I find that implausible because Warren Sapp didn't speak so favorably about him in the NFL Network show about the 2002 Buccaneers.
I liked Hector as a better backup than I thought McNeil was as a starter, although to be clear I am not saying Hector should have started ahead of McNeil. I just see it easier to say Hector was underrated. As between McNeil and Curtis Martin, however, Martin was definitely the superior player. You can cherry pick one or two stats, probably ypc as the best metric for McNeil. But McNeil's big problem was he fumbled too often. Martin for his career had about 4000 combined carries and receptions, and fumbled only 29 times. McNeil had about 2100 combined carries and receptions, and fumbled 45 times. That's a huge disparity. McNeil was almost twice as likely to fumble as Martin. Add in Martin was asked to be the workhorse far more than McNeil. They played the same number of years, and Martin had over 14,000 yards rushing. McNeil had just over 8k. Again, Martin had nearly double the production. It only gets worse when you drill down, and recall that McNeil really dropped off his last four years, while Martin only marginally did his last year. In short Martin was far more durable than McNeil. How about TD's? Martin had exactly double, 100 to McNeil's 50. Imo it's not even close.
Overall qb play during the duration of McNeil's playing days was at least as good as during Martin's. The OL then was not good in pass protection, I would agree, but not that much worse in run blocking. There is quite simply too much disparity in the stats to make a plausible argument that McNeil was as good as Martin. Feel free to put up a poll if you want.
Stats don't lie, and they stack up nicely for Curtis. You've made your point. In suggesting Freeman as an underrated Jet, I should have stayed away from mentioning Curtis.
Dan Alexander. Very underrated and was converted from college DE to Guard. He manned the position for a long time and was very steady.
Freeman McNeil is far and away one of my favorite Jets ever. And he is nowhere near the back Curtis is.
I'm not sure about being the most underrated but David Harris is underrated. He doesn't have the wow factor and has slowed down. But over the course of his career he has been solid. And has done something most players haven't accomplished. Stayed with the same team his entire career. And even with a new HC and GM coming in: they re-signed him.
I totally disagree. McNeil's only problem is that he couldn't stay healthy. He was a better RB than Curtis imo.
But that's a pretty big problem, no? Not that I'm hating on your argument, McNeil was dazzling when he was healthy and I loved the guy. But look at the overall production and it really isn't close.
You've listed Frosty the Snowman last for comic relief, right? Talk about ridiculous draft picks. He was drafted 3rd or 4th round, wasn't he? Other than Brad Smith, I don't recall a successful draft-out-of-position guy.
outside of a player here and there the drafts from 1997-1999 were a complete joke. we had a million picks in those years from BP making trades and we got very little for them.
durability counts, you could count on Curtis every Sunday and every season and knew what he would give you. w/ Freeman he flashed HOF talent one week then was dinged up the next week, I love Freeman but you could rarely count on him. I do agree as a pure runner Freeman was better but durability does count and Curtis had the much better career.
