Okay, same drill here is to pick the best individual seasons in the history of each franchise, which we will begin today with the Denver Broncos. By "Career-year" we mean the best performances at each position, with the following rule: Only one season per player per position. For example, here, we cannot pick Randy Gradishar's
Here are the picks, First-team to the left, Second-team to the right.
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Floyd Little |
Nalen was an All-Pro and Bryan was a Second-team All-Pro in 1985, but we went with 1979 due to his high rating by Proscout, Inc. Jerry Sturm, 1964 and Casey Wiegmann, 2008 are honorable mentions as Pro Bowlers.
Mark Schlereth, 1998, gets an honorable mention as a Pro Bowler as does Tom Glassic in 1977
Eldon Danenhauer, 1962 (Pro Bowl), Mike Current, 1969 (Pro Bowl), Matt Lepsis, 2000, are tackles who deserve honorable mention.
For this, we chose a 3rd down back since they were a big part of Broncos nickel offense in the 1980s and 1990s.
The honorable mention running backs are Bobby Humphrey, 1990 (288-1,202-4.2-7), and Mike Anderson, 2000 (297-1,487-5.0-15).
For the honorable mention receivers we choose Anthony Miller, 1995 (Pro Bowl, 59-1,079-18.3-14), Ed McCaffrey 1998, (64-1,053-16.5-10), Ashley Lelie, 2004 ( 54-1,084-20.1-7), Javon Walker, 2006 (69-1,084-15.7-8), Brandon Marshall, 2007 (102-1,325-13.0-7), Brandon Lloyd, 2010 (Second-team All-Pro, 77- 1,448-18.8-11), and Eric Decker, 2013 (87-1,288-14.8-11).
We also are giving Craig Morton, 1981, and Charley Johnson, 1973 on the honorable mention list. Morton was an AFC Player of the Year in 1977, and it was well-deserved, but we think 1981 was a better season, and it may have been his best NFL season.
We went with 1970 for Rich "Tombstone" Jackson since he was a consensus All-Pro, but 1969 may have been slightly better when he had 12½ sacks. However, the 1970 Broncos run defense was great and Jackson had 10 sacks that season. Ditto with Lyle Alzado, he was the AFC Defensive Player of the Year in 1977 but 1974 may have been his best, when he had 13 sacks as a 4-3 right defensive end. We may be shorting Bud McFaddin, he may have been the AFL's best defensive player in
Leaving Barney
Dave Costa, 1969 (11½ sacks) is an honorable mention at defensive tackle as are Terrance Knighton for 2013 (43 tackles, 3 sacks as a nose tackle), Maa Tanuvasa, 1998 (45 tackles, 8.5 sacks)
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Rulon Jones |
D.J. Williams, 2010 (119 tackles, 5.5 sacks) is an honorable mention as is Brandon Marshall, 2014 (119 tackles, 9 PD, 2 sacks, 2 FF) and Fred Forsberg, 1970, who had 16.5 tackles for loss that year.
Tom Jackson was not All-Pro in 1976, but he was in 1977. We went with 1976 because of the 7 interceptions and 4 sacks; Jackson was on Paul Zimmerman's 1976 All-Pro team for the New York Post. Bob Swenson's 1979 may have been as good or better than his 1981 All-Pro season as a SAM backer, but just another of those where a few seasons would work.
It was very painful leaving out Simon Fletcher, in 1992, but the r
Another OLBer honorable mention is John Mobley, 1997 (All-Pro, 132 tackles, 4 sacks and a pick 6) Others are John Bramlett, 1966 (Pro Bowler, 9½ sacks and 1 INT), Bill Romanowski, 1998 (Pro Bowl, 72 tackles, 7.5 sacks and 2 INTs), Mike Croel, 1991 (84 tackles and 10 sacks) and Danny Trevathan, 2013 (152 tackles, 3 picks, 2 sacks, 10 PD, and 3 F) are HMs as well.
Like Gradishar, several of Louis Wright's seasons would qualify, same with Champ Bailey and Atwater. It was hard to leave Gonsoulin
In 1964 Willie Brown had 64 tackles and 39 passes
Deltha O'Neal , 2001 (Pro Bowl, 9 picks), Mike Harden, 1986 (2 pick 6s), Nemiah Wilson, 1967 (Pro Bowl, 2 pick 6s), Steve Foley, 1978 (Second-team All-AFC), and Terrell Buckley, 2000 (6 picks, one for TD) are the HMs at corner.
Tyrone Braxton, 1996 (Pro Bowl, 9 picks, 1 TD), Brian Dawkins, 2009 (Pro Bowl, 116 tackles, 2 picks), John Lynch, 2005 (Pro Bowl, 61 tackles, 4 sacks, 2 picks) are the HMs at safety.
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Bill Thompson |
Rick Upchurch's 4 punt returns for TDs in 1976 beat out Darrien Gorden's 3 in 1997. Detron Smith, 2000, is an HM special teamer as is Keith Burns in 2003 and Phil Olsen is, too, for this 1976 season as is Godwin Turk for his 1976 season when he would have been in contention for a Pro Bowl selection if they had that slot back then.
Agree, disagree? Let us know.
Love the list here. Some great, overlooked names show up.
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