by Tony | Apr 20, 2020 | Hall of Fame
Just a quick hitter here, on a player that I’m kind of surprised we didn’t write about earlier–possibly because his retirement came during one of our doldrums of writing, or possibly because we hadn’t even considered the topic worth of discussion…
As I was doing some writing for another Hall of Fame post that will hit in the next day or two, a tweet came across my phone screen–I think what I was seeing was a retweet, but I can’t seem to find it, so I’ll embed the original:
I saw that, and knew I wouldn’t have to dig very far in the comments to find people asking the same question I had–sure enough, right away:
Side note–I also saw a Tweet from an apparent Vikings fan claiming that the Chiefs still won the Jared Allen trade…they used the first round pick on Branden Albert, and one of the third round picks on Jamaal Charles…neither team won a Super Bowl with the picks. That might be worth a post all on its own.
Back to the question at hand–aside from the fact that if & when you are elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, you don’t choose which team you go in as, the question remains–will Jared Allen some day be on the stage in Canton donning the yellow jacket?
He played in 187 games over 13 years, amassing 136 sacks, 32 forced fumbles, 19 fumble recoveries, six interceptions, two defensive touchdowns, plus two touchdown receptions on his two career catches, for Kansas City. He led the NFL in sacks in two separate seasons, including a 22 sack season in 2011, and was named to five Pro Bowls, in addition to being named All-Pro four times. He will be eligible for election to the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2021.
Normally the sack totals would seem to indicate that he would be in–but in today’s NFL, with the increase in the passing game, it’s a good total, but is it really great? He’s 12th on the all-time list right now–the only three ahead of him on the list that aren’t in the Hall of Fame (Julius Peppers, Terrell Suggs and DeMarcus Ware) are also very possibly Canton bound. Of course, the first name behind him (with 133.5) is John Abraham, who is…not exactly what I think of when I think Hall of Fame. Behind him, tied with Lawrence Taylor, is Leslie O’Neal–another non-Hall of Famer.
So what says you, Zoneblitz readers–is Jared Allen a Hall of Famer?
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by Tony | 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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by Tony | 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.
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Photo by Matthew Straubmuller
by Paul L. | 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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by Andy | Jan 15, 2020 | Hall of Fame
We now know who the 15-person Centennial Slate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 will be.
Coaches-turned-broadcasters Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher were notified on air during last weekend’s broadcasts that they had made the Hall.
The rest of the slate was announced today. In addition to the two coaches, three contributors were named: (more…)
by Paul L. | 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.
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Yea it’s a mess and another example of how poor their PR and marketing often is
In addition to the process the Pro Football Hall of Fame has to fix how they run their website because…
I just started a Facebook group called Clint Murchison for Pro Football Hall of Fame
Paul I’ve emailed Rick Gosselin a lot of times about Clint Murchison
opps looks like Gosselin did make a case for him https://rickgosselin.com/state-your-case-clint-murchison/