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Brady & Manning name their WR/TE Mt, Rushmore

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Boomer B

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Love how Brady went to bat for Gronk, telling the story how Gronk is the only player he saw that could beat Revis in man coverage.

 
Brady Rushmore: Rice, Moss, Fitzgerald, Gronk

Manning Rushmore: Rice, Harrison, Berry, Gonzalez
 
Tony Gonzalez over Gronk?




I get that Gonzalez' raw career numbers are bigger thanks to having a longer career, but c'mon . . . if that is all Manning is going to base his assessment on, that's a huge simplification, akin to only looking up stats and never watching a game.
 
I wouldn't blame anyone for saying Fitzgerald, but Brady very well could've said Welker instead. Best slot receiver in history and it ain't even close.
 
I like Brady including Gronk but I'm going to switch out Fitz for Megatron.

Rice, Moss, Gronk, and Calvin Johnson.
 
Tony Gonzalez over Gronk?




I get that Gonzalez' raw career numbers are bigger thanks to having a longer career, but c'mon . . . if that is all Manning is going to base his assessment on, that's a huge simplification, akin to only looking up stats and never watching a game.
Gronk vs Gonzalez is basically "how much do you value peak vs availability". I'm a Gronk guy so I would pick him. But you can make an argument for Gonzalez pretty easily. The gap between them is noticeable but not massive. You lose out on some blocking. But at the same time you also have to look at Gonzo and say "there's a lot of game he would be there for that Gronk wasn't". Tony missed ONE game in his 17 year career.

Let's do a quick experiment. I don't think Gronk wins a Super Bowl if you put him on the teams Gonzalez was on. You really can't hold that against him. Meanwhile, yes we would lose SOME insane mismatches, but you'd also have Tony healthy in 2011 when Gronk was a decoy in the Super Bowl and that very well could make the difference. You'd have Tony for the 2012 game against the Ravens and have a real shot at the title, idk if we win that, but they'd be way better off. You'd have Tony in 2013's AFCCG and honestly just having him the whole year changes a lot of that season. You wouldn't have peak Gronk in 2014 so yeah a close Super Bowl like that becomes very questionable. But Tony isn't getting injured in that Broncos game in 2015 and there's a real likelyhood we all of sudden host Denver instead of going on the road. Tony's on the field instead of Gronk in 2016, so while I won't look a gift horse in the mouth, that probably becomes an easier game. Idk if he'd make much of difference in 2017. Then in 2018 Gronk was sort of a shell of himself, he had some good plays in the playoffs, but healthy Tony again makes that a bit of an easier run.

And keep in mind.... that only 9 seasons I accounted for. Tony had 8 more on his career you can add around. You can feasibly place Tony here from 2005-2021. So that year in 06 where we didn't have good passing threats, maybe we have a shot at that Super Bowl. 2007 where we barely lost? Well having an elite HOF TE might be the 3 point difference. 2019 maybe we can squeeze more juice out of that offense and see what we have for a run.

So yeah, Gronk as a player stacks up better than Tony. But Tony was still a super elite TE. Aside from Gronk, nobody else has a clear case ahead of him. And you can kinda see what having that consistency would mean for a team. So while Gronk is better purely as a player, there's value Tony had in terms of longevity and health that gets added to skillset that makes the discussion very nuanced.

I wouldn't change anything and would still pick Gronk, but yeah I'm not slagging someone for picking Gonzalez.
 
Anyways the real answer is Rice, Hutson, Moss and then the 4th spot is pretty open between TO/Largent/Metagtron/Fitz/Alworth. But yeah Rice is the GOAT, Moss is the clear freakshow talent, Hutson basically pioneered the position and was the best for the first half of the league's history until the game changed enough. The 4th spot is the questionable one. TO probably has the best career, Megatron the best peak, Largent the accolades because he held every record before he retired, Fitz might have the best overall resume of the guys left, and Alworth is kind of a mix and deserves some extra credit because of the era he did what he did in.
 
I like Brady including Gronk but I'm going to switch out Fitz for Megatron.

Rice, Moss, Gronk, and Calvin Johnson.
Johnson would have made a great TE
 
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Brady Rushmore: Rice, Moss, Fitzgerald, Gronk

Manning Rushmore: Rice, Harrison, Berry, Gonzalez
I strongly disagree with Manning's choices of TE's.
==============
Brady made fine choices.
However, I think that he is being non-controversial. Of course, Rice, Moss and Gronk are hands down the top 2 WR's and the top TE.

There is and should be a great debate about who is the #2 TE, but IMO Fitzgerald isn't in the top group. I would have the following four in the argument for who is #2.
KELCE
GONZALEZ
WINSLOW
WHITTEN
 
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Berry over Randy Moss is insane.
I think 3 things going on with that choice.

Trying not to grab all more recent guys. I think Rice covers that though.

Trying to judge players amongst completely different passing eras. I think if you rate Berry against a curve I still probably wouldn't land him on top 5 but there's plenty of guys he probably would leapfrog.

Their both Colts so Manning probably had a lot of Berry shoved down his throat for a long time creating a little bit of a bias.
 
It's a lot harder to compare WR's of different era's than most other positions. They have the same massive stat inflation because of rule changes that QB's have. Unlike QB's, they don't touch the ball every snap and they don't really get a whole ton of credit for wins and titles so you can't default to that discussion the same way.

It makes it a lot harder to look at Hutson, Berry, Alworth, Warfield, and find a way to compare them to guys of even the 80's and 90's, much less today.

With QB you can always look at Starr and say he won a bunch of rings or you can look at Unitas and say he is a SB champion and has 3 MVP's
 
Looking at those two lists alone makes it obvious why Brady won 7 rings and Manning won 2*

* he was basically a monument for the second ring
Further inspection : Sanders & the D were the real reason for his first one…. He got benched in his ‘second’.
 
I think 3 things going on with that choice.

Trying not to grab all more recent guys. I think Rice covers that though.

Trying to judge players amongst completely different passing eras. I think if you rate Berry against a curve I still probably wouldn't land him on top 5 but there's plenty of guys he probably would leapfrog.

Their both Colts so Manning probably had a lot of Berry shoved down his throat for a long time creating a little bit of a bias.
Peyton is so much more biased than Tom. Moss and Gronk are unanimously Goats, marvin and berry arent even top 5’s
 
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