Matt Ryan: Hall of Famer?

I don't think you can say Eli and Rivers are no-doubt first ballot. They'll get in, but they have holes in their resume.

 

Maybe on Rivers.

Eli has the rings, which people care about. Entering the season he is 6th in completions, 7th in yardage and eighth in TD passes all-time. He is going to go in right away

 

Passer rating is a very flawed statistic on a very basic level. The math is very sketchy, from arbitrary upper and lower limits to equal weighting of different stats without any mathematical support.
From what I can understand from the internet, passer rating was based on average passing stats for some time in the 1960's or 1970's. A QB's completion %, yards per attempt, etc are compared to those base levels. But those 'league average' numbers haven't been updated in the passer rating formula. As the league averages for completion percentage and TD/INT ratio went up, the individual QBs passer rating went up just because the baseline for passer rating was no longer the average QB performance.

The average passer rating is now near or past 90. It was initially around 67.

The whole concept that a QB's contribution can be reduced to a number like 90.5 is absurd. Not that statistical measurement is impossible or that the eye test is all that matters, but the creation of a number from a bunch of unrelated numbers, which ultimately doesn't refer or correlate to on field production is a problem. Passer rating and other similar stats should be understood for what they are, crude relative measures of performances.

2018 Era-Adjusted Passer Ratings

 

Was he ever a better QB than rivers? Romo?

 

Classes down the road will look the same -- the usual five modern candidates remain the same as part of the class of 20.

 

Passer rating is problematic, but Plunkett's numbers still aren't nearly good enough for the Hall of Fame. He completed just 52.5 percent of his passes. He threw 198 interceptions and 164 touchdowns and he started 144 games.

Manning has thrown 360 touchdown passes and 239 interceptions while starting 230 games.

Of course, the eras they played in make a difference, but you shouldn't lump Plunkett in with quarterbacks of the '60s and '70s. The dividing line should be 1978, when they league instituted the Mel Blount rule and other changes to open up the passing game. The entire good part of Plunkett's career came after 1978. In fact it was in the 1980s. He didn't play at all in '78 and only attempted 15 passes for the Raiders in '79.

 

I know it is apples and oranges, but the same folks that think Harold Baines is a hall of famer.

It’s shit, but not far-fetched.

 

We are most def. NOT in the golden age of great QBs.

 

The problem is also that Matt Ryan's career is not a finished product -- he's under contract for five more seasons. He could get to 70,000 yards and 425 TDs and win a Super Bowl. He at least has the foundation for a Hall of Fame discussion. This isn't Matt Stafford we're trying to shoehorn into Canton

 

Why the hell is Rivers a first-ballot HOFer? His team has had plenty of irrelevant seasons, and he has never won a game of truly large significance.

 

He enters this season ranked 8th all-time in yards and 6th all-time in TD passes.
His 10 most-similar comps are Elway, Marino, Montana, Ryan!!!!, Tarkenton, Favre, Anderson, Rodgers, Brees and Moon. That's seven in the Hall, two more going once they retire, another many think should be in and the subject of this thread