Green Bay Packers: All-Time Offensive Lineup
Super Bowl XLV features two of the most storied franchises in NFL History.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are making their record eighth appearance in the big game, but when it comes to NFL history, no one trumps the Green Bay Packers.
The Packers have 12 championships in the books to date, including three Super Bowl victories of their own. You know you’re big-time when the prize you're competing for bares the name of one of your own legends.
The 2010 Packers are competing not only for the Lombardi Trophy but also for their own place in franchise history, joining some of the greatest players to ever play the game.
Here’s my list of the greatest offensive players in Green Bay Packers history.
Centers and Guards
1 of 6
Center
Jim Ringo
Pretty clear cut choice here. Ringo was a 10-time Pro Bowler and six-time All Pro, inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981 and a starter on two Packers Championship teams.
Honorable mention: Larry McCarren, Frank Winters
Guards
Jerry Kramer
Possibly the worst Hall of Fame snub ever. A five-time All Pro, Kramer’s name is synonymous with the “Packer Sweep” the bread and butter play of the Lombardi era Packers. He played on five Green Bay championship teams.
Gale Gillingham
Gillingham came aboard the Packers at the tail end of the great teams of the '60s, so he had the misfortune of spending much of his career during some of the lean years. A five-time Pro Bowler, he first broke into the starting lineup in 1967 just in time to start in Super Bowl II.
Honorable mention: Fuzzy Thurston, Mike Michalske
Tackles
2 of 6
Tackles
Forrest Gregg
A nine-time Pro Bowler including seven-time All Pro. He was once called the finest player he ever coached by one Vince Lombardi, and that’s good enough for me.
Chad Clifton
OK. It's pretty tough to keep a guy like Cal Hubbard, who’s in two Halls of Fame, from making the starting lineup. Hubbard is in both the football and baseball (as an umpire) Halls of Fame. I guess this is one nod to the modern day player.
Clifton has been a vastly underrated and under-appreciated piece of the Packers recent success.
Quarterbacks rarely perform at exceptional levels for long periods of time without solid play from their blind side protectors. Considering all the success of Favre and Rodgers, I’m thinking Clifton has done something right.
Honorable mention: Cal Hubbard
Tight Ends
3 of 6
Tight Ends
Mark Chmura
This one could go a few different ways. Paul Coffman proceeded Chmura and was considered one of the best receiving TE’s of his era. Ron Kramer starred on some of those late '50s to mid '60s teams, but for my money Chmura was as versatile a TE as you could ask for.
Honorable Mention: Paul Coffman, Ron Kramer, Bubba Franks
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Wide Receivers
4 of 6
Wide Receivers
Don Hutson
If you think Jerry Rice has dominated the NFL record books, and he has, then you really have to love what Don Hutson did to them back in his day.
It’s likely that no single player has so dominated his contemporaries as Hutson did to his fellow Receivers. In 11 seasons in Green Bay, Hutson led the NFL in receptions eight times, receiving yards seven times and receiving TD’s nine times.
Don Hutson retired in 1945. His NFL record for TD receptions wasn’t broken until 1989.
James Lofton
Green Bay’s all-time leader in receiving yards, though Donald Driver is hot on his heels. Lofton could stretch the field with his speed while using his good size as well as just about anyone.
Excelled at making a play on a ball using a combination of his speed and height or using his body to shield off a defender.
Even as the game began to morph into a league where high percentage possession style passing ruled, Lofton remained a big play threat averaging over 18 yards per reception during his Packer tenure.
Honorable Mention: Sterling Sharpe, Donald Driver, Max McGee, Antonio Freeman
Running Backs
5 of 6
Running Backs
Jim Taylor
A Hall of Fame full back who stood as the third leading rusher in NFL history at his retirement, Taylor’s 91 TD’s are still second in franchise history. Along with Paul Hornung, he formed one of the great running back tandems in NFL history.
Ahman Green
A six-time 1,000 yard rusher, Green just slid by Taylor as the franchises all-time leading rusher.
Actually, the two backs had remarkably similar numbers with the Packers.
Green finishing his Green Bay career with 1,851 carries, 8,322 yards and a 4.5 avg.
Taylor finished with 1,811 carries, 8,207 yards and a 4.5 avg.
Honorable mention: Paul Hornung, John Brockington, Tony Canadeo, Dorsey Levens
Quarterback
6 of 6
Quarterback
Bart Starr
May as well finish up with a little controversy. I’m not forgetting about Brett Favre here. A five-year farewell tour and an endless loop of Wrangler commercials would seem to guarantee that no one forget Ol’ No. 4.
Sadly, some folks perhaps have forgotten just how good he was in his prime. Three-time NFL MVP’s don’t grow on trees folks and of course his cumulative numbers dwarf many a Hall of Famer, including Starr. He’s a solid pick for No. 2, sorry Mr. Rodgers.
But No. 2 is as far as I can go.
Trying to compare Starr, or for that matter any player from a bygone era to today’s players simply using standard statistics, is a fool’s choice. The conditions and rules the modern game is played in differ radically from those of yesteryear.
Hopefully you’ll keep that in mind before chasing me around the internet village with your little internet torches.
I don't know how Starr would perform in today's faster more complex game, so all I can do is try to compare each player to their contemporaries.
Starr’s career holds up very well to anyone’s scrutiny thank you very much. Three times Starr led the NFL in QB rating, completion pct. and interception pct and Twice in yards per attempt. He retired as the most accurate passer of his era and with an MVP of his own.
Clearly when compared to his contemporaries playing by their rules in those conditions he more than held his own statistically.
When you talk about Bart Starr, you talk about winning. A 9-1 career postseason record, a five-time world champion, including victories in the first two Superbowls, in each of which he was voted MVP.
A 15-3 TD-INT ratio in his 10 postseason starts helped him compile a very 21st century style QB rating of 104.8, best all time among post season QB’s.
Did Starr benefit from being surrounded by a slew of Hall of Famers and Pro bowlers? You bet. But check out the box scores from some of those old Packers games. A poorly timed interception here or there could have undone even the best laid plans of Lombardi and company.
For me it just comes down to this. Starr and Favre both enjoyed HOF quality careers. Favre’s longevity, production and his own SB victory are laudable.
But winning championships requires a QB to exploit defenses while limiting mistakes. Some of Favre’s most memorable moments have, undeniably, been mistakes that have come in the heat of postseason competition.
Compared to a QB who won the last nine postseason games he ever played in, I just have to go with the hardware.
Bart Starr is my choice as the Green Bay Packers greatest QB of all time.
Honorable mention: Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers
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