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Dwight Freeney: "Imagine Aaron Rodgers, but in a running back’s body. That was Steve McNair."


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Dwight Freeney wrote a piece for the player's tribune on the 5 toughest players he ever faced, and of course Steve made the list(first guy on the list if you just wanna read Steve's section):

 

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/dwight-freeney-nfl-5-toughest-ever-faced/

 



Because Air McNair didn’t need a lot of weapons.

He was the weapon.

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McNair's the first guy listed, and also has by far the most written about him. The guy will always be underrated.

 

I love that Freeney flat out talks about his own QB Manning having great weapons, but McNair basically being the whole offense. This is a guy who played McNair twice a year, always watched gamefilm, and played playoff ball almost every year. He knows what level players were on the Colts and Titans offenses, and he faced a ton of top QBs. 

 

McNair was the real deal.

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I remember the Steelers playing the Falcons and Vick, the next week the Steelers were playing the Titans.

 

Someone asked the DC if it would be easier on the defense to play McNair after having to play Vick the previous week. His response was hilarious. He basically laughed at the reporter and said Vick wasn't a pimple on McNair's ass. The coaches understood

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30 minutes ago, OILERMAN said:

I remember the Steelers playing the Falcons and Vick, the next week the Steelers were playing the Titans.

 

Someone asked the DC if it would be easier on the defense to play McNair after having to play Vick the previous week. His response was hilarious. He basically laughed at the reporter and said Vick wasn't a pimple on McNair's ass. The coaches understood

The thing about McNair was even though he was very raw when he came into the league, in his few appearances his first 2 years you could tell right off the bat that he had excellent natural composure in the pocket, he never seemed flustered or overwhelmed. And he didn't do stupid shit with the ball. Even before he started playing at an elite level he rarely turned the ball over. I thought at times he may have played a bit too safe but turnovers are a huge killer. There weren't many games we weren't in when McNair was the QB.

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McNair was never the playmaker as a passer that Rodgers is. I actually think Russell Wilson is closer to that guy than McNair was.

 

But, at the same time, as hard as it is to bring down Wilson, McNair was tougher to bring down. Wilson has Steve's slipperiness, but not his physical power. McNair was as tough as most LBs and seemed to enjoy running guys over as much as simply eluding them.

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Mac is still my favorite Titan ever. He's the reason 9 is my favorite number. That toughness and never quit old-school attitude. Marcus has more talent and I wouldn't  like to see him take risks on the run but I do miss that style of play on this team.

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I love McNair as much as the next guy but, no, he was never anywhere close to as talented passing the ball as Rodgers has been over his career.  Of course, Rodgers can never be the physically imposing player McNair was, either.  I just think it's a bad comparison.

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16 minutes ago, Starkiller said:

McNair was never the playmaker as a passer that Rodgers is. I actually think Russell Wilson is closer to that guy than McNair was.

 

But, at the same time, as hard as it is to bring down Wilson, McNair was tougher to bring down. Wilson has Steve's slipperiness, but not his physical power. McNair was as tough as most LBs and seemed to enjoy running guys over as much as simply eluding them.

I tend to agree.  McNair was no Rogers in the passing game.  He is more Russel like, the difference being McNair tended to power his way out of tackles whereas Russel tends to slink his way out of tackles.  Both has/had an exceptional ability to know when it coming, and made the moves to escape it.  

 

That was what I was reminded of in the Seahawks game.  The frustration it is for opposing teams/fans to get pressure on, but not be able to sack the QB.  McNair and Russel may not be top notch passers, but holy shit do they have the ability to make plays out of what should be completely dead.  

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McNair was raw, but one of the reasons he seemed to stay that way was because we lacked initiative to get him the perimeter guys he forever needed. Even when Randy Moss fell into our fucking laps we elect to draft Dyson.

 

Imagine Moss and Mason side by side for years. We would have won SB34 going away and probably would have won at least one or two more.

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