All-Time NFL Teams

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March 24, 2020

You might think coming up with content when there are no sports going on would be challenging, but not for me. I think of irrelevant and impossible sports and fantasy sports scenarios all the time. I even spent a ton of time on this project that has no application whatsoever. So this part of it is easy. (We also did a similar exercise last week with baseball.)

In that vein, I persuaded Jeff Erickson to draft a real-life, all-time NFL team with the condition that it would compete in a 2020 environment, e.g., Johnny Unitas and Dick Butkus would be risky choices in the modern game. We allowed some roster flexibility – you could run a 4-3 or a 3-4 defense, and while you needed a QB, RB, 2-WR and a TE, you could run whoever you wanted at the last skill position.

Because it was my idea, I generously gave Erickson the first pick, and he rewarded me by taking Lawrence Taylor, my favorite player of all-time and obviously the guy I would have picked. One's true character often comes out in difficult times, and this is but another example.

In any event, here are our squads, and the order in which they were picked. (Keep in mind in a two-team league, there was no need to pick a player at a position that your opponent had already filled.)

Rd	Erickson	Liss	Pos	Liss	Erickson
1	Lawrence Taylor	Deion Sanders	QB	Steve Young	Pat Mahomes
2	Anthony Munoz	Aaron Donald	RB	Marshall Faulk	LaDainian Tomlinson
3	Ed Reed	Randy Moss	WR	Randy Moss	Jerry Rice
4	Jerry Rice	Rob Gronkowski	WR	Calvin Johnson	Terrell Owens
5	Terrell Owens	Ray Lewis	TE	Rob Gronkowski	Ton Gonzalez
6	Ronnie Lott	Reggie White	FLX	George Kittle	Julio Jones
7	Patrick Mahomes	J.J. Watt	LT	Joe Thomas	Anthony Munoz
8	Brian Urlacher	Calvin Johnson	LG	Will Shields	Larry Allen
9	Larry Allen	Marshall Faulk	C	Alex Mack	Jeff Saturday
10	Joe Greene	Darrelle Revis	RG	Alan Faneca	Bruce Matthews
11	Julio Jones	George Kittle	RT	Orlando Pace	Johnathan Ogden
12	Jonathan Ogden	Von Miller	DE	Reggie White	Bruce Smith
13	Junior Seau	Luke Kuechly	DT	Aaron Donald	Joe Greene
14	Bruce Matthews	Khalil Mack	FLX	Luke Kuechly	Julius Peppers
15	Richard Sherman	Alex Mack	DE	J.J. Watt	Patrick Willis
16	Bruce Smith	Troy Polamalu	OLB	Von Miller	Lawrence Taylor
17	Julius Peppers	Steve Young	OLB	Khalil Mack	Junior Seau
18	Patrick Willis	Joe Thomas	ILB	Ray Lewis	Brian Urlacher
19	LaDanian Tomlinson	Orlando Pace	S	Troy Polamalu	Ronnie Lott
20	Tony Gonzalez	Will Shields	S	Earl Thomas	Ed Reed
21	Charles Woodson	Alan Faneca	CB	Deion Sanders	Richard Sherman
22	Jeff Saturday	Earl Thomas	CB	Darrelle Revis	Charles Woodson

I'm guessing Jeff's team maybe wins nine games and snags a Wild Card, while mine is easily the greatest of all time. What do you think?

And while I'd also have gone with Mahomes as my QB, here are some Steve Young highlights for those of you who don't remember how great he was: