Could LeBron James Have Been An NFL TE? (2 Viewers)

[JohnnyU]

Sure. Doesn't mean "everyone ignored it". 

Yep, I understood previously.

 

[Gally]

I thought it was a good comparison.  Both basketball players, neither playing football in college, both would be raw at the position.   Rico couldn't cut it.  Not to say that James wouldn't, but it's hard to make these kind of hypothetical what ifs, but it is fun to do so, I get it.

Except James and Gathers are not the same.  James has the work ethic and drive to become arguably one of the best few NBA players ever.  Gathers may have played basketball and transitioned late but he is not of the same calibur of athlete as James both mentally and physically.

Gathers was also was derailed by concussions his rookie season.  He had a good preseason and was developing well then got a concussion that put him on IR for most of the season. 

The only derailment, IMO, for James if he decided to go football over basketball in high school would have been injuries.  Those cannot be predicted and for the purposes of this exercise I think you have to base the evaluation of staying injury free because I think the purpose of this question is his overall ability not injury luck (since it cannot be predicted). 

 

[CalBear]

If you are an elite athlete at 6'8" or taller, there's a pretty good chance that you can make more money and have a longer career playing basketball than you could playing football. People like Tony Gonzalez, Julius Peppers, Jimmy Graham, and Antonio Gates had to choose football because they were not good enough to play in the NBA at their relatively low height.

Gonzo could have played in the NBA. He wouldn't have been a star but he could have had a real career as a power forward. 

The reverse is true of LeBron. He'd be a gimmick in the NFL.

 

[Slapdash]

I voted Average to Good. His pure athleticism and drive would be terrifying as a "move TE". His high basketball IQ makes me think he would be able to develop as a route runner. How would he be as a blocker? That I'm less sure of. And the great TEs always can also block otherwise it is very scheme  dependent to stay on the field.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

I voted Average to Good. His pure athleticism and drive would be terrifying as a "move TE". His high basketball IQ makes me think he would be able to develop as a route runner. How would he be as a blocker? That I'm less sure of. And the great TEs always can also block otherwise it is very scheme  dependent to stay on the field.

Unless they run 2 TE sets, and employ one chiefly as a blocker, but for offenses that run 1-TE sets, yeah - a purely “move” TE wouldn’t be very useful. 

but we’re assuming LeBron couldn’t learn to block.

based on his success in the NBA, and his success as a HS football player, I’m not sure that’s a fair assumption. 

they set screens in basketball too. It’s not as brutal, but they’re also not wearing pads, so...

 

[EBF]

Realistically, he'd probably be a WR and not a TE.

Gonzo/Gates/Graham/Peppers were all post players in basketball, like Karl Malone or Tim Duncan.

LeBron has the size of a post player, but the speed/quickness/explosiveness of a wing. He plays on the wing, not down low.

Split him out wide in football and most questions about blocking and physicality would be moot.

All he'd have to do is win in his routes and catch the ball.

I'm thinking it would be something like a 6'9" version of Terrell Owens, which is a terrifying thought. Corners already struggled with the power of people like Calvin and Owens. Scale it up to 6'9" 250 with no real loss of speed/quickness and it's a terrifying proposition for CBs to deal with.

 

[nysfl2]

I've seen panels that say they would definitely take Larry Bird over LaBron James.

I'm pretty confident that LaBron James would have made a better TE than Larry Bird