09-14-2015, 12:31 AM
(09-13-2015, 09:54 PM)DanTheBengalsFan Wrote: It's a clear miss by them. Bruce Smith was an awfully good player, but he's top-50 all time, maybe top-20. Anthony Munoz is top-3 all-time. I can't think of anybody with even a halfway believable argument to be ahead of Munoz besides Brown, Butkus, Taylor, Unitas, or Rice. Maybe people will throw out a few quarterback names, but I already named Unitas, and if you're not the best player at your position then it's hard to get in a conversation for top-3-ever (plus I think people overrate quarterbacks in those lists). Same goes for Walter Payton and Don Hutson. Bruce Smith was mostly a pass-rushing defensive end. At that position, Reggie White definitely had a better career, and players such as Deacon Jones, Jack Youngblood, and Gino Marchetti were arguably as good. Stretching the definition of his position to "defensive edge rusher" would put Lawrence Taylor ahead of him, too, and stretching it to "defensive lineman" would exclude Taylor but brings in Alan Page and Joe Greene. I can count the number of offensive linemen in NFL history who were arguably as good as Anthony Munoz on my pet fish's fingers.
Your Reggie White comparison absolutely falters when you consider that Bruce was a 3-4 DE not a 4-3 DE. Smith's numbers are mind bottling when you consider he played DE in the 3-4. I certainly agree that Munoz was a historical player, but it's actually an argument, not a dead certainty.
