05-14-2015, 08:39 AM
(05-13-2015, 05:49 PM)6andcounting Wrote: 1st round draft picks are supposed to get playing time right away. 6th round draft picks have overachieved if they aren't sent to the practice squad after camp. Not to mention Brown simply had no opportunities as the 4th receiver - the veterans and high round picks got the bulk of the opportunities by default. Green was the the team's #1 the second the team in front of the Bengals in the draft announced their pick.
And at this point, Brown is just a flat out better receiver. He's a prototypical small, quick slot receiver who has managed to line up out wide and dominate every team's #1 corner the way a 6'4' 210 pound receiver is expected. And he's done it every single game (a minimum of 5 catches, 50 yards; averaged 7.5 and 100 respectively) for over 2 full seasons, a game or 2 shy of doubling the previous NFL record. He is literally unstoppable at this point. They haven't even been able to slow him down by playing 'bend but don't break.' He still gets his big plays and rakes in the TDs.
You're really showing a bias here. I'm trying to look at this objectively, yet you just make excuses and cherrypick stats for Brown while ignoring what Green has accomplished in his career.
1. It's funny how you're pretty much trying to use Green being an NFL ready WR coming out of college against him while Brown having to sit and develop is a positive? In what world does that even remotely make sense? I'm not holding Brown being a 6th round pick against him, but you're just being ridiculous with this part of the argument.
2. Does being productive for a year or two make someone just a "flat out better X" at any position? Or do you get to pick and choose whenever only last year matters? Calvin Johnson has been battling injuries, but he's still clearly the best WR in the NFL if you actually watch football outside of Pittsburgh games. It's crazy when people think that stats are the only thing that matters, that shit is for casual fans. Nobody physically dominates and demands double and triple teams like Calvin does. Is Antonio Brown better than Calvin? Haha, I'd love to hear the rationale for that one. "Omg AB gets stats n stuff sometimes, so gud". I do realize that we're on a message board and that statistics are some of the only things that we have that are factual to argue with, but it would be crazy to say that AB > Calvin because of stats, and I really, really hope that even Steelers' fans understand that.
3. Let's not pretend that Brown didn't just learn how to catch touchdown passes about 2 years ago.
4. You bring up NFL records yet entirely ignore that A.J. has broken NFL records himself.
5. You said Antonio Brown is "literally unstoppable at this point". I'm 100% certain that you don't know what "literally" means.
Since you want to talk about stats so much, here are their statistics over a 4 year period. I'm not even going to use the time where AB sat on the bench and got to learn behind vets, I'm going to start with the year where he got a boatload of targets.
AB - 374 catches, 575 targets, 5,092 yards, 13.6 average per catch, 28 TDs, 3 fum/2 lost, 23 drops, 1 time 1st team AP, 1 time 2nd team AP, +being a good punter returner +catching passes from Roethlisberger
AJ - 329 catches, 576 targets, 4,874 yards, 14.8 average per catch, 35 TDs, 5 fum/3 lost, 30 drops, 2 time 2nd team AP, +catching passes from Dalton
I don't want to take anything away from Antonio Brown, he's an amazing talent and has definitely been a top 3 receiver if we're talking about 2013-2014 only. If you want to talk about careers, you're just a homer if you say that either Brown OR Green are "clearly better". Brown is very, very, very good, I have no problem admitting that. It seems that you have some bias against A.J. though, you won't give him the credit that he deserves. You brush all of his accomplishments aside while propping up AB for everything he does. I figure for as crappy as Steelers' fans think Andy is, they'd at least find A.J. to be an impressive talent for being able to compile the statistics that he has while being thrown to by a mediocre QB. I promise that it won't kill you to give one of our best players the credit he deserves. This isn't the smack board, it won't hurt you to be objective in this forum. The Steelers have some excellent players on their team and I'm not afraid to admit that. As I said earlier, for whatever it's worth, I put Bell and Brown above Hill and Green in my All-AFCN Offense. I don't think either of the WRs are "clearly better" than the other though.
