The best NFL player of all time at every position - Offense

With the NFL season in full swing, and the playoffs getting closer with every passing day, players and coaches have a chance to make themselves legends. The history of the NFL is littered with them, but deciding who is deserving of being in the greatest starting lineup of all time is difficult. But we like difficult tasks, so, without further ado…

There are other players with good claims to this spot, John Elway, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, and Patrick Mahomes to name just a few. None hold a candle to what Tom Brady achieved in his career, making this one of the easiest decisions in this process.

We flip-flopped between Payton and Barry Sanders here, and we still don’t feel comfortable with our choice, but there are deadlines to meet, so we’re going with the man known as ‘Sweetness’. Payton rushed for over 1,000 yards 10 times in his career, per Pro Football Reference, which is incredible given the running back position usually sees players decline early.

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‘Gronk’ was voted onto the NFL 100 All Time Team in 2019, and for good reason. Gronkowski averaged 15 YPC over his career, which is ahead of Jerry Rice (spoiler alert, Rice is one of the receivers). The former Patriot and Buccaneer was a behemoth of a man who can outrun, out-jump, and out-muscle almost any defender.

Standing at 6’6” but only 278lbs, Munoz was light even by the standards of the time in which he played. He didn’t let that stop him from being utterly dominant as a player, however, reaching 11 Pro Bowls and being voted an All-Pro nine times, per Pro Football Network.

Larry Allen has to be on this list, it’s simply incomprehensible to leave him off it. Reports during his career suggested he could bench press 700 lbs, that superhuman strength combined with his off-the-charts athleticism made him physically dominant. He usually one his rep before the play even started.

Maybe this is recency bias at play, and we are making a mistake by not choosing Jim Otto here, but anyone who watched the Eagles during Kelce’s career knows just how good he was. He earned six First-Team All-Pro nods after turning 30 which is ridiculous for a center. His ability to pull from center and get to the second level was revolutionary.

Bruce Matthews’ incredible versatility really helped bring this offensive line together, as we could have slotted him in anywhere in the interior. Per GiveMeSport, Matthews earned First-Team All-Pro nods at left guard, center, and right guard, not a bad man to have on our offensive front!

We, admittedly, don’t know too much about Forrest Gregg, but we do know Vince Lombardi once wrote, “Forrest Gregg is the finest player I ever coached!” in his book, Run To Daylight. Lombardi is the Godfather of the NFL and one of the greatest coaching minds sports has ever seen, so we’re going to side with him on this one.

We love Pro Football Reference as a resource for statistics and other nuggets, specifically their ‘nickname’ section for each player. Rice’s nickname is listed as “The G.O.A.T” and it’s hard to argue with. He holds just about every receiving record worth having, there’s no discussion here.

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A true freak of nature, the term ‘Mossing’ is still used to describe dominating your opponent at the catch point long after he has retired. His 2007 season with the Patriots is one of the greatest seasons by anyone in NFL history, catching 98 passes for 1493 yards and 23 TDs, which is a record we may never see broken.

We have our all-purpose receiver in Rice, and our explosive, field-stretcher in Moss, so what we need to round it out is a true possession receiver. For that, we've chosen Steve Largent who retired holding records in receptions, yards, and touchdowns. He was also voted onto the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, making him worthy of our list.

As Nick Foles proved in Super Bowl LII, every team needs a good backup quarterback, and there may be no greater option than Peyton. Manning was a de facto coach on the field during his playing days, so should be able to help his long term rival Brady when he gets off the field and pass his knowledge on to the coaching staff during games.

We’re going to choose a head coach and an offensive coordinator to round out our team, so we went with Lombardi, who got his start in the NFL as an offensive coordinator with the New York Giants before taking over as the Packers head coach and leading them to five NFL Championships, bridging the Super Bowl era.

Reid could finish his career as the greatest head coach in NFL history if he is able to win another Super Bowl or two. He is already closing in on Don Shula’s win record and has three Super Bowl rings to his name as a HC. Reid’s offensive scheme was fundamental to the Eagles era of near-dominance in the early 00s, and he is the architect behind the current KC dynasty.

We can only assume that everyone reading this list will have zero arguments and accept that we got this 100% correct… or not! But that’s the fun, so if you think we got this right, or not as the case may be, let us know in the comments and tell us your all-time NFL offense!

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