jobberone;1524259 said:
Why do you think Simpson didn't have the field vision Sayers did? Don't get me wrong. Sayers is perhaps the greatest of them all; arguably of course. Simpson is in my top ten for sure. Don't really know how I'd rank them.
It's just from my own observations, I guess. Simpson's strongest ability was bouncing running plays off-tackle and using his speed to outrace defenders once he was beyond the LOS. I thought his vision was diminished somewhat more once he broke runs beyond the LOS during running plays designed to go between the tackles.
Sayers had the unique ability to scan from sideline-to-sideline just after the snap. While he didn't cut back against the grain as hard as Sanders would have, he slipped back through holes which materialized fairly cleanly. He may have been aided moreso by the Bears running more counter plays designed to maximize his skills. Once he was beyond the LOS, Sayers agility was more of an asset for him gaining yards than pure speed. He left defenders guessing which direction he was going to take next.
Both men were great backs, but imo, Sayers was the better of the two. It would've been nice if Sayers hadn't suffered his injury at that stage of his career. It would've made the discussions of his place within running back lore much more interesting.
