Tag Archives: Redskins

Who had the best burst?

1. Bob Hayes (Cowboys/49ers, 1965-75) making up a massive amount of ground in the 4×100 relay at the ’64 Olympics:

2. Darrell Green (Redskins, 1983-2002) running down the Cowboys’ Tony Dorsett in the ’83 season opener:

3. Willie Gault (Bears/Raiders, 1983-93) zooming by everybody in the 100-yard dash final at the ’86 “Superstars” competition:

My two cents: I’m not sure any NFL player has run faster than “Bullet Bob” Hayes. Remember, those are the best sprinters in the world he’s blowing away down the stretch. As for Gault, an Olympic-caliber hurdler, he dusted a “Superstars” field that included James Lofton, Renaldo Nehemiah and St. Louis Cardinals base-stealer Vince Coleman (who was in camp with the ’82 Redskins as a receiver) — pretty fast company. Green is more of a What Might Have Been case. Like Gault, he gave up track after college to concentrate on football, though he went on to win all four of the NFL Fastest Man competitions he entered.

Then again, Ollie Matson (Cardinals/Rams/Lions/Eagles, 1952, ’54-66), another Olympian (bronze, 400 meters, 1952), has always had his supporters. Watch him take off here after nearly getting tripped up on a kickoff return:

The thing about Matson is that he was such a glider, it never looked like he was running that fast — until you noticed players disappearing behind him.

Granted, there are other worthy candidates for this list — including Ron Brown, the receiver-returner for the Rams and Raiders (1984-91) — but these are the best clips I could come up with. Feel free to submit your own.

The rich getting richer (usually, at least)

One of the neater tricks in pro football is to win the championship (hard enough), then double your pleasure by selecting a Hall of Famer in the next draft (harder still, especially if you’re picking last).

It’s happened just 10 times in NFL history, most recently in 1993-94. (The player involved was admitted to Canton last year. I’ll let you guess who.)

As you’ll see, seven of the 10 teams won another title within five years. The other three messed up — royally. One cut its future Hall of Famer (who went on to win a Super Bowl with the Jets), another traded him (after which he won five championships with the Packers) and the third failed to sign him (whereupon he won an AFL crown with the Chargers).

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a club to pull this off again. It could be another decade or two, considering the paucity of candidates.

Note: I’m not including the ’49 Eagles or the ’50 Browns. Yes, they both came away from the next draft with a Hall of Famer, but it was a coach (Bud Grant for Philadelphia and Don Shula for Cleveland).

NFL CHAMPIONS WHO SELECTED A HALL OF FAMER IN THE NEXT DRAFT

Year	Champs	Hall of Fame Pick (Round)	Result
1948	Eagles	LB Chuck Bednarik (1)	Won titles in '49 and '60
1952	Lions	LB Joe Schmidt (7)	Won title games in '53 and '57, lost in '54
1955	Browns	DE Willie Davis (15)	DNP until '58, traded to Packers in '60
1956	Giants	WR Don Maynard (9)	Lost title game in '58, went to AFL's Jets
1959	Colts	OT Ron Mix (1)	Signed with AFL's Chargers
1962	Packers	LB Dave Robinson (1)	Won titles in '65, '66 and '67
1980	Raiders	DE Howie Long (2)	Won Super Bowl in '83
1982	Redskins	CB Darrell Green (1)	Won Super Bowls in '87 and '91, lost in '83
1984	49ers	WR Jerry Rice (1)	Won Super Bowls in '88, '89 and '94
1993	Cowboys	OG Larry Allen (2)	Won Super Bowl in '95

There were also three league champions — two from the AFL, one from the NFL — who lost the Super Bowl and added a Hall of Famer in the next draft (kind of as a consolation prize). These were:

Year	Champs	Hall of Fame Pick (Round)	Result
1966	Chiefs	LB Willie Lanier (2)	Won Super Bowl in '69
1967	Raiders	OT Art Shell (3)	Won Super Bowls in '76 and '80
1968	Colts	LB Ted Hendricks (2)	Won Super Bowl in '70

Finally, here are some Super Bowl champions of more recent vintage who may eventually join this list. (Note the word “may.”)

Year	Champs	Possible HOF-er in next draft (Round)	Result
1996	Packers	FS Darren Sharper (2)	Lost Super Bowl in '97
2003	Patriots	NT Vince Wilfork (1)	Won Super Bowl in '04, lost in '07 and '11
2004	Patriots	OG Logan Mankins (1)	Lost Super Bowls in '07 and '11
2009	Saints	TE Jimmy Graham (3)	?????

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Receivers who’ve done it the hard way

Some receivers have it better than others. Indeed, some receivers have it so much better it’s almost unfair.

Wes Welker, for instance. He got to play with Tom Brady for six years in New England (well, five years and one game), and now he’s running routes for Peyton Manning in Denver. How sweet is that? Answer: five 100-catch seasons sweet.

Jerry Rice had Joe Montana and Steve Young (not to mention Rich Gannon). Michael Irvin had Troy Aikman. Andre Reed had Jim Kelly. Talk about blessed.

Then there are those who aren’t as blessed. I started thinking about this the other day when it occurred to me that in his 13 seasons, most of them quite productive, the Redskins’ Santana Moss has had only one year in which his quarterback made the Pro Bowl. That would be 2012, when Robert Griffin III was voted in as a rookie (but couldn’t play because of a blown-out knee). Other than that, Moss has chased passes thrown by the likes of Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington, Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell and Donovan McNabb — some of whom had been Pro Bowlers in their prime, but not when they were teamed with Santana.

Which made me wonder: How unusual is it for a receiver to catch 700 balls — in Moss’ case 722 — essentially without the benefit of Pro Bowl quarterbacking? My research shows he’s not alone in this regard, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of company, either:

700 CAREER CATCHES, FEWEST SEASONS WITH A PRO BOWL QUARTERBACK

Catches	Receiver, Team*	Pro Bowl Quarterback	Total Seasons
860	Muhsin Muhammad, Panthers	Steve Beuerlein	1 of 14 (1999)
857	Anquan Boldin, 49ers	Kurt Warner	1 of 11 (2008)
846	Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals	Kurt Warner	1 of 10 (2008)
764	Eric Moulds, Bills	Drew Bledsoe	1 of 12 (2002)
722	Santana Moss, Redskins	Robert Griffin III	1 of 13 (2012)
712	Brandon Marshall, Bears	Jay Cutler	1 of 8 (2008)

OTHER HAVE-NOTS

Catches	Receiver, Team*	Pro Bowl Quarterback(s)	Total Seasons
943	Derrick Mason, Titans	Steve McNair	2 of 15 (2000, '03)
927	Andre Johnson, Texans	Matt Schaub	2 of 11 (2009, '12)
814	Henry Ellard, Rams	Everett, Frerotte	2 of 16 (1990, '96)
814	Keyshawn Johnson, Jets/Bucs	Testaverde, B. Johnson	2 of 11 (1998, 2002)

*Current team or the one he played for longest.

(Note: I excluded running backs, which is why Larry Centers isn’t listed.)

This raises any any number of questions, perhaps the biggest being:

How much does the quarterback make the receiver, and how much does the receiver make the QB? Would Moss and the others have put up even gaudier numbers if, like Donald Driver, they’d spent their entire careers huddling up with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay? And if you go along with this premise, might this make them a tad — or even more than a tad — underrated?

Food for thought, at the very least. Moulds, Moss and Marshall have one playoff win among them — one in 33 combined seasons. There’s something to be said for a receiver’s supporting cast, particularly at the quarterback spot.