The Weight Game: There are some big boys in the NFL, but let’s take a look at some of the biggest boys in the NFL.
Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to the NFL, but it’s certainly a factor to consider.
While many players actually slimmed down to get in shape for the league, shedding the excess weight they carried into college or high school games, there were many top players whose size was their greatest asset.
Whether you play offense or defense, size matters, and the sight of a 350lb barrel heading at full speed can make even the toughest player quail.
Other players have gone down in history more for their impressive hitting than for their actual achievements on the field.
In recent years, the league has considered introducing a maximum weight limit for players, but so far it has not materialized, and 2020 still has many big guns on the benches.
The heaviest player in the NFL in 2020 currently wears the #77 jersey for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Brown, 27, weighs 380 pounds and stands a jaw-dropping six feet, eight inches, which puts him in the top five NFL heavyweights of all time.
Bestcasinosites.net summed it up with their list of the greatest players in history, and Brown is right up there holding his own alongside some serious contenders.
The Texas-born tight end played college football for Georgia Military College and the University of Florida, where he was the greatest offensive lineman since Max Starks in 2003, and since Starks was the greatest player to ever wear a Florida Gators jersey, says it something
Drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the seventh round of the 2015 draft, Brown joined the Patriots in 2018 and the Raiders the following season.
His $66 million contract with the latter, with $36.75 million guaranteed, makes Brown the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league and, according to experts, certainly one of the best.
Pound for pound, Brown is a match for The Refrigerator himself, the great William Perry, who thrilled football fans in the 1980s and ’90s.
But Brown has a good five inches in height on the ice, which at 6’3″ had greater width that made him very effective as a defensive lineman.
When Perry joined the Chicago Bears as a first round pick in 1985, he weighed 335lb.
Later that year, he became the heaviest player in league history to score a touchdown.
But when The Fridge started reaching his maximum playing weight of 380lb in the late 80s, many worried that for a player of his height this constituted life-threatening obesity, and pleaded with him to slim down.
However, in the last decade or so, it has become relatively common to see football players weighing more than 300 pounds.
It is true that players in the 21st century have generally gotten bigger and heavier.
Second to Trent Brown in 2020 is Zach Banner at 6’8″ and 360lb.
Currently with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the 26-year-old was nominated as an All-American twice while playing high school football.
Other heavyweights in 2020 include fellow Steeler Daniel McCullers (6′ 7″, 352lb), Damon Harrison (6’3″, 350lb) and at least nine players topping the 340lb mark, from Vita Vea (6’4″, 347lb) to Jordan Phillips (6′ 6″, 341lb).
But while the current year may have more than its fair share of sheer mass, we still have no one to compete with the true heavyweight giants of league history.
That leaves Aaron Gibson as the sole representative of the 400+ club and officially the heaviest player in NFL history at 410lb on a 6’6″ frame.
Gibson weighed 386 pounds when he joined the Detroit Lions in 1999, but hit 410 pounds in 2002 while playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
His career peaked in 2003 as a right tackle for the Chicago Bears, but after a stint with the Buffalo Bills, his NFL career ended after the 2006 season.
Gibson’s weight probably made him more injury prone than most, and he never really fulfilled his potential as a player.
Today the players are bigger than ever, but true giants of Gibson’s stature don’t come along too often.
People like Trent Brown, Zach Banner and Daniel McCullers are great players and are also massively built, and they know that staying in shape is more important than putting on the pounds for the sake of it.
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