TGIF: Talking Ken Anderson, Chad Johnson and Eric Ghiacuic
By david
The guys at Cold Hard Football Facts have been banging on this drum for years and I never get tired of hearing the sound. Yes, absolutely, no doubt about it: it is a crime that former Bengals great Ken Anderson is not in the Hall of Fame. CHFF taps the former Bengals signal-caller, who led the team to two Super Bowls but, alas, no Lombardis, as the most under-rated NFL quarterback of all time.
"Anderson is a first-ballot Hall of Famer who history has forgotten in favor of lesser performers like Fouts, Moon, even Jim Kelly, among others. This guy was awesome – certainly Hall of Fame-caliber awesome – and certainly more awesome than Fouts or Moon. For example, let’s have a little pop quiz: Who led the league in passer rating four times, Anderson, Fouts or Moon? If you guessed Anderson, you’re right! In fact, Fouts or Moon never led the league in passer rating. Anderson accomplished this feat in 1974, 1975, 1981 and 1982. To put those numbers into perspective, consider that only Sammy Baugh and Steve Young led the league more often in passer rating (six times each)."
Read the whole thing.
NFL head coaches rank WR Terrell Owens as the No. 1 Pro Bowler they would not want on their team. And Ocho Cinco? A distant second with 3 votes to T.O.’s 13. ESPN.com’s James Walker seems confused by this:
"When it comes to winning, there is no comparison between Owens and Johnson. Owens led three different teams to the playoffs and has a Super Bowl appearance with the Philadelphia Eagles. Johnson has just one winning season his entire career in Cincinnati and is 0-1 in the postseason. Their styles of play vary but both are effective. Their numbers have been comparable the past several seasons. Yet, a majority of NFL head coaches would rather have Johnson on their team over Owens, which is interesting."
Fellow ESPN blogger Matt Mosley is puzzled as well, and suggests that maybe it’s just a case of T.O. having more name recognition. But after the last few months, I doubt that. All the off-field junk aside, I’d chalk the results up to wear-and-tear. Chad just turned 30 in January. Owens will be 35 this December. Chad hasn’t missed a game in the last three seasons. Owens has missed 8. In the final analysis, just about every NFL wideout is, on some level, a prima donna, especially the very talented ones, and if you have to pick one, you may as well take the guy with lower mileage.
Hey, Matt, whatever you guys over at SB Nation are smokin’, could you pass some this way? Seriously, you think Eric Ghiacuic is the 13th-best center in the NFL? Now, I’ll give you that Ghiacuic takes more than his share of heat from Bengals fans, but 13 strikes me as a touch high for a player who, by all accounts, is on the spot this season to step up or step out. But hopefully Matt is right and Ghiacuic shoves all of Bengaldom’s doubts down our collective throats this year. (Hat tip: Cincy Jungle.)
In other news, The Chickster chats with The Kickster.
Mike Brown’s Bobo is feeling more optimistic about the Bengals’ chances these days.
Clark Judge proves he’s smarter than the average sportswriter by producing a list of coaches on the hot seat that doesn’t include Marvin Lewis.
Hashmarks believes that there is just a 30% chance WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh will be in stripes in 2009. I think that estimate is high.
AFC North Watch: The battle for the Steelers heats up. Bengals owner Mike Brown declined to discuss the situation with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.