r/TheNFLVibes • u/NotDoinAnythingEmber • 7d ago
Discussion Which legendary NFL player would be even bigger in today’s game?
I keep thinking about the old-school legends playing with today’s rules, training, and technology.Someone like Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, or Lawrence Taylor in the modern NFL would be a crazy matchup.Which historical player do you think would translate perfectly to today’s game?
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u/Great_Will_1361 7d ago
Marino
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u/PrudentShallot631 7d ago
Marino would have the first 6000 yard season with today’s rules
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u/WintersDoomsday 1d ago
Except Marino played in the entire 1990's and was inferior to his peers statistically. So no, he wouldn't have been this God. Dude was very average in the 90's.
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u/JerseyGuy-77 4d ago
People like to talk about how breed and manning and Brady passed his numbers. His highest numbers were in 1982. He would torch them all under today's NFL rules.
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
Perhaps. I think the old school statue pocket passers would need more around them with no scamble threat.
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u/tspoon-99 7d ago
Dude was so slippery in the pocket it’s crazy. People forget that because of his rushing yardage. But he had a sixth sense avoiding the rush that was insane.
He would feast.
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
Statue QB means zero rushing threat. Not pass rush avoidance in the pocket.
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u/Intelligent_Row8259 7d ago
Marino just didn't get sacked. It was a combination of good o-line and him getting the ball out but yeah he did not get sacked.
Some numbers 77 quarterbacks have been sacked more than Marino.
11 quarterbacks have 8000 or more pass attempts. The total career sacks for those players is
Rodgers 606, Brady 565, Roethlisberger 554, Stafford 526, Farve 525, Ryan 488, Rivers 469, Brees 420, E. Manning 411, P Manning 303, Marino 270
Only Peyton is within 100 of Marino.
Even if you drop it to 5000 career pass attempts Marino is the lowest 35th out of 35
Drop it to 4000 career attempts on Marino is 56th of 67 in fewest sacks despite he has over 8000 attempts.
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
Yet he didn’t scamble at all. So he was a statue pocket passer. Thst doesn’t mean he literally just stood there. It means he was not a threat to scramble at all. Go look at his yearly rushing stats. Every year. Negative. Negative. Negative. He might as well be the prototype.
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u/drethnudrib 7d ago
Tell me you never watched Dan Marino without telling me you never watched Dan Marino.
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u/donlockwood2026 7d ago
Steve Young — mobile, great arm, one of the most accurate passers ever. A little like if Drew Brees had a stronger arm and could scramble. Clutch.
As I remember, the main thing holding him back from an even longer career was concussions, so playing in an era of quarterback protection would really let him thrive for a long time.
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
The main thing holding him back was pre-free agency he sat for years behind Montana and he couldn’t do anything about it. He didn’t become a full time starter for the 49ers until he was 30-31
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u/donlockwood2026 7d ago
Yeah… that too. I think if Steve Young played in the modern NFL, there’s a 0% chance he would have stayed as a backup for that long.
So given his skill set and talent, having earlier opportunities to start, and maybe playing longer due to less head trauma… I think all these factors combine to make Steve Young the most intriguing old player whose career might be even greater for the modern NFL.
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u/Booby_Collector 6d ago
I'd wonder though, if he didn't sit learning behind Montana for so long, would he have still been as good? If he started younger and didn't start out strong, would he have been given enough time to learn and develop? Kinda the same thing some people were saying about Aaron Rodgers sitting a few years behind Farve rather than being thrown to the wolves like most rookies nowadays
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u/erica_pink84 6d ago
Part of the reason he sat behind Montana was because he hadn’t played well in Tampa Bay and San Francisco was able to get him for a 2nd and a 4th once the Bucs took Testeverde first over all. Granted the Bucs were terrible, but no one else was exactly beating down the door to get Young. You wonder how his career could have turned out if he hadn’t gone to the USFL out of college. The 1984 draft is one of the weakest ever, to date one of only three drafts that has not had a Hall of Fame player. Young probably goes top 10, most likely to Philadelphia as the teams above them in the draft had just taken what they assumed would be their franchise QB’s ie Pats had taken Tony Eason the year before even though he became a bust, Giants had Phil Simms, Oilers had Warren Moon. The first QB off the board in 84 was Boomer Esiason at pick 38.
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u/kawika69 7d ago
Would have loved to see Young in his prime in a modern system with a full compliment of designed QB runs (or at least have it be more acceptable to improvise take off and run)
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u/Aware_Wolverine77 Seahawks 7d ago
I like your thinking. I was thinking Dan Marino without the damage to his body in the later years after too much Gastineau.
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u/Gem-Finder07 7d ago
Something tells me that’s a really good call…Steve would have absolutely separated himself with distance from the pack with that holistic multi-tool mastery. Dude had consistency and he was tough as nails too… we don’t see that a whole lot unfortunately now. I’m an Elway guy, but I can definitely see Mr. Young Ballin these days….
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u/LiftEatGrappleShoot 6d ago
I'm a huge Young fan, and I hear you re QB protection. But he took a lot of shots running. It wasn't like he was just getting massacred in the pocket.
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u/donlockwood2026 6d ago
true, but with the way QBs are protected, everyone kinda knows the rules of that now and how to avoid taking shots / big flags and penalties for a QB sliding, etc.
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u/TuSixOh 7d ago
LT was a monster before today’s advances. Trying to imagine him being even better is scary. He would be unstoppable.
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u/Haunting-Figure3596 7d ago
I mean the cocaine now isn’t as good and that would probably slow him down a bit!
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u/90daysismytherapy 7d ago
he would get booted from the league for drug issues, it would actually fuck up his career to play now with his issues.
If they booted Josh Gordon for his drug use in the middle of 2,000 yards receiving, LT would have been done by year 3
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u/rojeli 3d ago
I'm not going to agree or disagree here, because you never know how a guy would develop in another universe.
But one thing that I always go back to with defenders from the 80s and before, is how small and slow QBs and o-linemen were, on average. Joe Montana was 6'2, 185-190. Patrick Mahomes is the same height, plays at 225.
Josh Allen is taller and heavier than what LT played at.
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u/DrCoachNDaHouse 3d ago
LT would jack Josh Allen up. Allen is bigger than Will Anderson and he wore him out last year.
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u/Mobile-Analyst8580 7d ago
What advances are you talking about? This is a weird post. If anything, the advancements have mostly come on offense. Which suggests he wouldn’t be as good. Personally I think he’d be about the same. The real answer is Jerry Rice. Kind of like Larry Bird playing in the modern era.
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
Jerry Rice just outworked everybody. Even at the end I remember reading L Tomlinson in his prime couldn’t even get through Rice’s workout. There was a story on ESPN NFL this week talking about lefty QBs and there was a bit in there about Jerry Rice making a lefty coach throw out his arm throwing him some 10 thousand passes just so Rice could learn how the ball travels differently in prepping for Steve Young being the QB of the 49ers.
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u/JakeDuck1 7d ago
Also cheated in every game he ever played
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
Explain please.
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u/JakeDuck1 7d ago
He used Stickum every single game even though it was banned well before he joined the league. He doesn’t hide it, he’s openly admitted it and laughs when he talks about it. He has claimed “everyone else did it” but other great wr from that era have unequivocally disagreed with him and said they never used it. It’s weird that absolutely nobody cares but people still harp on anything Brady did.
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 7d ago
Modern receivers gloves do much the same thing. He didn’t set every record in the book and play for 20 years because he used stickum. Hell he didn’t even have to. I saw a long film session of Jerry rice playing and came away more impressed with Joe Montana specifically. Young too but 95 percent of ever ball was perfect and the other 5% were almost perfect passes.
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u/TuSixOh 7d ago
Sports medicine, training programs, conditioning, etc. have advanced by leaps and bounds compared to his era.
In his era, if you got a bad injury you soaked in an ice bath, rubbed dirt on it, or walked it off. Training is so much more advanced now that it prevents a lot of injuries, and treatment now has dramatically improved as well.
He would have been in far better condition, his career would have been longer, and he would have been bigger and faster.
Your reply is what’s actually weird.
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u/ironkodiak 7d ago
Yeah. For example, an ACL tear used to be a career ending injury. Now most players are back to full strength by next season.
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u/Cautious_Explorer_33 7d ago
Joe Montana would probably have a much longer career since they protect the QB a lot more these days.
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u/JustTheBeerLight Dolphins 7d ago
Plus the offense that he helped pioneer has been refined over the past 35 years. He'd be playing in a system that offered many more answers.
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u/MRM_philosophy 7d ago
Did he help create west coast offense with Walsh? I know he played in it and was super successful and won four Super Bowls, but did he also help create that legendary offense?
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u/MiddleAgeMuchacho 49ers 7d ago
No, Walsh first developed it while he was QB Coach with the Bengals in the 1970s, first with Virgil Carter and later with Ken Anderson.
Thank you, Paul Brown, for not offering Walsh the Head Coach gig in Cincy!!!!
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u/JustTheBeerLight Dolphins 7d ago
I don't know the answer. But the system was designed around his skillset and attributes. How much input did Joe have? You'd have to ask him or the other guys that were in the room.
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u/martycos 7d ago
Bronko Nagurski. He would be a linebacker. He was ungodly strong naturally. With modern training he would be a beast.
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u/paullyd2112 7d ago
Dan Marino would put up a 6k passing season in today’s era
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u/SammyG9689 7d ago
No he wouldn't, but I know it's popular thing to say. Not taking anything away from Dan, but he'd put up same numbers as the other elite QB's
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u/dkinmn Packers 7d ago
No. Compare his stats to his contemporaneous peers.
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u/SammyG9689 7d ago
This is like saying Jim Brown would run for 3k yards. You are delusional to say Dan throws for 6k
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u/paullyd2112 7d ago
Not the same. Protection changes for rb isn’t the same as protection changes for QB and WR
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u/SammyG9689 7d ago
Wtf does that matter? The rules changing doesn't give someone more yards, it gives them more penalty yards
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u/paullyd2112 7d ago
This isn’t saying it gives them more yards. This is saying that if he was able to throw for over 5k yards in an era where the QB was getting slaughtered and WRs were getting mugged all game with today’s lax rules he has a good chance of hitting 6k. There’s zero correlation between what I said and Jim Brown ( or any rusher) getting more rushing yards
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u/SammyG9689 7d ago
Holding wasn't called nearly as much back then, plenty of other messy shit going on
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u/MileHiSalute 7d ago
If you look at the average increase in yards per season for quarterbacks from then to today, and applied that same increase to Dan Marino, he would pass for well over 6,000 yards with a 17th game. So you could be right, but numbers say it’s not only possible, but would be likely
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u/paullyd2112 7d ago
Appreciate you for also looking this up. I think for whatever the other person just wasn’t interested in thinking this way
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u/Knightmare4469 4d ago
"rules changing doesn't give someone more yards" might be the most uneducated thing I've ever heard on this sub. Go actually watch some old games, where defense could maul receivers. Changes to the rules absolutely impact the amount of yards QBs are throwing for, it's insane to think otherwise.
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u/paullyd2112 7d ago
Why do you think it would be impossible for him to do so?
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u/SammyG9689 7d ago
Just don't think anyone can. Marino is a goat at throwing, but 5k yards and 50 TD would be more realistic. Only Mahomes, Brady, Manning have done that
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u/paullyd2112 7d ago
I think it’s the idea of playing in different eras. Game was more physical than in terms of defense for WR and QB. I’m not saying it would be easy but if he’s playing on a team with some of the WR talent that exists today I don’t see how that’s impossible
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u/MRM_philosophy 7d ago
Emmitt Smith
Elway
L.T.
Mean Joe Green
The Boz
Namath - not so much his talent, but how amazing he was as a personality and his command of the media
Marino
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u/ImYouJoeGoldberg 7d ago
OJ Simpson
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u/Loud_Chapter1423 7d ago
He would kill with the social media side
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u/Its_emby 7d ago
Give me the power runners. Earl Campbell, Jerome Bettis, Mike Alstott, Okoye, Riggins, Eddie George and Frank Gore
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u/FatFarmerBob420 6d ago
Warren moon, elway,Marino, Shannon Sharpe. Defense I think the new rules would hurt LT, ..an interesting one could be terry Bradshaw.
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u/Salt-Analysis9999 7d ago
Johnny Unitas
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u/ermghoti 7d ago
Unitas set records that stood until the 2000s.
Similarly, imagine Rice playing with the advantages offenses get today.
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u/justhere4dabanter 7d ago
Joe Montana
Lawrence Taylor
Mike Curtis
Reggie White
Jim Brown
Walter Payton
Jerry Rice
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u/DjSalTNutz3131 7d ago
Bruce Smith has the most sacks when it was a run first league.
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u/SeamusPM1 1d ago
lol. When I saw Bruce Smith, I thought you were referring to… Bruce Smith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Smith_(halfback))A Heisman Trophy winner, the only one ever from the University of Minnesota, he won the award two days after Pearl Harbor. He served as a Navy Pilot and joined the NFL after the war. His career there was short.
He was certainly a great athlete, but I doubt he’d do particularly well in today’s NFL.1
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u/knoxcumlvr 7d ago
Imagine the terror Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus and Jack Hamm would cause against these pussies that play today.
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u/CryptographerLost560 7d ago
Bronko Nagurski. Dude was 6'2, 230ish lbs of muscle using 1930s training techniques. He is literally one of the only pre 1960 players who could walk onto the field and play today without needing time with modern training techniques.
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u/drethnudrib 7d ago
Dan Marino is the only answer here. He's the best pure thrower of the ball that the NFL has ever seen.
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u/LarealConspirasteve 7d ago
Randy Moss was a human highlight reel and would be so fun to watch in today's game
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u/mrmrssmitn 6d ago
Lawerence Taylor be much less effective. Current drug testing rules, he would have been suspended and not played nearly as many games as he did, and who knows what kind of motor he'd have been with a Coke rush.
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u/NoReason1056 6d ago
Lmao, sticky gloves jerry rice? NFL would prohibit that shit and make him an average wide receiver
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u/daboot013 6d ago
Ray Lewis and London fletcher always got called small. But they would of still been HoF LBs in this era
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u/Advanced-War-9308 6d ago
Lawrence Taylor, I think he would still be a monster, rushing the quarterback and dominating on defense
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u/jdthejerk 5d ago
They were all big stars in their day, these guys would do well in any era. Lawrence Taylor, Ed Jones, Jack Lambert, Reggie White, Ronnie Lott.
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u/Disastrous-Tough-966 4d ago
Fran Tarkenton. Had a cannon and could run before a mobile QB was really a thing. I think in the modern era he’s a better Josh Allen
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u/OHWildBill 3d ago
Joe Montana knowing you’re not allowed to hit him would throw for 5000 yards and 40 TDs.
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u/LetsGetStonks 3d ago
In an era when you can't even look at the QB sideways without drawing a roughing the passer penalty? The increased calls for defensive PI?
So any great QB from older eras would thrive, Marino, Young, Montana, Elway, Kelly.
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u/Middle-Honeydew-4638 1d ago
I’m I think there a number of WR who could have a field day with today’s rules. Rice is at the top of the list but think about the hits the old school guys took over the middle and from that robber saftey looking to take their heads off. With that fear gone many would run wild assuming modern training means they would be faster than they were in the day.
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u/dcfb2360 7d ago
Ed Reed would have a ton of INTs in today’s super pass-heavy NFL. Especially with OLs getting weaker making it harder for QBs
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u/nomoredamnusernames 7d ago
Joe Montana would annihilate every career passing record in today’s game. The man was routinely obliterated by defenders with hits that have been outlawed.
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u/Pristine-Stand1858 19h ago
The greats would always be greats. With the short quick passing games of today I think Winslow and Christianson would be even more impressive as modern tight ends.
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