Player vs. Player (The New Millenium Bengals)

[Shake n Blake]

I thought the toughest question was Whit vs Willie. We all know Whit's PFF grades, etc. That said, I think people are starting to forget how dominant Willie was. He was ignored for years due to being on terrible teams, but the minute we started winning, Willie made 4 straight All-Pro teams, including 3 straight 1st teams.

For anyone who doubts his dominance:

Quote:In three of his 13 seasons that were played in a kind of golden age of the pass rusher, where the top 13 all-time sackers worked during Anderson’s run from 1996-2008, he allowed no sacks. While helping Dillon produce two of the greatest single-game rushing efforts ever, Anderson blanked sack artists ranging from the Minister of Defense (Reggie White) in a one-night revival against the Packers to T. Sizzle (Terrell Suggs) in semi-annual division fare against Baltimore.

Anderson can remember all the sacks allowed. There weren't that many. He thinks there were maybe something like 10 in 13 years. But after running through the list of the greatest sackers, even Anderson is amazed by this:

During his 181 games for the Bengals, he faced nine of the NFL’s 11 current leading all-time sackers and it’s believed he allowed only one sack. The only ones he missed were DeMarcus Ware and John Randle and that one he gave up was to all-time leader Bruce Smith with 19 seconds left in a game the Bills led by two touchdowns.

Anderson was a rookie at left tackle, and Smith was burnishing his case for what ended up being his 1996 Defensive Player of the Year award.

“I went against all those guys,” (Roaf, Boselli, Pace, etc) says Chuck Smith, who had 58.5 sacks for the Falcons in the last eight seasons of the ‘90s. “And I got a sack against all of them but Willie. Willie was special. He’s a Hall-of-Famer. He’s in that same class with Roaf and Ogden. Willie is as good as it gets.”

https://www.bengals.com/news/where-there-is-a-will-there-is-a-hall-18565086

...and Willie was equally as dominant as a run blocker. I don't think we can say that (as much) about Whit.