2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalists

Gets pixelated at times but still worth the 3 minutes.

 

Seau is the only lock this year.

I suspect Harrison and Pace will get in as well, unless the voters figure Brown and Shields have waited long enough and vote them in instead.

I think Warner gets in this year as well. For whatever reason they don't seem to make quarterbacks wait.

 

I'd certainly be good with Roger Craig as a Hall of Famer. I think Terrell Davis should get in on the Gale Sayers plan.

 

That would probably be how I would vote.

 

The last time a QB made it this far was 2006. Aikman and Moon went on on the first try.
Marino and Young went in on the first try in 2005.
Elway went in on the first try in 2004.

Stabler was the last QB to be a finalist and not get in, his third try in 2003. But that is an exception to the rule because he was last a finalist in 1991 before that.

The last QB to make it to the final 15 on his first try and not get in was Ken Anderson in 1996. He was a finalist the next year and hasn't been back since.

 

Kelly went in on his first try as well.

 

I didn't keep going backwards because Stabler's last appearance was after Kelly in 2002.
Montana was first-ballot in 2000, Fouts was first-ballot in 1993, Bradshaw was first-ballot in 1989.

Since Bradshaw was elected, the only QBs to be finalists and not get in are Anderson (96 and 98) and Stabler (90, 91, 03).

The voters are very selective on even discussing QBs. I just see too many of them viewing Warner in an Anderson/Stabler mode than the guys they've elected -- Aikman, Moon, Young, Marino, Elway, Kelly, Montana, Fouts and Bradshaw -- over the past 25 years. I also don't think it helps Warner that Favre is up next time.

With the wait some of these guys have had to endure, I could see some thinking that if Favre goes next year, if Warner waits until 2017 or 2018 that's fine because there won't be any other quarterbacks in line until Peyton.

If you're in the room and know Seau has one of the five spots locked down, do you view Warner as a guy to get in over Tim Brown or Charles Haley, who have been finalists the last six years? Will Shields has been a finalist all four years -- does he have to wait again? With Owens and Moss up next year, do you put in both Brown and Harrison now so that Bruce and Holt are next in line to be discussed with Owens and Moss or are we back to the WR logjam that hindered things for so long?

 

Craig should be in the Hall of Fame. I agree with you there.

Atwater? There you lost me. Tremendous in run support and he could certainly make the big hit, but he always struck me as a liability as a pass defender.

 

Let's use that template to compare him to someone like Warner then. This might be apples to oranges and a poor comparison but maybe not.

Atwater was as you say "tremendous in run support" and we both agree he put a licking on ball-carriers, yet you say he didn't play the pass so well. And yet he had 24 picks, including 14 in the first 5 seasons in which his tackle totals were 129, 173, 150, 151, 141. He tapered off after that but that 5-year run is pretty goddamn good.

Warner was a God early and God'ly late in the sense he led Arizona to the Super Bowl, but was pedestrian and oft-injured during the middle years.

 

Warner put up some of the best seasons in NFL history. And his overall numbers are definitely in Hall of Fame territory (as I've said way too many times, statistically, he's Jim Kelly with a ring).

Steve Atwater was really good, perhaps even HOF good (I haven't really thought about him or checked the numbers), but he's no Kurt Warner.

 

I've posted this before, but the other quarterbacks besides Warner who have started three or more Super Bowls are Staubach, Griese, Tarkenton, Bradshaw, Montana, Aikman, Kelly, Elway. Brady and Peyton Manning. This list is enough for me to pick him.

 

8 Pro Bowls and All-Pro 1st Team by several standards for 6 straight years.

Just saying, How much more could he have done?


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