Greatest Players per Position

Jun 4, 2021 at 7:07 AM

Joecool
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Read the Michael Irvin comments on Jerry Rice and thought about the type of players who were the greatest at their positions. Here's the article about Irvin's comments: https://www.49erswebzone.com/articles/147632-michael-irvin-again-backs-legend-all-time-greatest-receiver/

Just think, were any of the players that are/were considered the greatest at their positions also the best athlete ever at their position? It seems like the super talented ones burn out too fast.

Brady: nope
Montana: nope
Rice: nope
Lott: nope
Butkus/Singletary: nope
Deon: YES

[ Edited by Joecool on Jun 5, 2021 at 8:26 AM ]

Jun 5, 2021 at 8:20 AM

Hysterikal
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Urlacher…

Jun 5, 2021 at 8:26 AM

Joecool
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Posts: 70,984

Originally posted by Hysterikal:
Urlacher…

You're right. He was extremely athletic. Took him off.

Jun 5, 2021 at 8:50 AM

Hysterikal
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Posts: 34,276

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by Hysterikal:
Urlacher…

You're right. He was extremely athletic. Took him off.

He was but I don't know if I would put him with Butkus and Singletary anyways. He was a great player but when he played he was never the best MLB in the NFL. Ray Lewis and Willis were better not taking anything from him though

Jun 5, 2021 at 9:37 AM

RasSuar
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Lawrence Taylor: f**k YES

Jun 5, 2021 at 12:33 PM

GEEK
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Posts: 19,195

Originally posted by Joecool:
Read the Michael Irvin comments on Jerry Rice and thought about the type of players who were the greatest at their positions. Here's the article about Irvin's comments: https://www.49erswebzone.com/articles/147632-michael-irvin-again-backs-legend-all-time-greatest-receiver/

Just think, were any of the players that are/were considered the greatest at their positions also the best athlete ever at their position? It seems like the super talented ones burn out too fast.

Brady: nope
Montana: nope
Rice: nope
Lott: nope
Butkus/Singletary: nope
Deon: YES

That's why olympic athletes rarely thrive in the NFL. The NFL is about having the right balance of physical, mental, durability, and technical skills to consistently win battles on each play. If you anchor too heavily on the physical, it may get you through HS and college, but you'll get exposed in the pros.

Jun 6, 2021 at 10:11 AM

StOnEy333
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Rice wasn't the best athlete at WR? Conditioning/speed/hands were unmatched. His "40 time" may not have been top of the charts, but his speed on the field was undoubtedly unmatched. Anybody that watches him play consistently saw just just run away from defenders like they were standing still. Am I missing something?

Jun 6, 2021 at 10:21 AM

English
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Posts: 40,230

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Rice wasn't the best athlete at WR? Conditioning/speed/hands were unmatched. His "40 time" may not have been top of the charts, but his speed on the field was undoubtedly unmatched. Anybody that watches him play consistently saw just just run away from defenders like they were standing still. Am I missing something?

No. You are missing nothing. Put the ball in his hands and he was gone.

Jun 6, 2021 at 11:16 AM

4ML
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Posts: 51,599

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Rice wasn't the best athlete at WR? Conditioning/speed/hands were unmatched. His "40 time" may not have been top of the charts, but his speed on the field was undoubtedly unmatched. Anybody that watches him play consistently saw just just run away from defenders like they were standing still. Am I missing something?

This. Also, pure speed isn't the only super athletic trait.

Moss and Owens were also physical freaks (very different from each other but were all time great athletes).

Primetime, Revis, Woodson, Ed Reed were all super freaks and talented.

Adrian Peterson was a freak of nature. OJ, Faulk, Bo Jackson, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Jim brown were all freaks.

This basically only applies to QB and imho that is not going to last forever either.

Jun 6, 2021 at 8:54 PM

#10

dhp318
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Jim Brown, Adrian Peterson.

Jun 7, 2021 at 6:52 AM

#11

walker807
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Makes you appreciate Gore more. The only RB high on the all time list that wasn't a physical freak, outside of his battle against father time. He never had breakaway speed or tons of power. What he did have though was elite pass blocking and the ability to take half an inch in between lineman and slip though it like Houdini.

Jun 7, 2021 at 7:36 AM

#12

Hysterikal
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Posts: 34,276

Originally posted by walker807:
Makes you appreciate Gore more. The only RB high on the all time list that wasn't a physical freak, outside of his battle against father time. He never had breakaway speed or tons of power. What he did have though was elite pass blocking and the ability to take half an inch in between lineman and slip though it like Houdini.

Lots of people have Walter Payton on their Mount Rushmore of running backs and he was no physical freak.

Jun 7, 2021 at 8:21 AM

#13

spizzy
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Posts: 3,489

Julius Peppers

Jun 7, 2021 at 9:26 AM

#14

Morgy
Hey bud, what’s your problem?
Posts: 29,675

I was always amazed by Vince Wilfork.

Jun 7, 2021 at 12:23 PM

#15

Wubbie
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Posts: 5,828

Originally posted by walker807:
Makes you appreciate Gore more. The only RB high on the all time list that wasn't a physical freak, outside of his battle against father time. He never had breakaway speed or tons of power. What he did have though was elite pass blocking and the ability to take half an inch in between lineman and slip though it like Houdini.

I wouldn't say Frank Gore had 4.30 40 speed.... But he was deceptively fast. I swear, that man had so many runs where he slipped through a line and exploded to a 20 yard run. Frank had an average 40, but he had a pretty good 20 yard shuttle (4.11 seconds). That's faster than Adrian Peterson, Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, LeVeon Bell, LeSean McCoy.