Rice and Montana... Would they have been as great without eachother?

Yes, just look at the superbowls Montana won with Clark and the superbowl Rice won with Young/went to with the Raiders as an old man. People act like they played their whole career together but Rice played more with Young by a little bit IIRC and Montana won 2 superbowls and the first 7 years of his career were without Rice.

No man I agree with you 100%.... I just know there has been discussion of this topic in the past by both niner and non niner fans, and I just wanted to get a gauge on what the zone thinks...

Well, Montana won 2 Super Bowls and 2 Super Bowl MVP's without Rice. He also did pretty well in his 2 years with the Chiefs considering he was at the end of his career.

Rice did just as well with Young as he did with Montana when factoring in age, his knee injury, etc.

The real question is whether they would have been as great without Walsh and/or in another system and/or playing with another team. That gets a bit murkier.

Would Montana or Rice have flourished in with the Bears or the Giants, for example? In both cases, while the teams were also among the best of the 80's in addition to the 49ers, weather and style of play might have made it more difficult for either to put up the same numbers. Rice could have been just as good but probably would not have caught as many balls or had as many TD's.

They both won rings with AND without each other, Heck rice even took the Raiders to a SB

They were great PERIOD!

IMO the better question is would they have been as great if they weren't lucky enough to be playing for Bill Walsh during the creation of the WCO before the rest of the league caught up.

Rice played great with and without Montana.

Montana played great with and without Rice.

Hell, even Young took the Niners to the NFC Championship game without Rice (1997), and still played at a HOF level when Rice's role became limited in SF.

They were all great in their own right....

How awesome was Montana? -He won 2 Superbowls (including a Miami Slaughter) throwing to guys named Freddy Solomon before his mega 'arsenal' came into full transition around 1987.

How awesome was Jerry Rice? He crushed many teams with guys other than Montana and Young throwing to him (Elvis Grbac especially).

Montana and Rice both found success in San Fransisco under Walsh, and as the both of them would have probably found 'some' success elsewhere/apart... I doubt neither would have reached their max potential elsewhere (at the beginning of both their careers, drafted by another team).

Without Rice, Montana would have probably won one more SB (not 2), and Rice would have been an 'Andre Rison' type of guy, being a great talent playing for the crappy team he would have probably went to (in New England).

They were great without each other.

They were great together but Montana was already Great when Rice came on the team and once Montana was gone Rice was just as good or better.

I don't know about eachother, but think about both being drafted by someone else.

Rice would have had near the same numbers almost anywhere. He just would not have gotten everything else.

It is more likely that Montana's career and numbers would have stalled elsewhere. So I think for at least the start of his career, Montana was WCO and Walsh dependendant, but Rice was destined to be a NFL star

If they didn't play together there would be another Great WR because of Montana and there would be another Great QB because of Rice. We were just lucky to see both on our team at the same time

They would have been very good. The reason they were as good as they were is Bill Walsh. They fit very well in his system but it was his system. A system that is still being run in various forms 20 years after he retired. If they had played together under say...Richie Kotite or Jim Zorn they most likely would not have been great.

Had Nolan developed them, they would have been truly great. There was a head coach who truly understood quarterbacks.

By the way, when considering the great O players of that era, don't forget Roger. Or the line.