He might very well have been. Namath has had the effect of obscuring just how good that defense was - particularly the front 7 of Biggs, Rochester, Elliott, Philbin, Atkinson, Baker, and Grantham. In the Super Bowl season they had the #1 ranked defense in the AFL, and were second in the league in forced turnovers. We've had conversations like this before over the years, of course, but in terms of peak level of performance I think the best Jets I've seen are Namath, Toon, Sauer, Grantham, and Revis. In terms of sustained excellence over a long period of time I would go with Grantham, Maynard, Martin, and Klecko, I think.
Yeah, and most people aren't even mentioning Schmidt who played center for the Jets in the 60's-70's and was one of the top AFL centers. If there are two positions the Jets have always been pretty gifted at it's Center and Defensive end. The Jets have pretty much always had an elite, or nearly elite, one at both positions.
Offense QB: Joe Namath RB: Curtis Martin FB: Matt Snell WR: Keyshawn Johnson and Wesley Walker TE: Mickey Shuler C: Nick Mangold OT: D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Marvin Powell OG: Dan Alexander and Randy Rasmussen Defense DE: Shaun Ellis and Mark Gastineau DT: Joe Klecko NT: Kris Jenkins OLB: Mo Lewis and John Abraham MLB: Jonathan Vilma CB: Darrelle Revis and Aaron Glenn S: Ronnie Lott and Darrol Ray
