1983 Draft vs 1969 Draft

1983 Draft
QB	Dan Marino	John Elway
RB	Eric Dickerson	Roger Craig	Curt Warner	Johnny Hector
WR	Henry Ellard	Mark Clayton	SAnthony Carter	Willie Gault	Mervyn Fernandez	Ron Brown
TE	Jamie Williams	John Tice	Mike Mularkey
T	Jimbo Covert	Dave Lutz	Irv Eatman	Harvey Salem
G	Bruce Matthews	Chris Hinton	Mark Bortz
C	Jesse Sapolu	Don Mosebar
DE	Richard Dent	Charles Mann	Leonard Marshall	Greg Townsend
DT	Tim Krumrie	Bill Pickel	Mike Pitts	Mike Charles
ILB	Karl Mecklenburg	Riki Ellison	Mike Waler	Johnny Rembert
OLB	Darryl Talley	Mike Cofer	Billy Ray Smith	Mike Wilcher
CB	Darrell Green	Albert Lewis	Carl Lee	Gill Byrd	Lionel Washington
S	Joey Browner	Wes Hopkins	Dave Duerson	Terry Kinard
K	Ali Haji-Sheikh
P	Reggie Roby
LS	Adam Linger
Head Coach	Bill Parcells

The 1983 Draft is widely considered the greatest draft of all time. 7 Hall of Famers (6 in the first round) and 41 Pro Bowlers (every round has at least 1 pro bowler). The first round includes 4 quarterbacks that have played in the Super Bowl.

The offense would run out of a base 3 wide, single back set, but everything would run through Marino. The offense would be a wide-open passing game, hopefully opening things up for the occasional home run hit from Dickerson. The defense would run a base 4-3 Over Cover 3, with Browner playing in the box at SS. They have a great pass rush with Dent, Mann, and Krumrie. Green and Lewis lock things down on the outside. Bill Parcells takes the head coaching duties as 1983 was his first year as an NFL head coach.

1969 Draft
QB	Bobby Douglass	James Harris	Greg Cook
RB	OJ Simpson	Larry Brown	Calvin Hill	Ron Johnson	Mercury Morris
WR	Charlie Joiner	Gene Washington	Larry Walton	Ron Sellers	Don Herrmann
TE	Jim Mitchell	Bob Klein	Ted Kwalick
T	George Kunz	John Kolb	Rufus Mayes	Jim Yarbrough
G	Bob Kuechenberg	Ed White	George Buehler
C	Jeff Van Note	Jack Rudnay
DE	L.C. Greenwood	Bill Stanfill	Fred Dryer	John Zook	Sweeny Williams
DT	Joe Greene	Earl Edwards	Art Thomas	Bob Heinz
ILB	Bill Bergey	Harold McLinton	Jim Sniadecki
OLB	Ted Hendricks	Ron Pritchard	Bob Babich
CB	Roger Wehrli	Ken Riley	Jim Marsalis	Lloyd Mumphord	Rudy Redmond
S	Bill Thompson	Bill Bradley	Walt Sumner	Terry Brown	Leroy Keyes
K	Roy Gerela
P	Steve O'Neal
Returner	Carl Garrett
Head Coach	Chuck Noll

The 1969 Draft is a top 5 all-time draft class (Bleacher Report has it as the 2nd greatest draft class of all-time). 5 Hall of Famers (3 in the first round) and 28 Pro Bowlers.

This offense is all about running the football. I set the depth chart based off careers, so Bobby Douglass gets the start (if we’re talking one game in their prime, I would start Greg Cook). With Douglass at quarterback, the offense would run out of a base pistol offense (21 personnel) with Juice at the RB and Hill at the FB/H back. Brown would come in at RB on passing downs and to spell O.J. The offense would utilize an inside zone option offense, with most of the passing coming from RPOs. The defense would utilize a base 4-3 Under. The front 4 would lineup Stanfill at the SDE, Greene at the slanted 1, Dryer at the UT 3 tech, and Greenwood at the WSE. The LBs line up Hendricks at the Will, McLinton at the Mike, and Bergey at the Sam. The secondary would run a base Cover 2, with Thompson at the SS and Bradley at the FS. I excluded a long snapper from this roster because, on most rosters at this time, the long snapper was usually the backup center or a linebacker, so I went with a return specialist. Garrett takes the punt return duties and shares the kick return duties with Mercury Morris. Chuck Noll takes the reins as head coach with 1969 being his first season as an NFL head coach.

The Matchup

I ran 10 simulated matchups between these 2 rosters. Here are the averaged results with my interpretation of the resulting matchup.

Score
1969	1983
18	17
Time of Possession
34:21	25:39
Penalties
3	1

1983
Passing	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT
Dan Marino	16	24	215	2	2
Rushing	Att	Yards	Avg	TD
Eric Dickerson	19	75	3.9	0
Roger Craig	7	20	2.9	0
Dan Marino	2	2	1	0
Curt Warner	1	1	1	0
Receiving	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Mark Clayton	3	46	15.3	1
Henry Ellard	3	45	15	1
Anthony Carter	4	38	9.5	0
Roger Craig	2	24	12	0
Mervyn Fernandez	1	21	21	0
Jamie Williams	1	16	16	0
Eric Dickerson	1	15	15	0
Willie Gault	1	10	10	0
Defense	Sack	INT
Richard Dent	2
Darrell Green		1
Kicking	Made	Missed
Ali Haji-Sheikh	35
Punting	Punts	Avg
Reggie Roby	5	44.0
Returning	PR Avg	KR Avg
Ron Brown	14.3	22.1

 

1969
Passing	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT
Bobby Douglass	8	15	106	0	1
Rushing	Att	Yards	Avg	TD
O.J. Simpson	21	100	4.8	1
Larry Brown	13	53	4.1	0
Bobby Douglass	10	46	4.6	1
Calvin Hill	1	6	6	0
Receiving	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Gene Washington	3	50	16.7	0
Charlie Joiner	3	33	11	0
Larry Brown	1	13	13	0
Jim Mitchell	1	10	10	0
Defense	Sack	INT
Joe Greene	1
Bill Bradley		1
Bill Thompson		1
Kicking	Made	Missed	Missed XP
Roy Gerela	32, 45	51	1
Punting	Punts	Avg
Steve O'Neal	5	42.5
Returning	PR Avg	KR Avg
Carl Garrett	9.6	19.1
Mercury Morris		23.3

The ’69 team dominated time of possession, keeping the ’83 offense off the field as much as possible. Combine that with the 2 picks by Marino, and the ’69 team pulls out the slim victory. Juice rushes for 100 with Brown and Douglass combining for another 100. Douglass was able to avoid too many mistakes in the passing game and make a few plays down the field when they needed them to. An early missed extra point led to the ‘69 team going for 2 (and failing) in the final minutes, after taking the lead 18-17 on a Bobby Douglass midline option touchdown. Marino started to lead the comeback in the final two minutes, but was ultimately picked off by Bill Thompson trying to hit Henry Ellard on a deep dig route over the middle.