Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I took less care in ordering these guys than on DE and DT.
Seeing ILB and OLB together irks me. Lazy.

I do know Harry Carson is not the best pure ILBer
He is the ONLY 3-4 ILBer on list

Some ofthe MLBers played some ILBer (Lambert, Lewis)

LB
Dick Butkus
Lawrence Taylor
Ray Lewis
Bobby Bell
Joe Schmidt
Junior Seau
Jack Ham
Ted Hendricks
Jack Lambert
Derrick Brooks
Von Miller
Willie Lanier
Bill George
Derrick Thomas
Dave Wilcox
Kevin Greene
Mike Singletary
Chuck Bednarik
Clarke Hinkle-----cannit rank him, so lo little,
Ray Nitschke
Sam Huff
Luke Kuechly
Brian Urlacher
Dave Robinson
Harry Carson

Aaron Donald missing but Kuechly and Von Miller on makes no sense at all. Also, pour one out for Randy Gradishar, mahomies. I'll take a crack now.

DE:
Locks: White, Smith, Jones, Marchetti, Watt
Likely: none especially
Maybe: Youngblood, Strahan, Davis, Ford, Atkins, Robustelli (one of the latter four will be guy #7 idk which)
Unlikely: Selmon, Eller, Peppers, Long, Ware
No chance: just Hewitt ig, for better or worse

DT:
Locks: Page, Greene, Lilly, Olsen
Likely: Nomellini, White
Maybe: Sapp, Kennedy, Willis
Unlikely: Randle, Buchanan, Donovan
No chance: Culp, Sestak, Lipscomb, Stautner

LB:
Locks: Butkus, Lewis, Taylor, Bednarik
Likely: Singletary, Lambert, Ham, Brooks, Bell
Maybe: Seau, Nitschke, Lanier, Thomas, Schmidt, Hendricks
Unlikely: George, Greene, Urlacher, Kuechly, Huff
No chance: Miller, Robinson, Carson, Wilcox, Hinkle

again, not exactly ordered---but close---

LB
Dick Butkus
Ray Lewis
Joe Schmidt
Jack Lambert
Willie Lanier
Bill George
Mike Singletary
Ray Nitschke
Sam Huff
Luke Kuechly
Brian Urlacher
Harry Carson

Randy Gradishar (left off)

Lawrence Taylor
Bobby Bell
Junior Seau
Jack Ham
Ted Hendricks
Derrick Brooks
Von Miller
Derrick Thomas
Chuck Bednarik
Dave Wilcox
Kevin Greene
Dave Robinson
Clarke Hinkle-----cannit rank him, so lo little,

Chuck Howley (left off)

Prediction----not necessarily who I'd pick

DE White, Smith, Jones, Marchetti, Watt, Selmon, Davis, Long

JohnTurney wrote:Some of the best missing


DT
Curley Culp
Cortez Kennedy
Warren Sapp
Tom Sestak
Buck Buchanan
————Henry Jordan (missing)
Gene Lipscomb
Ernie Stautner
Art Donovan

Where would you rank Henry Jordan among this group of DTs?

Bryan wrote:

JohnTurney wrote:Some of the best missing


DT
Curley Culp
Cortez Kennedy
Warren Sapp
Tom Sestak
Buck Buchanan
————Henry Jordan (missing)
Gene Lipscomb
Ernie Stautner
Art Donovan

Where would you rank Henry Jordan among this group of DTs?

right where he is.

I wouldn't underrate Bill Hewitt his 1933 season ranks with Len Ford's 1951, Deacon's 1964, Reggie's 1987 and JJ's 2012 as the best DL seasons ever. In 1950 Halas started talk of whether Ed Sprinkle had surpassed Hewitt as the best pass rusher of all time and Halas certainly had seen them all.

NWebster wrote:I wouldn't underrate Bill Hewitt his 1933 season ranks with Len Ford's 1951, Deacon's 1964, Reggie's 1987 and JJ's 2012 as the best DL seasons ever. In 1950 Halas started talk of whether Ed Sprinkle had surpassed Hewitt as the best pass rusher of all time and Halas certainly had seen them all.

I'd be happy to be onboard with this, but is Halas' testimonial the only supporting evidence?

JohnTurney wrote:I took less care in ordering these guys than on DE and DT.
Seeing ILB and OLB together irks me. Lazy.

I do know Harry Carson is not the best pure ILBer
He is the ONLY 3-4 ILBer on list

Some ofthe MLBers played some ILBer (Lambert, Lewis)

LB
Dick Butkus
Lawrence Taylor
Ray Lewis
Bobby Bell
Joe Schmidt
Junior Seau
Jack Ham
Ted Hendricks
Jack Lambert
Derrick Brooks
Von Miller
Willie Lanier
Bill George
Derrick Thomas
Dave Wilcox
Kevin Greene
Mike Singletary
Chuck Bednarik
Clarke Hinkle-----cannit rank him, so lo little,
Ray Nitschke
Sam Huff
Luke Kuechly
Brian Urlacher
Dave Robinson
Harry Carson

John, would you happen to have full stats for Butkus and Taylor somewhere? You seem to have them for all the LBers lol and you agree with the consensus that they are the greatest, so I'd love to see what they did. Do you think Butkus was better than Taylor as ranked here, or just too difficult to compare their play styles?

JameisLoseston wrote: Do you think Butkus was better than Taylor as ranked here, or just too difficult to compare their play styles?

I just think a MLB and Rushbacker shouldn't be grouped together. But gun to head I'd but Butkus as best LB and LT 2nd.
But then there was Butkus' knees giving out on him, so he played 9 was effective for maybe 7 or so.

To me Butkus #1 Middle and LT #1 OLB

I do have both their stats, but Butkus' are coaches stats and I've never really typed them up, so they've never been much use
The Giants had LT with 33 forced Fumbles, Nick and I found 7 more, but I am going through some clips that will take him to
over 50. back then if it wasn't clear the scorekeeper wouldn't credit anyone with a force, but when you watch the game tape
you can find many "missing" FF

Be sure---LT had 50-53 or so FF, not the 33 they Giants show n their media guide...