Julian Edelman Tries to get in The Hall of Fame
Julian Edelman is calling it quits. He failed his physical with the Patriots, got released, and decided that was a good time to hang it up. Not a bad decision, probably for the best. He has no reason to chase rings at this point so why not hang it up and party? He’s a Patriots legend for sure. He owns one of the best catches in super bowl history and was a staple of the second Brady decade. Dude was a nobody when he came in and carved out a small space in history. He should be content with his story, I would be. Best of luck to the man. I hate the Pats, but do not hate the man. Jules seemed like a decent guy.
Of course, since we live in an age of content and takes, we can’t just wish the guy well. We can’t just look at Julian Edelman and go “yeah, he had a good run, he did some cool shit, good for him. Have a nice life post-football my man, watch out for CTE and all that”. No. Now we have to essentially waste everyone’s time and debate his hall of fame merits. Seriously. Almost immediately all the major sports outlets posed the question on if he’s a hall of famer and the debate began.
Well, some debate. From what I saw, it was mostly two camps. Patriots fans loudly and proudly trying to convince everyone that his case wasn’t a joke, and pretty much everyone else, who casually dismissed his case as a joke. I was, unsurprisingly, in the latter camp. I assume most of you reading this will also be in the latter camp. In the interest of giving his argument a fair shot, I will examine the arguments, but if you want my thesis right here and now…No. Julian Edelman does not deserve the hall of fame.
Before I rip the arguments to shreds I would like to extend an olive branch and say I do not personally blame any Patriots fan who was defensive about him. Edelman was a fan favorite, an important guy within the Patriots organization and he literally just retired after a long successful career. Of course emotional Patriots fans are going to be defensive about him on and near the day their fan favorite guy retired. I was defensive when my favorite player retired and I get defensive even now when people shit on Eli or even current Giants even though I am still a huge pessimist. It’s just part of the fandom spirit.
But if you are a Pats fan who thinks he belongs, I do not suggest reading further, because I very much disagree with you and I will not make you happy.
Lets take a moment to look at his case.
-SB MVP of the Rams/Pats SB
-second most postseason yards in NFL history
-3 Rings
-Several memorable playoff moments, such as the catch against the Falcons and the TD he threw against the Ravens
-Patriots fan favorite cuz he was gritty
That’s it. That’s his case. He has nothing else. What is posted above is Edelman’s entire case for the hall. Which is the #1 reason most people have casually dismissed him. Julian Edelman’s case is having 3 rings (good! Folks like rings!), a SB MVP award (a dubious honor), a few special moments (good!), and a few good playoff volume stats. That is it.
Julian Edelman has never been selected to a single pro bowl. Yes, pro bowls are also a dubious honor, based on dumb voters and other players, but none? Zero pro bowl nods? Pro Bowls aren’t huge, but they still matter to some degree and you’d think a player worthy of the hall of fame would have, at minimum, 1 pro bowl nod. Mitch Trubisky has one. Evan Engram got a nod in literally his worst season. It’s kind of damning that at no point did his peers or fans vote for him enough. (Pro bowl votes are apparently 66% players, btw, so you can’t pin it all on idiot fans)
This is to say nothing of All-pros, the actual, good honor. Of course Edelman has none of them. He also has no other awards or nominations. No Walter Payton honors, or offensive player nominations, nothing. I guess got offensive player of the week…once. Special teams player of the week…twice. So does he at least have decent volume stats for his long career?
No. Edelman isn’t in the top 50 of any meaningful WR stat. He’s 75th all time in receptions. He’s 156th in reception yards. He’s not anywhere I can find on TDs (he only has 36 total). His numbers might be a bit lower due to his early seasons as a special teams guy, but even adding in his all purpose yards and totals from both positions, he has nothing near hall of fame worthy numbers. Besides, he spent his early years as a special teamer because Wes Welker was better at the same position he eventually took over and he wasn’t very relevant until Welker left.
Pro Football reference, where you can find all the stats you want, has a HOF monitor stat. I’m not going to pretend it’s a perfect stat, it probably has a fair amount of flaws and cant account for plenty of things, but it is not kind to Edelman, putting him at a 36 when the average HOF WR is at 104. His listed comparison players are also not kind to his argument. Aaron Schatz, the man behind Football Outsiders, a statistical football website who I firmly believe started the site to have an excuse to make math formulas to show just how good the Patriots were because he is a huge Patriots homer, is not supportive. In an increasingly statistic driven league, the stat argument matters, and the stat people are not on his side. I didn’t see a single stat person argue for him. Most of them were laughably dismissive.
The day he retired, I got in multiple long arguments and debates with people because I’m an idiot and enjoy punching myself in the balls, and my longest and most heated argument was with the author of this blog post, who put together arguably the most reasonable version of the argument I’d heard all day. We eventually cordially parted ways, but neither of us changed our minds. I would like to mention that by the end of our exchange, he admitted Edelman was his favorite player, bias is very likely at play.
If you didn’t read the link, his thesis is essentially this:
Julian Edelman is a statistical outlier that will force Hall of Fame voters to re-define their criteria for admission. His playoff resume is just so good that it will give him consideration even without the usual regular body of work to back it up.
That’s a very optimistic take no matter how you want to look at it, and I don’t agree with it. To do what everyone else was doing during the debate, let’s bring up my favorite player as a point of comparison! (Everyone groans, here goes Dave talking about Eli again)
Eli was being used in the pro-Julian argument as another case of a guy people think deserves the hall based on post-season accolades. From this angle, it’s a good comparison. He has a playoffs resume very similar to Edelman. 2 rings, 2 SB MVPs, multiple absolutely iconic moments, 7 road playoff wins (3rd all time). Most passing yards in a post-season. It’s close enough to be comparable, even if you put Edelman higher. But the Eli comparison also highlights the problem with the Julian argument. Eli has a solid and substantial body of work outside his playoff resume. Eli is top 10 in career yards, TDs, and completions. He’s a Walter Payton man of the year winner. He has 4 pro bowl nods. He had the record for most 4th quarter TDs at 15 for several years. The Ironman streak.
The debate around Eli’s playoff accolades is whether or not they are good enough to put him over the top in addition to his regular career performance. Eli does have some great career numbers, but he’s also got several duds, like his .500 record and interceptions, lack of all pros and MVPs. His argument is that in addition to a good career overall, he also had an incredible postseason resume. Edelman has the incredible post-season resume, but he has nothing else. Basically, if someone thinks Edelman deserves the hall but Eli doesn’t, they are smoking crack and not operating on any level of meaningful logic.
You can even level some of the criticisms Eli’s case gets against Julian Edelman too. Eli’s top ten metrics are frequently dismissed as a result of his longevity by critics. Stat Compiling. You can also apply that line of logic to Edelman, no? That amazing second most postseason yardage stat isn’t partially due to being on a team that went to the playoffs pretty much every single year of his career? He’s played 19 playoff games. Few players have the kind of opportunity Julian had to log numbers in the first place. You give Larry Fitzgerald or Julio as many playoff games as Edelman’s played and see how their numbers inflate. Larry Fitzgerald has over half of Edeman’s yardage, and he’s played less than half of Edelman’s games, at 9.
On top of that, for all the yards he compiled, he’s nowhere near the playoff TD top ten. Gronk is! Julian’s numbers are good, but his averages aren’t that spectacular, which might be more indicative of how he reached that number. The second most playoff yards stat is a substantial notch in Julian’s belt, don’t get me wrong, but even that massive load bearing argument stat still has cracks.
He was clutch and tough as nails. Cool. Being gritty and doing the dirty work for the offense makes you a good teammate and an excellent role player, it doesn’t make you a hall of famer. However, it does make you an extreme fan favorite, every fan loves the guy who puts it on the line for the team. This might explain the level of fanaticism around him from the fanbase. Being a dependable dude is great! It does not make you a hall of famer. Almost every HoFer was dependable and put it on the line for his team, except for maybe Deion Sanders.
As a few small extra arguments, he got caught with PEDs once, which is a knock against him. I’m personally not too bothered by that but cheating will absolutely be a thing for a lot of people. On top of that, Julian is the least deserving WR that is going to be caught in the WR logjam the hall is currently facing. Torry Holt. Reggie Wayne. Soon Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Smith, Andre Johnson, and Anquan Boldin will also be sitting outside, waiting their turns. Julio might not last much longer. Hines Ward, a comparable player to Edelman and someone I think deserves it more, hasn’t gotten in yet. Donald Driver and Ochocinco have outside cases as well and are eligible soon.
Eli will end up being a good barometer for his chances. If Eli goes in first ballot, a lot of people are going to be furious, but that will actually bode well for Edelman. If you are pro-Edelman, you need to root for Eli. I’m not sure it’ll be enough, but he at least has a chance if Eli cruises in with ease. The hall is and should be difficult to get into, and not getting in shouldn’t really be some knock. Edelman is a longshot no matter how you slice it but not getting in the Hall will not be some insult to his career.
Basically, the pro Edelman side has felt like a lot of emotional feelings shouted with cries of “He has a better case than you think!” and you know what? Maybe he does. The problem is that case still isn’t nearly good enough. That’s why pretty much everyone not a Patriots fan has been so quick to casually dismiss it. In 5 years, a lot of those emotions will be far more muted, and his career will have to make most of his case. It just isn’t enough.
Edelman is a Patriots legend and deserving of a place in the Foxboro ring of honor. He deserves the wonderful affectionate sendoff the Patriots will give him. He can retire happy and satisfied as far as I can tell. He should be remembered as a good football player and a cool guy, and we should celebrate that. It honestly ruins his sendoff to turn it into some big hall argument.
Julian Edelman once responded to a tweet I posted that he wasn’t even tagged in angry that I called him a chad.
I’ve always compared Eli to Reggie Jackson. Reggie and Eli would be fringe candidates for the Hall of Fame if you only looked at their regular season careers. They did very well, but they weren’t all time greats in that regard. But they both went nuclear when it mattered the most and that puts them over the top.
Edelman has a very impressive playoff resume, but in the regular season he was just a solid possession receiver, and without the regular season work to get him close to the Hall, the playoffs can’t get him across the line.
If you only look at Eli’s regular season, I’d say he wouldn’t just be a fringe candidate, but in fact he’d have no chance to get in. He was never the top passer in any season, and quite often not even in the top 5. He only ever lead the league in one statistical category, “Interceptions Thrown” and he did that 3 times…
Eli will likely get in one day, not first ballot of course, but when he does so it will be predicated almost entirely on those two Super Bowl runs that his team stumbled ass backward into.
Dave, how many have hurt you? Why a 23 paragraph essay explaining that Eli should be in the HoF(granted I do agree).
I get why Patriots fans have such an attachment to Edelman. As groan-inducing as it sounds for other fans, seeing two of our franchise legends jump ship and pursue glory down south hurt a lot of Pats fans. It was a rough season all around, but sucks hard when you see your boys win it for someone else, even if you’re rooting for their success. So I get why so many of us attached ourselves so deeply to Jules. He stuck around, toughed it out even when things were falling apart, and ultimately opted to retire a Patriot rather than abandon us (even if he was left with no other option). It’s hard not for fans to love the dude even more after that.
That being said, it really irritates me seeing so many Patriots fans subscribe to the illogical notion that he’s a Hall of Famer. It’s such a stupid proposition founded purely in hometown bias that it only makes sense that it would be met with ridicule, and it’s led to Edelman being straight up disrespected right after his retirement as a result. It’s one thing not to be a hall of fame wideout–there are only 29 in the hall if I recall correctly, so there’s clearly an extremely high bar to get in, but now you have people treating Edelman like he was just some dude when he was more than that. He was incredibly athletic, clutch when it mattered, an outstanding playoff performer, and played with all the grit and toughness you expect from a guy that had to fight just for a roster spot early in his career. He deserves nothing but respect for his efforts, but all of that is lost because people are too busy having a pointless debate about whether he deserves to get in over guys that were significantly better than he was.
It just sucks all around, and I hate that this debate ever became a thing. It made no sense to begin with and makes even less sense now. Just let the man retire in peace.
Every time a long term, fan favorite retires you get the HoF talks from the homers crowd due to how significant they were during their time with the team. Hell, when Dondald Driver retired, he got the same treatment, and he had 61 TDs and a bunch of Packer records. But people don’t want to hear the truth: these players were never one of the best at their position for a period of time. They were never that dominant force the entire season that could carry a team on their own if needed.
Hell, Adams got 18 TDs last season, has been dominant the last couple years, and he still has to put in at least 2-3 more years of high numbers to be considered still. It’s just homers bring homers in the end.
I like how you have Anthony Munoz, one of the best blockers of all time, blocking people from the Hall of Fame
I agree with everything you said except the last line. I LOVE HALL-OF-FAME BICKERING! doesn’t matter which hall-o-faaaayme, either. boy o boy do i love to tal shit about the rocknrollhallofame, those absolute fucking pricks.
edelman will always be a beloved patriot, who was pretty good, and rose to the occasion. that’s not where the bar should be for the HOF.
I do like looking at some of the names ahead of Edelman in the PFR HOF Monitor list: Plaxico Burress, Marques Colston, Joey Galloway, Ed McCaffery, Jordy Nelson, Mushin Muhammed, Irving Fryar, Keenan McCardell, Santana Moss, Mark Duper, and a host of other perfectly fine to good wide receivers that no one is arguing HOF cases for.
That said, if this was like the baseball HOF with its published voting results, I would be disappointed if Edelman didn’t get any votes. I always like to see guys get at least a vote or three for the baseball HOF even if they are absolutely not HOF material. I was sad when guys like Ray Lankford and Jeff Conine didn’t get any votes, they weren’t HOFers but they were good enough overall and important enough to at least one of the teams they each played on to see a couple crazies and homers throw votes their way. Edelman too is good enough for a few crazies and homers to think he’s a HOFer, even though he really isn’t.
Put him in the Patriots “ring of honor” or whatever if they have one of those things.
Pats fan here, Dave is right, 100%. The HOF talk annoyed the crap out of me because instead of reflecting on on of my favorite players I had to deal with a bunch of mouth breathers telling me on Twitter “duh of course he’s a hall of famer”
I liked the guy. But at the end of the day he was an above average receiver who compiled playoff stats because he happened to be on a team with a great QB who made the playoffs every year.
Troy Brown has 3 rings, signature playoff moments, and he actually has a pro bowl to boot, nobody is clamoring for him to get in the hall. The only WRs besides Moss that is HOF worthy is maaaybe Welker because he defined the slot position and has a few all-pros.
Julian Edelman has less receiving yards than Chris Collinsworth.
Seriously, let that sink in. This is why other fanbases hate Patriots fans, not just the Patriots themselves. Their guy just has to be special. So special in fact that we are going to redefine the normal parameters for the league’s highest honor to make sure our guy gets it. I might bang the table for one of my favorite players, Darren Sproles, to have a fringe case at HoF induction, but I do it using the same metrics that other running backs are measured by.
I’m someone who thinks Terrell Davis should not be in the Hall of Fame so there ain’t no way, no how any Patriots fan can convince Edelman is Hall worthy.
You do know most Pats fans that know the game well don’t actually think he deserves to be in… You are literally getting salty about a few casuals hype up a fan favorite guy.
This conversation beneath this webcomic wouldn’t be happening if the homerism wasn’t especially strong.
Tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. If Dave ever feels the need to make another comic about a different fanbase pushing such a delusional Hall of Fame case, I will come back to this space and apologize for ‘being salty’.
Raiders fans and Jim Plunkett comes to mind.
You say Hines Ward, but is there a Julian Edelman penalty? Didn’t think so
I don’t think Edelman to the Hall of Fame is that crazy a notion. I think he’ll get consideration for it when he becomes elligible and how much will tell us a lot about how important the voters consider the playoffs are. I don’t think he ultimately gets in because there are too many WRs and he’ll get lost in the shuffle but I can see him getting a push once or twice
As the local new englander, I haven’t heard anyone here actually seriously say they think Julian is a HOF player. The pats fans are usually crazy but not this time.
This does really highlight the stupidity of trying to really analyze football, we’re looking at Edelman’s stats in 19 games vs other people’s in 9. People really need to stop thinking playoff wins mean anything in terms of individual records.
The comp everyone is looking for is Lynn Swann. SB MVP, highlight reel catch, very mediocre career stats. Hell, he arguably wasn’t even the best Steelers receiver *of that period*
Of course Swann is seen as an infamously dire HOF induction outside of Pittsburgh so… yeah.
Unlike Edelman, Swann was at least an All Pro few times. The fact that Swann is in while Cliff Branch isn’t is the issue I have though since the latter had better stats and they played in the same era.
Wow Dave, I wonder if this is one of your longest posts. I agree with your main notion though. Edelman has much of his playoff stats due to being on the Brady/Belicheck train. Having a Superbowl MVP is great, but you need a lot more than that and some fantastic post-season catches to make the HOF.
Also he was clutch in some post-season runs he had with Brady & Belicheck, but he didn’t drag a flailing team to the Lombardi like Eli did in 2011. Plus, like you said, he doesn’t have the body of work Eli does or other receivers waiting in line in Canton do. I love the idea of them physically waiting in a line outside of the Hall on voting day hoping to get in.
Julian is a sure fire lock to the Patriots hall of fame, but not the NFL hall of fame
Agree. As a Pats fan, he belongs in Pats HOF, not in Canton though.
Don’t think Drew Pearson from Dallas belongs in the HOF this year either. As much as he was good in the 70s, as much as he wasn’t dominating. Most of us just remember the Hail Mary catch which isn’t better than the Edelman grab in SB51.
No way Edelman should be in the HoF. That said, several WRs already in should be turfed out for all the reasons you give for denying Edelman. (We’re looking at you, Lynn Swann, amongst others.)
I wonder what these discussions looked like when we didn’t have 24/7 sports TV and reporting to nurture them.
I’d guess that’s the driving force behind fans obsessing over HOF status. It’s that quantifiable “my player was a Good Player!” thing you can wave around when other fanbases don’t even know who they are. And you can definitely spin that question into a few days worth of heated passionate debate.
It’s sort of like the NASCAR Hall of Fame they assembled ten or so years back. For the first many years, they had 5 inductees every year. They’ve cut back to three a year because they inducted a bunch of modern-era stars (as someone more cynical than I said, “dead guys can’t promote”).
My favorite driver is coming up for that vote. Is he a Hall of Famer? In a 20-year-or-so major league career, he won rookie of the year, had one championship (before the “playoff” system started) and 37 or 38 wins, including the Daytona 500 twice (basically the Super Bowl for the sport). He was an under-the-radar perennial contender. Is he a Hall of Famer? I don’t think so. He was pretty good, but the HOF is for all-time greats, and that’s an admittedly-impossible bar.
His raw stats rank him equal to or better than plenty of inductees, though, so if THAT’S the bar, he’ll get in.
Edelman is a regional hero, but I’m not sure he’s a Hall of Famer. At the same time, that’s okay. It’s cool if he’s not an HOFer; he doesn’t have to be to be a regional hero.
stevekbraun@gmail.com
Wtf I didn’t mean to just comment my email address. Autofill is weird.
Anyway, it’s gotta be Matt Kenseth right?
As a career long dale jr fan, if dale jr is a hall of famer so is kenseth
Dave, your comic and write-up captures my feelings about Edelman. He’s a modern legend for Pats fans. He should get the fast track to their Ring of Honor. His chances at making the Hall of Fame (such as they are) hinge entirely on his postseason accolades though, and I don’t know that it’s enough.
The memorable plays are cool, but that should be the icing on the cake in a HoF case built around an entire career, not one of the foundations.
The playoff yards and receptions are impressive, and they’re not just counting stats that rely on longevity. Edelman played in 19 playoff games, but for what it’s worth he amassed 106 of his receptions and 1337 yards in 13 games from 2013-2018. That’s still good enough for second most all time in both categories, and it covers the period where the Pats won three rings and when Edelman earned his SB MVP. Edelman’s yards per game during that period would rank among the top 20, so that’s the period of play that any pro-Edelman-HoF argument needs to focus on.
It boils down to this: Does a seven-year run of dominant playoff receiving yards/receptions (and 4 total touchdowns) that concluded with three SB rings and one SB MVP make someone a Hall of Famer?
I think his lack of notable regular season achievements holds him back too much. I get why big Edelman fans want to argue in favor of it.
It’s unfortunate that injuries really hampered his regular season production so much. Based on his per game stats in the years he played but got injured mid season, he would have had 6-7 straight years of 1000+ yard production. A much more convincing argument. The production ability was always there, just not the health unfortunately.
So true. The guy who Dave argued with that he linked, R. Slash Patriots, he gives the most convincing argument in favor of Edelman: Edelman’s dominance flies under the radar because he had to work his way up from a UDFA. If you take Edelman’s career as a starter from 2013-2019 and look at all receiving stats (regular season and postseason combined), he’s top 7 over that stretch in receiving yards and top 4 in receptions despite playing fewer games than most of his peers at the top of the list: https://stathead.com/tiny/WiwL2
That’s… actually not a bad argument. I don’t know if it sells the Hall of Fame case, but I think it’s a legit conversation starter.
At that point I would throw on the post season success. I would also account for the fact that 19 games is a bit misleading as he didn’t really play offense in 4 of those games (2010 and 2011 playoffs, he played in 2009 against the Ravens as welker was hurt). So we’re talking 115 receptions, 1411 yards, and 5 tds over 15 games. I don’t care who the receiver is, that’s a truly dominant season’s worth of production.
Then there’s his work as a punt returner. There’s a reason the pats have spent years trying to find a viable replacement for him in that role. It’s because he could be game changing when they needed it most. They probably only found a replacement last year with gunner. An undersized udfa, DII player that also switched position to WR going into the NFL. It’s like they have a type or something. At this point, the hall of fame is just the icing on the cake of a uniquely successful career.
Definitely a patriot hall of famer. Football hall of fame? Maybe somewhere way down the line. I think you’re underselling Eli’s negatives. He didn’t just throw interceptions, he was routinely fighting for the league lead in thrown picks. His post season work is also highly overrated. The giants won those SBs because their defense held a historical offense to 14 points, then one of the leagues top offenses to 17. The giants scored an average of 19 points in those games. Including in 2011 when they put up a grand total of 21 points against one of the leagues worst pass defenses. If Eli gets in to the hall of fame, they should just let everyone in. I would put a bit of context on edelman’s playoff success, of those 19 games, he was really only featured on offense in 14 or 15 iirc. So you’re talking about 1400ish yards over a 15 game span, not 19. It’s a shame injuries held him back so much in his career. If you look at his per game stats the years he played but had the season cut short, he was on track to break 1000 yards in most of them. Had he not constantly been hurt, he would have had 6-7 straight seasons of 1000+ yard production (usually closer to 1100+) which would have made a much more convincing argument. Personally, I don’t really care, would be cool to see (just the icing on the cake at this point) but he’ll always be a patriot legend regardless.
I think the main problem with both Julian Edelman and Eli Manning is that neither were ever remotely close to being considered the best among their peers, and you could make a stronger argument that neither were even top 10 at their position at any point, let alone top 5 or higher (although Eli has a pretty strong case for being top 10 in a few seasons).
The Hall of Fame is not about having the best story, or being the most tough, it’s about consistently being considered one of, if not the best at your position group. Even Eli Manning has a decent case since he has a couple of seasons that you can point to and say he was a top 10 QB. How many seasons does Edelman have like that? I’d be hard-pressed to find one year where Edelman was a top 15 WR. Most years he wasn’t even top 20.
He was an important piece of the Dynasty 2.0, and will forever be a Foxboro Legend, but being a hometown hero doesn’t make you a Hall of Famer.
Saying he’s not top 15 or 20 would be wildly inaccurate. As someone above pointed out, if you look at his stats from when he took over as a starter in 2013 through 2019, he was #4 in receptions and #7 in total receiving yardage over that time. Yet he played in fewer games than almost anyone on those lists. Whether or not he’s “considered” by other people to be a true top receiver doesn’t really match with his actual production which definitely makes an argument for top 10. Add in his ability as an excellent punt returner, 115 reception and 1400+ yards in the post season as a player on offense to show his clutchness or whatever. It really shows that the biggest knock on him was really his durability and not ability regardless of what people consider him to be.
I’m not knocking Edelman’s ability as a receiver, but on a season to season basis he was never considered for the top 15 outside of maybe one year (2016) where he had a very strong case. And even then you really have to stretch your neck out to make said case. Even over the period that you mentioned, he didn’t rank very highly in TDs, catch% or yards per reception among other things.
It’s not just other random people that didn’t consider him to be a top wideout either. Like Dave mentioned, he never got named to a Pro Bowl and doesn’t have an All-Pro award to his name. Players, coaches and media members didn’t seem to think super highly of him either. I like Jules, but he was never close to being a top 10 wideout at any point in his career. He amassed a couple of numbers that help his case, but that’s not enough to stick him in that territory.
I do agree that his ability as a punt returner has been extremely underrated, however. That alone makes a very compelling case for the guy that I didn’t even think of.
Not to mention the role of QB tends to be given more importance on offense so to compare Eli and Edelman is a stretch, even for anyone trying to justify case for Edelman.
If he gets in but Zach Thomas (finalist twice) doesn’t, something’s deeply effed-up.
Don’t forget Cliff Branch as well.
Edelman belongs in the Hall of Very Good with Marshawn Lynch and Randall Cunningham
Edelman should get negative hall of fame points for winning Super Bowl MVP in a game where the honor should have gone to a punter
I say “a” punter because if the Rams had won their punter should have won it
The punting was the only good thing happening in that game and I will take that fact to my grave god dammit
I dunno. In a game where there’s just about zero offense the guy who makes one big play is a bit the hero. But I would have loved to see a punter get MVP instead if for no reason other than the lulz and the butthurt.
Marv Fleming, the greatest tight end to ever play the game, is not in the hall so no I don’t think Edelman gets the nod.
You may say Gonzalez or Gates, but Marv Fleming has five rings. If Tom Brady discourse has taught me anything, it’s that the conversation ends there.
Except that Tom Brady has a lot more than Super Bowl wins backing up his case as the greatest to ever play, lol.
Jeremy Maclin beats him in every stat outside of the superbowl MVP. Fucking Maclin. if any patriot’s receiver should get in, it’s Welker.
Or Stanley Morgan.
He’s basically a poor man’s Wes Welker, but with better timing – worse in pretty much every category, but a part of the second dynasty. I’d say Welker might get in (though I doubt it considering the stiff competition at WR), but there’s no way Edelman belongs.
The fact that there are people especially in the sports media tries to argue that Edelman is a Hall of Famer is enough to cause a sane person to lose slightly further faith in humanity.
I’ve had two different edelman jerseys. I absolutely love the guy. One of my all time favorite pats, and one of my favorite players. My man has an exactly 0% chance of making the hall. The argument only exists because some people keep trying to have it. As great as edelman was in the playoffs, there have only been a very small few games where he was Tom’s top target.
I didn’t read most of this yet, I’ll read it after, but I wanted to say that it’s unfair to say it’s pats fans ve everyone else. Most pats fans imo think he shouldn’t be in. I don’t think he’s even Hall of Very Good or whatever you want to call it. It’s other people arguing he should be in, but in reality, almost nobody thinks he should be in because as I’m sure you’ll state, he’s not even close.