Joey Galloway
Posted by Doug on May 7, 2007
If I had a vote for Most Underappreciated Player of All-Time (or at least in my memory), it would go to Joey Galloway. Consider this your annual reminder that Galloway is and has been a great wide receiver.
His numbers, at first glance, are fairly pedestrian. But I claim that he has played with the worst collection of quarterbacks of any receiver since the merger. Here is an estimate of the percentage of Galloway's passes that have come from various quarterbacks:
Quarterback Est % of passes ================================ Warren Moon 15.9 Quincy Carter 13.8 Rick Mirer 13.4 Chris Simms 11.5 Brian Griese 8.4 John Friesz 8.3 Jon Kitna 8.1 Bruce Gradkowski 6.2 Chad Hutchinson 5.3 Anthony Wright 2.1 Tim Rattay 1.9 Ryan Leaf 1.8 Brad Johnson 1.1 Clint Stoerner 1.0 Troy Aikman 0.4 Gino Toretta 0.3 Glenn Foley 0.2 Randall Cunningham 0.2 Stan Gelbaugh 0.0
Moon is an all-time great, but the two seasons Galloway played with Moon were when Warren was 41 and 42 years old.
And even forgetting that Chris Simms and Bruce Gradkowski have been responsible for getting him the ball for the last two years, Galloway is putting up some of the best numbers in history for someone his age. Here are the all-time leaders in receiving yardage during the age 34 and age 35 seasons combined.
REC YD TD
==================================
Cris Carter 186 2515 22
Irving Fryar 174 2511 17
Joey Galloway 145 2344 17
Tim Brown 167 2293 20
Rod Smith 164 2249 13
Drew Hill 164 2128 9
Henry Ellard 108 2019 7
Jimmy Smith 128 1977 10
Pete Retzlaff 106 1843 16
James Lofton 92 1784 12
Charlie Joiner 106 1733 7
Art Monk 117 1693 11
Frank Lewis 98 1687 6
Don Maynard 78 1463 6
Tony Martin 93 1430 5
Harold Jackson 74 1406 5
Marvin Harrison 95 1366 12
Jerry Rice 115 1332 9
Andre Reed 115 1331 6
Keenan McCardell 101 1310 10
Cliff Branch 69 1271 9
Nat Moore 89 1132 14
Ed McCaffrey 88 1098 2
Isaac Bruce 74 1098 3
Steve Largent 67 1048 5
JT Smith 80 1003 7
Now I'm not trying to claim that Galloway is the best-ever receiver of his age, only that he's among the best ever in his age group, and no one seems to notice.
Finally, remember that Galloway missed one and a half seasons in his prime because of a holdout and a knee injury. While it's probably not appropriate to take those sorts of things into account when evaluating his Hall of Fame case, it's worth remembering when using his career numbers to try to determine how good he was.
May 7th, 2007 at 6:46 am
He'll never make the HOF. I'm not sure he'd even be nominated.
That said, he's a classic "what could have been" candidate. That injury ruined him for years, and that collection of QBs is horrific.
Without his holdout, I'm not sure he hurts his knee. He might have had an amazing career even with his collection of Quarterturds. Can you imagine if Steve Young and the 49ers traded up and got him?
He could have been that generation's defining received--the guy who bridged the gap between Jerry Rice and Chad Johnson. Looks like Marvin Harrison is the next logical choice.
Regardless, he is a good choice for MUP (All-Time).
May 7th, 2007 at 9:08 am
You know why everyone forgets Joey "the mouth" Galloway? He has NO loyalty. If he could stick with a team more than two years without bitchin' about everything, people would undoubtedly sing at least some praises. He is a mediocre money guy which no one really wants to root for. He has the physical talents but his mouth gets in his way everywhere he goes.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I was surprised to see Jerry Rice so low on this list, but then realized that Rice only played 2 games in his age 35 season. If you add Rice's age 34 and age 36 season, he would have:
190 receptions, 2411 yards and 17 TDs.
May 7th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
He's no Reggie Rucker.
May 8th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
"He could have been that generation’s defining received–the guy who bridged the gap between Jerry Rice and Chad Johnson"
Really. Chad Johnson. Ocho Cinco is the best you could come up with as the "defining receiver" of this generation. That's it. Not Torry Holt. Not Steve Smith. Not Roy Williams. Chad Johnson. Great. I'll be sure to go eat my 4 Quarter Pounders with Cheese so I can get cramps while at work too.
May 9th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Uh, Jason, taking a look at that list of horrible quarterbacks, wouldn't you want to bail? Terry Glenn is just as bad as Galloway in this regard, and Glenn isn't nearly as good (he couldn't even get 1,000 yards with Favre throwing to him, and Bill frickin' Schroeder did). I mean, I can't remember who his QB was at OSU, but he couldn't have been much worse.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:09 am
galloway schmalloway
May 11th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Sorry, Syed, I've been out a few days. You had me until "Roy Williams."
If you're going to throw names out there, at least be competent about it. The only viable choice you threw out there was Torry Holt. Steve Smith, to me, is still proving himself.
Regardless, that wasn't the point of what I was saying. Insert any young receiver's name that you want, donkey nuts.
The point, for those of you who need it spelled out for them, is that Galloway could have been very special under a different set of circumstances.
June 15th, 2007 at 8:42 am
There have only been 3 wide receivers who have led their conference in receiving yards 3 years in a row. One of them was some nobody named Tim something. Oh yeah, it was Tim Brown who played for the Raiders.
Another was a guy who I think I heard of once. He played for the 49ers. Jerry… Jerry... Jerry Rice, yeah that’s it Jerry Rice.
And the final one is Chad Johnson. Brown and Rice did it over the same three year period.
Oh yeah, did I mention Chad Johnson actually has done it 4 years in a row?