Most Overrated NFL Player Ever?

Some time ago Tom and I were on the phone and we got into a discussion about overrated professional athletes in history. After poring over page after page of statistics neither one of us could quite understand why Bill Walton is as highly rated as he was. A good player? Absolutely. At times (when he was healthy) a great player? Probably. And maybe you can even say that he was one of those guys you just had to see, although when the numbers indicate otherwise you are going to need more than that to convince me. In any case, I am not here to bury or praise Bill Walton. If you are so inclined you can go to Basketball-Reference and do all of the comparisons with any centers you can name. let's just say that we dug deep into our imaginations and found an awful lot of good but not great guys who compared favorably or at least closely with a guy given props in the NBA's all-time top fifty players, a claim that seems tough to sustain.

In any case, I finally went out and bought The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia, something both a fan and a historian really ought to have. Yes, all of this stuff is available online, but reference sources like this still matter. In any case, I did some perusing and one of the guys I have always thought was the most overrated player of all time and yet who is a Hall of famer brought up in a lot of best of all time conversations came to mind and I compared him with a guy I always loved who was tough and gritty but also luckless and battered. Tell me what you think (and don't cheat by scrolling down):

Player A: Played 149 games, 135 as a starter. He threw 3593 passes and completed 1879, or 52.3%. His average yards per pass was 7.5, he threw for 26,886 yards. He threw for 182 touchdowns but 208 interceptions. He was sacked 252 times for 2014 lost yards. All of this adds up to a 69.6 quarterback rating. He also ran for 2176 yards and scored 35 touchdowns in his career.

Player B: Played 140 games, 64 as a starter. He threw 3762 passes and completed 1886, or 50.1%. His average yards per pass was 7.4, he threw for 27,663 yards. He threw for 173 touchdowns but 220 interceptions. He was sacked 150 times for 1425 lost yards. All of this adds up to a 65.5 quarterback rating. He also ran for 140 yards and scored 7 touchdowns in his career.

OK -- so here is what I see based on the numbers: Two decent, at times good quarterbacks with fairly serious flaws. Player A threw slightly fewer passes for slightly fewer completions and slightly fewer yards. But he has a higher completion percentage (albeit marginally so) and a higher quarterback rating, a byzantine statistic that is difficult to assess but that often is at the apex of quarterback assessment tools. He threw more touchdowns and fewer interceptions, though the ratio is obviously bad for both guys. Player A was a much better runner -- indeed something of a weapon where Player B was obviously a statue, even if Player A was sacked more and for more yards.

Looking just at the numbers it would be hard to make a passionate case for either guy, but again, just on the numbers, I'd probably favor Player A slightly. It might make a difference to know that Player A appeared in one Super Bowl and got trounced (and he got abused). Player B won his lone Super Bowl appearance.

But with those numbers, can we agree that one of these guys ought not to be considered an all-time great, the other a marginal guy?

Player A?

Steve Grogan of the New England Patriots, a gutty, tough as nails guy. He played with a damned neckroll because he took so many shots.

Player B?

Joe Willie Namath. One loudmouthed promise, a fur coat on the sideline, an Alabama pedigree, and a whole lot of hype gets you a guy who might have been better than Steve Grogan.

Ladies and gentlemen -- Joe Namath is my nominee for most overrated NFL football player of all time.