Generational Talent

I heard some dude on TV say that Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are 'generational talents', along with Mahomes, Jackson, and Watson (and possibly Trevor).

There are always a bunch of great QBs in the league. To me, a Generational Talent is a guy that stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries. TB12, for example. For a generation, his complete body of work has been unequaled.

What's your definition of 'generational talent'?

LovinItAll said:

I heard some dude on TV say that Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are 'generational talents', along with Mahomes, Jackson, and Watson (and possibly Trevor).

There are always a bunch of great QBs in the league. To me, a Generational Talent is a guy that stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries. TB12, for example. For a generation, his complete body of work has been unequaled.

What's your definition of 'generational talent'?

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This
The term is way overused

LovinItAll said:

I heard some dude on TV say that Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are 'generational talents', along with Mahomes, Jackson, and Watson (and possibly Trevor).

There are always a bunch of great QBs in the league. To me, a Generational Talent is a guy that stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries. TB12, for example. For a generation, his complete body of work has been unequaled.

What's your definition of 'generational talent'?

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Generational talent is a guy that only comes along once in a generation. The fact that there are like 10 guys being called that right now tells me that the talking heads saying it don't really know what it means. For all his success, even Brady was not a generational talent.. though he has been a generational player.. The two are not the same thing. Emmitt was a once in a generation type player.. but he did not possess once in a generation talent.. Same with Jerry Rice..

The problem is that the people making these claims are judging by yesteryear and also do not yet have the benefit of hindsight.

The talent we're seeing now at the QB position used to be generational, but now it's commonplace.

With that said, we'll know 10 years from now who was truly a generational talent.

Quick example, around 2008-2009 this place would get their panties in a wad anytime the media favored Aaron Rodgers over Tony Romo. About a dozen years later, no one in their right mind would compare these two talents. ARod was truly the talent of his generation or class of QBs.

nightrain said:

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Totally agree

LovinItAll said:

I heard some dude on TV say that Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are 'generational talents', along with Mahomes, Jackson, and Watson (and possibly Trevor).

There are always a bunch of great QBs in the league. To me, a Generational Talent is a guy that stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries. TB12, for example. For a generation, his complete body of work has been unequaled.

What's your definition of 'generational talent'?

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I suggest you change the channel.

Rockport said:

I suggest you change the channel.

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Hard to do unless one isn't going to watch any out-of-game coverage. The term has become pervasive, and the guys on the set who know better aren't correcting those that don't.

Nova said:

The problem is that the people making these claims are judging by yesteryear and also do not yet have the benefit of hindsight.

The talent we're seeing now at the QB position used to be generational, but now it's commonplace.

With that said, we'll know 10 years from now who was truly a generational talent.

Quick example, around 2008-2009 this place would get their panties in a wad anytime the media favored Aaron Rodgers over Tony Romo. About a dozen years later, no one in their right mind would compare these two talents. ARod was truly the talent of his generation or class of QBs.

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What the hell are you trying to say? Your post is about as scattered as a 12 gauge at 50 yards.

RonnieT24 said:

Generational talent is a guy that only comes along once in a generation. The fact that there are like 10 guys being called that right now tells me that the talking heads saying it don't really know what it means. For all his success, even Brady was not a generational talent.. though he has been a generational player.. The two are not the same thing. Emmitt was a once in a generation type player.. but he did not possess once in a generation talent.. Same with Jerry Rice..

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I would be interested in hearing your list of generational talents. Off the top of my head:

I'd argue about Brady, as I think talent manifests its way in different forms. Not the strongest gun, but the best mind.
LT
Marino (for his gen)
RBs are harder...ED, Brown, Campbell (maybe)
WR - if you don't think Rice was a generation talent, not sure who you have on the list
DBs would require some definition: Woodson, Sanders maybe
Leaving off OL and DL guys for now.

That's a 60 second list......

LovinItAll said:

I heard some dude on TV say that Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are 'generational talents', along with Mahomes, Jackson, and Watson (and possibly Trevor).

There are always a bunch of great QBs in the league. To me, a Generational Talent is a guy that stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries. TB12, for example. For a generation, his complete body of work has been unequaled.

What's your definition of 'generational talent'?

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Id say there were 6 generational talents to come out since 2005. Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Patrick Peterson, Eric Berry, Andrew Luck and Myles Garrett.

To be considered a "generational talent", you have to be so good that there won't be another talent like yours for another generation. All those guys were guys that were touted as the "best player to come out at the position since _____"

darthseinfeld said:

Id say there were 6 generational talents to come out since 2005. Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Patrick Peterson, Eric Berry, Andrew Luck and Myles Garrett.

To be considered a "generational talent", you have to be so good that there won't be another talent like yours for another generation. All those guys were guys that were touted as the "best player to come out at the position since _____"

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It's obviously a somewhat subjective list. I've heard the 'best player since......' tag used so many times that until I see it on the field for an extended period of time, it doesn't mean much to me. That 'talent', however one defines it, has to be actually realized in the NFL. White it may not be fair, I factor in longevity as well. For me, Luck not only didn't have the stats, he didn't even play 100 games. Would've liked to have seen him play in a good organization. Indy squandered his talent. As fans, I feel like we were robbed, but we'll never know.

Rockport said:

What the hell are you trying to say? Your post is about as scattered as a 12 gauge at 50 yards.

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Yeah so to clarify...

Considering generational talent pretty much means 'exceptional, rare talent relative to ones peers', it's hard to determine what is truly a generational talent until that generation is concluding or concluded.

In other words, you kind of need hindsight to say someone has 'once in a generation' talent. I alluded to ARod vs Romo because in 2008/2009 most fans here couldn't quite grasp that Aaron Rodgers was the better talent. In 2021, as that generation of QBs has all but ended, it's quite obvious that Romo was really good, but he was not the generational talent that ARod proved to be.

So when the media speaks about these QBs who have "generational talent", it's really a projection based on benchmarks of the past generation-- not where the player actually fits into the fold today or how they'll go down in history.

Nova said:

Yeah so to clarify...

Considering generational talent pretty much means 'exceptional, rare talent relative to ones peers', it's hard to determine what is truly a generational talent until that generation is concluding or concluded.

In other words, you kind of need hindsight to say someone has 'once in a generation' talent. I alluded to ARod vs Romo because in 2008/2009 most fans here couldn't quite grasp that Aaron Rodgers was the better talent. In 2021, as that generation of QBs has all but ended, it's quite obvious that Romo was really good, but he was not the generational talent that ARod proved to be.

So when the media speaks about these QBs who have "generational talent", it's really a projection based on benchmarks of the past generation-- not where the player actually fits into the fold today or how they'll go down in history.

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Dude chill. You’re too wrapped up in some kind of 4th dimension.

Aaron Rodgers is a generational talent. Aaron Donald is a generational talent. It does always get overstated, give Rodgers some talent he wins more super bowls, hell he won the SB with the most players on IR, we would be clamoring to go 500 if that happened to us.

darthseinfeld said:

Id say there were 6 generational talents to come out since 2005. Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Patrick Peterson, Eric Berry, Andrew Luck and Myles Garrett.

To be considered a "generational talent", you have to be so good that there won't be another talent like yours for another generation. All those guys were guys that were touted as the "best player to come out at the position since _____"

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I guess you would call them generational prospects. But I agree with your list as those were the top-rated players at their positions in a long time. You can probably add Trevor Lawrence to that. He might've had more hype than even Andrew Luck. As someone else stated, you could say that Aaron Donald is a generational talent. JJ Watt in his few years of dominance was maybe the most dominant D player since LT. Of those prospects you listed, Calvin Johnson was the only one to really put up numbers we've never seen before. With the right QB and if he played longer, he could've been considered the GOAT.

LovinItAll said:

I would be interested in hearing your list of generational talents. Off the top of my head:

I'd argue about Brady, as I think talent manifests its way in different forms. Not the strongest gun, but the best mind.
LT
Marino (for his gen)
RBs are harder...ED, Brown, Campbell (maybe)
WR - if you don't think Rice was a generation talent, not sure who you have on the list
DBs would require some definition: Woodson, Sanders maybe
Leaving off OL and DL guys for now.

That's a 60 second list......

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In my lifetime I can think of a few generational talents. These are/were guys who took their freakish athletic gifts and translated them to on the field greatness.
Running back is the position with which I am most familiar.. so my list there would probably be the longest. Obviously Jim Brown was.. OJ Simpson was .. Eric Dickerson was.. Adrian Peterson was.. Bo Jackson probably would have been. Sayers might have been as well.. Barry was.. I don't include Payton and Emmitt because neither possessed any defining physical trait or traits that made them great.. Their greatness emanated from within.

I think Larry Allen was a generational talent at guard.. As was John Hannah a generation before him. Tyron Smith and Erik Williams are the two best OT's I can ever recall seeing.. but I admit I didn't watch o-line play when I was a kid the way I do now.

Reggie White and Bruce Smith were at DE. Jerome Brown and Joe Greene at DT.
Randy Moss was a generational talent at receiver.. It's hard to think of another guy with that level of talent who turned it into that level of achievement. Rice was not nearly as physically gifted, but accomplished a good deal more. T.O. was almost as gifted as Moss but was derailed by his own ego in many ways. Someone brought up Megatron.. that would be a good one.

Deion and the Woodson brothers (Charles and Rod) are the only generational talent corners I can think of.. Ed Reed, Polamalu and OUR Woodson (Darren) are the safeties who come to mind.

Rodgers and Mahomes are generational talent QBs.. I agree about Marino as well. Though I think Rodgers and Mahomes are better than him. Because I think their mobility gives them the capacity to do more to help a team win. Long story short, they can throw it every bit as well as Marino but can also get out of the pocket and make plays. They are what I think Roger Staubach would be in the modern game..

Obviously Lawrence Taylor was that monster at LB.. but quiet as kept.. so was Wilbur Marshall. Mike Singletary belongs in there somewhere as well. Some might argue to put Ray Lewis or Butkus in there but frankly I thought they both were more smart savvy football players than physical beasts..