The two physical attributes that always stood out to me about Willie was his humungous size (Jesus he was huge,) and his tremendously nimble feet. When you saw Willie get going for a down-field block on a Priest Holmes toss, you just knew he was clobbering one, two, and occasionally three blockers in his path. It was truly awe-inspiring. And the one matchup I can remember him just being a straight Hall of Famer in; was the game against the Colts when Dwight Freeney was a BEAST. Freeney had dominated EVERY LT he played against that year, easily. His spins were something that kept OC’s up at night, he couldn’t be blocked. And then he met Willie. I actually think Willie had something to do with Dwight Freeney’s dropoff in production… He’s never been the same player after that. Injuries hurt him, of course, but after being dominated by Willie, he hasn’t been his old self. I think it got to him psychologically, at least a little. You go from being on the top of the world, to looking like a little girl. It was crazy.

To this day I still say I’d take an over-weight/out-of-shape Willie Roaf to play RT (or LT, should he absolutely have to,) over our guys. He was just that good. He definetly has lost a step, or two, or three, since retiring, but I bet he’d still be a Top Ten Tackle in the league, at this moment. That’s just me, and probably a bit of homerism, but God knows I’d love to see it happen if it could.

Also I don’t think Roaf gets enough recognition of how great he really was. You hear about Odgen and Pace all the time, but Roaf, he was really something special.

Jason, that’s why I said if there was ANY chance that it could have been picked, he could have thrown it away. It IS safe, Damon is very capable. And he’s leaps and bounds above Thigpen. He didn’t have flashy stats against Denver, but did you see the completion percentage? Yeah, Thigpen DREAMS about completing 22/28 or whatever it was. It IS a safe play. Maybe not a huge net-yardage gain, but he didn’t need big yardage, just 3. That’s a quick throw, with little risk of a sack, the way our line played, and Tony G. has great hands. But no, we couldn’t give a single DOWN for Tony’s cause? Puhhlease.

I see the argument about winning, but we were in very little danger of losing that game at the end, we could have gotten it done. Having Tony talk about getting traded, and being pissed about everything is just as hurtful to a team as if we DID have a pick for six on that down. Seriously.