Is Frank Gore a Top-10 All Time 49er?

Gore IMO without a doubt in my mind is top 10. If he gets a championship top 5.

Originally posted by DirtyP:

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
It depends on how you evaluate a "Top 10 Niner" of all time. Best at their position, game heroics, stats?

Without a lot of input I don't think I could answer that.

Off the top of my head and in no particular order - good for a starting point.

1 Rice
2 Montana
3 Young
4 Lott
5 BY
6 RC Owens
7 Wilcox
8 ?
9?
10?

I don't put Dion Sanders - only one season.
Dwight Clark was good BUT outside of the "Catch" I don't see enough to get him in he top 10
Fred Dean - Did he play long enough for us?
JT - would have been a STAR on every team in the league BUT what are the criteria to make it to Top 10?
Barton - one of our best OLine ever.

Fred Dean was a key part of our success in multiple Super Bowl seasons. I would say he's an all timer

Hue McElhaney
Gene Washington
Roger Craig

He's still the #2 back we've ever had as a franchise, but could end up being #1. Craig gets extra points beyond his stats because he was integral to the revolutionary WCO. He made the rest of the team better because of the threat he was.

Gore is in the 5-8th best Niner in history range atm. Certainly top 10.

Originally posted by SealTeam6:

Originally posted by notsoempty86:

Originally posted by chrisernst82:

Originally posted by notsoempty86:

Originally posted by DirtyP:

Originally posted by notsoempty86:

I'm not comparing the two. Gore is a better running back even at this stage of his career.

I said, ON THAT PLAY, hunter would have scored. Watch the replay, the hole was huge. Hunter would have hit the hole, but had the legs to take it all the way (probably to the left corner of the end zone). Of course this is my opinion.

Don't misunderstand what I said in my first post. Frank's heart and vision are UNPARALLELED.

Kendal Hunter has never even had a touchdown run longer than 17 yards in his entire career

Whatever. Missing the point.

So the point is Kendall is faster than Gore. No doubt, but if speed was all it took Carl Lewis would be alot richer right now. To say another player would have done better on any play is irrelevant because you dont know for sure like you said his vision is top notch you cant say the same about Hunter yet. Gore is 29 years old and looking as good as ever he is putting up career numbers in YPC now that he has a line worthy of his skills.

I am not denying Gore has been amazing, and is still amazing. But I think it is OK to acknowledge that with the way our offense is struggling, we needed him to fishing that run, and he simply didnt have the legs/stamina to do it.

As of today, he is the 2 nd leading rusher in the league. That tells me he has more legs and stamina then 30 other starting RB.

Gore is top 5 niner all time. Defensive players IMO can never be in top five- they don't score points

Well, any list of All-Time 49ers which doesn't have Ronnie Lott in the top five is meaningless. According to your opinion O linemen can't be in that list either. And Patrick Willis won't qualify either. Your view of "top 5" is deeply flawed.

Absolutely. He earned it the hard way, too.

Yeah he is. I felt like I got to watch a great player play in person when I saw him play on Thursday night. The guy is awesome.

He's close. The 49ers have a ton of great players who both produced and played several seasons with the team.

In no particular order, My top 10:

1. Joe Montana
2. Jerry Rice
3. Ronnie Lott
4. Steve Young
5. Leo Nomellini
6. Jimmy Johnson
7. Dave Wilcox
8. Bryant Young
9. John Brodie
10. Roger Craig

Then you have a ton of guys who are worthy of being in the top 10:

Joe Perry
Hugh McElhenny
Charlie Krueger
Harris Barton
Randy Cross
Dwight Clark
Keith Fahnhorst
Jesse Sapolu

Probably forgetting a few, but just goes to show how many great players we've had over the past several decades.

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by SealTeam6:

Originally posted by notsoempty86:

Originally posted by chrisernst82:

Originally posted by notsoempty86:

Originally posted by DirtyP:

Originally posted by notsoempty86:
I'm not comparing the two. Gore is a better running back even at this stage of his career.

I said, ON THAT PLAY, hunter would have scored. Watch the replay, the hole was huge. Hunter would have hit the hole, but had the legs to take it all the way (probably to the left corner of the end zone). Of course this is my opinion.

Don't misunderstand what I said in my first post. Frank's heart and vision are UNPARALLELED.

Kendal Hunter has never even had a touchdown run longer than 17 yards in his entire career

Whatever. Missing the point.

So the point is Kendall is faster than Gore. No doubt, but if speed was all it took Carl Lewis would be alot richer right now. To say another player would have done better on any play is irrelevant because you dont know for sure like you said his vision is top notch you cant say the same about Hunter yet. Gore is 29 years old and looking as good as ever he is putting up career numbers in YPC now that he has a line worthy of his skills.

I am not denying Gore has been amazing, and is still amazing. But I think it is OK to acknowledge that with the way our offense is struggling, we needed him to fishing that run, and he simply didnt have the legs/stamina to do it.

As of today, he is the 2 nd leading rusher in the league. That tells me he has more legs and stamina then 30 other starting RB.

Gore is top 5 niner all time. Defensive players IMO can never be in top five- they don't score points

Well, any list of All-Time 49ers which doesn't have Ronnie Lott in the top five is meaningless. According to your opinion O linemen can't be in that list either. And Patrick Willis won't qualify either. Your view of "top 5" is deeply flawed.

No defense? No linemen? Would be a weird game!

Rice, Young, Montana, Lott, BY, Justin Smith, Patrick Willis, Brodie, YA Tittle, McElhenney, Wilcox, Jimmy Johnson, Perry.

Outside looking in. I'd put him as our 2nd best pure RB behind Perry. Hugh was more of a wildcard. Played some HB played some WR. Perry, Gore, Craig... IMO.

Gore is averaging tremendous YPC, but that's mostly on the o-line, not Gore. He's playing a lot better than he has the past couple years, but he's still not making many people miss or breaking a whole lot of tackles. Our OL has been perhaps the most dominant run blocking line I've ever witnessed however (including those f**kin cowgirls from the 90's).

Originally posted by modninerfan:

Originally posted by fropwns:
Joe
Steve
Jerry
Ronnie
Charles
YA
Roger
BY
Frank the Tank
P Willy

YA? Your crazy, that dude is a Giant.

Yes, he is best remembered as a Giant, but the man spent ten years with the Niners. Longer than any other team. The man is a NINER!

I will start y rankings with players fvrom the 80's to now...Never saw any of the old-timers...IMO
1) Rice
2) Montana
3)Lott
4) Young
5) TO
6) Willis
7) BY
8) Hearst
9) Craig
10)Tim Mcdonald

Originally posted by Chrs0049:
Gore vs. Craig in their primes, who you got

If just in their prime Craig. Better blocker (lead and pass pro) and better receiver.

Anyone that has any RB ahead of Frank is just Crazy. Franks the best and it isaint even close. He will get Perry's record this season. Put frank on any of those championship teams and well, thats just freaking to scary to even think about.

Originally posted by SealTeam6:
As of today, he is the 2 nd leading rusher in the league. That tells me he has more legs and stamina then 30 other starting RB.

Gore is top 5 niner all time. Defensive players IMO can never be in top five- they don't score points

that's a dumb thing to say

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:
Anyone that has any RB ahead of Frank is just Crazy. Franks the best and it isaint even close. He will get Perry's record this season. Put frank on any of those championship teams and well, thats just freaking to scary to even think about.

Frank is definately the most recent, but best? I don't like comparing these guys because they all have such different strengths and styles. Craig was one of the best receiving backs ever...maybe the best...and he was an excellent inside/outside runner. Hearst was a faster, smoother Gore but his career was wrecked by injuries. I give him great credit for rehabbing (2 years?) in order to come back...very dedicated. McElhenney was a magician. Very difficult to get a hit on.