NFL Network Debate : Gronk/Graham

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Cannot underestimate the blocking aspect of the job. Gronk is the best TE since Bavaro in his prime. Graham should be compared against Shannon Sharpe, Tony Gonzales and other all-timers as glorified receivers.

Regards,
Chris

 

[BradyFTW!]

The only reason there's a debate is because of the fantasy football culture that now dominates the sport. It's grown so popular that most people are no longer football fans, they're fantasy football fans. Blocking doesn't get you points, so many will just ignore that aspect of the game and base their opinions purely on receiving stats. Graham is a fantastic receiver, but he is no where near the complete player that Gronkowski is. Every real football fan knows that. As for the commentator's "opinions", it's just like patsfan13 said, all staged garbage.

You have the end result right, but the cause wrong. The biggest fantasy football fans that I know are also the biggest football fans. ESPN doesn't ignore the hard-to-quantify elements of football because the fans don't care; it ignores them because it's hard to make sweeping comparisons, rankings, and generalizations with them. They're just as bad when it comes to analyzing the hard-to-quantify elements of basketball, and basketball doesn't have much of a fantasy audience.

As always, it's just ESPN picking the lowest-hanging fruit, and the lowest-hanging fruit is almost always statistics relating to offensive production.

 

[CheeseMonkeys]

Hernandez and Graham are in the same league. Gronk is in a league of his own that no other TE has ever been a part of.

 

[ausbacker]

Jimmy Graham ended up being ranked at 14 of the Top 100 NFL Players.

Good joke guys. Good joke.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Jimmy Graham ended up being ranked at 14 of the Top 100 NFL Players.

Good joke guys. Good joke.

gronkowski's numbers in 2011 alone are almost as good as graham's numbers combined for his career.

 

[Spergon Wynn]

There are honestly people that think that Gronk isn't the best TE in the game right now? Were these people even paying attention?

 

[Deus Irae]

gronkowski's numbers in 2011 alone are almost as good as graham's numbers combined for his career.

They're both coming off of their second season, and their numbers are very similar, outside of TDs.

 

[Joey007]

It's a joke. THIS ENTIRE LIST IS A JOKE. Having Vince Wilfork at 81 is one thing, but Graham being 7 spots ahead of Gronk is a JOKE. No disrespect to Graham, but Gronk has revolutionized the TE game. Again no disrespect, but Graham did not. Gronk broke the TD by far, Graham didn't. Gronk set the receiving yard record for TE's, Graham didn't although it wasn't his fault. How in ANY way, ANYWAY at all is Graham SEVEN spot ahead of Gronk?!? It's a sham, a complete sham. :violent:


I mean, what players voted on the list?? Joey Porter?? Bart Scott?? Terrell Suggs?? Bernard Pollard?!?!

 

[captain stone]

And didn't PayaTon finish 50th in the voting, the same horse-faced goober who didn't even play at all in 2012? Like 007 just posted, this list is a J-O-K-E.