Brett Favre

Hard to say, Patti. I think it really depends on how healthy he can stay. If he can stay relatively healthy, he could go another 3 to 5 years easy. If he starts getting banged up, it could be 2 - 3. Favre is one of those guys that will play unless they chain him to the bench. He's a competitor, and one tough S.O.B., I'll give him that.

 

Larry - on Sharpe, don't disagree. My point in all this was to show the players who made the position what it is. To me, Winslow did that. Tony Gonzalez certainly didn't, and to me Sharpe just isn't the blocker to be the best. Either way, I just found it odd that nobody could come up with a TE. I'm not out to make anybody feel dumb about it but it's not hard to reach back and come up with somebody who's not playing today.

 

Hasbeens, you make strong, valid points.

I like Marino a great deal - from Western PA like me, and I went to college with some guys who'd played with him. Amazing that Miami drafted him so slow (that he was still there), just because of pot.

The Steelers drafted Gabe Rivera, to rebuild the DL. Gabe was paralyzed in a traffic accident (he was drunk). If Pittsburgh had drafted him, I think Noll might have won one more ring.

Too bad neither Dan nor Kelly won rings - but other lesser QBs are sporting the hardware.

 

Sharpe has gaudy stats to be sure, but I've always thought of him more as a slot receiver that someone lined up next to the RT. Not a true TE in my opinion.

Which leads to why I'm having a hard time picking the best TE of all time. I don't really know many very well, and most are either hellacious blockers who have marginal receiving skills, or oversized WR's with marginal blocking skills. I want to define the ultimate TE as excelling in both, which is why Walls doesn't rank among the best for me. If we were just grading receiving TE's, then you can say Novachek, Walls, Brent Jones, and others. I've never seen any film on Ditka or Winslow so it's hard for me to rank them among the TE's I do know. I think Bavaro is up there, but I don't think he had a very long career. Again, I just don't know. I've heard the name Kasper tossed around, but I haven't seen much film on him either.

Oops, my ignorance is showing again...*blush*

 

To find quality TEs is more difficult than it may seem. The TE was a blocking position for so many years it makes it difficult to find all purpose TEs in the past.

Although Ozzie Newsome, Kellen Winslow or Casper would be considered outstanding TEs from the past.