RIP Cliff Branch

Something tells me he now gets one of those 10 Senior Centennial spots.

 

His rep was that he was "the burner", the deep threat, while Biletnikoff was the possession guy. Branch had a great pair of hands, and I'd argue never played with a QB with a huge arm.

 

Didn’t his career begin with Lamonica?

 

Lamonica had pretty much been replaced by Stabler when Branch came up. Plunkett did have a reasonably strong arm.

 

Speed kills. #RIP21

 

Absolutely should be in the Hall of Fame. Maybe he’ll finally get in posthumously like Stabler.

 

Even as a Steelers fan, I think it's a injustice that he was not inducted before John Stallworth. Swann had the greater heights and arguably deserved induction before Branch. But Branch was the one consistent offensive weapon on three Super Bowl winning teams. He should have been in Canton a long time ago.

 

I dunno about all that.
He had a couple of really good years and a lot of sub-par years.
Hall of Pretty Good for sure.

He'll probably get in though. The HOF - all of them - are jokes anymore.

 

You could say the same about Art Monk, John Stallworth, Lynn Swann, Charlie Joiner and Fred Bilitnikoff.

Branch was a three-time All Pro, or as many times as Calvin Johnson, Raymond Berry and, uh, Herman Moore

He obviously didn't have the peaks of Johnson or Berry, but he's definitely worthy of hanging with that first line of guys. Monk, Stallworth, Swann and Joiner all made All-Pro one time, while Bilitnikoff made it twice and of course had the Super Bowl MVP.

 

When Branch retired, he was 9th in yards, 14th in catches, 15th in TD catches.

 

Contextually, I'm not sure that's fair, since his career spanned from the little pass era all the way to 1985. Can you screen grab the guys who were ahead of him in TD catches?

Measured against his contemporaries -- he made the all-1970s team, after all -- he doesn't come up short.

BTW, where can you find those rankings for when guys retired? That a Pro-Football-Reference paid thing? Be cool to search around that.

Also, when he retired he was the all-time leader in playoff receptions and is still ranked 10th.

NFL Receptions Career Playoffs Leaders | Pro-Football-Reference.com

 

I don't know if you can find them -- I just did it "manually"

On the TD list when Branch retired, he was actually tied for 13th. this was the list, in order.

Hutson 99
Maynard 88
Alworth 85
Warfield 85
McDonald 84
Powell 81
Carmichael 79
Largent 78
Biletnikoff 76
Hayes 71
Collins 70
Berry 68
Branch 67, tied with Nat Moore to that point.