Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
When I compare these teams, Miami and New England are clearly stronger than New York and Oakland.
On the weaker end, Tarkenton was the best QB of the lot. Add in solid years by Simms and generally Manning, and I think the Giants beat the shorter-tenured solid QBs of Oakland. Oakland is the weakest of the group.
On the stronger end, it's really close. Would I rather have 16 years of Marino or 14 years of Brady? Marino, but it's close. Would I rather have 12 years of Griese or 8 of Bledsoe and 4 of Plunkett? Griese, but it's close. But after that, the Dolphins have nothing other than Tannehill and one year of Earl Morrell. The Patriots don't have much, either, but they've got a year of Flutie and 11 years of stability with Steve Grogan. Part of me wants to punish New England for sticking with Grogan for 11 years. Seriously? In a decade you couldn't even try to do better?
This is really tough, but I'd probably go Miami by a hair.
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I agree with all of your analysis, pretty much, but want to comment on Grogan. He was drafted in 1975, replacing Plunkett (who was not good with NE) and was the de facto starter until 1973 (8 years, not 11) when the Pats drafted Tony Eason (not Dan Marino, unfortunately) to replace him. From there until the end of his career, the Patriots were definitely TRYING (and failing) to upgrade the position.
And Grogan certainly wasn't great, but he was a very above average runner, and on Patriots teams with ridiculous offensive lines and with great running backs, he enhanced the threat. The 1978 Patriots team to this day (and probably forever given the nature of the NFL now) holds the records for most running yardage in a season -- 3,165. That team didn't have a single runner with more than 800 yards, and Grogan had over 500 of them.
For what little it is worth...