Donovan McNabb - Hall of Famer?

Warner will get in.

Anderson and Stabler are the two who seem to be mentioned the most often.

 

Stabler's alleged stunt in which Alabama cops tried to frame a Raiders reporter for cocaine possession when he visited to do a story, with the belief (denied by Stabler) that The Snake was part of the plan, is the likely reason he has been kept out of the Hall until this point. I don't know if that changes as the voting makeup changes, but there are a lot of guys in that room who were around the league in 1979.

Also you have to believe Al unloaded some deep dark stories to the committee too.

 

Plunkett's MVP effort (13-for-20, 251 yards, 3 TD's, no picks ) in Super Bowl XV is still, in terms of QB rating, the third-best game for quarterback in Super Bowl history. Only near-flawless games by Phil Simms and Joe Montana were better.

How would players like Plunkett, Anderson and Stabler have fared in today's era? In 1980, only two QB's -- Sipe and Fouts -- exceeded 4,000 yards. Last year, 12 guys did.

 

Plunkett was a journeyman plopped into one of the greatest collections of talent in the league.

He never threw for 3,000 yards -- in his best year, 1983, he ranked 13th in the league in passing yards and threw almost as many interceptions as touchdowns. Even as a supposed downfield bomber, he only ranked seventh in Y/A and 11th in Y/C that season. He also never played a full season with the Raiders.

He is a somewhat better and luckier version of Dilfer, and that's about it. Any suggestion that he is HOF-worthy is nonsense.

 

The only thing Plunkett has is the 8-2 playoff record. Part of the reason that record is so impressive is because his first eight seasons in the league produced zero playoff appearances. Dilfer was 5-1 in the postseason... He had more interceptions than touchdowns. He never made a Pro Bowl. He never led the league in anything.

He has two rings, a Super Bowl MVP and a Heisman... That will have to be enough for him.

 

Plunkett was also helped by Marcus Allen and a pretty stout defense.

 

And McNabb has no Heismans, No Rings, No MVPs, No POY, No Statistical Leaderships and at least as many players on his team liked and respected Terrell Owens as himself. He was never All Pro. Never threw for 4,000 yards in a season, never led the league in TDs, Yards passing, completion, completion percentage and he's behind David Garrard, Trent Green, Daunte Culpepper, Chad Pennington and Jeff Garcia in career QB rating.
McNabb is not close to being a Hall of Famer, in fact to even consider McNabb a Hall of Famer is to demean actual members of the Hall of Fame

 

I have no problem with Anderson, Stabler, Plunkett and McNabb being left out.

Warner is the one I really feel needs to be in the HOF.

 

I would throw Simms in there as a third, maybe even at the top of that group.
He had good stats for that era, even though the Giants had a reputation for being a ground-and-pound and defensive-oriented team. His stats are pretty comparable to Jim Kelly and Troy Aikman. Simms also has the one Super Bowl he gets credit for, and a second he doesn't get nearly enough for. I know he didn't play in the playoffs or Super Bowl in 1990, but the Giants started 10-0 and were 11-3 when he got hurt. Hostetler carried the baton across the finish line, but Simms helped put them in position to get there. He also played during a time when the NFC was absolutely loaded -- four of the top 10 teams from the Super Bowl era were NFC champions between 1984 and '89 -- so only winning one Super Bowl shouldn't be as much of a detriment as it is for other quarterbacks.
That Simms never seemed to get any mention as a serious HOF candidate is kind of baffling, to be honest.

 

Simms turned in what is arguably the greatest Super Bowl quarterbacking performance ever.

I don't know exactly what that's worth, but it's certainly worth more than he got.