Long has continued to play well, though he was slowed down by a concussion at the close of the season. He has earned the right to be the team’s starting center moving forward, and definitely should be a solid player moving forward. Long’s Season Grade: B” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/season-grades-for-the-washington-redskins-offensive-line-010817%3famp=true

Oliver is the John Randle/Charles Barkley gamble. I’m not sure that he has enough elite traits to dominate the competition at the NFL level. As a smaller guy he needs elite strength and quickness coupled with hand fighting technique. I really wanted to see him at the combine.

As much as I hated Brian Cox when I was younger, I have to admit that he really added some WWE style drama to the phins rivalry. I can’t recall if he was a “dick” elsewhere, but he was certainly the ultimate heel when he came to Rich Stadium.