NFL History: Around the League

Scott Kacsmar@ScottKacsmar
The John Elway PR is a perfect storm:

• Highly-touted NCAA QB people expected and wanted to be great
• Highlight-reel QB but inconsistent on accuracy/decisions
• Bad play was overlooked because GWDs make better highlight packages
• Lack of statistical analysis for QBs in his era hid flaws
• The Broncos fabricated his clutch success relative to other top QBs to create a false narrative as the NFL’s comeback king
• Took advantage of a weak AFC in the 80s, especially Martyball teams in crunch time
• Crushed in the SB 3x, so people figured it was his team instead of him throwing the game away
• Won at the end with much better stats on a truly stacked team, which helps people say he always had it in him
• Even in his first SB win, he played like crap, but one helicopter twirl highlight gets immortalized while Terrell Davis and the defense that stopped the 3x MVP were the real heroes
• Hollywood ending to win SB MVP in your last game

He’s the #1 case in NFL history of a QB where people willingly ignore the huge volume of bad plays/games/seasons and focus squarely on the best moments of his career.

Things would be a lot different if we gave other QBs the same grace.

zn wrote:

Scott Kacsmar@ScottKacsmar
The John Elway PR is a perfect storm:

[to add to this]

Scott Kacsmar@ScottKacsmar

Where does the Dan Reeves’ stigma as being a conservative coach that wrecked his quarterback’s chances at greatness come from? John Elway himself put a lot of that out there over the years in the media.

What happened after the Reeves/Elway relationship ended created the perfect storm for another Elway folk tale:

•After Reeves was fired, Elway immediately put up career-best statistics that were previously thought to be unattainable in Denver. He then consistently played at that level.
•Elway spearheaded the revival of the AFC in the mid-90’s, and would win two Super Bowls to finish his career; beating Reeves in the last one.
•More than just a coaching change, the Broncos started superior talent for Elway to finally work with, including Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Davis, Ed McCaffrey, Anthony Miller, Rod Smith, and Gary Zimmerman.
•Since Denver never had a worthwhile running back in Reeves’ tenure, any thought to run the ball instead of putting in Elway’s hands could be deemed conservatively bad coaching.

All the while it was ignored that:

•Reeves’ offense has worked very well for virtually every other quarterback he ever coached, with nearly all of them performing at a career-best level under him.
•The Broncos were more of a passing team under Reeves than they were after he was fired.
•Denver consistently ran the ball ineffectively in Elway’s comebacks, but they also consistently put the ball in Elway’s hands for all four quarters of those games.

zn wrote:

Scott Kacsmar@ScottKacsmar

Where does the Dan Reeves’ stigma as being a conservative coach that wrecked his quarterback’s chances at greatness come from? John Elway himself put a lot of that out there over the years in the media.

[tweet 3 in same series]

Scott Kacsmar@ScottKacsmar
People want you to believe Elway was winning SBs after carrying bad teams there. He didn’t.

People want you to believe Brady was winning SBs during his statistical peak (2007-12). He didn’t.

Guys who won while they were the best QB?

89 Montana
94 Young
06 Peyton
22 Mahomes

wv wrote:

I think about this every time some media-celebrity decides to tell me who the best QBs in NFL history are. I mean, just imagine if Roger Staubach played under the rules Mahomes gets to play under. Or Gabriel, etc etc.

w
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Or Steve Dils! Let alone T.J. Rubley.

wv wrote:

Dominique Foxworthy choosing his words carefully, on the Jaxson Dart / Trump thing:

They’re being American media people. Anyone who draws a map showing the similarities and then within that the crucial differences between Dart and Kaepernick is getting at the truth about this. This vid is about finding a bland consensus that avoids noticing the truth about this.

Wow, thanks for that. I have seen the Ferragamo to Waddy 50x in my life, but that was the first time I noticed that the pass was tipped by a defender. And the F-W play is the only play that I remember. Watching that little summary was a fabulous trip. All those names. By golly, why do people prefer 38-35 to 16-12?

I always loved those games. I like the current games, too, but I loved the low-scoring, 1970s games at least as much.

Cullen Bryant, man. I loved that guy. I’m not sure he has any equivalent in the modern era.

Another moment in that game that I remember is Staubach’s goof pass. Dallas had a chance with 2 minutes to get a field goal and win. But the Rams D confused and confounded him so much that his final throw was to an offensive lineman, who (befuddled in the moment) caught it, making it an illegal pass. The next play, on his final pass of both the game and his career, he throws an incomplete.

That was also the game where Jack Youngblood famously got a stress fracture in his leg, and ordered the medical guy to tape it up so he could go back out and play.

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Roger Staubach’s Final Drive vs LA Rams ’79 Divisional Playoffs

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All 3 of VF’s TDs are in this vid:

wv wrote:

Top 5 Rams?
(Comments mentioned Faulk, Slater, Pace, Gabriel, Fears, Crazy Legs, Holt, Flipper, Cromwell…Fred Dryer )

I haven’t watched the video yet, and far be it from me to plow into a topic I haven’t given any thought to, but I will say Flipper is not worth a nod in this discussion. I liked Fred Dryer more than you did, but he doesn’t belong in the conversation, either.

Faulk would be a tough one for me because he spent his first 4? years with some other team. I can’t say anything about Fears or Hirsch because I never saw them play, and only know a bit, and the same is true for Gabriel, although I did watch him play, but I was like 6 – 10 years old, and what did I know about football while I was watching him, and obviously had no point of comparison at the time.

BTW, that list doesn’t include Dickerson, Deacon Jones, Olsen, Night Train, Warner, Youngblood, or Bruce.

At this point, I think I’m just going to say that I’m proud that the Rams have so many great players, cutting it down to five is practically impossible. It would be so much easier to do this if we were Seahawks fans like Nittany. They have Largent, Lynch, Kennedy, and Sherman. That’s about it. Can’t think of a 5th.

Best Rams? Before 2020. Olsen, Jones, Youngblood, Donald, Warner

And my list suggests the possibility of defying time, and starting a 4/3 DL that consists of all these guys in their prime:

Jones Donald Olsen Youngblood

That would be fun to watch