Welcome to the Redskins Terry Mclaurin WR Ohio State

[Voice_of_Reason]

51 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

I haven't listened to his podcast yet.  but from other listens, he's a bit all over the place on Terry.  In short he thinks he's very good but doesn't think he's great -- and believes that he's elevated here because the lack of general star power so our very good feels like great. 

 

As for Dotson, yes he liked him.  I did, too.  He had Cooley on his podcast and Cooley told him that Dotson would dictate the opposing defense coverage whereas Terry according to Cooley does not dictate coverage  Sheehan likes citing that point from Cooley.   Judging by how often Terry is double covered which is a lot, i posted those stats on this thread mulitple times -- as much as I like Cooley I think he's wrong on this. 

 

Personally, I was a big Terry guy before we drafted him and I am an even bigger fan now.    I do think he's great.

 

 

So, in summary:

 

- he was reacting to the article which said he was the most beloved player since Sean Taylor

- he once again said Terry was a "good but not great" WR.  (I contend with this, I think he's great, but there are other great receivers as well, and he's not top 5.  Yet.)

- but his main point of contention is that he can't be the most beloved because nobody cares anymore and the Commander's fanbase is now basically just a focus group.

- Cooley, Portis, Moss and Kerrigan were all more "beloved" just because there were more fans.

- he chided the team for celebrating it.  He even said he doesn't want the team to get good press for anything but winning, so he doesn't like them getting good press for a re-signing

- he doesn't understand why the fans care so much about Terry.  

- And then he went on (and on and on and on) about Dan, which is turning into literally the only thing he can talk about.  Every single conversation about anything turns into a Dan conversation.  Which is repetitive, since there is no new information.  

 

My reaction to all that is ... ok whatever. 

 

I think the "most beloved" thing is a bit overblown.  But I do think he is a fan favorite right now, and he is one of the most popular players with the fans because of a  variety of factors.  

 

I think what is not in doubt is he is the most popular player on the team right now.  There really are only a handful of popular players on the team:

 

- Terry

- Jon Allen

- Chase Young

- Maybe Wentz just because he's a QB?

 

That's about it.  So current fans gravitate to those players who are here.  

 

One thing this team lacks right now is star power. A top 5-10 player with a big personality that people are drawn to.  A lot of time that comes from the QB, and clearly we haven't had that.  I thought we had it in Chase Young.  But then 2021 happened, and now we have to see what happens.  Jon Allen isn't that guy.  He is a great player, but purposely boring.  Terry is the closest to that guy we have right now. 

 

Young can be that guy.  But we need a few more of them.  That also comes with winning.  If we won more, a few more guys would emerge.

 

It was the first Sheehan podcast I listened to in a while.  It's probably going to be the last for a while.  

[Voice_of_Reason]

2 hours ago, Always A Commander Never A Captain said:

I'm not sure what Sheehan wants out of a WR with our QB play.

He doesn’t care about Terry, all he wants to talk about is Dan and how much the fan base has deteriorated.  
 

Everything else is completely irrelevant to him.  His show has become one note. 
 

The people who listen to him (and there are a lot of them) are the folks who are in lockstep that you can’t separate Dan from anything and he is the team and he is always the story.  A lot of folks listen to him are “former fans” who like to lament in their loss together. 
 

It will be interesting when the season starts and there is actual football if he drifts back into just talking about the games, or if he’s going to keep this up indefinitely. 

[HigSkin]

2 hours ago, UK Skins said:

Could one of you guys please explain what the void year means/does? It seems like a new thing, I thought I understood the salary cap! 🤔

 

Teams have being doing it a lot but a voidable year is an ‘extra’ year on the length of the contract that the team and the player intend to void. In other words, it is a “dummy” year on the contract that the player will never play or get paid for, and it exists for the sole purpose of lowering the annual cap hit, especially in the first year of the contract.

[Mrshadow008]

1 hour ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

So, in summary:

 

- he was reacting to the article which said he was the most beloved player since Sean Taylor

- he once again said Terry was a "good but not great" WR.  (I contend with this, I think he's great, but there are other great receivers as well, and he's not top 5.  Yet.)

- but his main point of contention is that he can't be the most beloved because nobody cares anymore and the Commander's fanbase is now basically just a focus group.

- Cooley, Portis, Moss and Kerrigan were all more "beloved" just because there were more fans.

- he chided the team for celebrating it.  He even said he doesn't want the team to get good press for anything but winning, so he doesn't like them getting good press for a re-signing

- he doesn't understand why the fans care so much about Terry.  

- And then he went on (and on and on and on) about Dan, which is turning into literally the only thing he can talk about.  Every single conversation about anything turns into a Dan conversation.  Which is repetitive, since there is no new information.  

 

My reaction to all that is ... ok whatever. 

 

I think the "most beloved" thing is a bit overblown.  But I do think he is a fan favorite right now, and he is one of the most popular players with the fans because of a  variety of factors.  

 

I think what is not in doubt is he is the most popular player on the team right now.  There really are only a handful of popular players on the team:

 

- Terry

- Jon Allen

- Chase Young

- Maybe Wentz just because he's a QB?

 

That's about it.  So current fans gravitate to those players who are here.  

 

One thing this team lacks right now is star power. A top 5-10 player with a big personality that people are drawn to.  A lot of time that comes from the QB, and clearly we haven't had that.  I thought we had it in Chase Young.  But then 2021 happened, and now we have to see what happens.  Jon Allen isn't that guy.  He is a great player, but purposely boring.  Terry is the closest to that guy we have right now. 

 

Young can be that guy.  But we need a few more of them.  That also comes with winning.  If we won more, a few more guys would emerge.

 

It was the first Sheehan podcast I listened to in a while.  It's probably going to be the last for a while.  

I tried to listen to the Sheehan podcast a couple weeks ago during OTAs. Turned it off after about 5 minutes when Loverro was on there acting like he was going to fight Jack del Rio or something at OTAs. Saying something to effect of "I don't care if voodoo Jack likes me or not. I wish he would come over and say something to me" immediately turned it off cause it was just utterly ridiculous. And he repeated all of those same points yesterday about Terry on his show. 

[Voice_of_Reason]

36 minutes ago, HigSkin said:

 

Teams have being doing it a lot but a voidable year is an ‘extra’ year on the length of the contract that the team and the player intend to void. In other words, it is a “dummy” year on the contract that the player will never play or get paid for, and it exists for the sole purpose of lowering the annual cap hit, especially in the first year of the contract.

To further the point, signing bonuses are spread over the entire length of the contract.  
 

So in Terry’s case, with a 28m signing bonus, if they kept it at 4 years total, it would have been a 6m salary cap hit per year.

 

by adding a 5th year (the actual language is the 5th year automatically voids if Terry is in the roster on the start of the 2023 league year) they spread the 28m over 5 years. 94 5.6m per year.

 

The benefit to the team is they save 1.4 on the cap the next 4 years.  The downside is you have a 5.6m dead cap hit in the 5th year.  
 

So there are pluses and minus of using this approach.  
 

The Rams and Saints use it a lot, but they are trying to make runs.  And they are ok punting the dead cap room into out years.  
 

Eventually they will have to pay the piper.  But they are pushing it off because they have good teams which can win now. 
 

We were in a different situation, with a lot of young guys who need extensions in the next several years, so spending future cap dollars now isn’t as good a strategy. 

 

I’m a little surprised they did it with Terry’s contract, to be honest.  Because they have the room.  I’m surprised they didn’t lower the sighing bonus and out in a first year roster bonus, and take the cap hit this year so they maintained flexibility in out years.  But whatever.  Either way is fine.

 

Im just really glad they didn’t put in a poison pill year like Brown’s contract which would force a release or extension. 

[Skinsinparadise]

1 hour ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

 

One thing this team lacks right now is star power. A top 5-10 player with a big personality that people are drawn to.  A lot of time that comes from the QB, and clearly we haven't had that.  I thought we had it in Chase Young.  But then 2021 happened, and now we have to see what happens.  Jon Allen isn't that guy.  He is a great player, but purposely boring.  Terry is the closest to that guy we have right now. 

 

Young can be that guy.  But we need a few more of them.  That also comes with winning.  If we won more, a few more guys would emerge.

 

It was the first Sheehan podcast I listened to in a while.  It's probably going to be the last for a while.  

 

The lack of star power has been a sneaky problem throughout Dan's tenure.  Our version of stars with the exception of Sean at the time were arguably not big time national stars.

 

I recall Odell Beckham saying something along the lines that he saved the Giants team from irrelevancy when he was there because he was a real star during their losing years.  IMO he is right. 

 

Chase if he finds his form could break that mold but agree the injury and lackluster season last year set that back some.

[Voice_of_Reason]

8 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

The lack of star power has been a sneaky problem throughout Dan's tenure.  Our version of stars with the exception of Sean at the time were arguably not big time national stars.

 

I recall Odell Beckham saying something along the lines that he saved the Giants team from irrelevancy when he was there because he was a real star during their losing years.  IMO he is right. 

 

Chase if he finds his form could break that mold but agree the injury and lackluster season last year set that back some.

I'd say our big "national" stars who haven't completely sucked since Dan bought the team have been:

- Champ Baily - widely acknowledged to be on his way to a HOF career even by the time we traded him.  It still eats my goat we had to toss in a draft pick to get Portis.  Sheesh. 0

- Clinton Portis - Big personality from "The U," played extremely well with the Broncos before he got here, and the national guys loved him.  Troy said at one point Portis was his favorite back to watch in the NFL.  

- D.Jackson - Just his style of play and personality made him a star.  And a diva.  

- Sean Taylor - Obvious.

- Trent Williams - Very low-key in the media, but he was massively popular, and everybody around the league knew how good he was.  

- Robert Griffin - for one year, he was THE star in the NFL.  

 

Chase Young was headed that way, but took a massive right turn to "what the hell?" in 2021. 

 

I lump the following players together as "our stars" but not bright enough for real national attention: Santana Moss, Ryan Kerrigan, Chris Cooley, Chris Samuels, John Jansen, London Fletcher, Pierre Garcon.  Probably a few others that I am missing.  

 

Lavar Arrington is an interesting placement, because he was a huge national star, except minus 1 good season, he wasn't very good and got into a fight with Gibbs, and that was basically that.  But for a time, I think he would have qualified.  

 

That's not a long list for 20 years, even though my list is a bit longer than yours.  

 

I'd also point out it's really odd because in the first offseason of his ownership, Dan went out and got Jeff George, Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Mark Carrier.. I think there were others I can't remember and I'm not going to look up.  It was ALL about the star power.  And none of it worked.  

 

They've gone looking for stars a few times, but they haven't found them.  

 

Wentz has the possibility of being a star.  If he plays like he did in 2019, he would immediately become a star, not because of his personality, but because of his position.  

 

God, they really needed Lavar to be the star.  He had all the talent in the world.  Still my most disappointing Redskin.  

[Skinsinparadise]

1 hour ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

I'd say our big "national" stars who haven't completely sucked since Dan bought the team have been:

- Champ Baily - widely acknowledged to be on his way to a HOF career even by the time we traded him.  It still eats my goat we had to toss in a draft pick to get Portis.  Sheesh. 0

- Clinton Portis - Big personality from "The U," played extremely well with the Broncos before he got here, and the national guys loved him.  Troy said at one point Portis was his favorite back to watch in the NFL.  

- D.Jackson - Just his style of play and personality made him a star.  And a diva.  

- Sean Taylor - Obvious.

- Trent Williams - Very low-key in the media, but he was massively popular, and everybody around the league knew how good he was.  

- Robert Griffin - for one year, he was THE star in the NFL.  

 

Chase Young was headed that way, but took a massive right turn to "what the hell?" in 2021. 

 

I lump the following players together as "our stars" but not bright enough for real national attention: Santana Moss, Ryan Kerrigan, Chris Cooley, Chris Samuels, John Jansen, London Fletcher, Pierre Garcon.  Probably a few others that I am missing.  

 

Lavar Arrington is an interesting placement, because he was a huge national star, except minus 1 good season, he wasn't very good and got into a fight with Gibbs, and that was basically that.  But for a time, I think he would have qualified.  

 

That's not a long list for 20 years, even though my list is a bit longer than yours.  

 

I'd also point out it's really odd because in the first offseason of his ownership, Dan went out and got Jeff George, Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Mark Carrier.. I think there were others I can't remember and I'm not going to look up.  It was ALL about the star power.  And none of it worked.  

 

They've gone looking for stars a few times, but they haven't found them.  

 

Wentz has the possibility of being a star.  If he plays like he did in 2019, he would immediately become a star, not because of his personality, but because of his position.  

 

God, they really needed Lavar to be the star.  He had all the talent in the world.  Still my most disappointing Redskin.  

 

Loved Portis but in his heyday he wasn't a national superstar in terms of being the best of the best.  He wasn't Adrian Peterson or Tomlinson.  Big personality -- very good player. 

 

Desean Jackson also very good.  No one talked him up as elite or the best of the best.  Beckham for example in his heyday for awhile was a top 3 guy.

 

having a top 3 or even top 5 type player doesn't really happen here.

 

Trent yes but O lineman really aren't stars. 

 

Arrington was a big college player and big personality but not a superstar in the NFL albiet he had superstar ability. 

 

RG3 for one year, definitely.  that was arguably the heyday under Dan. 

[Est.1974]

Trent Williams was most definitely a star player when here.

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

Trent Williams was a star player.  But that's not the question.

 

Was he a beloved fan favorite that united the fanhood?

 

I say no. Consistent pro-bowler but first all-pro team was in another uniform. He had those weed suspensions that kept knocking him out of all-pro contention while with us. He missed one of his pro-bowl because he got into a night club brawl.

 

In 2016, part of why we missed the playoffs with Kirk Cousins and the passing game going for 4,900 yards is that Trent Williams got suspended for weed again.  Not the only reason, but it didn't help.

 

It's also really hard for OL to be a fan favorite. Our fanbase is primed for it, and it's possible the only way he could was if the OL as a whole was dominant. But the OL had some bad years for a bit despite Trent being great.

 

Never felt like Trent was the guy the media was talking about in pre-game analysis.  "Watch out for that guy, he's a wrecking ball". But again that's the nature of OL unless the unit as a whole is dominant.

 

When Josh Norman came to town, he immediately felt more of a fan favorite for his first year than Trent was. That fell off, but again should not happen to a legitimate mainstay beloved player.

 

I'm not saying Trent Williams wasn't great with us, he was. Just saying he wasn't a beloved fan icon.

 

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

10 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

Loved Portis but in his heyday he wasn't a national superstar in terms of being the best of the best.  He wasn't Adrian Peterson or Tomlinson.  Big personality -- very good player. 

Never mind the production, Portis was a national star.  He was a local star and a national star.  You don't have to be the best to be a star.  His dress-up routines during 2005 were always a feature segment on SportsCenter.  (back when SportsCenter mattered) He was a big personality, he was famous, and I think he was clearly a league star. If you were even a casual fan of the NFL, you knew who he was.  

 

Our fans and other teams fans gravitated towards him.  That's what I'm talking about.  

 

 

10 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

Desean Jackson also very good.  No one talked him up as elite or the best of the best.  Beckham for example in his heyday for awhile was a top 3 guy.

Again, this is not "best of the best."  This is star power.  He was flashy.  He was loud.  He twisted Jay's nipple.  Again, both for things he did in Philly and then here, he was a national star.  

 

He sold a lot of jersey's and had star power.  

 

10 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

having a top 3 or even top 5 type player doesn't really happen here.

I mean, our top 3-5 players at their position have all be OL.  Samuels, Trent and Scherff.  

 

10 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

Trent yes but O lineman really aren't stars. 

Eh, that depends.  Maybe not so much anymore, but the hogs were damn famous, both collectively and individually.  They might be the exception which proves the rule, but it's hard to ignore that probably 5-10 of the most famous Washington Red Commander Skins were OL (Grimm, Bostic, Jacoby, Samuel, Trent, Lachey immediately come to mind, I'm sure I'm blanking on somebody who I shouldn't be but I'm tired.  

 

10 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

Arrington was a big college player and big personality but not a superstar in the NFL albiet he had superstar ability. 

But he was a star.  He was a national story, and a huge draw.  He sold a lot of jerseys, was one of the most popular players on the team, and was nationally known.  

 

10 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

RG3 for one year, definitely.  that was arguably the heyday under Dan. 

I'm not sure what the other side of the argument would be. 

 

It should have been 2016 when we had a 13 win offense and a -7 win defense (mostly because the coordinator was historically statistically the worst DC in the history of the NFL at that point), an idiot coach and a terrible kicker.  But they blew that one big time.  

[Warhead36]

McLaurin isn't elite but he's definitely like a 9 on a scale of 1-10. The QB play has been so horrendously bad in his tenure here its hard to really accurately judge his true status. You look at every other good or better WR and they almost all have at least good QBs if not superstars.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

8 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

McLaurin isn't elite but he's definitely like a 9 on a scale of 1-10. The QB play has been so horrendously bad in his tenure here its hard to really accurately judge his true status. You look at every other good or better WR and they almost all have at least good QBs if not superstars.

He’s also going into his 4th season, folks talk about him like his stock can’t go up based on his own hard work and experience + a QB that can get him the ball.

[formerly4skins]

22 hours ago, Mrshadow008 said:

"I don't care if voodoo Jack likes me or not. I wish he would come over and say something to me"

 

Personally, I'd also love to get JDR within earshot just so I could tell him what an insufferable piece of **** he is. 

[Koolblue13]

I definitely think Terry is going to the pro bowl this year. Wentz is going to latch right on to him and just feed him deep.

[Skinsinparadise]

10 hours ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

 

Our fans and other teams fans gravitated towards him.  That's what I'm talking about.  

 

 

We've had players where our fans and other team fans gravitated towards them but rarely we've had an elite player.  Yes Portis was a personality.  Yes Desean was a great deep threat.  But neither was elite at their position.  Neither was the talk of the league type of player.  They weren't the Tom Cruise of the NFL in their time, they were more like a Ryan Reynolds level star.  RG3 you are right for one year was the exception. 

 

Jonathan Allen, and I think I am the biggest fan of the dude on this board and defended him plenty -- is very good.  He's not elite. 

 

I don't think its wild that we haven't had a first team All Pro aside from Scherff.  Trent deserved it too.  He was elite but played at the one nonsexy position where you don't get major national attention.  But otherwise this team doesn't major in having the best of the best.

 

For example the Giants with Barkley is a star in the sense that he was a college star, he plays in NY, and you see his jerseys everywhere, does commercials.   Does that make him an elite player -- best of the best type?  Nope.   He's a bigger national star than Portis was in his prime using your standards of getting attention but the elite star status escapes him, too. 

 

I recall my wife, who is a casual sports fan seeing Peterson wearing a Redskins jersey for the first time and saying it doesn't actually look right to see a Hall of Famer national star type wearing a Redskins jersey.  She didn't associate players that are the best at what they do wearing our jerseys.   I paused for a second when she said then and then thought she is right.

 

Keim has talked about it among others over the years about the lack of star power.  Yes we've had in our own minds, A level star power here.  But nationally, IMO we've majored in B plus level star power.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Skinsinparadise

[skinny21]

19 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

McLaurin isn't elite but he's definitely like a 9 on a scale of 1-10. The QB play has been so horrendously bad in his tenure here its hard to really accurately judge his true status. You look at every other good or better WR and they almost all have at least good QBs if not superstars.

IMV, Terry is among the best (ie elite) in terms of speed, route running, and contested catches.  At minimum, I’d say he’s a good blocker and has good short area quickness, and that might be selling him short.  He’s also a hell of a teammate and person.  And he’s durable.

 

The 2 areas he clearly “falls short of elite” in terms of what he’s shown (again, IMO) are:

Game-breaking plays (mainly open field running/vision)

Production

 

Don’t get me wrong, he’s done well in both categories, but I can’t put him among the best at those 2 aspects based off what we’ve seen to this point.  With that said, and as you allude to, those two things are hugely dependent on qb play and that’s been lacking, to put it kindly.  

 

For me, the kicker is that most elite players have some sort of weakness to their game, and I really don’t see any in Terry’s game.  So in aggregate, I consider him an elite player.  I also don’t have a problem with someone putting him just outside that group - I can understand someone wanting to see him put up a 1400+ yard season, for example.  Here’s hoping this is his year to do just that.

 

[Warhead36]

We haven't had a real national star since 2012 RG3. 2007 Sean Taylor was on the verge before his tragic murder. 

 

Noone else has really come close. We've had some real good players sure, but nobody was topping jersey sales across the league except those two guys.

[Skinsinparadise]

Speaking of lack of stars, considering Trent's elite play (rare for this team) shocked he doesn't make the list, he is a no brainer

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Skinsinparadise

[Warhead36]

Yeah if Cooley and Morris are on that list than its a crime Silverback isn't. 

[Koolblue13]

I already mentioned why Williams isn't on the list.

[Voice_of_Reason]

3 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

We've had players where our fans and other team fans gravitated towards them but rarely we've had an elite player. 

We're talking about different things.  You're talking elite players.  I'm not.

 

I'm talking about star power.  You don't have to be an elite player to have star power.  

 

The Snyder era has lacked star power which really catches people and draws them to the team.  They don't have to be elite players, but they need to be good enough, have enough personality, and have people gravitate to them. 

 

I'm talking moving the needle from an interest perspective.  Not from a football perspective, and those two are not the same.

 

For example, when we had Deion, he was far from at his peak, but he was still a HUGE star.  

[Voice_of_Reason]

3 hours ago, skinny21 said:

IMV, Terry is among the best (ie elite) in terms of speed, route running, and contested catches.  At minimum, I’d say he’s a good blocker and has good short area quickness, and that might be selling him short.  He’s also a hell of a teammate and person.  And he’s durable.

 

The 2 areas he clearly “falls short of elite” in terms of what he’s shown (again, IMO) are:

Game-breaking plays (mainly open field running/vision)

Production

Case Keenum, Colt McCoy, Dwayne Haskins (RIP), One-Legged Alex Smith, Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke and that Gilbert guy (I think that was his name) have more to do with those limitations than Terry does.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, skinny21 said:

Don’t get me wrong, he’s done well in both categories, but I can’t put him among the best at those 2 aspects based off what we’ve seen to this point.  With that said, and as you allude to, those two things are hugely dependent on qb play and that’s been lacking, to put it kindly.  

So, I don't think this can be judged just yet. Because of the QB situation.  

 

I think the expectations is Terry will have at least 20-30% increased productivity with better QB play.  So instead of 1000 yards, he's somewhere between 1200 and 1300.  This isn't unrealistic.  

 

Unless Wentz completely stinks, he should go from having the literal worst QB play in the NFL over the last 3 years to at the very minimum, something better.  

 

3 hours ago, skinny21 said:

For me, the kicker is that most elite players have some sort of weakness to their game, and I really don’t see any in Terry’s game.  So in aggregate, I consider him an elite player.  I also don’t have a problem with someone putting him just outside that group - I can understand someone wanting to see him put up a 1400+ yard season, for example.  Here’s hoping this is his year to do just that.

 

Well, he's being paid as an elite player, so the team puts him in that group for sure.  But Ron had front row seats for TH not able to hit McLaurin in time/rhythm the entire year.  

 

I think final judgement has to be reserved until after he has played with a competent QB for a bit.  And then we can really see what he can do.  

2 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

Speaking of lack of stars, considering Trent's elite play (rare for this team) shocked he doesn't make the list, he is a no brainer

 

 

 

Blah, I was going to say all of these players were retired.  Then I see Kirk Cousins.  

 

And now I question how you couldn't put Trent in there.  Also, I'd put a line for Griffin.  I wouldn't vote for him, but if somebody did, I'd hear them out on why.  The story of the Washington Red Commander Skins cannot be told without Griffin at this point. 

 

Trent is a no-brainer, though.  That's ridiculous he's not there.  That has to be a Dan thing.  He must still be REALLY sore that Trent came out and attacked the team over the medical stuff.  That wound might not heal. 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Voice_of_Reason

[Skinsinparadise]

1 hour ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

We're talking about different things.  You're talking elite players.  I'm not.

 

I'm talking about star power.  You don't have to be an elite player to have star power.  

 

The Snyder era has lacked star power which really catches people and draws them to the team.  They don't have to be elite players, but they need to be good enough, have enough personality, and have people gravitate to them. 

 

I'm talking moving the needle from an interest perspective.  Not from a football perspective, and those two are not the same.

 

For example, when we had Deion, he was far from at his peak, but he was still a HUGE star.  

 

To me its a combination of being elite or close to being elite and attention grabbing, not just attention grabbing.   Tough for me to call a player who isn't at least bordering on elite to be a national star. 

 

The idea of Clinton being a Hall of Famer for example would be laughable, he had a very good career but he wasn't elite-special -- yes he did get attention for dressing up.  But the fact that we are debating whether Portis is classified a national star brings home the point to me -- even the supposed best of the best from here are debatable whether they belong into that echelon.

 

Deon was a huge star and was once elite -- ditto Peterson.  Getting players once they are has beens, Dan has had a small dose of that. 

 

But having actual national stars in their prime, we've been one of the lowest of the low teams in that regard.  If I recall that long spell of about 20 years without a first team All Pro, we were the only team with that distinction.

 

When you see any top 100 list whether its from the players ranking themsleves, PFF or name that outfit, its rare for us to have any player crack the top 50 let alone top 25, heck we typically have a player or two in that 50-100 range and that's about it.

 

I believe it was Keim or maybe Standig -- but one of them if I recall did a nice job explaining about how the lack of star power might be a sneaky minor reason for the demise of the fan base.  Era of fantasy football -- kids even if they aren't a fan of a team will wear jerseys of star players of other teams, etc -- and we've not been part of that party.  Jersey sales rarely in the top 50, etc. 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Skinsinparadise

[Voice_of_Reason]

43 minutes ago, Skinsinparadise said:

To me its a combination of being elite or close to being elite and attention grabbing, not just attention grabbing.   Tough for me to call a player who isn't at least bordering on elite to be a national star. 

The funny thing about this conversation is we agree.  I just added 3 or 4 more players to the list you had.

 

Let's just call a truce:  There haven't been enough stars in the Snyder era which attract enough attention and draw eyeballs.  I think we agree on that.