12-08-2014, 10:17 AM
TinStar Wrote:I hear this debate all the time in hockey but it's also relevant in the NFL. You can't compare a player 20 years ago to a player of today. It's a completely different game and for reasons that make the game easier/more difficult in certain aspects, it's not the same game. The only way to do this would be to either send JJ Watt back into time or bring LT to 2014. Now what you can do is compare a player to other players in the game, and there is no denying that JJ Watt is the most dominant defensive player in the league right now.
I agree it is a very different time.
Saying Watt is the most dominant defense player today doesn't really have the same meaning it did in the 70's or 80's of the NFL. You get a glimpse of it now and then but the days of dominating defense and defensive players are long over. Defensive players simply can't win games any longer like Mel Blount, Deacon Jones, Ronnie Lott or Jack Tatum did.
It was damn hard to win an MVP in the days when defense did dominate, I can't see a defensive player ever winning MVP again unless some freakish athletic DB comes along who can return kicks, punts and maybe play WR. If you combine the 06 season of Devon Hester with the 1980 season of Lester Hayes then maybe you get a defensive MVP.
Sheesh, for a D-linemen? 25 sacks, 5 or 6 defensive TD's that directly lead to winning those games PLUS average QB play around the league with no 2,000 yard rushers. Basically, Brees, Manning, Brady, Rogers and Luck will all have to end up on IR the same year.