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Darrelle Revis, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas- the last all-time great DB's?


Goo Punch

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I'll try to keep this simple- how can we expect DB's to thrive for 5, 6, 7+ years in today's league? With all of the rules in favor of the offense, with offensive schemes and tactics as advanced as they are, with how freakish the WR's of today are, and with the emergence of TE's who are pass catching monsters, it seems unfair to expect any DB to have that type of lasting success going forward. I can name a ton of DB's who I grew up idolizing- Deion, Westbrook, Reed, Polamalu, a couple of guys named Woodson, etc. Does anyone else feel like we'll be seeing fewer and fewer truly great DB's going forward?

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1 minute ago, EZ$ said:

Earl Thomas is (was) a very good player, but he’s not in the same category as the other true “greats” you mentioned.  

Better than Sherman, imo.

Patrick Peterson probably among this group as well. Though public opinion of him is higher than my personal opinion is.

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4 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

Earl Thomas is (was) a very good player, but he’s not in the same category as the other true “greats” you mentioned.  

completely disagree. For about 3 to 4 years at his peak in Seattle one could argue he was their best player and maybe the best player in the league on that side of the ball. He was the guy that let all the others guys specialize in their own bit - sherman and chancellor. His range and brain were just otherworldly in this time frame. He is like 29 or 30 now and not even close to what he used to be. Thats young to slip as much as he has, but I always thought he was a small dude that bulked up bigtime to play in the NFL and that just can't last for long. 

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21 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

I'll try to keep this simple- how can we expect DB's to thrive for 5, 6, 7+ years in today's league? With all of the rules in favor of the offense, with offensive schemes and tactics as advanced as they are, with how freakish the WR's of today are, and with the emergence of TE's who are pass catching monsters, it seems unfair to expect any DB to have that type of lasting success going forward. I can name a ton of DB's who I grew up idolizing- Deion, Westbrook, Reed, Polamalu, a couple of guys named Woodson, etc. Does anyone else feel like we'll be seeing fewer and fewer truly great DB's going forward?

 

8 minutes ago, Helobious said:

No

And we are done here 

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13 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

Ok, I can see an argument for him being better than Revis and Sherman, but not Deion, the Woodsons or guys like that.  Those guys are first ballot HOFs, Earl isn’t. 
 

i never compared him to any of them. I listed them as guys who i looked up to growing up. Earl, Sherman, and Revis are three of the more recent guys who've played at it near an all-pro level for 5+ years. 

Edited by Goo Punch
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15 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

i never compared him to any of them. I listed them as guys who i looked up to growing up. Earl, Sherman, and Revis are three of the more recent guys who've played at it near an all-pro level for 5+ years. 

I don't know if I fully understand the link between improved offensive weapons/ rules favoring offense and the affect on the longevity of the best DBs. Why would the length of time they're better than their peers decrease?

Edited by TommyGufano
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38 minutes ago, TommyGufano said:

I don't know if I fully understand the link between improved offensive weapons/ rules favoring offense and the affect on the longevity of the best DBs. Why would the length of time they're better than their peers decrease?

it's tougher to play the position than its ever been. i mean is it even possible to have one guy shut down half the field anymore with today's schemes and athletes? i'm seriously asking, because i don't know that it is. take for example tre'davious white or minkah fitzpatrick, two of the current young studs of the defensive backfield. for me, and maybe i'm in the minority here, today's game presents more challenges to them than it did to, say, Troy Polamalu. to me that makes it harder to play at an all pro level year in/year out. and so i guess what i'm saying is not that we will no longer have great DB's, just that it is only becoming harder and harder to be great year after year, the way so many DBs have in the past. 

Edited by Goo Punch
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2 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:

Rules are slanted to favor the offense.

No they aren’t. They’ve historically been severely slanted to favor the defense, some of that has been scaled back a tad, and defensive coaches are throwing shitfits about it. That “rules favor the offense” stuff is all hype.

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5 hours ago, TexEx15 said:

Love me some Earl but man this was ugly.

 

That's a game Earl is going to want to forget. Henry also executed the Tebow jump pass and burned Earl through the air as well.

 

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4 hours ago, hpslugga said:

No they aren’t. They’ve historically been severely slanted to favor the defense, some of that has been scaled back a tad, and defensive coaches are throwing shitfits about it. That “rules favor the offense” stuff is all hype.

Stephon Gilmore

Jalen Ramsey

Xavien Howard

Slay

Peterson (bad year this year)

Byron Jones

Harris at DEN

Hayward

Bouye

tough, very good cornerbacks seem a dime a dozen these days, teams just play 3 to 4 WRs so they are bound to find a bad DB matchup in there somewhere

I'd put Pro Bowl CB as one of the toughest competitions/votes in the NFL imo.

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On 1/13/2020 at 9:31 PM, staboner said:

completely disagree. For about 3 to 4 years at his peak in Seattle one could argue he was their best player and maybe the best player in the league on that side of the ball. He was the guy that let all the others guys specialize in their own bit - sherman and chancellor. His range and brain were just otherworldly in this time frame. He is like 29 or 30 now and not even close to what he used to be. Thats young to slip as much as he has, but I always thought he was a small dude that bulked up bigtime to play in the NFL and that just can't last for long. 

no, Sherman locking down his side allowed Earl to roam around.

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Scope Seattle's performance with Earl pre- and post injury in 2016. He stirred the drink. Seattle couldn't stop shit (non-Jeff Fisher subdivision) without Earl. Sherman is very good. Bobby Wagner is only player who deserves a discussion with ET for best Seattle defensive player during the teens.

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Useless comparing two parts that make each other look better.

Richard Sherman wouldn't be able to play as aggressive short and down the sideline if Earl wasn't locking down the seams.

Earl is not able to lock down both seams if he has to cheat to cover for a bad matchup.

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