By The Numbers: The Best #79 in NFL History

By The Numbers: The Best #79 in NFL History

by | Apr 20, 2020 | 70's, By the Numbers, Hall of Fame, NFL History

Almost eight years ago now we started this series, and apparently more than five years since our most recent, thanks to the COVID19 shut down that has us working at home, we’re going to try to get back into our By The Numbers series.

We’ve seen quite a few go down this path over the years—many just using a list of their opinions as way to drive pageviews–but our audience of Hall of Fame fanatics, combined with our non-traditional approach of bouncing around by picking numbers out of a hat leads to better content (in our opinion).

So, with the goal of getting us back to averaging more than one of our number posts per year, we finally get into the trenches with number 79.

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Is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer?

Is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer?

by | Apr 9, 2020 | Hall of Fame

We’ve done a fair number of “Is player xx a Hall of Famer” posts here – Eli Manning, Tony Romo, and Patrick Willis as a few examples – but somehow this one is one we never really considered that much. It first came across my Twitter feed last week, when I saw Lamar Jackson’s initial response to user Grantlong (@grantlonggg) asking if Michael Vick is a first ballot hall of famer…keeping in mind, I missed the “first ballot” part of that tweet the first several times reading that.

Lamar Jackson clearly is in the camp of “Yes” to that question:

I, on the other hand, am more in the camp of Reddit user LunchThreatener, who’s post reminded me of the tweet earlier this week, who thinks Vick isn’t even HOF worthy, much less first ballot.

Just looking at the stats–Vick played in 143 games, but started just 115, finishing with a 61-51-1 record. He finished with a 56.2% completion percentage, 22,464 yards, 133 touchdowns and 88 interceptions (a 2.7% INT rate).  He was named to 4 Pro Bowls, zero All-Pro teams, played in six playoff games, had 14 comebacks and led 15 game-winning drives.

A lot of people will say he revolutionized the position–and he started that process, but to me, the 56.2% completion percentage is the most glaring problem with that argument–when critics called Lamar Jackson a running back in disguise, they were more accurately describing Vick.  By comparison, Jackson finished his second season with a 66.1% completion percentage–a mark Vick never even came close to (career high was 62.6% in his 2010 resurgence with the Eagles). Jackson also finished with a 36:6 TD:INT ratio. If you project those numbers out for the length of Vick’s career, even accounting for Vick’s two year layoff, he would finish with 468 touchdowns (if he remained a full-time starter, which Vick couldn’t).

So Jackson is much more in line to be considered a revolutionary at the position (after Cam Newton bridged that gap, albeit with a different QB running style)–and personally I think that Vick will likely not make the cut in Canton.

What say you, Zoneblitz readers? Vote in the poll and leave your comments below.

Is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer?

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Photo by Matthew Straubmuller

Hall of Fame 2021 and Beyond

Hall of Fame 2021 and Beyond

by | Feb 27, 2020 | Hall of Fame

Well a year has passed and it has included plenty of anticipation and discussion over the Class of 2020 – with a special amount of focus associated with the Centennial Class. After years of debating over senior candidates and hoping for a larger group of said seniors to be elected, we finally got our wish. Yet the results were disappointing to many of us. We should reflect on the fact that 10 seniors (along with three contributors and two coaches) along with five modern-era candidates were elected in a class of 20 for 2020.

Last month has seen plenty of follow-up posts and comments about the results and even our first annual prediction contest! Thanks everyone for their continued input and posts in keeping the debates and discussion fresh and updated.

So, perhaps now is a time to move on to 2021 and the future. We know the next few years will again see deserving modern candidates, including some likely first-ballot selections, along with seniors, coaches and contributors worthy of consideration. What has yet to be determined (or officially announced) by the Hall is whether or not they will stick with the recent system under which they have rotated between one senior and two contributor candidates and vice versa.

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Hall of Fame 2021 and Beyond

Prediction 2020 — Who will make the Hall?

by | Jan 2, 2020 | 2020 season, Hall of Fame

With the announcement of the modern candidates today, we finally have a complete ballot of the finalists who will be voted on for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Now we can have the first-annual Zoneblitz.com PFHOF election prediction contest. The winner of said contest will be declared the Grand Champion and will be able to use that title for the next year when ever posting on this blog.

The contest involves predicting the class of 2020. The winner will be the person who predicts the highest number of those who will be enshrined out of 20. Only one “official prediction” allowed and, if there is a tie, the person with the most correct out of the 15-person centennial class will be declared the victor. All decisions by the judges (site moderators) are final.

Feel free to discuss and debate the candidates and your choices over next few weeks before we have the results (possibly early January for centennial class; evening of Saturday February 1st for the five modern finalists).  Contest results will be officially announced here the week of February 4th.  Deadline for predictions is 10:59 pm CST Monday January 6th — just in case the centennial class is announced next week, since no date for the announcement is currently known.

To refresh your memory, here are the finalists:

Modern (5 elected): Steve Atwater, Tony Boselli, Isaac Bruce, LeRoy Butler, Alan Faneca, Torry Holt, Steve Hutchinson, Edgerrin James, John Lynch, Sam Mills, Troy Polamula, Richard Seymour, Zach Thomas, Reggie Wayne, Bryant Young

Centennial Class:

Players (10 elected): Cliff Branch, Harold Carmichael, Jim Covert, Roger Craig, Bobby Dillon, LaVern Dilweg, Ox Emerson, Randy Gradishar, Cliff Harris, Winston Hill, Cecil Isbell, Alex Karras, Verne Lewellen, Tommy Nobis, Drew Pearson, Donnie Shell, Duke Slater, Mac Speedie, Ed Sprinkle, Al Wistert

Coaches (2 elected): Don Coryell, Bill Cowher, Tom Flores, Mike Holmgren, Jimmy Johnson, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Dick Vermeil

Contributors (3 elected): Bud Adams, Ralph Hay, Frank “Bucko” Kilroy, Art McNally, Art Modell, Clint Murchison, Steve Sabol, Seymour Siwoff, Paul Tagliabue, George Young

Good luck everyone.

Is Eli Manning a Hall of Famer?

Is Eli Manning a Hall of Famer?

by | Sep 26, 2019 | 2019 season, Hall of Fame



With Daniel Jones excelling last Sunday in his debut as the New York Giants starting quarterback, it likely cements – if there was any doubt – that Eli Manning’s days a the organization’s starter have ended.

And they’ve mostly been proud days. Manning has never been the best QB in the league, but he’s probably gone back-and-forth between the second- and third-tier at times, excelling, of course, twice on postseason runs that ended up with New York upsetting New England to win two of its Lombardi trophies.

The question, then, becomes does Eli follow in brother Peyton’s footsteps and try to find another team to hook up with at the end of his career for one or two more runs at postseason glory? Or does he decide that 16 seasons is enough. And, if he chooses the latter, will we be hearing from him again in five or 10 years as he prepares for a speech in Canton?

He’s a little bit of a tough one to assess. Does he have the counting stats? Perhaps. If he retired now, he’d do so as the seventh-ranked QB all-time in passing yardage, though barring injury, Philip Rivers likely will pass him up this season. (more…)