Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Announcing this a mere 24 hours after You-Know-Who sort of overshadows things but real big news just the same. Pretty much the WR version of Barry Sanders, both retiring prematurely (both at 30), both of course having played for the same franchise. Thoughts?

74_75_78_79_ wrote:Announcing this a mere 24 hours after You-Know-Who sort of overshadows things but real big news just the same. Pretty much the WR version of Barry Sanders, both retiring prematurely (both at 30), both of course having played for the same franchise. Thoughts?

Taking the present day goggles off, Sanders was much more accomplished at retirement than Calvin. Even in aggregate, as they clearly could have both accumulated more numbers, Barry was higher on the career lists. He had more seasons leading the league in, we'll you pick it, I do think Calvin one of the 3 best receivers of his era, and do think he should be a HOF'er, but he's not Barry. The numbers aren't quite there, the highlight reel isn't quite there, and as poor as the Lions have been -and at the beginning they were worse than anything Barry had to deal with - I feel that Calvin's Lion teams were more playing to his production than Barry's. If you're trying to pile up numbers on a losing team be a Wide out with a strong armed QB, not an RB without an O Line.

Megatron was one of the top three receivers of his era, and was surely one of the 15 greatest receivers of all time, by career or peak value. However, Barry Sanders was certainly top five all time, probably top three all time, among running backs by career or peak value. I've done various RB ratings methodologies over the years and they always come out Jim Brown number one all time and Barry a distant second. Sanders was surely the greatest player in Lions history, but Johnson would certainly rate in the top ten among all time Lions and is a sure Hall of Famer.

Early in his career, Johnson never seemed to play big in key games. I get it that he was double covered and what not and the sample size is small here because the Lions didn't play many important games during Johnson's first three years. Then the Lions became alright and even made the playoffs. Johnson almost had a 2,000 yard season. Although he is an all-time great, it seems like he could have been even better.

His 2008 season is IMO one of the most overlooked individual seasons of recent years. He gained 1,331 receiving yards (good for 5th place that year) and scored 12 receiving touchdowns to led the league. But because the Lions went winless, he wasn't selected for the Pro Bowl or named to any All-Pro team.

His quarterbacks that year were: the aging Jon Kitna, washed-up Daunte Culpepper and journeyman Dan Orlovsky.

Two of the best games I've ever seen by a WR were by Megatron against my Cowboys in 2011 and 2013, leading the Lions to improbable come-from-behind wins in both games (in the first game at Arlington, he caught two amazing TD catches, in the second one in Detroit he gained a whopping 329 yards receiving and set up the winning TD).