MMQB All-Time Draft

[JohnTurney]

http://www.talkoffamenetwork.com/20426-2/

From Rick Gosselin
"My goal was to select a true team, position specific. On offense, I would draft a true halfback and a true fullback, not two halfbacks. I would draft a speed wide receiver and a power receiver to complement him. I would draft a left tackle and a right tackle, not two left tackles.

On defense, I would draft a strongside end and a weakside end, not two weakside pass rushers. I would draft a power tackle and a speed tackle to compliment him. I would draft a strongside linebacker and a weakside backer, a strong safety and a free safety.

If my team actually had to line up for a game, everyone would be comfortable at their starting spots"

The oddity is he chose Neil Smith and Deacon Jones, both left defensive ends. And he took Jack Ham and Bobby Bell, both left linebackers. And he took Emlen Tunnell (a left safety) and Easley a strong. Generally, the left was considered the "strong" but back then there were no "tight ends" but often the two receiver side was the right, making the "left" essentially the strong. So it was confusing.

I was trying to do the same and even made a trade to get a weakside LBer, but when I saw Goode, who was trying to build a team the way he described picking players who didn't fit, I also picked a couple at the end that didn't fit. Unless he thinks Deacon Jones is a weak side end...maybe he does. Ham, oftgen gets grouped with the weak side guys, Dr. Z always did it because Ham was such a great cover LBer, he was on the left. Technially not a strong sider, since he was always on the left, same as Bell, they didn't "flop" like Dallas did. So his guys are in kind of a gray area except for Jones, who was clearly on the left, that is until 1974 when he played a bit on the right.

Calling Big Daddy a power tackle is a stretch. With Colts he was a sideline to sideline guy, though he had power he didn't go toe to toe with guards. He was happy to flow to the ball. With Steelers he was an upfield rusher, not a 3-technique per se but a rush tackle, like an Alan Page, only huge. To me the "power" tackles would be the nose guys, Joe Greene or Merlin Olsen, etc...

anyway, it was interesting to be part of it.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Now that everyone is done, it’s my turn to pick :

Coach Potsy Clark

QB Benny Friedman
RB Dutch Clark
FB Tony Latone
WR Elroy Hirsch
WR Dante Lavelli
TE Pete Pihos
LT Turk Edwards
LG Mike Michalske
C George Trafton
RG Ox Emerson
RT Link Lyman

DE Bill Hewitt
DE Lavie Dilweg
DT Joe Stydahar
DT Cal Hubbard
LB Clarke Hinkle
MLB Bill George
LB Tex Hamer
CB Red Grange
CB Ernie Nevers
S Glenn Presnell
S Johnny Blood

K Ken Strong
P Ralph Kercheval
WC Guy Chamberlin
WC Fats Henry

Let me know if I picked anyone who was already drafted and I'll make an adjustment. I don't think this draft would've been that stressful for me given I built an entire offense of undrafted players that I'm happy with (unlike fantasy football where the player I want is always selected the pick before mine). I think I could've focussed all my early picks on defense and gone after Deacon Jones, Joe Greene, Night Train Lane, Emlen Tunnel, etc. But given I didn't have any draft picks, I like my defense too.

I only took 3 specialists (Elroy Hirsch, Dante Lavelli, and Bill George) (Pihos is a borderline specialist as he was a successful DE, but not at the same time he was playing offense). Everyone else I have can play both ways and a lot of them did at least some kicking. We may lose to the bigger teams, but I think we'd have a stamina advantage if we had to play 4 or more times in the same week.

[JuggernautJ]

Enjoyable read, thanks.

John, I see Joe Horrigan also drafted a 3-4 defense (with DT Ernie Stautner as his WC).
Did anyone else choose to run a 3-4 defense?

Re: Team Brandt. I'd love to see Jim Brown's reaction to Randy Moss and Terrell Owens in the huddle.
(But what I'd really like to see is Jim Brown run behind Ogden, Wright, Mack and Hannah.)

[bachslunch]

Re: Team Brandt. I'd love to see Jim Brown's reaction to Randy Moss and Terrell Owens in the huddle.
(But what I'd really like to see is Jim Brown run behind Ogden, Wright, Mack and Hannah.)

If he can get Moss and Owens to play at their best and not be distractions, he'll have a great pair of receivers. Could be too much to expect, though.

He's also the guy who picked three OLBs for whatever reason.

[JohnTurney]

Enjoyable read, thanks.

John, I see Joe Horrigan also drafted a 3-4 defense (with DT Ernie Stautner as his WC).
Did anyone else choose to run a 3-4 defense?

Re: Team Brandt. I'd love to see Jim Brown's reaction to Randy Moss and Terrell Owens in the huddle.
(But what I'd really like to see is Jim Brown run behind Ogden, Wright, Mack and Hannah.)

yes, Bob McGinn went 3-4

[JohnTurney]

Fouts' picks reinforce that he shouldn't be sitting on on HOF voting to "assist" them.

Word

[Bryan]

Its interesting to see which players 'dropped' in the draft. I remember a few (several?) years ago, The Sporting News put out a hardcover book that ranked the top 100 players in NFL history. It was a nice book, and I thought the actual rankings were the 'best' I had seen (the top 10, in order from #1, are Jim Brown, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, Johnny Unitas, Don Hutson, Otto Graham, Walter Payton, Dick Butkus, and Bob Lilly). I would have put Sammy Baugh in the top 10, possibly even as high as #3, and in the book he was #11.

Brown is kind of the consensus 'greatest player ever', in part, I think, due to his observable physical dominance. I think you could make a very strong case for Jerry Rice as being the best ever...his career statistics were much better than any WR before him, and the key with Rice is that he was as dominant in the postseason as he was in the regular season. Brown doesn't have much of a postseason resume, he played in 4 postseason games and 3 title games and wasn't really a factor in any of those games.

Anyways, in regards to the MMQB draft:

*I thought it was odd that Jerry Rice lasted to #17
*a run of MLBs in Round 3, and Ray Lewis was picked 5th
*Jim Brown lasted to #6
*Charles Haley seemed high at #58
*Dan Fouts was like having a girl drafting a team in your fantasy football league
*As someone else alluded to, Mike Munchak selected before Sammy Baugh
*The QBs were odd...Elway goes really high at #12, Bradshaw gets taken at 52, and then a few rounds later Favre (110) and Marino (115) finally get off the board.
*Emmitt Smith at #152 and Steve Largent at #153 seem low.
*Turney's team looks good...you could argue that his offense has 5 of the 'best ever' players at their position (Allen, Stephenson, Gonzalez, Rice, Munoz), and Ed Reed at FS on defense might give him a 6th best ever player.

[ChrisBabcock]

*Dan Fouts was like having a girl drafting a team in your fantasy football league

I had to laugh at this. When I commissionered a fantasy league once (for about 15 years), in 2009 a one Katie (last name withheld) decided to take Brett Favre in the first round. 7th overall IIRC. Everyone's reaction was the sound of crickets chirping. It turned out to be one of his best seasons and carried her to a 2nd place finish.

ok, back to the discussion at hand....

[TanksAndSpartans]

I'm finding it hard not to find something to like about every team. Even Fouts team. I don't like QB (Given the receivers, he may as well have taken himself), WR, OL, or DL, but...

-I like Bo and Perry at RB.
-I like Coryell as coach with Winslow at TE (See Roving-Y chapter in Jaworski's book)
-I like Nitschke and Wilcox at LB
- I like Haynes and Brown at CB
-I like Renfro and Wilson at S

[Reaser]

Fouts' picks reinforce that he shouldn't be sitting on on HOF voting to "assist" them.

This and his nonsense essentially ruined this "draft". Not a new concept. It's been done before, obviously. And it never fails that someone always has to be "that guy" who is different for the sake of being different which in turn compromises the entire point of doing it in the first place. No surprise that John would take it serious, or at least as serious as something like this should be taken, and evidently put actual thought into his selections (i.e. 3-4 defense). Others you can tell were just picking names - hence why some players went way too early and others fell - which along with Fouts rendered the entire exercise obsolete. For me, at least.

Could have been much more interesting with the decent group/mix of people involved, had everyone put some effort into it instead of phoning it in and/or in Fouts case trying to be funny - or whatever his logic was.