Value of positions in football?

[lastchance]

This has been bugging me for a while, so I would really like an answer.

Which position in football is the most important to get a star player or at least a decent one? Which positions have the biggest difference between the best players and the worst?

Anyone have any idea or some good links?

[TheRover]

[ QUOTE ]
This has been bugging me for a while, so I would really like an answer.

Which position in football is the most important to get a star player or at least a decent one? Which positions have the biggest difference between the best players and the worst?

Anyone have any idea or some good links?

[/ QUOTE ]

1. LT.
2. Probably QB.

Football is such a team sport to an extreme that it's really hard to judge these things, esp. the second question.

omfg mcnabb you idiot

I'd say you don't necessarily have to have a stellar quarterback, RB, or receivers, though your quarterback had better be able to manage the game, and they must work well as a unit avoid turnovers, and do things like pick-up blitzes.

I'd say without fail you need at least one stud LB, a decent cover corner, and at least one defensive lineman who commands double-teams.

As far as disparity between best and worst, I say CB. You can count the # of pure shutdown cornerbacks in the league on one hand. And there are others who are dead meat if you get them on an island against a Moss or a TO.

[PokerFink]

1. Quarterback
2. RB, WR, CB, K
3. LT, C, DE
4. DT, G, RT, MLB, TE
5. OLB, FS, SS, FB, P

The QB is by far the most important, and if you don't think that's true, you're crazy. He is involved in more plays than anyone else, he has the ball more than anyone else, and his mistakes kill the team more than anyone else's.

Other skill positions are very important. You can't have an offense without skill players, and you can't have a defense if you can't defend the pass. For all the BS about running the football, the truth is that the majority of NFL plays are pass plays and the majority of yards come from passing. You need WRs and CBs.

Along the lines, the most important postions are left tackle, center and defensive end. The left tackle protects the QB's blindside, and generally goes against the other team's best DE. When you think about the league's best pass rushers, most play LDE. Strahan is an exception. The center is very undervalued by the public, but extremely important, because it's the center's job to call blocking assignments at the line. If your center can't read the defense, your QB gets killed. Center is also important for the obvious reason that he has to snap the football. Defensive ends are your primary pass rushers, and a good pass rush is the most lethal thing a defense can have.

From there it gets pretty hazy. Lineman in general are undervalued by the public, and linebackers are generally overvalued. Linebackers make more tackles than defensive tackles do, but that doesn't make them more important. Running plays are generally decided by who wins at the point of attack; if a linebacker runs down the RB seven yards down the field on a run off-tackle, the LB made a good play but the offensive still won the play, and it's probably because the OT, TE and/or FB won at the point of attack. Of the linebackers, MLB are the most important, so I put them in the 4th category.

Safety is a goofy position. A good safety can have a tremendous effect on a defense; look how much Brian Dawkins has done for the Eagles over the years, or what Roy Williams did tonight. Safeties also cover the TE in many defensive sets. However, you can get by with passable, average safeties. Ditto for outside linebackers. Fullbacks just aren't very important any more, and for the most part aren't used much. There are very few stud fullbacks left in the league such as Lorenzo Neal (Chargers). But next time you watch the Chargers play, don't watch LT, just watch Neal lead block for him. A lot of LT's success comes from Neal.

The hardest position to quantify is TE, because TE is such a hybrid position. A good reciving TE can be considered an extra WR, and is just as important when he is running routes. On the flip side, TEs are not as good as actual lineman when it comes to blocking. A guy like Gates could be considered a WR and put in category two.

Kickers are massively important, not just for FG but for kickoffs and field position.

Punters are less important. A good punter can help a lot, but the skill variance for punters in the NFL is pretty low. With the exception of a couple guys, they're mostly the same, and it's hard to quantify because there aren't really any good statistics for punters besides touchbacks vs. inside 20 ratio.

[brettbrettr]

I don't really agree with your defensive rankings because different teams utilize different schemes which emphasize certain positions over others.

Also, given the no touching rule of a few years ago the value of CBs dropped and the value of safeties went up.

[PokerFink]

I mean, it's obviously a pretty difficult question to answer, and of course it's going to depend on the team and scheme.

It's a chicken vs. egg type of thing. The chargers are going to utilize the TE a lot in their passing scheme because of Gates. But which came first, Gates, or the scheme? How much of Gates' success is based on their scheme? Personally, I can't answer that, because I don't follow the Chargers closely. But the point is that these rankings are going to vary a lot based on the team.

The Eagles, for example, are my favorite team and I follow them very closely. For them, the QB is extra important because they pass so much. The FS is very important because it's Dawkins and he is all over the place doing a myriad of things. The OLB are less important, because their safeties often cover the TE. Their TE is important because they throw to the TE a lot, their WR are less important because they throw to the TE/RB a lot. Their CB are super important because of their blitz schemes.

It's going to vary a lot. I think I did a pretty good job for an overall outline.

And to put it bluntly, your suggestion about corners and safeties is just way off base. Corners can move to safety as they get older and slower, the opposite never happens. Corners are faster and more athletic, they are more responsible for the recievers, and they are more important. Also, look at how many corners go in the first round of the draft. Now look at how many safeties do. I'll help you out. In the 2005 NFL draft, five corners went in the first round against one safety. Corner is by far the more important position.

[bugstud]

punter who can do kickoffs > kicker

[kschellenger]

I think a running back with the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, block and run is incredibly underrated. A back with those skills can vastly help out a quarterback. There aren't many great QBs in the league. And with 32 starting QBs that leaves a lot of subpar guys leading teams. A guy like Lamont Jordan has the ability to make his QB look a heck of a lot better because he's running short routes, dump offs and screens where there is little danger, in many cases, of interceptions or incomplete passes.

Also, a good TE for the same reasons.

I think WR are overrated. A great WR will not make a QB great. but a great QB can make a WR look great.

Therefore, of the offensive skill positions I'll say
RB
QB
TE
WR

[jstnrgrs]

[ QUOTE ]
This has been bugging me for a while, so I would really like an answer.

Which position in football is the most important to get a star player or at least a decent one? Which positions have the biggest difference between the best players and the worst?

Anyone have any idea or some good links?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that if you look at how much each position gets paid (in the NFL) that would give you a good idea of their relative value. I think it goes something like
1 QB
2 OL
3 RB
4 DL
5 LB
6 Secondary
7 wide receiver

This list is mostly a guess, and I have no idea where kickers/punters go.

[Jack of Arcades]

RB, WR, and K are entirely way too high. RB and K are especially interchangeable with other players in that position. LT and QB are 1 and 1a.