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Edge vs Ricky Williams

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AtlAtty said:
Good call. I thought Ricky was drafted #3.
So why did New Orleans give up so much for Williams? How much did they have to move up.
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I believe that N.O. jumped up from 12th to 5th, and MAAAAAASSIVELY overpaid.

No. 5: Washington → New Orleans (D). Washington traded its first-round selection (5th) to New Orleans in exchange for New Orleans' first-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-round selections (12th, 71st, 107th, 144th, 179th, and 218th), as well as New Orleans' 2000 first- and third-round selections (2nd and 64th).
 
The Redskins drafted the following players with all of those picks...

Champ Bailey (they would trade up from 12 to 7 to draft him)
Jon Jansen (again, used picks from New Orleans deal to trade up for him in R2)
Nate Stimson
LaVar Arrington
Lloyd Harrison

Ricky Williams for a Hall of Fame corner, 7 years of right tackle (one being an All-Pro level season), and an All-Pro caliber linebacker...not bad. But the Redskins would only make the playoffs 4 times during Ricky Williams' career and had a sub-.500 record during that time. Teams that Ricky Williams played on went to the playoffs 3 times.

Crazy.

The Saints would draft Deuce McAllister two years later in the first round. Five years after that, they would draft Reggie Bush.
 
BoxingRobes said:
Both players ended up really really good.

Colts also traded Marshall Faulk before that draft. Crazy.
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Yeah, the Colts bascically handed the Rams the Super Bowl...and the Rams got Torry Holt in the draft.

Wish I would've put about a stack on the Rams that year, they had one of, or the worst odds, to win the Super Bowl after Trent Green went down...I knew they were gonna win it regardless.
 
CaneSince4Ever said:
Yeah, the Colts bascically handed the Rams the Super Bowl...and the Rams got Torry Holt in the draft.

Wish I would've put about a stack on the Rams that year, they had one of, or the worst odds, to win the Super Bowl after Trent Green went down...I knew they were gonna win it regardless.
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Yeah man, the big winner in this entire shuffle of running backs was the Rams and is often lost in the discussion. He just came off a Pro Bowl, too and would go on to 3 straight All-Pro nods and 4 straight Pro Bowls essentially making him a Hall of Famer along with the championships.

The Colts picked Mike Peterson - about as good of a non-Pro Bowl level LB as you'll get - and was good for the Colts, but had some big time seasons for Jacksonville and Brad Scioli.

The Colts would eventually win a Super Bowl anyway...but some wild dominoes.
 
BoxingRobes said:
Yeah man, the big winner in this entire shuffle of running backs was the Rams and is often lost in the discussion. He just came off a Pro Bowl, too and would go on to 3 straight All-Pro nods and 4 straight Pro Bowls essentially making him a Hall of Famer along with the championships.

The Colts picked Mike Peterson - about as good of a non-Pro Bowl level LB as you'll get - and was good for the Colts, but had some big time seasons for Jacksonville and Brad Scioli.

The Colts would eventually win a Super Bowl anyway...but some wild dominoes.
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So the Colts drafted Edge which basically meant that they had to trade Fault after spending the #4 pick on a running back? I entirely believe it but it makes me wonder why the Colts drafted a running back unless they knew they were going to trade Faulk, Maybe a contract situation because Faulk was amazing.
I rarely understand NFL trade value. As a Steelers fan I was thrilled when they traded a 3rd round pick for Bettis but I still have no clue what the Rams were thinking and why they didn’t at least demand a higher pick.
 
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AtlAtty said:
So the Colts drafted Edge which basically meant that they had to trade Fault after spending the #4 pick on a running back? I entirely believe it but it makes me wonder why the Colts drafted a running back unless they knew they were going to trade Faulk, Maybe a contract situation because Faulk was amazing.
I rarely understand NFL trade value. As a Steelers fan I was thrilled when they traded a 3rd round pick for Bettis but I still have no clue what the Rams were thinking and why they didn’t at least demand a higher pick.
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Nah, Faulk was traded before the draft. He wanted a new contract and was going to hold out.
 
Sadly, Edge tore his ACL in 2001 and, while I don't have the empirical data to back this up, anyone who has followed sports since then knows that modern medicine repairs ACL tears drastically better today than 20 years ago.

But I digress. I believe a healthy Edge was better than a healthy Ricky even though both were great.
 
I gotta give the edge to Edge regarding who I think was the better back. I love me some Ricky Williams tho. Especially the Miami Dolphins, blunt smoking, deadlock wearing, Ricky Wiliams. Dude was a boss carrying and catching the rock out of the backfield. But our boy Edge just seemed to have had his **** together at the time and Ricky, well, just didn't. At the end of the day, as a pro athlete, Ricky couldn't stay out of trouble and Edge did. I think that's probably the defining factor as to why EJ was the better back. They were both exceptional RB's tho. For whatever reasons, history shows us that in the grand scheme of things, Edge had the better career and that's all that really matters.
It's a Cane Thing....
Don't go and sleep on how good RW was tho. If Ricky didn't freak out, who knows what kind of numbers he could have wound up putting up. I think one of the main reasons Ricky freaked out is because of the massive amount of hype that was bestowed upon him when he was coming up through the college ranks. On the other hand, the country really didn't know about EJ up until the UCLA game. Dude just exploded after that. Meanwhile, RW was a Heisman winner and a media darling and I think the pressure just got the best of the young man. Something tells me nobody could have talked EJ into wearing a wedding dress for magazine cover shoot. Regardless of how much money they were flashing his way. Just a hunch!!

Go Canes!!!
 
This brings up a pretty good topic: when good players go to bad teams, can that affect their game their whole career?

For example, look at a guy like Jim Plunkett. Good QB that was drafted by a terrible expansion team, played bad because he was getting decimated by better veteran teams.

He goes to the Raiders on a last chance, gets on a great team, and absolutely balls out. Wins a few Super Bowls and gets a ticket to the Hall of Fame.

How many guys who could've been good, but either a victim of cicumstance or injury, never got a chance to be recognized as truly great?

I think a guy like Ricky Williams got into the league, his head already not quite on right, gets on a bad team, gets the crap knocked out of him.

How would he have been in a system like Bellichecks Patriots? Or the Rams with **** Vermeil?

For some guys, getting into the right place at the right time is incredibly important. A guy like Trent Dilfer, would've never won a Super Bowl. But, he did enough, and the defense carried him the rest of the way with the Ravens.
 
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BoxingRobes said:
The Redskins drafted the following players with all of those picks...

Champ Bailey (they would trade up from 12 to 7 to draft him)
Jon Jansen (again, used picks from New Orleans deal to trade up for him in R2)
Nate Stimson
LaVar Arrington
Lloyd Harrison

Ricky Williams for a Hall of Fame corner, 7 years of right tackle (one being an All-Pro level season), and an All-Pro caliber linebacker...not bad. But the Redskins would only make the playoffs 4 times during Ricky Williams' career and had a sub-.500 record during that time. Teams that Ricky Williams played on went to the playoffs 3 times.

Crazy.

The Saints would draft Deuce McAllister two years later in the first round. Five years after that, they would draft Reggie Bush.
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That's one of the two first round picks the Panthers traded to the Redskins for Sean Gilbert.

Sad times.
 
TerragonSix said:
This brings up a pretty good topic: when good players go to bad teams, can that affect their game their whole career?

For example, look at a guy like Jim Plunkett. Good QB that was drafted by a terrible expansion team, played bad because he was getting decimated by better veteran teams.

He goes to the Raiders on a last chance, gets on a great team, and absolutely balls out. Wins a few Super Bowls and gets a ticket to the Hall of Fame.

How many guys who could've been good, but either a victim of cicumstance or injury, never got a chance to be recognized as truly great?

I think a guy like Ricky Williams got into the league, his head already not quite on right, gets on a bad team, gets the crap knocked out of him.

How would he have been in a system like Bellichecks Patriots? Or the Rams with **** Vermeil?

For some guys, getting into the right place at the right time is incredibly important. A guy like Trent Dilfer, would've never one a Super Bowl. But, he did enough, and the defense carried him the rest of the way with the Ravens.
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Fingers crossed that's the case with Sam Darnold.
 
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DTP said:
Terrible comparisons. Ricky Williams had over 10,000 career rushing yards including 5 1000 yard seasons. Was his heart always in the game? Probably not, but he made multiple pro bowls and led the league in rushing in 2002. He’s 31st in all time rushing yardage.
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Never said Williams wasn’t talented. He was very talented. I said he didnt have a passion to be great, Williams has said himself that he no desire work hard in the offseason.

If he had that desire he would a HOF like Edge,

The comparisons to Carter and Salaam were solely on passion not on talent. Neither had the raw talent that Williams had.

and btw Williams did have 10k rushing yards and five 1k rushing yard seasons. But also only had one season where he averaged more than 100 yards rushing a season and finished his career barely over 4 yards a carry.
 
sactowncane said:
. But also only had one season where he averaged more than 100 yards rushing a season and finished his career barely over 4 yards a carry.
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Ricky Williams had two seasons where he averaged 100 yards rushing per game. Although one was in 2000 when he played 10 games and had exactly 1000 rushing yards. He finished his career with a 4.1 ypc average. His seven seasons with the Dolphins (his peak years) he averaged 4.3 ypc

Edgerrin James had two seasons where he averaged over a 100 yards a game. One of them was 2005 when he played 15 games and had 1506 yards. He also averaged 4.0 yards per carry for his career. During his 7 seasons in Indianapolis he averaged 4.2 ypc.
 
sactowncane said:
****** team or not, Williams didn’t have the desire to great. Just like Rashan Salaam, Ki Jana Carter, etc etc
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I have to agree with you. Ricky enjoyed playing the game but didn’t want to deal with people. I know it’s weird but it was result of his social disorder.
 
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