Warrior General Games

I was going for more "before the invention of the forward pass" which some of the GLB teams actively resemble ... but yeah, late 70s Chargers with John Jefferson were a fun watch. Then he got sent to the Packers when the Chargers wouldn't pay him, and he faded a bit being across from Lofton, and with Coffman at TE. That team just had too many mouths to feed, but their terrible D kept them passing quite a bit.

In S.D. JJ had Joiner, Winslow, and Muncie, so they actually had more mouths to feed. In comparison, Paul Coffman couldn't compare to Kellen Winslow Sr. Lofton was a beast no doubt! Joiner was among the all-time leaders in receptions when all was said and done, and the Pride of Berkeley was a force to be reckoned with. Fouts on the mound, was another nightmare for opponents...

Agree to disagree, unless you're talking about ONE season, 1980.

Jefferson was traded in '81 after holding out ... so Winslow only shared the spotlight for one year - he didn't play that much as a rookie, only getting twenty something catches for two hundred-ish yards in '79. Muncie got traded over part way through the '80 season from New Orleans, and only started 5 games. He didn't really explode until '81 when JJ was already gone.

Jefferson led them in yards and TDs each of his 3 seasons there 78-80, racking up over 1000 yards, and over 10 TDs in each. He absolutely destroyed Joiner's production over that stretch (and fairly solidly beat out Winslow's in 80). But, once he held out and got traded to GB, he all but disappeared since Lofton was their primary deep threat, and they weren't in the style of Air Coryell's constant deep ball attack. He averaged around half to a third of what he had been doing with SD, though his average reception was about the same. Just WAY less opportunities, GB having a higher run rate (less overall attempts bc of their D), and their preference for Lofton going deep.

Was a shame JJ faded so hard, I remember seeing some stuff after he retired leak out from the Packer's personnel guy claiming JJ wasn't in football shape after his holdout from SD, but who knows if that was just sour grapes about them giving up a 1st, two 2nds, and their KR/PR Thompson, and not getting good value back in the end.

That said, Jefferson, Joiner and Winslow were the first 1k receiving trio in that one unreal 1980 season when Fouts set the record (later broken by Marino) with 4700+ yards passing. Took almost a decade for it to happen again, with "the Posse", Art Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders for the 'Skins.

Still good trip down memory lane, that '80 season was a thing of beauty, and really evolved the game as HC Coryell and OC Gibbs were the first to really employ a single back set with any regularity, and the first to use a ton of motion - due to the introduction of the "Mel Blount" rule in '78, barring contact past 5 yards.

WHY NO NEW OFFENSIVE RUN PLAYS? THAT ALSO SHOULD BE CREATED