Why doesn't anyone include Steve Smith in their top 10 WR lists?

[Johnny Rockets]

5 minutes ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

He had Stanton, Max Hall, Kevin Kolb, Blaine Gabbert, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley, and a couple other single games thrown in here and there. He had a few clunkers in the mix too. 

He's had 16 different QB's I believe. Maybe more. 

[pantherphan96]

marvin harrison killed a guy

[Scrumtrilescent]

Fitz's catch radius, body control, and hand strength were the best I've ever seen.  Watching him and Calvin Johnson at the same time was a treat.

 

 

 

 

But Jerry is still the greatest.

[RelaxImaPro]

Steve is easily one of the most underrated players in NFL history.

Dude led the league in receiving yards while being on the team that passed the ball the least.  That alone should tell you plenty.

He was double covered his entire prime, sometimes tripled, and only really had just slightly over a couple of years with "good" Jake.  He didn't get many opportunities early in his career until he finally broke out in 2003, so that's time wasted he could've racked up more stats.  Hell, probably Jake's best season, 2004, Smitty missed the entire thing due to a broken leg.

Dude just had some terrible luck in his career.  HOF worthy career from one of the undeniable most talented players to ever lace up.  What is a likely HOF career should've been a sure fire 1st ballot HOF lock had he just caught a couple of breaks over the course of his career.

Here's a good post to summarize a lot of poo up and help keep things in perspective to just how truly good he was: http://www.footballperspective.com/the-steve-smith-post/  here's one excerpt:

Quote

Smith lost prime seasons at age 25 (broken leg), 30 (Delhomme PTSD), and 31 (Clausen/Moore dumpster fire). At age 24, he had a breakout season punctuated by an outstanding postseason. Then, from ages 26 to 29, he was historically excellent whenever he and a halfway respectable quarterback shared the field. At ages 32 and 33, he’s been very productive on run-heavy teams: only Jerry Rice and Don Maynard have gained more receiving yards at those ages than Smith.

Smith, like Jimmy Smith, may never make the Hall of Fame. But for a very long stretch he was one of the best players in the game, and only bad luck prevented him from having a more remarkable career. When Ronde Barber said that Smith — and not Rice, or Randy Moss, or Calvin Johnson — was the toughest receiver he ever faced, I wasn’t surprised. Smith, in a bigger market and with even halfway decent quarterback play (not to mention being hampered by FoxBall), would be a Hall of Fame lock.

 

Seriously, every Smitty fan should read that whole article if they haven't before.  It's a really great read.

[RealisticPanther]

28 minutes ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

He had Stanton, Max Hall, Kevin Kolb, Blaine Gabbert, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley, and a couple other single games thrown in here and there. He had a few clunkers in the mix too. 

He had Leinart, too, but the different QBs didn't seem to affect him like they did smith whether due to the system or rest of the offensive personnel 

 

24 minutes ago, Johnny Rockets said:

So back when they both played at the same time, Fitz was #2 with the best career drop rate among active players....Smith was 110th. Even this year while playing with 3 different QBs he had 1 drop on 161 targets. How can you even argue this?

 

By not looking at stats. How many of those "drops" were because smith had a prayer thrown up to him? I don't know the answer and neither do you, but I know without looking at stats and just watching, i recall smith being as sure-handed as anyone's ever been, you didn't see him drop anything he shouldn't, but you certainly saw him catch a lot that he shouldn't.

But anyways, I digress from the Fitzgerald comparison and agree to disagree respecting everyone's points, but still, disagreeing. There's a lot of players and coaches that think smith was the better player, as well as some that think fitz was better.

Certainly, back to the main topic, though, Steve Smith is top 10 and extremely underrated.

[RealisticPanther]

Relaxima---pretty much that's the main point, Steve Smith was double covered his entire career...

Larry Fitzgerald? Very rarely. Blows my mind how people cite "crazy catch radius, blah blah" ...but honestly, Fitz had it waay easier than smith, from QB's, to system, 

I mean, it was arguable whether fitzgerald was even the best WR on his own team some years with Boldin.

You have to take everything into account, and when you use your EYES and SENSE, there's just no way I see how anyone finds Fitzgerald better.

[Car123]

2 minutes ago, RealisticPanther said:

He had Leinart, too, but the different QBs didn't seem to affect him like they did smith whether due to the system or rest of the offensive personnel 

 

By not looking at stats. How many of those "drops" were because smith had a prayer thrown up to him? I don't know the answer and neither do you, but I know without looking at stats and just watching, i recall smith being as sure-handed as anyone's ever been, you didn't see him drop anything he shouldn't, but you certainly saw him catch a lot that he shouldn't.

But anyways, I digress from the Fitzgerald comparison and agree to disagree respecting everyone's points, but still, disagreeing. There's a lot of players and coaches that think smith was the better player, as well as some that think fitz was better.

Certainly, back to the main topic, though, Steve Smith is top 10 and extremely underrated.

You don’t remember Fitzgerald’s 2012 season? 798 yards 4 touchdowns.Wouldn’t say it didn’t affect him,

[RelaxImaPro]

6 minutes ago, RealisticPanther said:

Relaxima---pretty much that's the main point, Steve Smith was double covered his entire career...

Larry Fitzgerald? Very rarely. Blows my mind how people cite "crazy catch radius, blah blah" ...but honestly, Fitz had it waay easier than smith, from QB's, to system, 

I mean, it was arguable whether fitzgerald was even the best WR on his own team some years with Boldin.

You have to take everything into account, and when you use your EYES and SENSE, there's just no way I see how anyone finds Fitzgerald better.

Believe me, I agree.  I've had this same argument several times with others.  Fitzgerald is great, no doubt -- one of the greatest ever.  But I've never seen him do the type of things Steve Smith did back in his prime.  Steve was just special.  A fuging animal.  Going by the eye test, and obviously I've seen a lot more of Steve than Fitz... but I've still seen a damn good bit of Fitz over the years and there's no way I could ever honestly say I think Fitz was the better receiver even team bias aside.

Smitty's stats, as great as they are already, are pretty damn deceiving IMO to get a grasp of just how truly great he was.

[Rags]

1 hour ago, RealisticPanther said:

but fitz never had clausen, matt moore, weinke, as a QB 

At points in his carrer, starting QBs for Fitz included : Drew Stanton, Matt Lienart, Kelvin Kolb, Max Hall, John Skelton, Ryan Lindley and of course Blaine fuging Gabbert.

[RealisticPanther]

Dude me and you are right on the same page then, like trust, same as you, ive seen A LOT of Fitz, and i've made it a point to pay attention to him over the years, but using the eye test...god there's just no way he was better than smith. Smith did special things that Fitz has NEVER done in his career.

I'm glad at least one person gets it, i feel validated even if we're in the minority on a damn panthers message board let alone lol
Idk, maybe people are trying to be too objective/non-homery to the point they're completely delusional.

[Jon Snow]

Just to piss you off apparently.

[RelaxImaPro]

Steve had Weinke, Peete, 157 year old Testeverde, Moore, Clausen, St. Pierre, David Carr, and "Bad" Jake.  And "Bad" Jake was just as bad as any of those fugers.

Hell, like mentioned earlier, Steve really only had like 3 seasons of "Good" Jake.  By the time Cam got here Smitty was 32 years old and Cam was still learning the game.  He gets to Baltimore at ass end of his career with Flacco, who really isn't anything special.

Steve hasn't exactly had it good QB wise over his career.  That's not even to mention we were always one of the bottom 5 passing teams outside of like 1 season or 2 over his entire career here all the while he would always be facing double coverage.

[Anybodyhome]

2 hours ago, The NFL Shield At Midfield said:

he's a much bigger deal in this fanbase than elsewhere

But he also gets less respect with the Carolina fanbase than elsewhere.

Carolina Panther fans will detract from his game day success because he punched someone during training camp. As though that has never happened in any training camp elsewhere in the NFL.

Carolina Panther fans will detract from a great career because he had some harsh words for the GM, as did several other players. But no one believed the players and everyone was quick to jump to the GM's side. 

Carolina Panther fans allow those type of issues cloud their vision and don't allow them to objectively see what kind of career Smith really had.

[Johnny Rockets]

5 minutes ago, RealisticPanther said:

He had Leinart, too, but the different QBs didn't seem to affect him like they did smith whether due to the system or rest of the offensive personnel 

 

By not looking at stats. How many of those "drops" were because smith had a prayer thrown up to him? I don't know the answer and neither do you, but I know without looking at stats and just watching, i recall smith being as sure-handed as anyone's ever been, you didn't see him drop anything he shouldn't, but you certainly saw him catch a lot that he shouldn't.

But anyways, I digress from the Fitzgerald comparison and agree to disagree respecting everyone's points, but still, disagreeing. There's a lot of players and coaches that think smith was the better player, as well as some that think fitz was better.

Certainly, back to the main topic, though, Steve Smith is top 10 and extremely underrated.

In 2010 Steve Smith and his easy drops, quitting on the team, and poor attitude was all the rage around here. Some people were saying he was washed up and some wanted him gone.  Again, I'm not knocking Smith because he was an amazing player but saying he never dropped anything he shouldn't have is false. These are just a few threads about this very thing. Good Times.