Watched him go into the Hall of Fame yesterday. It always reminds me of that moron that coached the Jets named Rich Kottite. When he was receivers coach the scouting department asked him his opinion on Jerry Rice. Kottite said he was too slow and couldn't get off the line of scrimmage. The Jets took Al Toon that year.
LOL yeah big mistake.... if only the Jets could have known Toon was going to have a catastrophic series of head injuries/concussions. Some people are just fucking lol........
kotite later chose brady over sapp for the jets. Then the next year used the 1st pick in the 2nd round to select WR Alex Van Dyke when we had already selected Keyshawn (with the first pick) and already had Chrebet and Jeff Graham on board. Van Dyke lasted 2 whole years with jets and then disappeared.
I think that i read somewhere the decision had to do with Grass vs. Turf, and that Toon was the better selection for the surface we were playing on at that time, something lame like that.
I'm with you. Toon was a great receiver. He went to the pro ball 3 or 4 times and I think he was number 1 or 2 receiver in the league a couple of years. Not to mention a stand up guy and a real competitor. Rice had a couple of hall of fame quarterbacks throwing to him. Under the same circumstances who knows what Al Toon could have been.
Really he wasn't. Toon had more catches than Rice two times, but that was about it. Rice played for a better team, but at the same time he was a key reason for the team's success. I liked Toon as much as the next Jets fan, but it became clear during the '87 season that Rice was the better receiver. 1985 rec- Rice 49, Toon 46 yds- Rice 927, Toon 662 TDs- Rice 3, Toon 3 1986 rec- Rice 86, Toon 85 yds- Rice 1570, Toon 1176 TDs- Rice 15, Toon 8 1987 rec- Rice 65, Toon 68 yds- Rice 1078, Toon 976 TDs- Rice 22, Toon 5 1988 rec- Rice 64, Toon 93 yds- Rice 1306, Toon 1067 TDs- Rice 9, Toon 5 1989 rec- Rice 82, Toon 63 yds- Rice 1483, Toon 693 TDs- Rice 17, Toon 2 1990 rec- Rice 100, Toon 57 yds- Rice 1502, Toon 757 TDs- Rice 13, Toon 6 1991 rec- Rice 80, Toon 74 yds- Rice 1206, Toon 963 TDs- Rice 14, Toon 0 1992 rec- Rice 84, Toon 31 yds- Rice 1201, Toon 311 TDs- Rice 10, Toon 2
I've been saying that for years. Having watched every play of his career, I can safely say he would have had a shot at the HOF if he had gone to the 49ers. Now, would he have Rice's records? I wouldn't go that far - Rice was a once in a lifetime competitor.
Rice was a better runner after the catch. He worked the slant pattern to perfection. I do not think that Toon would have been as effective in SF as Rice was. Toon would not have had as much YAC as Rice and he would have gotten beat up there just as he did with the Jets. (Maybe instead of eight or nine concussions through late November '92, Toon would have only had four. Montana was a better passer than O'Brien and would not have put Toon in as many difficult positions. I do get that there would have been at least some differences.) Players tend to play the same way no matter where they play. A hard-hitting safety with one team usually will not become a soft player if he goes to a new team the following year. A quarterback with a gunslinger mentality usually doesn't morph into a game manager type. This year in Arizona I don't think Kerry Rhodes is going to become a headhunter in the Jack Tatum mold. In my opinion, Toon would have taken big hits in SF, too. That's just the type of player he was.
Toon Over Rice? :rofl: based on what-ifs. Rice deserves to be there, period. One of my all time favourite players. Loved watching him hook up with Montana and Young, thank god they weren't in the same div as us. There is another young Toon who in my mind could be better than Dad. I really hope we get a shot at drafting him too, Nick Toon.
A lot of people leave this out. I would have had a decent career with Montana and Young throwing to me. Not to take anything away from Jerry Rice, who was incredible, but the QB thing does help.
I forgot how many moe TDs Rice had over Toon, I was thinking more about either catches or yardage. What people really need to understand was that Al Toon and Ken O'Brien were very good values where we drafted them. Jerry Rice was picked 16th overall and Dan Marino went even later. It is very hard to say that the Jets made a huge mistake by not taking these two players when at least half of the NFL teams also passed them up. Our team would have been better if we had drafted these hall of famers instead of Toon and O'Brien but that shouldn't diminish how good these two players were and how much they did to help our team. It is better to be lucky than good and that is exactly what the 49ers and Dolphins were when they drafted these two players.
