NFL Week 7: Where have you gone, Bert Jones?

No, no, no.

I'm sure with some digging, people will find a backfield of two great starters and some serious talent sitting on the bench.

 

Step away from the ledge... That will be very tough to beat.

 

I think Dozier switched to baseball because he didn't do much in the NFL. Or maybe he tried to do both at the same time and it didn't go well. Either way, he didn't do much for the Vikings.

You could definitely see in '86 what a great college player Thomas was going to be. I always thought that was a very under-rated backfield. There was so much talk about how loaded that Miami team was, but that Penn State team was stacked as well. Just not at quarterback.

 

My question: Why was Thomas such a horrible pro?

 

I don't remember exactly, but I seem to recall that his knee ligaments were hanging by a thread by the time he finished at Penn State ...

 

That Miami class is tough to beat lets compare them to Tennessee's 1998 class.

Travis Henry 998 yards 7 tds
Jamal Lews 497 yards 3 tds
Shawn Bryson 408 total yards and 6 TDs
Travis Stephens 517 yards and 4TDS

 

Bryson doesn't hold up as No. 3.

 

See, I think he does. Show me another fullback who gets 400 yards and 6 tds in a season. I'm not even a Vols fan, but I've been intrigued by this class, which also had Tee Martin, and Peyton the year before, as well as Peerless Price. Solid offense.

 

Anyway if that's the end all be all of best backfields lets move on. Best QB depth chart?

Can the USC class of Palmer, Leinart and Cassel be beat?

Other ones that come to mind would be.

Griese, Brady and Dreisbach at UM- all three played in the NFL.
there's also Tee Martin/Peyton Manning- but Tee never panned out.

Kyle Boller/Aaron Rogers at Cal

 

Pacman Jones suspended indefinitely by the NFL.

http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/nfl_tracker/posts/14261

NFL told him no alcohol-related incidents, he broke that last week, and now he's sitting out.

 

1964 Alabama had Joe Namath as the starter, Steve Sloan (an All-American the following year) as the back-up and Ken Stabler starting on the freshman team. Not bad.

And I think Boomer Esiason and Frank Reich were at Maryland at the same time.

1983-84 Miami had both Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde. 1982 had Jim Kelly, Kosar and Testaverde, though the latter two redshirted.

 

Regarding that '86 PSU team, oop, do you remember the SI preview of the Fiesta Bowl? Something along the lines of, "Testaverde has a great future as an NFL quarterback. John Shaffer has a great future as a financial analyst."

Well, they got one right ...

And to answer a later question, yes, Blair Thomas missed the '88 season due to major reconstructive knee surgery.