Who is the best "Big Three" in football?

What you're saying is you think the gap between Jackson and Addai is greater than the gap between Manning and Bulger. I strongly disagree.

 

The gap between Jackson and Addai is definitely greater than Manning and Bulger.

Both Manning and Bulger are elite and top tier quarterbacks, Addai isn't a top tier RB yet.

 

Nice to see I wasn't the only one to consider the Chargers.

You have the best RB
Best TE
and a Up and Coming QB.

If you look at points LT and Gates combined had 240 points (40 TDs doesn't include LT's passing TDs)

Over a 16 game season that averages out to be 15 points per game. Does any other duo come close?

 

To be fair, that number would still be relatively high even without Gates.

 

Manning is the best QB in the game, Bulger has had one good year. Aside from last year, he's never even sniffed a 2/1 TD/INT ratio, and benefitted from the Mike Martz offense to put up the high yardage totals.

Jackson is arguably the 2nd best RB in the game (could be as low as 4th, but he's definitely not #1), and Addai has shown that he can be productive against NFL defenses given a fairly decent sized workload last season (1375 yards on 302 carries including postseason in 2006).

Personally given a choice between those two sets, I'd take Manning & Addai, and I doubt many NFL personnel people would disagree with me.

 

Give me Manning, the rest of the Rams' offense, and the Bears' defense, and I'll give you a dynasty.

 

1) It's 240 points, not 280, unless you're telling me that one of LT or Gates, and not Nate Kaeding, kicked all 40 extra points. Thus, your average needs to be reworked as well.

2) Tomlinson had an incredible year last year, one which even he will not be capable of reproducing. Undoubtedly this is still a great duo, but if you're counting on 40 TDs from them again this year, you'll be disappointed.

I'd take the Colts' offense with Jackson before the Rams' offense with Manning. The Rams' offense is old, whereas the Colts' offense aside from Harrison is full of 20 somethings at the skill positions, and on most of the OL now.

 

Dude, Bulger has a 91 QB Rating over his Career, every year he's been in the league has been a good year.

Also, his first year starting was a 2/1 INT Ratio and part of the reason why he has a lot of INTs was Martz's offense style. In his offense, we'd throw long despite the dude being double covered because the gains outweighed the losses I suppose.

What do you mean Bulger benefited from Martz's offense to increase his yardage totals? Manning has had more pass attempts than Bulger in every single year.

I also never said that SJax was first, but he's a top tier running back, he's easily top 5 and almost everyone will put him in their top 3.

Don't get me wrong, Manning is the best QB in the league but I'd rather take two elite players over 1 elite and the other middle-tier.

 

His high YPA and completion % contributed greatly to that, a side effect of being in the Martz offense.

Tony Romo had a 5/1 TD/INT ratio in his first 5 weeks as a starter. Then once defenses got film on him, he struggled. Given that Bulger only started 7 games in his first year, I'm sure the fact that the NFL had nothing/very little to study on him in terms of film played a part in his success, especially given that he never even sniffed a 2/1 TD/INT ratio again in the Mike Martz offense.

Bulger still made the throws. If you see double coverage, why throw the ball into it? Throwing the ball away is a more positive play than throwing an interception in any situation other than a 4th down.

You just said Martz threw deep a lot. You don't think that increased Bulger's yardage totals? Also, Manning has played all 16 games every year Bulger has been a starter, that might have had something to do with him attempting more passes every year, well, except for last year when Bulger had more attempts, thanks to actually playing the entire 16 game schedule.

1) LaDainian Tomlinson

That's unquestionable. Then at 2-4, you have Larry Johnson, Steven Jackson, and Frank Gore, all 3 of which have a very strong case for the #2 spot.

So you're using the fact that there are more established and proven RBs in the NFL than there are QBs as your justification that the Rams' duo is better than the Colts' duo? Seems a pretty weak arguement to me, especially given that Addai did as much as he could to prove himself as an elite RB last season. He can't play more than the team will let him, and his production was extremely impressive last year.

 

Not your chain-quotes again... hboy:

 

You have a problem with me addressing things point by point?

 

Bulgers YPA is identical to Manning's. His Completion % has nothing to do with Martz's system. He is just one of the most accurate QBs in the league.

Granted, that was Bulger's first season and it was only half the season but again, his INTs can be attributed to Mike Martz's "Screw it" system, also what does it matter if he never threw a 2:1 ratio in Martz's system again? He still threw a 2:1 ratio in another system.

Bulger was advised to just throw it and try to let Holt or Bruce make the catches, and to just try and squeeze it in. Linehan came in last year and pretty much just worked on that, and Bulger had the least INTs in the league.

Bulger also had more attempts than Manning last year because we were playing from behind a lot. We did lose, what, 6 straight?

Again, yeah LT is first Jackson could be either second or third. I think he made more of a case than Gore last year by leading the NFL in yards.

I'm using the fact that both Bulger and Jackson are elite players while Manning is an elite player and Addai is not as my argument for why I'd rather have the Rams' Big 3.

 

You want to take the good points of Martz's system and attribute them to Bulger, but you want to blame the bad points of the system on the system. It doesn't work that way. The reason Bulger's QB rating was high was because he played in Martz's system, which, while causing a higher number of INTs, also made his completion % and YPA higher (notice his 7.2 YPA under Linehan vs. the 8s during the Martz years, and the higher completion %s under Martz).

I'm sure having Jackson didn't help with that at all, right? The main thing that cut down on Bulger's INTs was the proper usage of Steven Jackson by Scott Linehan.

My only point there was you said Bulger never had more pass attempts than Manning, which was in fact incorrect.

There's a case for him being 2 and there's a case for him being 4. I think that group is fairly close, so it's basically splitting hairs.

My point is there's about 10-12 established and proven RBs in the NFL, and about 5-6 established and proven QBs in the NFL. Addai not being established and proven yet has more to do with his being a rookie last year than anything. He has the talent to be one of the best RBs in the NFL, he just hasn't had much of a chance yet, which is why I said your argument is pretty weak.

 

We'll see about Addai this season, your original claim was that Bulger had one good season and you just attributed everything else to Martz. You basically did the same thing as me except opposite.

 

I know where Dam is coming from but to credit Martz for Bulgers stats and not really credit Tom Moore for the same thing is not really fair. Manning has never had to learn a new offense and has a lot of control in what he does, which is a credit to him, no one calls the line like Manning, but Bulger has proven capable in two O's and has improved in Linehan's so.....

 

Addai is an unproven commodity at this point. Thats why he can't be considered to Jackson's level yet. If Addai proves himself this season, then it's a different argument.

 

I'd take Indy's three over STL's.... their accomplishments say it all. Holt is still one hell of a receiver but Harrison is better. Peyton above Bulger... not really close. And, while S. Jackson is easily a much better back then Addai I'd have to go with Indy's collective three over STL's for best in the game today.

Hell I'd even take their three of Manning, Harrison and Wayne with a scrub running back over any other three in the league except STL's.

 

Good catch I edited the stats.

I don't expect them to get 40 TDs again but if you average both player's TD over the last 3 years that is still 33.67 TDs

or 202 points, 12.625 points a game. (double checked this time)

Is there any duo that comes close?

 

Wow.....turned into quite the debate. If this had been two yeas ago would there be a debate or would it have been the Colts hands down with Edge? Seems with today's changing market that the Big 3 is harder to determine. If Addai had another year under his belt and had proven his ability to be number one back then....a debate? One thing that would help end the debate will be a couple years of consistent numbers.....if Jackson keeps up his numbers and Holt and Bulger continue...but the revolving door of the NFL will keep changing the Best Big 3 every couple of years.