The most overrated player in NFL history

I feel kind of bad saying this, because he seems like a really nice guy, but the most overrated player in NFL history, bar none, is:

Franco Harris.

I don't know how many people here have ever really watched old Steelers games (why would you?), but I binge watched them on Youtube several months ago.

Let me just say this: Franco Harris is not a Top 500 running back in NFL history. Not in terms of performance on the field, he wasn't. I am not even kidding: Derek Loville was a better running back than Franco Harris.

You think I'm being hyperbolic? I'm not.

Let me put it this way: Every single person on this forum could tackle Franco Harris when he played. Every single able-bodied person on planet earth could tackle Franco Harris. That is not an exaggeration.

You see, here's how a Franco Harris carry went: Bradshaw hands it off to Franco Harris. He hits the designed hole. The very first guy to touch him was the guy who tackled him. As soon as he was so much as clipped by a nickel or dime back, he went down. He got what was there and nothing more.

Newspapers at the time referred to it as, "unlike Jim Brown, he goes out of bounds." No, he wasn't going out of bounds. He was just going down to the very first guy who got him every single time.

The late Dave Duerson once described hitting Harris as, "he was soft. Like a sponge."

Now maybe you're going to try to object, because, "but but but but, he gained a lot of rushing yards! And rings! He got 4 rings! He must have done something well to keep starting, like...vision! Yeah, vision!"

Yeah, no. Hitting a designed hole is not "vision." Vision is hitting a cutback lane. It's seeing the big picture and making moves accordingly.

Harris was a big robot. See designed hole, go to designed hole...touched, robot shut down.

Harris was the worst running back on the Steelers every year he played for them. The best running back the Steelers had in the 70s was Sidney Thornton. He actually had some decent power. Rocky Bleier was also basically a hack, but even he was better than Harris, and occasionally would fight for some extra yardage/break a tackle.

Was there anything Harris did well besides do what the coaches asked of him as far as hitting the designed hole? Well, for a guy his size, he had decent straight line speed. But I'm talking about for a guy his size...in the 1970s. That's why he was drafted - he was a 230 pound guy who ran in the 4.6-4.7 range. He wasn't the feature back at Penn State...Lydell Mitchell was.

"But if he's so bad, how could he gain so many yards? Are you saying the Steelers' offensive line was the GOAT line?"

Here's something you might not be aware of - and if you're ever trash talking with some Steelers fans who suck off their 70s teams, be sure to bring it up: The Steelers' offensive linemen were all juicing. They were roid freaks. It was an open secret that was exposed by Steve Courson years later.

Their offensive linemen dominated the off-season NFL weight lifting competitions. Mike Webster was the "strongest man in the NFL."

So in terms of effectiveness, they were certainly way up there. Why wouldn't they be? They had a huge physical edge.

It's funny...if you were to poll the average fan and ask them who was overrated from the 70s Steelers, they would say Terry Bradshaw...but he has been called overrated so much that he's actually now underrated. Bradshaw was basically the equal to Elway: Mobility, strong arm, could make all the throws...played in some bad offensive systems that made his numbers look worse.

My thoughts on some of their others:

Lambert: Lives up to the hype for the most part. Funny enough, fans were saying he was overrated and Ham was underrated. I don't see it. Ham after 1974 or so didn't do much for me. Lambert was everywhere. Their scheme had he and Ham getting deep pass drops, and he was on basically everything sideline-to-sideline or straight ahead. Never seemed to miss a tackle.

Greene: Great interior pass rusher, especially in his peak years. Not exceptional vs. the run at the point. Not as "mean" as they say, unless they mean he'll punch Broncos' offensive linemen in the gut and not get ejected. Then yeah, he was mean in that way.

Greenwood: Good pass rusher.

Ham: More impressive in 1974 and prior. More of a role player later on. Pass to the flat and he'd be on it, fast. Huge roles in coverage in their scheme.

Blount: He's lucky he played in the era he did. Not a great actual cover guy. Squatted on routes against primitive passing attacks and collected the INTs. Good run support player, though.

Donnie Shell: Don't get the hype.

Stallworth: Surprised me with his RAC ability. Could break tackles after the catch. Good on the leaping grab as well. Primitive routes.

Swann: Tremendous leaping ability. Pretty special hands, considering nobody wore gloves then. Slow as molasses. I doubt he could crack 4.75. Yeah, he caught deep balls like basically every other receiver of that era, but he did it because the corners of the time were almost entirely 6'0"+ plodders. Teams of that era used almost exclusively bigger corners because of the different rules (the "Mel Blount rule" was instituted in 1977), thinking the bigger corners could maul the receivers they faced. Ugly, primitive routes. Also good after the catch. Watching he and Stallworth, you realize how much we overrate our own receivers' RAC ability. RAC was expected of a WR before pussies like Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt decided the catch was the end of the story because they didn't want to injure their vaginas.

I think 1974 was their best defense, which was Lambert's rookie year. I don't think he ever played better than that, despite not getting the Pro Bowl/all pro honors that year (he did win DROY though).

The most overrated player in NFL history? Good question. My vote would be Joe Namath....173 TDs against 220 INTs (in 3.762 attempts) and a career completion percentage of 50.1. Yes, 50.1! Also, when one looks at his seasons, he had 4 seasons of 20+ INTs (and led the league in picks all 4 years) and only 2 seasons of 20 + TD passes. He had one great season (1967) in which he threw for over 4,000 yds. in the pass happy AFL. Played parts of 13 seasons (only 9 complete). Namath's highest QB rating in a season was 73.8 with a career rating of 65.5.
He is in the Hall of Fame.

John Brodie, by contrast, is not. His numbers? Played 17 seasons, all but 2 were complete. He had a 55% lifetime completion percentage, 214 TDs, 224 INTs (in 4,491 attempts). He had a couple of fabulous seasons (1965 and 1970), both of which were far better than Namath's best season. Brodie had 2 seasons in which his QB rating was over 93. His career rating was 72.3 He also played his entire career in the NFL, which probably had better defenses overall. Just saying.

My feeling is that had Namath played in San Francisco and Brodie played in NY, the situation would be reversed and Brodie, not Namath, would be in the Hall.

Well damn.

Jose Cortez

Originally posted by longterm9erfan:
The most overrated player in NFL history? Good question. My vote would be Joe Namath....173 TDs against 220 INTs (in 3.762 attempts) and a career completion percentage of 50.1. Yes, 50.1! Also, when one looks at his seasons, he had 4 seasons of 20+ INTs (and led the league in picks all 4 years) and only 2 seasons of 20 + TD passes. He had one great season (1967) in which he threw for over 4,000 yds. in the pass happy AFL. Played parts of 13 seasons (only 9 complete). Namath's highest QB rating in a season was 73.8 with a career rating of 65.5.
He is in the Hall of Fame.

John Brodie, by contrast, is not. His numbers? Played 17 seasons, all but 2 were complete. He had a 55% lifetime completion percentage, 214 TDs, 224 INTs (in 4,491 attempts). He had a couple of fabulous seasons (1965 and 1970), both of which were far better than Namath's best season. Brodie had 2 seasons in which his QB rating was over 93. His career rating was 72.3 He also played his entire career in the NFL, which probably had better defenses overall. Just saying.

My feeling is that had Namath played in San Francisco and Brodie played in NY, the situation would be reversed and Brodie, not Namath, would be in the Hall.

Namath was way over rated but he won the biggest game in the history of pro-football. The story goes when he played in Shea Stadium in the winter months he had such velocity on his throws you could hear the ball whistle.

Originally posted by longterm9erfan:
The most overrated player in NFL history? Good question. My vote would be Joe Namath....173 TDs against 220 INTs (in 3.762 attempts) and a career completion percentage of 50.1. Yes, 50.1! Also, when one looks at his seasons, he had 4 seasons of 20+ INTs (and led the league in picks all 4 years) and only 2 seasons of 20 + TD passes. He had one great season (1967) in which he threw for over 4,000 yds. in the pass happy AFL. Played parts of 13 seasons (only 9 complete). Namath's highest QB rating in a season was 73.8 with a career rating of 65.5.
He is in the Hall of Fame.

John Brodie, by contrast, is not. His numbers? Played 17 seasons, all but 2 were complete. He had a 55% lifetime completion percentage, 214 TDs, 224 INTs (in 4,491 attempts). He had a couple of fabulous seasons (1965 and 1970), both of which were far better than Namath's best season. Brodie had 2 seasons in which his QB rating was over 93. His career rating was 72.3 He also played his entire career in the NFL, which probably had better defenses overall. Just saying.

My feeling is that had Namath played in San Francisco and Brodie played in NY, the situation would be reversed and Brodie, not Namath, would be in the Hall.

This. And Lynn Swann. Probably the two worst players statistically in the Hall of fame. They just got a lot of pub and Swann really only made it because he made some iconic playoff catches on a stacked team.

Terry Bradshaw and Joe Namath.

As far as modern guys? Troy Polamalu. Dude just ran everywhere at 100 mph. He whiffed just as often as he did something impressive. Got a ton of mileage out of his big hair and playing for a very popular team like the Steelers.

Eli Manning. Case dismissed.

Sean Taylor

Elway. Kelly.

Originally posted by Niners99:
Terry Bradshaw and Joe Namath.

As far as modern guys? Troy Polamalu. Dude just ran everywhere at 100 mph. He whiffed just as often as he did something impressive. Got a ton of mileage out of his big hair and playing for a very popular team like the Steelers.

I'm hearing Bradshaw was actually pretty good, esp. in later years when the defense had to be carried.

Eli Manning is a good choice I think if you are speaking to Giants' fans........they're about the only fanbase that I believe overrates him. He might be underrated overall, but my prognosis is he's about accurately rated (very good postseason QB, average to above average regular season QB).

As of the last few years, Russell Wilson is the most overrated NFL player and will stay that way so long as he's continuously rated as a "top 5" NFL QB.

Yeah he's top 5 alright, in one or two categories, and like bottom 16 in many others. We'll see what he does this year....

Jim Brown

Originally posted by MarkD:
Jim Brown

Surely you jest !?!?!?

Originally posted by goldstandard:
Sean Taylor

i actually agree with this. He had big hits, but if that's all it takes, Goldson is the greatest safety ever. Taylor was a dirty motherf**ker too. I just think when someone dies, people seem to make them holier than thou. It's the whole, "He/She would light up a room when they entered."

Originally posted by MarkD:
Jim Brown

Ever see him play?