He won a few Fantasy Super Bowls that year!

Check out those 2001-2005 (Dick Vermeil + Trent Green + Preist Holmes / Larry Johnson) Chiefs teams again. They were Top 4 in Points and Yards (Official NFL Ranking, cumulative totals), plus Pass DVOA and Rush DVOA (Football Outsiders, a rate/efficiency stat) in 2002, 2003, and 2004 – and slipped to 6th in Points in 2005 (still Top 4 in all other categories). In 2008, the Falcons were 10th in Points, 6th in Yards, 4th in Pass DVOA and 19th in Rush DVOA – 2009 was decidedly middle-of-the-pack.

But he said “on paper”, so let’s break it down:

2010 Falcons – Position – 2003 Chiefs
Matt Ryan – QB – Trent Green
Michael Turner – HB – Priest Holmes
Ovie Mughelli – FB – Tony Richardson
Roddy White – WR1 – Eddie Kennison
Michael Jenkins – WR2 – Johnnie Morton
Harry Douglas – WR3 – Dante Hall
Tony Gonzalez (34) – TE – Tony Gonzalez (27)
Sam Baker – LT – Willie Roaf
Justin Blalock – LG – Brian Waters
Todd McClure – C – Casey Wiegmann
Harvey Dahl – RG – Will Shields
Tyson Clabo – RT – John Tait

At QB, I’ve gotta say Ryan. Heading into the 2003 season, Green wasn’t much more than a journeyman. His next 3 seasons destroy anything Ryan’s done so far, but at that point… Green hadn’t done it yet, either.

Running Backs: HB is Holmes. Not even close in my mind. He didn’t get hurt until 2004. In 2003, he was at the height of his powers. The FB has to be Richardson. I love Ovie as much as the next guy, but Richardson could do it all: very good blocker (blocked for more 1,000 yard rushers than NFL All-Decade Team FB Lorenzo Neal), had as many as 147 Runs in a single season (with a 4.7 average), and caught as many as 58 Passes in a single season.

Wide Receivers: Roddy is the easy pick. The raw numbers for WR2 are almost identical (50-700), but I’ll give Jenkins the nod because of his blocking (I have no idea whether Morton was a good blocker, though). We’ll call WR3 a wash. Dante Hall was never much of a pass catcher (though he had 40 Receptions in 2003), and I’m not going to count his Special Teams contributions.

Even though Tony G keeps himself in great shape, the 2003 version had to be better. Coming off 3 straight seasons over 12 Yards per Reception (in ’03). There.

Offensive Line: This is where his comments become laughable. Willie Roaf and Will Shields are better at their respective positions than anybody the Falcons have to offer (maybe if Roddy makes the Pro Bowl 8 more years in a row we’ll re-visit this). Brian Waters wasn’t quite Brian Waters yet (his first Pro Bowl was in 2004)… but I don’t think Blalock’s even going to be starting in 2011, so I gave him the nod. Tait and Clabo was a close call, but Tait was a former LT, who was selected in the First Round; Clabo is a former RG, who was undrafted. Tait wins. I could have given Center to the Chiefs as well, but I thought it was close enough to call a tie.

Looks like KC ’03 in a landslide to me…