1983 NFL week 1 

It really was !!

Yeah it really was !! Quarterbacks throwing less than 50%. If you caught 60 balls that was alot and yeah scores like 10-7 happened every week.

Absolutely! They were both totally exciting to watch but equally frustrating because you knew that their opponent was always still in the game.

Yes, it was already a struggle for Green Bay's defense in previous seasons to hold up even with DE#77 Mike Butler from 1977-'82), who by this time had defected to the USFL. That left #90 Ezra Johnson as their only formidable pass-rusher on their Defensive Line. @0:19, it is barely seen on the lower right side of the screen but Eddie Lee Ivery takes care of Houston's blitzing Dr.Doom Brazille #52 and thus helped with TD pass to the sneaky-quick Cauffman. @0:52, JJ Jefferson was ideal for the redzone because of him being so used to running the short range patterns in traffic in Green Bay's offense. @1:00, though Green Bay's LBs were quite formidable on the outside (with #53 Mike Douglass and #59 John Anderson), inside LB#52 George Cumby belonged on the outside but there was no room for him out there. At inside LB neither George Cumby nor #55 Randy Scott would take blockers head on because neither weighed much more than 220 pounds. @1:00 and again @1:09, again #52 George Cumby fails to shut down inside running lane. George Cumby had talent (he had the ability to run like a safety and flow to the football), but it was outside LB talent, not inside LB talent. @1:25-35, James Lofton was bigger and faster than JJ, and really benefitted from JJ's role of doing all the dirty work as in 1983, as James Lofton averaged a league-best 22.4 yards per catch and gained exactly 1,300 receiving yards.

The good ole days !!

…the dual purpose stadium, discussed by Steve Sabol on Lost Treasures Volume 3. He may have called it something like “that other 1970s bad taste, the dual purpose stadium.”

Wondering if FGKs preferred or opposed having to attempt FGs on any part of a baseball diamond. I guess there a 1950s Chicago Cardinal story of a FGK actually missing the kick while inadvertentantly kicking apiece of sod through and over the goal post and actually getting credit for the kick being “good”.

@Marie Pavlov We did not know then that Dick Vermeil and Frank Glieber would become CBS’ B team that season

Dickerson debut

@Superlungs HUH???? Redskins made the SB. Not a huge meltdown that year, just in the end.

Redskin CB#32 Vernon Dean, who had a very good 1982 season as a part of the SB champs, never recovered in 1983 after that 1983 opening MNF game vs Dallas when Washington & specifically Vernon Dean gave up that 23-3 halftime lead.

and in this Colts last season in Baltimore, rookie LB#56 Vernon Maxwell set out to make it a good one. @11:25-28, who is going to buy that bare-handed play-action fake by Grogan? Maxwell wasn't. @12:16-20, Maxwell won the game in this his first NFL game. As a rookie, throughout 1983, Maxwell showed he was a big-play machine from Arizona State with tremendous upfield explosion (11 sacks), sideline-to-sideline speed (3rd leading tackler)jarring ability as a hitter (six fumbles caused) and the athletic skills to stand out as a pass-defender (six passes broken up). His one weakness that rookie year in 1983 was he got out of control and played his own defense at times. The next year in Indianapolis, Maxwell got his share of sacks (8 1/2), but while Maxwell remained the colts' most naturally gifted LB, his progress in 1984 would be stunted by attitude problems, to the point where the Colts could not even move him on 1985 Draft Day, not even to the LA Raiders! This was after it was said that the Raiders coveted his services, so it was obvious Maxwell's problems went deeper than playing his own defense at times. By the time of the 1985 NFL season, Maxwell was off to Detroit instead, and in 1986 was playing inside LB for them where he started 15 of 16 games (Detroit was already quite good at outside LB with #55 Mike Cofer and #59 Jimmy Williams at the time). But Maxwell didn't have the size nor the toughness to take blockers on from the inside, where opponents decimated Detroit's run-defense. Maxwell remained a quick and superior athlete who perhaps just needed a big run-stuffer next to him and in front of him at DT and he could have maybe been successful on the inside. But Maxwell still remained an unpredictable player and always more suitable to the outside, where in 1987 he backed up Cofer and Williams. Vernon Maxwell always had rare quickness for a 235-pound man during the 1980s, but even as late as 1987, still had a penchant for playing out of control. He finished out his NFL career in 1989 in Seattle, starting 7 of 9 games he played in (by then Seattle knew Bosworth’s shoulder had doomed him).

Boy it was rough on me. I was 11 and my Dad scolded me for crying over a football game

OMG that is so funny !! My first year watching football was 1980. And I started off as a huge Cowboys fan !! I remember crying after the " catch " and being explained how it was just a game. Im from Boston and a huge Celtics fan - and when I was younger I was such a poor sport and if the Celtics lost I would throw shit and even spit at the TV. I spit on Larry Bird !! WTF !! But my parents would ground me for the night cause I couldn't handle my behavior and emotions !! I look back now and that was some pretty good parenting I will say !! I remember my mom saying " until you can learn to watch sports without putting a hole in the wall your not watching sports " My behavior changed cause I could not be without my sports !!!

​@@bryanburnap4537perhaps I needed that lesson from my parents as well...way too many times I cried after losses by my beloved St. Louis Football Cardinals in those days lol.

@@tahart27 We sound very much alike :)

Lol!

Or before White owners and coaches got their teams taken away or fire over messing with underage girls and texting Racists comments (Jerry Richardson, Daniel Synder, Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones and Chucky former Coach of the Raiders.) Can we say MeTooMovement)

Who said black and Hispanic coaches coddled players? Black coaches at a black school made the greatest running back of all time - Walter Payton. Black coaches at a black school made the greatest wide receiver of all time - Jerry Rice. Some of the toughest great players in history came from black schools with black coaches: Mel Blount, Willie Lanier, Deacon Jones, Art Shell (who became a NFL head coach), Willie Brown, Marion Motley, Richard Dent, Rayfield Wright, Micheal Strahan

@@aldfjak That is inaccurate, racist and not funny

@16:17, from 1978-'85 Atlanta WR#85 Alfred Jackson was big-play clutch with his hands & concentration, but didn't start a single game from 1978-'81 because of how much Atlanta's WRs were high-end those seasons. @16:34-35, #84 Alfred Jenkins looked like a little leaguer but produced bigger than 99% of the big leaguers. Jenkins stood at 5'8" but played much taller than that because of his leaping ability and excellent judgement playing the football in flight. Alfred Jenkins had the knack for speeding up or slowing down- whatever it took to get underneath a pass from Falcon Bombarder Bartkowski. Alfred Jenkins was smart and a tough competitor who would catch the football anywhere including in traffic.

...and QB Lynn Dickey was always spreading the wealth, instead of locking on to any particular pass-catcher. This 1983 season, Lofton ended up with 58 catches, JJ had 57, and Coffman caught 54, as QB Lynn Dickey's teammates both feared and respected him due to his strong leadership. Even in this his 13th NFL season, Sharpshooter Lynn Dickey's arm remained live and could throw any type of pass well, and hard or with soft touch, and he had an uncanny feel and awareness for reading defenses, and uncanny accuracy on the homerun ball.

@@plntntvzn Dickey's career was enhanced with the addition of pass-catching FB Gerry Ellis who was a well-rounded backfield runner

That 3-6 record in 1982 followed by this Opening Saturday loss to Philadelphia, well, things didn't feel all that bleak. All the losses were so close. 49ers lost this game with problems at ILB on defense but afterwards Coach Walsh was encouraged by the 49ers' pass-rush that was missing in 1982.

@3:41-49, that saying ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join’ em,’ it was almost as though that was modified to ‘if you can’t stop him or contain him, then acquire him.’ Wendell Tyler scored atleast one TD against the 49ers in four consecutive games against them and in three of those four games, it was a TD catch. A RB being a receiving threat would obviously get the attention of the 49ers in the 1983 off-season.Wendell Tyler was an instinctive, cutback runner with excellent speed. He ran low to the ground and was hard to knock off balance. @3:43, it helped that Eagles #56 Jerry Robinson (a natural outside LB) was placed (misplaced) at inside LB in 1983 because of the retirement of Frank LeMaster, so Robinson was out of his element. Also helping @3:38-41 was 49er LG#68 John Ayers with his low center of gravity and heavy legs who could always block well on-the-move, despite this after 1983 off-season knee surgery. Also blocking @2:38 was 49er rookie 223-pound RB Roger Craig taking care of 275-pound Eagle DE#68 Dennis Harrison. Still, both new 49er RBs,Tyler and Craig fumbled seven and six times during this season respectively, and each fumbled once in this game, and each fumble was quite costly. @3:57-4:13, 49er DE#74 Fred Dean lined up everywhere in 1983. Dean had great quickness off the ball, speed, and surprising strength for a 235-pounder to not only make plays against the run but as 1983 49ers yearbook narration put it,"with his NFC-high 17 1/2 sacks, Dean got maximum results, in a minimum amount of playing time." @4:08-13, the Eagle that Dean was going up against was a quite formidable pass-blocker in LT#75 Stan Walters. But what should be noted on that sack was the inside heat from 49er DT#65 Lawrence Pillers, a tough, physical who loved to mix it up, though he never mixed in any moves, strictly a bull-rusher, taking on another formidable Eagle pass-blocker in Center #50 Guy Morris.But @4:19-23, whenever Pillers got a breather on the sidelines, there were no other inside pass-rushers the 49ers had (not until 1984 when Michael Carter was drafted and Gary 'Big Hands' Johnson were acquired). @4:19-23, 49er DT#67 Pete Kugler was a run-defender and not a pass-rusher. Eagle RG#63 Ron Baker doesn't even have to help out Morris with pass-blocking of Kugler and Eagle TD pass is the result. But @4:29-33, long 49er TD pass results after the Eagle pass-rush failed on their stunt attempt and who failed was eagle DE#98 Greg Brown. Now the Greg Brown success story should be noted in that from 1981-'86, the undrafted ex-construction worker Greg Brown accomplished alot in being among the NFL's sack leaders during that span, earning him a hefty contract from owner Leonard Tose right before Tose sold out. Brown was not really worth anything as a run-defender and @4:29-33, he was way too slow off the snap, so when he tangled up the blockers, it was too much in the way of teammate #68 Dennis Harrison that Harrison had to go around and had too much ground to cover, and long 49er TD pass resulted. #98DE Greg Brown needed to charge immediately off the snap there and charge hard at an angle to tie up the blockers while freeing up a more clear path for Harrison to the QB, and Greg Brown didn't do that. For instance, on this same video @6:59-7:01, what Detroit DE#79 William Gay did in freeing up a straight clear path for teammate Doug English for the sack @7:03, now that's how you run a stunt. But then back to here @4:51-53, that 6'8" Eagle DE#68 Dennis Harrison's long reach forces the fumble. Surprisingly, Harrison, like Brown, was never really much of a run-defender, or atleast not what he should have been considering his size. So whereas Eagle DE#98 Greg Brown was an overachiever, #68 Dennis Harrison was an underachiever and that fumble he caused @4:53 was a glimpse of what he could have been as a run-defender, had he played a more physical style of game, and been more ferocious. As a rule, Dennis Harrison had a tendency to stand up and make himself an easy target on lots of running plays.Pause it @5:12 very carefully and you can see that Eagle DT#78 'CONSTANT' Hairston won the game for them because he was so quick off the snap @5:12-13, that it forced Randy Cross to hold him and the ref was forced to call holding penalty, forcing the 49ers to lose. This was on a Saturday, so five days later, the 49ers would turn everything around while by week 7 the Eagles would begin to fall apart.

@@plntntvzn The thing is, the Eagles were fairly respectable from 1982-87 (when they were in the wilderness between playoff runs). In 1985 and 87, they were in contention for the playoffs into December (and they were 7-5 in non-strike games in 87, with wins over the Saints and Redskins).

@3:22, Kramer would have been better off putting as much effort into the play-action fake as he did that attempt at blocking Bob Golic. But there were alot more strengths to Kramer's game than there were weaknesses, and he did have a feisty makeup. There were plenty of good QBs seen here on this video making sorry attempts at unconvincing play-action fakes (@9:17, @11:26, and @17:30). Tommy Kramer was a never-say-die competitor and (much like at this time Cowboy CB#32 Dennis Thurman) had the guts of a burglar.

@8:51-9:06, Ram DE#85 Jack Youngblood (who eventually set a franchise record by playing in 200 consecutive games, and whose run-defense was surprisingly good for someone 242 pounds, thanks in part to being so alert that he would react to any play, run or pass, as though he was plugged into the opposing team's gameplan) was using toughness as much as anything to continue to be a force in this his 13th NFL season. Even in his twilight years, Jack Youngblood could still bring the pass-rush heat with his guts and guile and physical conditioning. @9:22-41, I still wonder if what happened to (former Houston Oiler) Mike Barber's knee from Mike Wagner in the 1978 AFC Title game prevented Mike Barber from being as great an all-around TE that has ever been in NFL history. The always sure-handed Mike Barber who did have deep speed in the late 1970s, was the greatest run-blocker Earl Campbell had (as those late 1970s Oiler Offensive Lines were way better at pass-blocking than run-blocking), and Mike Barber was one of the top-three greatest run-blockers that Eric Dickerson had while ED was on the Rams (the other two top Ram run-blockers were Ram Guard #60 'Hercules' Harrah, as the rest of the Rams' Offensive Line at this time were pass-blocking specialists and that includes the legendary Jackie Slater #78, and even #72 Kent Hill's drive-blocking was the weakest part of his game).So the other of the top-three Ram run-blockers at this time (in addition to Mike Barber and #60 'Hercules Harrah') was the other Ram TE at this time, #81 (former Detroit Lion) Eddie Hill who blocked as though he were an Offensive Tackle. Oh what might have been for Mike Barber and Eddie Hill (had Hill kept his weight in check). both were smart players with sure hands, and both #86 Mike Barber and #81 Eddie Hill can be seen on "1978 NFL Season in Review" the 37:31 version, and they can be seen @4:10-28 in that video.

@6:00 I can't really blame Elway for the INT because he is not at fault that his teammate and legendary return man 'Ricochet' Upchurch was an undependable WR and no match for Donnie Shell's savvy reading ability and great anticipation to get himself to footballs in flight

@@plntntvzn yes . Dan Reeves pulled Elway out of the game in the 2nd half

@6:13-16, the one thing that DeBerg did so well was carrying out play-action fakes (which really showed up when he was QB in Kanas City in the 1989-'91 seasons). Look around on this video and @3:22,@9:17, @11:26, and @17:30, you see pretty good QBs making not-so-good play-action fakes. @6:13-16, that's how you carry out the play-action fake, and it helped that Denver RB#34 Nathan Poole really carried out the fake on his part

@@zcam1969 Right after Elway retired 25 years ago, they did a film on his career and he recalled this first game at Pittsburgh. Elway said that when he saw Count Dracula Lambert standing and looking at him from across the line of scrimmage, Elway said he felt as though he wanted to just give all the money back to Denver, and he would just go become an accountant somewhere.

@@plntntvzn Lambert was a Mensing figure

Now that you mention it, I do remember that 1989 game at San Diego... interesting that Joe Walton coaching career with Jets went full circle as such. In his first year as coach of the Jets in 1983, more was expected of Walton, as he did not seem to handle adversity any better than who he replaced, the volatile Walt Michaels. The reason more was expected of Walton was because he was credited with turning Richard Todd into a quality QB after arriving from Washington in the 1981 offseason, which means that he was credited where credit was not due, because Todd did not turn into a quality QB. Sure, Walton was a stabilizing force in 1982 during some of Walt Michael's turbulence. As Jets head coach from 1983-'89, Walton was a creative, fertile mind who sometimes seemed to have trouble communicating with his players. Walton seemed to be constantly putting out personality brush-fires and the Jets front office (against all logic) refused to hire a general manager with expertise to evaluate Walton's performances. Instead the Jets were run by a vaguely defined committee of four: Walton, and the team's president, and the two personnel directors, as it became too easy to pass the buck for drafting mistakes. Walton eventually moved on to fail miserably as Pittsburgh's Offensive Coordinator in 1990-'91.

@@plntntvzn I was just going to bring up his time in Pittsburgh. Firing Tom Moore and hiring Walton (who decided to re-write the playbook and create his own offense so he could get another HC job) was a big mistake. They had momentum with Moore and Brister, and they needed to keep that up.

@@jab1289 The consistency of Merril Hoge and the emergence of Tim Worley late in the 1989 season propelled Pittsburgh into the playoffs and almost carried the Steelers into the AFC title game. Brister ran his course in Pittsburgh departing after 1992

Hello, pardon me, but perhaps the one thing that the short highlights of that Raider-Bengal game may have accurately reflected was how the 1983 Raider defense would lead them to another Super Bowl championship. @17:14-18, it was now a complete Defensive line, surrounding Anderson for the sack. Howie Long (with 13 sacks and the SB champs' leading tackler for that season) began lifting weights for the first time in 1983 offseason because it was his first offseason with Lyle Alzado as a teammate for the entire offseason. After how good Howie Long played this 1983 season, in future years opposing offenses would immediately begin to move away from Howie Long's side of the field as much as possible, or atleast they would attempt to do so. eventually Howie Long would line up at every Defensive Line spot throughout a game, and he would NEVER wear down late in games, or late in seasons, actually quite the opposite. @17:11-17, Raider rookie DE#93 Greg Townsend showing in his first NFL game that he was an undersized Fred Dean-type who could get upfield in a hurry, storming his way to 10 1/2 sacks during the regular season and adding another 4 1/2 in the playoffs. Townsend could really blow upfield in a flash. @17:29-38, there was always method to Lyle Alzado's madness, and that helped Alzado be atleast as great as a run-defender as he was as a pass-rusher. He was difficult to move off the line and at this time the 34-year old Alzado was fresh off being named NFL's 1982 Comeback Player-of-the Year. The methods to his madness included a variety of moves as Alzado would either beat his blocker flat-out, or get into his ribs, or "swim" by after caving the blocker in with an outside slap (he likely learned that from his 1971 rookie season in Denver from then teammate #87 Tombstone Jackson). Also seen here is even on Cincinnati's oh by the way TD, you can see @17:43-54, raider rookie DT#71 Bill Pickel doing what he had to do to atleast tip the pass, which obviously in the future, would way more often than not, end up being a good play for the Raider defense. Tipped passes are more than usually a good thing for a defense needless to say, and in 1983 and even especially @17:43-54, Raider rookie DT#71 Bill Pickel showed in his first NFL game, his aggressive power-rushing skills which were hard for most Offensive Linemen to stop, because he was so quick with it. As a run-defender, while Bill Pickel did not have a classic Nose Tackle frame, Pickel would still control blockers and stack the run.

@@plntntvzn The D-line was one reason that the 83 Raiders were better than the 82 squad (which should have went 5-4). Adding Mike Haynes was another reason.

I did notice that and thought, "here we go again Deberg." on 1980 49ers video yearbook, John Facenda said that an amplified backpack made Steve DeBerg the NFL's first stereophonic QB." Then @6:13-16, the one thing that DeBerg did so well was carrying out play-action fakes (which really showed up when he was QB in Kanas City in the 1989-'91 seasons). Look around on this video and @3:22,@9:17, @11:26, and @17:30, you see pretty good QBs making not-so-good play-action fakes. @6:13-16, that's how you carry out the play-action fake, and it helped that Denver RB#34 Nathan Poole really carried out the fake on his part. Obviously this was an important game as far as NFL history because it was Elway's first game, and @6:00 I can't really blame Elway for the INT because he is not at fault that his teammate and legendary return man 'Ricochet' Upchurch was an undependable WR and no match for Donnie Shell's savvy reading ability and great anticipation to get himself to footballs in flight.

@6:00 I can't really blame Elway for the INT because he is not at fault that his teammate and legendary return man 'Ricochet' Upchurch was an undependable WR and no match for Donnie Shell's savvy reading ability and great anticipation to get himself to footballs in flight.

@@plntntvzn Agreed. I watched that game again, and he was close on those passes. He had heavy pressure during that game.

Think now it be millions . And lettting a prime quarterback go like Brady or Manning go after their 4th year

With one of the weirdest final scores in NFL history... 11-0.

All cause he wanted save literally 2k$ lol

That wouldn’t fly these days

@3:41-49, that saying ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join’ em,’ it was almost as though that was modified to ‘if you can’t stop him or contain him, then acquire him.’ Wendell Tyler scored atleast one TD against the 49ers in four consecutive games against them and in three of those four games, it was a TD catch. A RB being a receiving threat would obviously get the attention of the 49ers in the 1983 off-season.Wendell Tyler was an instinctive, cutback runner with excellent speed. He ran low to the ground and was hard to knock off balance. @3:43, it helped that Eagles #56 Jerry Robinson (a natural outside LB) was placed (misplaced) at inside LB in 1983 because of the retirement of Frank LeMaster, so Robinson was out of his element. Also helping @3:38-41 was 49er LG#68 John Ayers with his low center of gravity and heavy legs who could always block well on-the-move, despite this after 1983 off-season knee surgery. Also blocking @2:38 was 49er rookie 223-pound RB Roger Craig taking care of 275-pound Eagle DE#68 Dennis Harrison. Still, both new 49er RBs,Tyler and Craig fumbled seven and six times during this season respectively, and each fumbled once in this game, and each fumble was quite costly. @3:57-4:13, 49er DE#74 Fred Dean lined up everywhere in 1983. Dean had great quickness off the ball, speed, and surprising strength for a 235-pounder to not only make plays against the run but as 1983 49ers yearbook narration put it,"with his NFC-high 17 1/2 sacks, Dean got maximum results, in a minimum amount of playing time." @4:08-13, the Eagle that Dean was going up against was a quite formidable pass-blocker in LT#75 Stan Walters. But what should be noted on that sack was the inside heat from 49er DT#65 Lawrence Pillers, a tough, physical who loved to mix it up, though he never mixed in any moves, strictly a bull-rusher, taking on another formidable Eagle pass-blocker in Center #50 Guy Morris.But @4:19-23, whenever Pillers got a breather on the sidelines, there were no other inside pass-rushers the 49ers had (not until 1984 when Michael Carter was drafted and Gary 'Big Hands' Johnson were acquired). @4:19-23, 49er DT#67 Pete Kugler was a run-defender and not a pass-rusher. Eagle RG#63 Ron Baker doesn't even have to help out Morris with pass-blocking of Kugler and Eagle TD pass is the result. But @4:29-33, long 49er TD pass results after the Eagle pass-rush failed on their stunt attempt and who failed was eagle DE#98 Greg Brown. Now the Greg Brown success story should be noted in that from 1981-'86, the undrafted ex-construction worker Greg Brown accomplished alot in being among the NFL's sack leaders during that span, earning him a hefty contract from owner Leonard Tose right before Tose sold out. Brown was not really worth anything as a run-defender and @4:29-33, he was way too slow off the snap, so when he tangled up the blockers, it was too much in the way of teammate #68 Dennis Harrison that Harrison had to go around and had too much ground to cover, and long 49er TD pass resulted. #98DE Greg Brown needed to charge immediately off the snap there and charge hard at an angle to tie up the blockers while freeing up a more clear path for Harrison to the QB, and Greg Brown didn't do that. For instance, on this same video @6:59-7:01, what Detroit DE#79 William Gay did in freeing up a straight clear path for teammate Doug English for the sack @7:03, now that's how you run a stunt. But then back to here @4:51-53, that 6'8" Eagle DE#68 Dennis Harrison's long reach forces the fumble. Surprisingly, Harrison, like Brown, was never really much of a run-defender, or atleast not what he should have been considering his size. So whereas Eagle DE#98 Greg Brown was an overachiever, #68 Dennis Harrison was an underachiever and that fumble he caused @4:53 was a glimpse of what he could have been as a run-defender, had he played a more physical style of game, and been more ferocious. As a rule, Dennis Harrison had a tendency to stand up and make himself an easy target on lots of running plays.Pause it @5:12 very carefully and you can see that Eagle DT#78 'CONSTANT' Hairston won the game for them because he was so quick off the snap @5:12-13, that it forced Randy Cross to hold him and the ref was forced to call holding penalty, forcing the 49ers to lose. This was on a Saturday, so five days later, the 49ers would turn everything around while by week 7 the Eagles would begin to fall apart.

...and in this Colts last season in Baltimore, rookie LB#56 Vernon Maxwell set out to make it a good one. @11:25-28, who is going to buy that bare-handed play-action fake by Grogan? Maxwell wasn't. @12:16-20, Maxwell won the game in this his first NFL game. As a rookie, throughout 1983, Maxwell showed he was a big-play machine from Arizona State with tremendous upfield explosion (11 sacks), sideline-to-sideline speed (3rd leading tackler)jarring ability as a hitter (six fumbles caused) and the athletic skills to stand out as a pass-defender (six passes broken up). His one weakness that rookie year in 1983 was he got out of control and played his own defense at times. The next year in Indianapolis, Maxwell got his share of sacks (8 1/2), but while Maxwell remained the colts' most naturally gifted LB, his progress in 1984 would be stunted by attitude problems, to the point where the Colts could not even move him on 1985 Draft Day, not even to the LA Raiders! This was after it was said that the Raiders coveted his services, so it was obvious Maxwell's problems went deeper than playing his own defense at times. By the time of the 1985 NFL season, Maxwell was off to Detroit instead, and in 1986 was playing inside LB for them where he started 15 of 16 games (Detroit was already quite good at outside LB with #55 Mike Cofer and #59 Jimmy Williams at the time). But Maxwell didn't have the size nor the toughness to take blockers on from the inside, where opponents decimated Detroit's run-defense. Maxwell remained a quick and superior athlete who perhaps just needed a big run-stuffer next to him and in front of him at DT and he could have maybe been successful on the inside. But Maxwell still remained an unpredictable player and always more suitable to the outside, where in 1987 he backed up Cofer and Williams. Vernon Maxwell always had rare quickness for a 235-pound man during the 1980s, but even as late as 1987, still had a penchant for playing out of control. He finished out his NFL career in 1989 in Seattle, starting 7 of 9 games he played in (by then Seattle knew Bosworth wasn't the answer).