2007: (Continued)
Walter Jones: This is Jones's last great season, and it probably wasn't his best. But to qualify that statement, this season is still better than any season by any other left tackle in the decade that I've been watching football (not counting Jones in '05, which was better). Jones was a god among men. He was the best pass-blocking tackle in the league, while simultaneously being the best at blocking for the run. You know how Joe Thomas is widely considered the best LT in the league right now, and has made FTAP in five of the last six years (starting, coincidentally, right after Jones retired)? Jones was not only better than Thomas is at pass-blocking (which is all that Thomas is good at), but he was also equally good at run blocking, something at which Thomas isn't close to elite.
Here are some numbers: Walter Jones played and started 180 games for the Seahawks, during which team Seattle attempted 5,500 passes. Now, the job of a left tackle on a passing play is twofold: stop the pass rusher you're assigned to block from getting to your quarterback by delaying him as long as possible, and don't get caught doing something you're not supposed to. In other words, don't give up sacks and don't get caught holding. In his 5,500 passing snaps, Jones gave up a total of 23 sacks and was flagged for holding on nine occasions (and a number of those sacks came in his last game, when he was old and injured). That means Jones gave up a sack about once in every 240 pass attempts. He was caught holding even less, about once in every 610 passing plays. So in his 12 seasons, Jones gave up a sack a little less than once every eight games, and he was called for holding less than once a season. That's basically a perfect performance (in pass-blocking) from a left tackle.
Jones was a key part of the Seahawks' offensive line from the mid-2000s, when they had one of the greatest O-lines in the history of the sport, enabling Shaun Alexander to run for 1300 yards four times in five seasons from '01 to '05, in the last of which he also broke the league seasonal touchdown record with 27. Don't be fooled by the "lack" of FTAP selections in Jones's profile; he shared the stage, for most of his career, with two other virtually perfect left tackles, Jonathan Ogden and Orlando Pace (either of which would also be the best tackle in the game today). The three of them basically traded off FTAP selections, accounting for the picks in '97, '99, '00, '01 (for two of them), '02, '03 (for two of them), '04, '05, and '07. It's like how you can't fault Drew Brees for only having one career FTAP when he's sharing the quarterbacking stage with Peyton, Brady, and Rodgers. Except Jones is better than Brees ever was.
There are fewer statistics to give in this entry than in most of the others, and fewer highlights to watch on YouTube (although there are a few). Left tackle isn't a glamorous position, even if it's come to be more recognized in recent years (the book's amazing; skip the movie). And in a league increasingly driven by flashy plays and flashier players, it's easy to forget that some of the greatest players in NFL history aren't the guys who make the big plays, but rather the guys who go out every down and play the closest thing we've ever seen to perfect football. That's what Walter Jones did, in '07 and in every other year. Respect. *
2008:
Albert Haynesworth: This happened, and it's my job to remind all of you that this happened. Albert Haynesworth used to be one of the most dominant defensive tackles the league had ever seen. Long before this happened, and long after this, (and by long I mean shortly), Haynesworth had one of the finest seasons any defensive tackle has had to date. He was incredible. He was absolutely unblockable, and usually could beat two blockers at one time. He was huge and literally ate the opponent's running game. He was so dominant at getting past blockers that he put up 8.5 sacks from the nose tackle position. (Nose tackles aren't supposed to get sacks. They're supposed to eat up--haha--space in the middle of the offensive line. There's a reason why Vince Wilfork has never broken 3.5 sacks in his career, and why most of Haloti Ngata's statistical success has come from playing other positions, either DE or non-NT DT.) He was a similar phenomenon to JJ Watt, in that he was so dominant at what he was supposed do to at his position that it flooded over into other aspects of the game and he became absurdly dominant across the board (and quite honestly his '09 season is up there with Watt's 2012-2014 in the annals of the all-time great defensive seasons, although he certainly didn't have Watt's versatility). Haynesworth was an absolute force of nature, and if he could have kept his personality in check (or, in fact, if he had a shred of Watt's discipline), he could have been one of the greatest players to ever play the game. Unfortunately that was not the case, and he belly-flopped out of the league a few years later (after signing the NFL's first defensive $100 million contract, since matched by Watt and exceeded by Ndamukong Suh), never coming close to returning to the dominance of his '08 season. But it happened, and it was breathtaking to watch. **
Nnamdi Asomugha: Nnamdi is a strange guy. For years he played quietly in Oakland, and for a lot of that time no one really knew he existed. It wasn't until 2008 that analysts noticed that there was a guy on the field who the quarterback never threw the ball at. Oakland had a bad defense, so Asomugha got to sit on his island, completely shutting down his receiver, and never get targeted. It's strange to praise a player for a lack of stats, but that's exactly what made Asomugha so remarkable. No one really knows how good he was, because no one wanted to throw at him. As a result he got virtually no interceptions (two over his three-year "prime") and very few passes defensed (19 over the same span), even though he certainly had the skills to put up much bigger numbers (in '06, back when QBs still threw at him, he picked off 8 passes and defensed 19, a solid season by any standard). He survived, and thrived, in Oakland as one of the best corners in the league almost entirely on reputation. When he left Oakland for Philadelphia (DREAM TEAM) and started playing badly (defensive players in new schemes often do), people assumed he'd never really been that good. And honestly, because of the nature of his success in Oakland, it's hard to say for certain that he ever was. But I'll say this much: there are not a lot of cornerbacks that scared QBs so much that they eschewed an entire side of the field. Richard Sherman did that, and Darrelle Revis, and Champ Bailey and Deion Sanders. But not a lot more. When your reputation influences a game like that, you deserve it. *
2009:
Darrelle Revis: Now this is a cornerbacking season that you can't argue against. Revis in '09 set a standard for coverage that we may never have seen before, and we may never see again. I'll brush off all the basic stuff first: He did decently in the conventional stats and dominated every advanced stat, but that's true for most guys on this list. Let's get into the nitty gritty of it. Here's every #1 receiver Revis (presumably) matched up against, and how they did against him. (It's possible I'm getting some of the matchups wrong, because I don't have an eidetic memory nor tape of the season, but these are the guys he almost certainly would have matched up with. I know several of these for a fact and the rest are based on the guys I know were the #1 options for their teams and the guys who performed best for their teams that year. Besides, the results speak for themselves.)
- Game 1: Andre Johnson, 4 catches for 35 yards and 0 TDs (henceforth 4/35/0).
- Game 2: Randy Moss, 4/24/0.
- Game 3: Kenny Britt, 4/59/0.
- Game 4: Marques Colston, 2/33/0.
- Game 5: Davone Bess, 3/18/0.
- Game 6: Terrell Owens, 3/13/0.
- Game 7: Louis Murphy, 4/58/0.
- Game 8: Davone Bess, 4/18/0.
- Game 9: Mike Sims-Walker, 3/49/1.
- Game 10: Randy Moss, 5/34/1.
- Game 11: Steve Smith, 1/5/0.
- Game 12: Terrell Owens, 3/31/0.
- Game 13: Antonio Bryant, 2/22/0.
- Game 14: Roddy White, 4/33/0.
- Game 15: Reggie Wayne, 3/33/0.
- Game 16: Chad Johnson, 0/0/0.
Hooooly shit. If you're not looking at that list with your eyes wide and your jaw gaping, you're crazy. That's one of the single most impressive football achievements I've ever seen. Revis went out and matched up with the best in the league every week, including multiple future Hall-of-Famers (Andre, Moss, Owens), several more borderline-HOF players (Smith, White, Wayne, Chad), and several other #1 options, and he shut them all down. (A hypothetical composite of all these receivers to make a single receiver, "#1 Receivers Vs. Revis", or NumReVIs, would have finished the season with 49 catches for 465 yards and 2 TDs. That's a bad season by any standards, and a terrible season for NumReVIs, who, again, is made up exclusively of #1 receivers.)
I remember, as a part-time Patriots fan, being excited when Randy Moss scored his touchdown in game 10, but looking back at this list I realize that that still wasn't a very good game. NONE of these games can be considered "good." In fact, by the standards of the receivers we're talking about, just about every one of these games is downright terrible (except Mike Sims-Walker's, surprisingly, and his still wasn't anything special). That's what Revis did. He went out there, against the best in the business in a period of VERY high-level receiving talent, and he made everyone look like garbage. I've never seen a corner dominate quite like that. **
I remember, as a part-time Patriots fan, being excited when Randy Moss scored his touchdown in game 10, but looking back at this list I realize that that still wasn't a very good game. NONE of these games can be considered "good." In fact, by the standards of the receivers we're talking about, just about every one of these games is downright terrible (except Mike Sims-Walker's, surprisingly, and his still wasn't anything special). That's what Revis did. He went out there, against the best in the business in a period of VERY high-level receiving talent, and he made everyone look like garbage. I've never seen a corner dominate quite like that. **
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