Bad trade, bad picks

The preponderance of coverage of the 25th anniversary of the Hershel Walker trade got me thinking, not surprisingly, about all the draft picks included in the deal. I’ll skip the details, which can be found in excess. The picks are hugely important to the history of the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL at large, and […]

Research: Vikings, Rams, Cowboys Part III: 1976-1980

For the Minnesota Vikings, the 1976 season fits better with Part II of this series. In hindsight, their final failed Super Bowl run signaled the end, or the beginning of the end, of an era. Fran Tarkenton would struggle through his final two seasons in purple (1977-78) and the defense fell into mediocrity that would […]

Research: Vikings, Rams, Cowboys Part II: 1970-75

By the end of the 1960s the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, and Los Angeles Rams were already seizing control of the NFL from the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts. When the league merged with the American Football League in 1970, some structural changes aided in the three teams’ hold. Baltimore, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh were […]

All-Time Running Backs: NFC East

Dallas Cowboys Emmitt Smith is to this running back debate what Jerry Rice was to the wide receiver version—his stats tower over every other player to the point that it’s not really worth going over everything. Aside from the fact that he is the league’s all time leading rusher, Smith had 7 100-yard playoff games […]

All-Time Running Backs: AFC East

Now that I’ve spent countless hours trying to determine which NFL team has the best all time wide receivers, it seems to make sense to spend countless hours deciding which NFL team has the best all-time group of running backs. Instead of developing a Power Rankings-type list of the best running back teams, let’s do […]

All-Time Wide Receivers: Conference Championships

Here’s the semi-finals of the longest, most drawn-out blog vote in history. Stats for “support” guys are now updated and included, in order of strength rather than alphabetical. VOTE BELOW—If you want to go ahead and vote for the Super Bowl winner here we can end it now. Or I can do a post comparing […]

All-Time Wide Receivers: Second Round

The likelihood of second round upsets is relatively slim, but the #2 seeds could be knocked off. Let’s get to the games: AFC Second Round: (5) San Diego vs (1) Indianapolis Indianapolis was the unanimous top seed in the AFC and dominated the AFC South, while San Diego came in second in the AFC West to the […]

All-Time Wide Receivers: First Round

AFC First Round: (5) San Diego vs (4) New England The 5 vs 4 games are where this will get interesting. It seems unlikely that either #1 seed could be topped (if we seeded them #1 doesn’t that mean we all agreed they are the best in the conference?), but some of the division winners […]

All-Time Wide Receivers: Playoff Seeding

Here are the final standings, based on a quick count of all the votes received. Next step will be to seed all the division winners and pick wildcard teams and seed them. AFC Division Winners New England: Stanley Morgan, Troy Brown, Irving Fryar, Wes Welker Pittsburgh: Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Hines Ward, Louis Lipps Indianapolis: […]

ProFootballReferencing: Super Bowl 46

New York Giants vs New England Patriots Series: Tied 5-5 Last Meeting: New York Giants 24 at New England Patriots 20; Week 9, 2011 The Giants and Patriots played a rare (these days) scoreless half when they met earlier this year. Tom Brady was intercepted by Deon Grant on the opening drive of the third […]