My assumptions are based on personnel production from 2000 to present (a la 25 years or a quarter century per the ESPN justification):
I did not have a problem with ESPN's rationale (
link), especially concerning their inclusion of Priest Holmes.
Martin was good, but Dallas has had far better o'lineman in the past. Just my opinion.
I am also questioning how far back this list goes. Are we only talking about the past 25 years? If so then Priest Holmes doesn't belong since his career started in 1997 and Randy Moss started in 1998. Emmitt was still playing up to 2004, how does the all-time leading rusher not make this list?
Bold> Yes.
See above for my thoughts concerning ESPN's listing of Holmes. This
link is their assessment of Randy Moss. I agreed with it also.
In my opinion, Emmitt Smith is one of the top 25 (if not top 20) Pro Football Hall of Famers of all-time. That said, he did not perform as well from 2000 forward. Best season was over 1,200 yards rushing. 2-of-5 season rushing totals over a thousand yards. Two sub-1,000 rushing yard seasons. One sub-300 rushing yards season. He averaged less than six rushing touchdowns per season during that stretch.
I have no problem with ESPN excluding Smith from this particular list for the reasons stated above.
Love Fitz but can't see him getting any of these guys off the field.
No problem. Me? I disagree. Here is ESPN's criteria for Julio Jones (
link), which I will summarize -
- 13,703 receiving yards
- 66 receiving TDs
- five-time All-Pro*
My counterpoints to ESPN for excluding Fitzgerald using their criteria -
- 17492 receiving yards
- 121 receiving TDs
- three-time All-Pro*
* Note: ESPN uses all sources for all-pro designation in addition to the league's official AP votes.
ESPN makes the argument for Jones, saying:
If we look at every player's three best seasons by receiving yards this quarter century, no wideout's top three years matched Jones' total of 5,141 -- four yards ahead of Johnson. If we do the same exercise for each player's five best seasons, Jones again sits at the top. Best seven? Still Jones.
My head-to-head comparisons between Jones (
link) and Fitzgerald (
link),
with the addition of completions per season -
Best 3 seasons
- Jones 5,141 receiving yards (353 receptions)
- Fitzgerald 4,251 receiving yards (279 receptions)
Best 5 seasons
- Jones 7,994 receiving yards (524 receptions)
- Fitzgerald 6,875 receiving yards (488 receptions)
Best 7 seasons
- Jones 10,586 receiving yards (702 receptions)
- Fitzgerald 9,186 receiving yards (687 receptions)
Personally, I think both players compare favorably. I would side with Fitzgerald. Just my opinion.