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+---- Thread: *Every Hall of Famer, Reviewed (Part 6) (/showthread.php?tid=53330)
*Every Hall of Famer, Reviewed (Part 6) - ztarwarz - 09-23-2024
This part's actually only going to cover the S26 and S27 ballots, as the S27 ballot has 7 whole players, one of the largest classes in league history.
DANNY GRITHEAD
User: @Trautner
OCO (S10 - S15)
YKW (S16 - S22)
S
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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2x Ultimus Champion (S12, S13)
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AWARDS
2x Defensive Back of the Year (S14, S16)
1x Returner of the Year (S15)
1x Performance of the Year (S16)
1x Most Valuable Player (S16)
1x Defensive Player of the Year (S17)
10x Pro Bowler (S11, S12, S13, S14, S15, S16, S17, S18, S19, S20)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#9 Career DEF Tck (1268.00)
#19 Career DEF Sfty (3.00)
#14 Career DEF TD (7.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#1 Season DEF Int (S16 - 10.00)
#6 Season DEF Sfty (S17 - 2.00)
#15 Season ST KRAvg (S15 - 33.79)
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GAME RECORDS
#9 Game DEF Sack (S18W1 - 4.00)
#1 Game DEF Int (S16W9 - 4.00)
#25 Game ST PR (S15W13 - 6.00)
#14 Game ST KRAvg (S15W1 - 103.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#1 Career DEF Tck (138.00)
#17 Career DEF FF (2.00)
#22 Career ST KRYds (407.00)
#19 Career ST KRLng (62.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#4 Season DEF Tck (S21 - 29.00)
#22 Season ST KRLng (S16 - 62.00)
#18 Season ST KRAvg (S16 - 41.25)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#23 Game DEF Tck (S22W15 - 13.00)
#13 Game ST KR (S15W15 - 5.00)
#12 Game ST KRYds (S16W14 - 165.00)
#13 Game ST KRYds (S15W15 - 161.00)
#22 Game ST KRLng (S16W14 - 62.00)
Overall Statistics: 1,268 tackles, 13 TFLs, 80 Sacks, 180 PDs, 26 INTs, 3 Safeties, 7 TDs, 16 FF/9 FR
In maybe the single strongest era for a single position in ISFL history, Grithead managed to be head and shoulders above everyone else. That being said, he didn't reach peak Grithead for a while. His rookie season was decent but not outstanding, he had 11 PDs, 1 FF/2 FRs, but no INTs, meaning he wasn't even in the running for best Strong Safety in a season where the Free Safeties could have swept the Pro Bowl spots. S11 was the first season where Grithead showed what he could truly be: he was easily the best strong safety with 19 PDs, 4 picks, 1/1 FF/FR, and 2 TDs. He was arguably the single best Safety this season; I'd place him 2nd behind the actual winner of the DBotY award. S12 saw Grithead settle to the level he'd be for the next 3 seasons; 95 tackles, 12 PDs, 2 INTs, 2 FFs, and a defensive TD made him one of the best Strong Safeties, albeit a lower down Pro Bowler due to the strength of the Free Safety position.
S13 was similar in terms of stats, albeit slightly worse, but more importantly it was the worst of 3 different Free Safeties on OCO (and at this point Grithead had moved to Free Safety). I think it very blatantly shouldn't have made the Pro Bowl with merely 11 PDs, 1 INT, 2/1 FF/FR, and no sacks at a position where plenty of people at least had 5. He probably got the Pro Bowl due to the position leading 119 tackles, but I don't personally care about that when there were 7 other Free Safeties that season who doubled up his turnovers, all but one of whom was also a better pass defender, some of them even tripling up. S14, however, saw the beginnings of the Grithead the league would know and fear. Grithead got just over 100 tackles, 5 sacks, a forced fumble, and managed a good for the time 13 PDs and 3 INTs. Not the best Grithead season, but in my opinion the best Safety season that year; I could argue there was a better CB season, but either way this getting a positional excellency award was deserved.
S15 began what we think of as Peak Grithead. He managed 104 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 12 sacks, and 16 pass defenses. This was the 3rd most pass defenses, 2nd most tackles, and most sacks for a Safety. Instead of being up for a DBotY, this was actually more of a low Pro Bowl season as he got unlucky and had no INTs whatsoever. S16, on the other hand, was the peak of Grithead's own, amazing peak. Grithead managed 20 PDs, 12 sacks, and 10 INTs, tying the record for picks while getting double digit sacks and getting 2 TDs. Even despite a great QB season, this managed to win one of very few defensive MVPs, and I cannot disagree with it in the slightest. Of course it won DBotY and made the pro bowl, it even got performance of the year for a specific 4 pick day!
S17 saw Grithead manage to win DPOY despite missing out on the DBotY award, which I discussed in the Dan Schneider section. I think Grithead had the better season, so technically he should have won DBotY as well as DPOY. Honestly, he has an argument for MVP; this season wasn't as good as his last, with only 3 INTs and 1 TD, but he added on 2 more sacks, 3 more PDs, 3 FFs, and 2 safeties. Moreover his competition was significantly worse: the MVP this time was Corvo Havran, whose season I will cover more later on in this part but had less TDs, more INTs, nearly 1000 less yards, and a passer rating about 5 points worse than the season prior from Gus T.T. Showbiz, which didn't even get OPOY. Havran arguably wasn't even the best QB on the year, if he was it wasn't by much, and all in all this feels like a season where the Best QB won the MVP by default.
Grithead wasn't done making Pro Bowls, but he was done with major awards at this point; in S18 he had another season that could have been an all timer, with 18 PDs and 11 sacks, but he couldn't manage a single INT. S19 saw Grithead be the 2nd best safety in the entire league, albeit in a down year for basically the entire position outside of the 1st place Safety, with 15 sacks, 16 PDs, 2 picks, and a Safety. S20 was Grithead's final Pro Bowl, as well as the season where they cracked down on the cheat; Grithead was a Linebacker this year and deserved a lower Pro Bowl, he still got 11 sacks, but this was the first time in his career where he missed out on double digit PDs. Grithead did basically nothing the last 2 seasons of his career outside of getting 100 tackles in each and forcing 2 fumbles in S22; he was one of the worse safeties in the league in S21 by my reckoning and only managed 13 PDs combined between both seasons without any picks.
The only argument against Grithead being the best Safety of all time is the fact he was taking advantage of a bug that basically means equivalent players cannot exist now that the cheat has been removed. Even today, Safeties don't get seasons as good as Grithead in S16, and they have 3 more games to do so. An easy Hall of Famer and all time player who arguably deserved more awards, not less, than he actually garnered in reality.
ERROL MADDOX
User: @PigSnout
BAL (S12 - S22)
WR
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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1x Ultimus Champion (S15)
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AWARDS
2x Wide Receiver of the Year (S19, S21)
7x Pro Bowler (S15, S16, S17, S18, S19, S20, S21)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#1 Career Rec Avg (18.06)
#14 Career Rec TD (92.00)
#20 Career ST KR_TD (2.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#15 Season Rec Avg (S18 - 20.28)
#16 Season Rec Avg (S21 - 20.24)
#18 Season Rec Avg (S17 - 20.20)
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GAME RECORDS
#9 Game Rec TD (S20W4 - 3.00)
#25 Game ST PR (S20W8 - 6.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#11 Career Rec Yds (1027.00)
#6 Career Rec Avg (18.67)
#12 Career Rec TD (7.00)
#8 Career ST PRYds (182.00)
#23 Career ST PRLng (21.00)
#9 Career ST PR (17.00)
#13 Career AllPurpose Yds (1599.00)
#23 Career Scrimmage Yds (1027.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#13 Season Rec Yds (S17 - 282.00)
#3 Season Rec Avg (S17 - 23.50)
#18 Season ST PR (S20 - 7.00)
#9 Season ST KRAvg (S20 - 44.00)
#20 Season AllPurpose Yds (S17 - 454.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#25 Game Rec Yds (S20W14 - 139.00)
#21 Game Rec Avg (S20W14 - 34.75)
#17 Game ST PRYds (S20W14 - 68.00)
#2 Game ST PR (S20W14 - 7.00)
#20 Game ST KRAvg (S20W14 - 44.00)
#19 Game ST PRAvg (S18W15 - 21.00)
Overall Statistics: 594 receptions, 10,728 yards, 92 TDs
Maddox is basically the polar opposite of Fyodorovich from the last part; he is nowhere near as good at getting yardage as he was, with only 700 more yards in nearly 2 seasons more at the time, however Maddox was significantly better at getting TDs; he only played 147 games and had nearly 100 touchdowns. Only Bradley Westfield has more TDs in less games. That's probably enough to make the Hall on its own, but let's go year by year anyways!
Maddox was the opposite of a quick starter, in his rookie season he had the T-6th most receptions, literally tied for last among all receivers. He was decently productive with only 30 receptions, but that was still less than 500 yards and only 3 touchdowns. S13 saw Maddox become WR2, but he still had less than 1000 yards and 6 TDs. S14 saw Errol Maddox get 8 TDs for the first time (he would reach that total 7 times in his 11 year career) but he was barely over 750 yards and thus still deservedly missed the Pro Bowl. S15 finally saw Maddox make the Pro Bowl, with just over 1000 yards and 13 touchdowns, a total that led the league. He was arguably the 3rd or 4th best WR in the league that year; funnily enough the guy who he compares with was fellow Baltimore receiver Vinny Valentine.
S16 saw Maddox fall a bit, to the 5th best receiver in the league, as he only managed 7 touchdowns. Funnily enough he had nearly 1200 yards this year despite this being the first 13 game season, beating out his previous season by well over 100 yards. S17 was the high water mark for Maddox in terms of yards, with 1232, as well as 10 touchdowns. He's comparable with the actual WRotY this season, Vinny Valentine, who had only 7 touchdowns but 1400 yards. I think I lean Valentine but it's close; I'd love actual targeting stats that would help determine these things but I need to wait a ways to get there. As is, I'll call Maddox 2nd best. S18 was a significant step backwards; Maddox went back under 1200 yards and only 8 touchdowns, was probably not the best WR on his own team, and was only the 7th best WR in the league. I think he was the 5th best WR in his conference, partly due to the bad luck of most of the best WRs being in the NSFC that season. All in all, I think he didn't deserve the Pro Bowl this season.
S19, on the other hand, was back to Maddox's usual. Sure, he was now under 1150 yards, but thankfully this season that was less than 100 yards off the league lead. Moreover he led the entire league in receiving touchdowns by 3; easily the WRotY this time. S20 was another year where Maddox regressed a tad in touchdowns, down to 9 this time, and with around the same amount of yards as last time this meant Maddox was more the 5th best WR on the year. S21 saw Maddox put up the most touchdowns of his career, with 14 (meaning he averaged more than 1 TD per game) and although he was still at only around 1100 yards, he was definitely the best WR this year yet again.
Maddox is intriguing to me for a few reasons. There's a very real possibility that Maddox was significantly better than I consider him, but I cannot tell because I don't have the stats. Maddox leads the entire league in yards per reception, which is an extremely unimportant stat in my book. Sure, it's very impressive to have 18 yards per catch like Maddox does, but there exists just a significantly better version of the same stat in yards per target, adjusting for all the balls thrown your way that hit the turf instead. It's possible that Maddox also has the highest Yards per Target ever, catching a decent number of the balls thrown his way and averaging well, well north of a new set of downs per catch, and when considering his amount of TDs and yards he'd have a decent claim to being a top 5 receiver or even higher all time. Or it's possible that Maddox was a deep threat guy who had a much, much worse catch percent because he was always being targeted on long developing passes. I can't tell without doing hours and hours of work and to be frank I don't have the time to do that. As such I'm just going to leave it at Maddox is an easy Hall of Famer, who probably isn't top 5 all time but belongs even with the worst possible version of his efficiency.
JOHNNY BLAZE
User: @JBLAZE_THE_BOSS
OCO (S14 - S21)
SAR (S22 - S22)
TE
Unanimous Inductee? NO
-------------
3x Ultimus Champion (S17, S18, S19)
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AWARDS
3x Tight End of the Year (S16, S18, S19)
8x Pro Bowler (S14, S15, S16, S17, S18, S19, S20, S22)
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Important Records
GAME RECORDS
#9 Game Rec TD (S16W5 - 3.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#23 Career Rec Rec (62.00)
#13 Career Rec Yds (945.00)
#22 Career Rec TD (5.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#22 Season Rec Avg (S19 - 18.80)
#25 Season Rec Avg (S17 - 18.23)
#9 Season Rec TD (S18 - 3.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#3 Game Rec Rec (S16W15 - 12.00)
#11 Game Rec TD (S18W15 - 2.00)
Overall Statistics: 622 receptions, 7,934 yards, 46 TDs
150 pancakes, 8 sacks allowed
Johnny Blaze is somewhat strange to discuss because he played a significant amount of TE at Fullback, which somehow led to better stats for a lot of people. Basically, a (significantly) less broken version of the Safety at LB hack. Among TEs he's 14th in receptions, 7th in yards, and T-7th in touchdowns. He didn't play that many games, with 119 in total, by far the least played among any Hall of Fame TE. He was also not particularly good at blocking for a TE, he's 49th in pancakes and T-23rd in sacks allowed.
In S14, Blaze made the Pro Bowl as the 2nd best TE on the season; sure, he only had 450 yards but he had 7 TDs, leading the entire league at the position and 4 more than any TE who wasn't Verso L'Alto. S15 saw Blaze get just over 900 yards, but only 2 TDs. He still made the Pro Bowl, and this is what I was talking about with things being hard to judge: Among people listed at FB, Blaze was the 3rd best player. But he was also better than literally every player at the TE position, including the actual winner of the TEotY award. As is, Blaze got the Pro Bowl. S16 saw Blaze's first TEotY award, while still being listed at Fullback. He was definitely the best receiver of the bunch, with 1100 yards, 1st among TEs/FBs and 11 touchdowns; only one player at the position had 2 more TDs and they had nearly 300 less yards.
S17 saw Blaze take a significant step back; only 900 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was still the 3rd best player listed at either FB or TE, but he was well off the pace. S18 returned Blaze over 1000 yards along with 6 touchdowns; not his best year, but definitely the best season at the position. S19 saw him regress just under 1000 yards, but he bumped his touchdown total up to 9, leading the entire position with both yards and touchdowns. S20 was still a good year, with over 1000 yards and 4 TDs, but a player had 1400 yards and 7 TDs at fullback and thus Blaze would have to settle for 2nd. S21 was the only year of Blaze's career where he missed the Pro Bowl, but I honestly think this was a case of bad awards voting: he was IMO the 2nd best TE in the league that year with 1100 yards and 3 touchdowns, but they gave a player the Pro Bowl over him for having 6 touchdowns, never mind that they had nearly 500 less yards on the season. Just a really, really bad vote here; this isn't even a case where Yards Per Reception would trick someone into thinking that the other guy was more efficient because Blaze had better stats! S22, the final year of Blaze's career, saw him get picked up by the expansion Sailfish, be listed at TE and not FB for the first time since S14, and...honestly be kind of bad; he only had 338 yards and 1 TD, which was 5th in yards, although somehow only 3 TEs had more touchdowns. Of the 9 players listed at TE, Blaze was the 6th best by my estimation. Incredibly, this was a season where 4 of the 5 better players were all in the ASFC, meaning that Blaze made the Pro Bowl over, at minimum, 2 better ASFC TEs. And somehow deserved it!
It's incredible to have a 9 year career and deserve the Pro Bowl every single season of that career. Granted, Blaze was absolutely helped out by the weakness of the TE position in S14, plus that and one of the most incredible biases of talent level towards one conference in S22, but still; the one missed Pro Bowl of Blaze's career was completely undeserved. Add that to the 3 TEotY awards and Blaze blatantly is one of the best TEs of all time and belongs in the Hall. But he does have problems; he's one of the worst blockers among TEs in the Hall, and while his peak is among the highest in league history at the position, with 1100 yards and 11 TDs in a 13 game season, he also had a number of bad seasons or mediocre ones, and he wasn't particularly consistent at getting TDs; nearly half of his seasons had 3 or less! He's definitely one of the greatest ever, though, and single parts of his legacy would be enough to likely make the Hall, much less all of it together.
RAYMOND VANS
User: @karl
AZ (S13 - S19)
BAL (S20 - S22)
LB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
-------------
1x Ultimus Champion (S16)
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AWARDS
1x Defensive Player of the Year (S16)
2x Linebacker of the Year (S16, S17)
6x Pro Bowler (S14, S15, S16, S17, S18, S19)
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Important Records
SEASON RECORDS
#25 Season DEF Sack (S16 - 19.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#7 Game DEF Tck (S13W13 - 17.00)
#19 Game DEF Tck (S15W12 - 16.00)
#9 Game DEF Sack (S16W2 - 4.00)
#11 Game DEF FF (S20W5 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#18 Career DEF Sack (9.00)
#17 Career DEF FF (2.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#1 Season DEF Sack (S16 - 5.00)
#2 Season DEF FF (S18 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#23 Game DEF Tck (S16W14 - 13.00)
#17 Game DEF Sack (S16W14 - 2.00)
#17 Game DEF Sack (S16W15 - 2.00)
#17 Game DEF Sack (S17W15 - 2.00)
Overall Statistics: 1017 tackles, 19 TFLs, 76 sacks, 105 PDs, 6 INTs, 14 FFs, 5 FRs
Vans wasn't great all too often in his career, indeed a large portion of the reason he made the Hall comes down to a magical S16 run where he won the DPOY (as the 2nd best defensive player, this was the dumb Grithead year as a reminder), and then on top of that managed to equal a record of sacks in a single postseason that is even to this day only shared by S3 Jayce Tuck as what was considered one of the worst teams in the postseason managed to go all the way and win the Ultimus for the first time since the Multi days. His best marks are him being 11th in PDs for LBs, and being 30th in tackles with over 1000, despite playing only 123 games; nobody played less games and got more tackles.
I'll get to S16 in more detail later, though; Vans began his career in S13 with a season that did not garner many stats outside of leading the league in tackles. S14 was much better, with still over 100 tackles, 10 PDs, 8 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles. I think he was the 3rd or 4th best LB on the year, and an easy pro bowler. S15 was a mix of his first 2 seasons, he had 130 tackles this time, 10 PDs, 6 sacks, and 5 TFLs. It was probably good enough to be a lower Pro Bowl year. S16 was his peak, despite being one of 2 seasons where he posted under 100 tackles: He had 19 sacks, which led the league by 5, 13 PDs, 2/3 FF/FRs, a pick, and a defensive touchdown. And he was only 2 tackles off of 100 anyways. Easy LBotY, which would probably be up for the title of best defensive player in a time period with less broken safeties. Thankfully for Vans, this year was the Most Broken Safety year, so he got the DPOY as the 2nd best defensive player. As mentioned, he completely went off in the playoffs this season and helped lead his team to the Ultimus.
S17 wasn't quite as good, he merely led the entire league by 1 sack instead of 5, but he still led every other LB by 5, managed a gargantuan 23 PDs, added on a FF and a pick, and was yet again the best LB in the league by far. Again, in a different period of time that might have been enough for a DPOY. Hilariously enough Vans was only 1 PD off of the league lead in the Broken Safety time period. S18 was nowhere near as good, he was only a top 4 LB that year with his only other season that had under 100 tackles. Vans' final Pro Bowl season, S19, was great again. He was second in sacks, albeit with only 9, had 11 PDs, and had an INT+TD on top of that. He was the 4th or 5th best LB on the year and an easy Pro Bowler yet again.
S20 was honestly kind of bad, with the only good parts being 122 tackles and a 3/1 FF/FR statline. He was maybe a bottom 5 LB on the season. S21, the last season of his career, was much better, with 7 sacks, 16 PDs, and 2 forced fumbles; one of the better LB seasons to miss out on a Pro Bowl that year. S22 is what I have to assume was a glitch, the ghost of a former player showing up? He played 3 games and had 4 tackles and a sack.
Vans doesn't have many stats that stand out, it's really just tackles and PDs. He wasn't particularly lucky in terms of getting picks, either; if he had been he could have gotten more LBotYs than he actually got. As is, he's mainly here for a pair of seasons where he wasn't merely the best LB in the league, he was the best LB in the league by a massive distance, and helped lead an underdog team to an Ultimus. Vans isn't an all time great LB, although he certainly could have been with a longer career and/or a more favorable time period where being the best LB by far twice would have meant 2 DPOY, but he was the best LB by far over his peak, and definitely deserves the Hall as a result. The only 3 seasons he missed the Pro Bowl were his rookie year and the last 2 years of his career; there's been much worse in the Hall already.
JAMES BISHOP
User: @Bwestfield
COL (S12 - S23)
WR
Unanimous Inductee? YES
-------------
1x Ultimus Champion (S22)
-------------
AWARDS
1x Offensive Player of the Year (S15)
1x Wide Receiver of the Year (S15)
5x Pro Bowler (S12, S14, S15, S19, S22)
-------------
Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#24 Career Rec Yds (11469.00)
#15 Career Rec Avg (16.43)
#23 Career ST KR (227.00)
#1 Career ST KRLng (108.00)
#8 Career ST KR_TD (3.00)
-------------
SEASON RECORDS
#1 Season ST KRLng (S15 - 108.00)
#4 Season ST KRAvg (S20 - 41.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#6 Game ST KR (S13W9 - 7.00)
#6 Game ST KR (S15W6 - 7.00)
#5 Game ST KRYds (S13W9 - 249.00)
#1 Game ST KRLng (S15W10 - 108.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#10 Career Rec Avg (18.05)
#16 Career ST KR (18.00)
#15 Career ST KRYds (513.00)
#3 Career ST KRLng (105.00)
#3 Career ST KR_TD (1.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#5 Season ST KR (S20 - 9.00)
#3 Season ST KRYds (S20 - 328.00)
#3 Season ST KRLng (S20 - 105.00)
#13 Season AllPurpose Yds (S20 - 512.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#15 Game Rec Avg (S19W14 - 36.50)
#22 Game Rec Avg (S20W15 - 34.50)
#13 Game ST KR (S20W14 - 5.00)
#2 Game ST KRYds (S20W14 - 245.00)
#3 Game ST KRLng (S20W14 - 105.00)
#10 Game ST KRAvg (S20W14 - 49.00)
#7 Game AllPurpose Yds (S20W14 - 291.00)
Overall Statistics: 698 receptions, 11,469 yards, 72 touchdowns
Bishop is 24th in yards, and T-42nd in touchdowns. Which feels REALLY weird to me just looking at his season by season stats. I'm guessing there is no other Wide Receiver who made the Hall with as many seasons played with over 1000 yards as seasons where they had under 1000 yards. Bishop began his career with a strong season; over 1000 yards and 7 touchdowns meant he made, and deserved, the Pro Bowl in the first season of his career, albeit he was something like the 7th best receiver. S13 was a significant regression, 881 yards and 3 TDs, but S14 saw Bishop return to the Pro Bowl, and get just over 1200 yards in the process! With only 8 TDs, he was still only the 7th best receiver on the season, but was still a deserving Pro Bowler.
S15 is the year that made Bishop's Hall of Fame status; he led the league in yards with 1369, had 11 touchdowns (2 off the lead and the player with more had 300 less yards), and was easily the WRotY. Both of these marks were career highs, and the real question is...did this deserve OPOY? I don't quite think so; Marquise Brown had 2000 scrimmage yards and 18 touchdowns while rushing for 4.5 yards per carry. He ran for over 100 yards per game at 4.5 yards per carry, those are more OPOY numbers in my book than Bishop's. I think Bishop's strongest argument is that his own QB was awful, but I don't feel like those sorts of arguments are often used, even if it is impressive that Bishop caught over half of his QB's touchdowns.
Bishop would not make the Pro Bowl for quite a while after that; he averaged 900 yards and 5 touchdowns over S16 and S17. Bishop got back over 1000 yards in S18, and got 9 TDs, but he was still about the 10th best WR on the year and deservedly missed the Pro Bowl. S19 was actually a significantly worse season, albeit still over 1000 yards, with only 6 touchdowns and even less yards. This, however, was a worse season for WRs in general, so this year Bishop was the 8th best WR, albeit still the 5th best in his conference. Either 5 WRs made the Pro Bowl in each conference, in a 5 team conference, or Bishop didn't deserve the Pro Bowl here. 5 other NSFC receivers had more yards, and the only one with a single less touchdown had him beat by over 100 yards.
S20 was basically the same season, barely over 1000 yards, 7 TDs as opposed to 6, the 8th best WR in the league and the 5th best in his conference, although this time he missed the Pro Bowl as he should have the year prior. S21 was a bad year, he fell under 900 yards and only had 3 touchdowns. Bishop made his final Pro Bowl in S22, but this was in general a bad year for WRs; he still had just under 900 yards, although he had 6 touchdowns, but this was a mark that made him the 7th best WR in the league, and arguably the 2nd best WR in his conference! S23 was an unceremonious final year as the 5th option on his team, with 332 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Bishop really, really conflicts me. His overall TD stats are good, but not excellent. His yardage stats are great, but he got those stats by being a good WR year after year. His peak is astronomically low, even for a 14 game season; he's T-141st in touchdowns and T-173rd in yards, and had been beaten in both of those marks a few dozen times even at that point in league history. So his peak isn't great, and neither is his consistency; I think he deserved 4/12 Pro Bowls over his career, and even if you have him making 5, that's still not great. And any argument about Bishop being consistent takes a massive hit in my eyes when you see that he only got over 1000 yards 6 times, and only got over 1100 yards twice. He was more consistent with touchdowns, but still wasn't amazing. And that peak is the single year where I have him as better than the 7th best WR on the season.
Suffice to say, especially considering I have questions about his OPOY and problems with one of his 5 Pro Bowls, I'm not sure he should have made the Hall. Basically, if I look at Johnny Blaze Jr and am not sure if he should make the Hall today (I think he should but I see the argument against him) then Bishop to me looks like a significantly worse version than Johnny Blaze Jr today. Maybe Bishop makes the Hall, but the fact that he was unanimous confuses me. He doesn't even have the argument of not having played a ton of games as many players of the time did, because he ended up playing 163!
Honestly, I could lie by telling the truth and say that a set of years this good and not great definitely don't belong in the Hall when you consider that he always had a pair of Hall of Famers throwing to him for his entire career. As is, I don't like a career that wasn't consistent and wasn't even particularly good for the time. A single time as a top 5 receiver is really bad in my book.
THORIAN SKARSGARD
User: @MrStennett
OCO (S13 - S23)
CHI (S20 - S22)
DT
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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4x Ultimus Champion (S13, S17, S18, S19)
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AWARDS
2x Defensive Lineman of the Year (S14, S16)
6x Pro Bowler (S13, S14, S15, S16, S17, S18)
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Important Records
POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#6 Career DEF Sack (13.00)
#2 Career DEF Sfty (1.00)
#17 Career DEF FF (2.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season DEF Sack (S17 - 3.00)
#23 Season DEF Sack (S18 - 3.00)
#1 Season DEF Sfty (S22 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#17 Game DEF Sack (S17W14 - 2.00)
#17 Game DEF Sack (S18W16 - 2.00)
#1 Game DEF Sfty (S22W15 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 476 tackles, 15 TFLs, 102 sacks, 2 safeties, 9 FF/2 FR
Among DTs, Skarsgard is 17th in tackles, 5th in sacks, T-6th in safeties, and T-20th in FFs in only 149 games. Skarsgard is probably the 2nd best sack getter at DT all time, behind only Dan Miller, and he was in a significantly harder league to get sacks in than Miller was. Skarsgard came right out of the gate making the Pro Bowl, with a not great season (7 sacks and 2 TFLs) that was still nevertheless the 2nd best DT season on the year, tied for the lead in Sacks at the position. S14 saw Thorian get 14 sacks and 2 TFLs and definitely be the best DT on the year, winning a deserved Positional Excellency Award. S15 was a bit of a step back, with 12 sacks and no TFLs, although he did get a forced fumble. He was by far the 2nd best DT on the season.
S16 was Skarsgard's other Positional Excellency award, and there's not really an argument against him deserving it this time either; he got 11 sacks (led DLinemen again), 2 TFLs, forced a fumble, led DTs in tackles, and added a safety on top of it all. Definitely the best DL and his second award. S17 was around the same level; it was his 2nd 14 sack season, but he missed out on TFLs, the forced fumble, and had significantly less sacks, although he still got the safety. Overall he was definitely the best DT on the season yet again, with a 4 sack lead over anyone else, but missed out on the positional excellency award because he was also fighting against DEs. S18 saw Skarsgard yet again be the 2nd best DT on the season, basically matching the best DT blow for blow with 10 sacks and a TFL but losing out due to 1 FR and 5 tackles for the best DT.
Skarsgard entered the league and was immediately the best or 2nd best player at his position for 6 straight years, being the best player 3 times and getting 2 positional excellency awards in the process, but he would never make a Pro Bowl again. He was the 5th best DT in S19, just barely missing out on double digit sacks for the first time since his rookie season. In S20, Skarsgard was 5th again by my count, but only managed 7 sacks, being saved a bit by a FF/FR. S21 saw Skarsgard get exceedingly unlucky; he was arguably the 3rd best DT in the entire league and had the T-3rd most sacks, with 8 sacks, 4 TFLs, and a 2/1 FF/FR statline, but the two people with more sacks than him were in his conference. Honestly, there's an argument for Skarsgard to just flat out be better than one of them; a player with 10 sacks, 1 TFL, but no FF/FR is in my opinion worse. I think I'd give it to Skarsgard, TFLs are a little more than half as important as sacks, and 2 FFs/1 FR is significantly better than the 1 sack in the other guy's favor once you take that into account.
That was Skarsgard's last great season, though; the last 2 seasons of Skarsgard's career saw 3 TFLs and 10 sacks combined, albeit 3 FFs. Neither were close to making the Pro Bowl, but Skarsgard had already sealed his status as a Hall of Famer long before S22 and S23. A 6 season streak as a top 2 player at your position is extremely impressive in my book, and Skarsgard has the hardware to belong in the Hall, plus extremely impressive stats for the time; everyone with more sacks at his position not named Dan Miller came much later and also played significantly more games. Moreover, Skarsgard's hardware is lower than it should be due to both the sometimes overly restrictive award system of the time and due to what I feel was an incorrect Pro Bowl vote. Skarsgard overall played for 11 seasons, should have made the Pro Bowl 7 times, was the 5th best player at the position and thus first one out twice more, and was the best player at his position overall 3 separate times. There's not a position in the league where that series of placements doesn't make the Hall of Fame, and that's leaving out his sacking prowess.
COOTER BIGSBY
User: @timeconsumer
YKW (S15 - S23)
QB
Unanimous Inductee? YES
-------------
1x Ultimus Champion (S23)
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AWARDS
1x Offensive Rookie of the Year (S15)
2x Most Valuable Player (S18, S22)
1x Quarterback of the Year (S22)
7x Pro Bowler (S16, S17, S18, S19, S21, S22, S23)
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Important Statistics
CAREER RECORDS
#13 Career Pass Yds (34619.00)
#14 Career Pass TD (235.00)
#19 Career Pass Int (108.00)
#16 Career Pass Att (4845.00)
#2 Career Rush Avg (5.18)
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SEASON RECORDS
#7 Season Rush Avg (S17 - 7.53)
#12 Season Rush Avg (S22 - 7.31)
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GAME RECORDS
#17 Game Pass Yds (S16W6 - 484.00)
#21 Game Pass Avg (S18W10 - 13.58)
#5 Game Pass Att (S16W4 - 67.00)
#23 Game Pass Att (S16W11 - 62.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#3 Career Pass Yds (3893.00)
#4 Career Pass TD (23.00)
#6 Career Pass Int (10.00)
#3 Career Pass Cmp (303.00)
#3 Career Pass Att (545.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#21 Season Pass Yds (S21 - 783.00)
#22 Season Pass Yds (S19 - 767.00)
#12 Season Pass TD (S21 - 6.00)
#8 Season Pass Int (S20 - 4.00)
#20 Season Pass Int (S18 - 3.00)
#17 Season Pass Rat (S16 - 112.89)
#23 Season Pass Cmp (S21 - 62.00)
#12 Season Pass Att (S21 - 116.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#17 Game Pass Yds (S19W15 - 395.00)
#20 Game Pass Avg (S19W15 - 10.13)
#23 Game Pass Avg (S20W15 - 9.97)
#19 Game Pass Att (S19W16 - 53.00)
#8 Game Rush Avg (S23W18 - 17.00)
#24 Game Rush Avg (S19W16 - 11.00)
Overall Statistics: 34,619 yards, 235 TDs, 108 INTs, 7.15 y/a, 86.43 passer rating
You may notice I did not include Bigsby's rushing statistics despite his status as the rusher with the 2nd highest yards per carry ever; this is because he ran for less than 150 times his entire career, and is currently outside the top 30 in attempts for a QB. The most rushing attempts he had in a season was 25, and the most rushing attempts he had in a season where he looked like the QB rusher in the old sim he looks like from his ypc was 21. Bigsby is, as far as I'm aware, the greatest gunslinger QB of all time, and he certainly acted like it! Overall, his attempts are lower ranked than his yards and touchdowns, and higher ranked than his INTs, which is a good start. As far as efficiency is concerned, Bigsby wasn't concerned. He's 36th in yards per attempt, and a pretty awful 54th in passer rating.
For the first time since literally King Bronko, I'm covering a player who started their career at QB who didn't immediately stink in their rookie season! He wasn't good, he only had 23 TDs and 13 INTs, and he put up an 80.67 passer rating, but that's the best passer rating any Hall of Fame QB put up in their rookie year thus far. S16 saw Bigsby make the Pro Bowl as the 4th best QB; he had the most yards, the 3rd most TDs, and the 2nd most INTs, but he also threw the ball almost 100 times more than anyone else. Bigsby's passer rating of 90.27 was 4th in a year where there was 1 all time great passing season, 2 great passing seasons, 2 good passing seasons (Cooter lies here), and one other season above 80 passer rating.
S17 saw Cooter return to the Pro Bowl in a season I really, REALLY don't like. It had a passer rating of 80.33 and a y/a of 6.38; it had 31 TDs and 15 INTs, which is an OK mark, but it also came on the most attempts in the entire league. Bigsby was 2nd in yards, T-1st in touchdowns, and T-1st in INTs, but he was 6th of 10 in passer rating. I could make an argument Cooter was the 4th best QB in his conference, and I believe that argument a hell of a lot more than I do the argument he was 2nd best. Yes, I personally prefer the person with less than 2500 yards if he has a 14 point higher passer rating, and even if you don't, there's someone else with much closer volume and a passer rating 2 points higher. 6th of 10, with a bad passer rating in my book, even for the time. Bad vote.
S18 does not continue to change my feelings on Bigsby getting awards he didn't deserve, as this season he was...actually great! 31 TDs, 13 INTs, 7.64 yards per attempt, and a 91.5 passer rating! The best volume in the league, with the T-1st touchdowns, the most yards, and the T-5th most INTs. Cooter put up the 4th highest passer rating in the league that season, and he was only 0.2 points behind one of the guys above him (who had significantly lower volume)! Yes, Bigsby was undoubtedly the 3rd best QB this season. This is why he made the Pro Bowl but didn't win the QBotY. Indeed, the two better QBs than him shared the QBotY award together that year.
Bigsby winning the MVP this season was the equivalent of the 1995 Oscars voting: 3 great seasons, but the worst one of the bunch somehow came away with Best Picture.
S19 saw Cooter put up a season that I don't think was quite as clear of a robbery as the last 2; Bigsby had the highest volume in the league passing again, with the most yards and TDs while being T-2nd in picks. His passer rating of 87.18 was at minimum good for the time and 4th highest on the season, and Bigsby, while not having an argument to be in the top 2, was arguably the 3rd best QB on the year; his competition had 800 less yards on 100 less attempts, but a 2.4 TD/INT ratio compared to Bigsby being just under 2, and a passer rating that was about 3.5 points higher. This was also a year where that player had a bit of rushing to his name, and was both more productive and more efficient than Bigsby. It's close, but I'll give it to Bigsby, and either way I can finally in S20 talk about Bigsby without wondering if he got an award he didn't deserve in the process! Because S20 was a mediocre season with 18 TDs, 9 picks, only the 4th most yards in the league, and an 83.89 passer rating, 3rd lowest in the league. It did not make the Pro Bowl and did not deserve to.
S21 had Cooter return to the Pro Bowl, with a 90.62 passer rating (4th) and the most yards in the league by 300, despite only throwing for the 4th most attempts! He was weirdly mediocre on TDs, though, with only 20 (8th in the league!) and 7 picks (T-5th). Still, due to a 7.75 yards per attempt Cooter was arguably the 4th best QB in the league again; his biggest competition ends up being a guy with 6 more total touchdowns and about 100 more yards when considering both rushing and passing, but was astronomically less efficient with the ball; he was about a yard worse per pass. I think I'd hand it to Cooter again. S22 was the one season of Cooter's career where he won QBotY (and thus the one season of his career where giving him the MVP was possibly justified), and while it wasn't an all time great season or anything, it was pretty good! Bigsby had the highest passer rating of his career (93.59), and led the league in that category for the first time. He was merely 3rd in yards, but he was 1st in touchdowns with 29, had only 8 picks which was excellent and middle of the pack, and only had the 4th most attempts again! Easily the QBotY, and with nobody else really standing out (except maybe for a couple of CBs) a worthwhile MVP, albeit this isn't exactly the greatest season all time. S23 saw Cooter take a monkey off of his back, which I will go over in the next paragraph, be the 4th best QB again, and deserve the Pro Bowl yet again. He had the 2nd most yards and the 4th highest passer rating, although he had a kind of bad 21/14 TD/INT ratio.
Bigsby gives me a lot to talk about, and I'm not done talking just yet! Cooter also happens to be the Jim Kelly of the ISFL, losing in 4 straight Ultimuses before finally winning one in S23 on his way out. You might expect these consistent multigame playoff runs to give Bigsby a ton of volume in the playoffs, and you'd be correct: Cooter has the 3rd most playoff attempts all time. And you might expect that getting to the Ultimus 5 times would give him pretty good playoff stats, or that having a 1-4 record in said Ultimuses would give him pretty bad stats. Both are wrong! Bigsby, volume-wise, is 3rd in yards, 4th in touchdowns, and T-6th in INTs. He's 32nd/68 in yards per attempt, and 35th in passer rating; his middling efficiency in the regular season carries over to numbers that are basically the same in the playoffs.
I have two questions when it comes to Bigsby; how much credit do I give for being the 4th best QB in a 10 team league? Because that happened 3 separate times, along with a 4th time where he was the 4th best QB in a 12 team league. He also made a Pro Bowl he didn't deserve (and if he did deserve it he got it for being the 4th best QB in a 10 team league yet again) and got an MVP that I wish to scrub from the record books entirely. Does a 6 time Pro Bowler over 9 seasons deserve the Hall of Fame? Maybe, and the 1 deserved MVP and year that he was the best QB in the league do help put him over the top in my estimation. But he also spent a ton of time just hanging around the fringes of the Pro Bowl spots. It is tremendously hard for me to argue a player deserved a Hall of Fame berth when they had a single year in their career that would have made either All Pro team, especially when they spent the vast majority of their career in a 10 team league, with much less competition. When doing the All Time Draft a year or so ago, I think I ended up calling Bigsby the worst QB drafted, or the 2nd worst. And the more I look at his resume the more I'm convinced that Bigsby grades out as one of the worse QBs in the Hall.
MO BERRY
User: @Frick_Nasty
COL (S15 - S23)
LB
Unanimous Inductee? YES
-------------
1x Ultimus Champion (S22)
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AWARDS
1x Defensive Rookie of the Year (S15)
4x Linebacker of the Year (S18, S20, S21, S22)
3x Defensive Player of the Year (S20, S21, S22)
8x Pro Bowler (S16, S17, S18, S19, S20, S21, S22, S23)
-------------
Important Records
GAME RECORDS
#11 Game DEF FF (S21W7 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#12 Career DEF PD (17.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#18 Season DEF PD (S20 - 6.00)
#18 Season DEF PD (S21 - 6.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#2 Game DEF PD (S21W14 - 6.00)
Overall Statistics: 886 tackles, 11 TFLs, 88 sacks, 126 PDs, 8 INTs, 2 safeties, 1 TD, 13 FFs/5 FRs
Mo Berry played very little in the ISFL, only 121 games due to playing a 9 season career, the majority of which was in the 13 game era. Overall, he ranks 57th in tackles, T-35th in sacks, 3rd in PDs, T-61st in picks, T-21st in safeties, T-79th in FFs, and T-96th in FRs. Overall, terrible stats outside of Sacks and PDs, but considering that all of these are in 121 games, the tackle stat becomes more average, and the sack and PD stats become amazing.
Berry did not make the Pro Bowl his first season; in fact, despite winning Rookie of the Year I'd argue he was a bottom half LB in the league with only 2 sacks, 2 TFLs, and 6 PDs all season with 114 tackles being a good mark but not making up for how bad he was in every other area. S16 was Berry's actual first good season, with 6 sacks and 21 PDs. Not a particularly outstanding season, he only had 81 tackles and didn't have a turnover, I'd call it the 8th best LB year, but good enough to make the Pro Bowl. S17 was more well rounded; Berry got back over 100 tackles, 6 sacks, 13 PDs, and most importantly finally forced a Turnover, with a 3/1 FF/FR ratio. I'd call it the 4th or 5th best LB season on the year, and yet another easy Pro Bowl. S18 saw Berry earn his first positional excellency award, as well as his first season with double digit sacks: 10 sacks, 18 PDs, 2 FFs, a pick, a safety, and a TD. Easily deserving of LBotY.
S19 saw Berry be at minimum the 2nd best LB on the year, if not the single best. Berry had 9 sacks, 11 PDs, 2 picks, a safety, and 2 forced fumbles. When voting time came around, Berry lost out to another player with 3 more sacks, 2 more PDs, 11 more tackles, and 2 more fumbles recovered, which I don't think is better than the 2 picks and safety that Berry got over him. Well, it's not like Berry was about to be lacking in awards; Mo Berry spent the next 3 seasons winning LBotY and DPOY. S20 in specific had 93 tackles, 14 sacks, 1 TFL, and 13 PDs. Overall, a good not great season, especially considering the only thing even tangentially related to a turnover was a single recovered fumble. I'm honestly not sure Berry deserved the LBotY this season; someone else had 4 less sacks, 4 less tackles, but forced a fumble and had a pick. And considering there was a CB who had 22 PDs and 5 picks? I feel that Berry didn't deserve the DPOY.
S21 saw Berry significantly improve from his previous DPOY season, with 16 sacks, 12 PDs, and most importantly, a pick and a 3/2 mark with FF/FRs. For the first time since S18, I have no complaints with the awards given to Berry, and that means he deserved both the LBotY and the DPOY he received. Berry put together another amazing season with 11 sacks, 14 PDs, 3 picks, and a forced fumble. He was yet again easily the best LB on the year, although this time I'm not entirely sure if he should have been DPOY; a CB had 6 total turnovers (5 INTs, 1/1 FF/FR) and a defensive touchdown, which might have deserved it instead, but Berry wasn't an undeserving season by any stretch. Finally, Berry managed a 4th straight season with double digit sacks and PDs, with 14 sacks, 18 PDs, a pick, and a 2/1 FF/FR ratio. While this was about as good as the other peak seasons of Berry's career, this time it was a 16 game season and as such Berry was definitely not the best LB. I think he was either the 2nd or 3rd best, though.
Mo Berry's awards are interesting, because there's seasons where he got awards I really don't think he should have, and seasons where he didn't get awards I think he should have. Overall in my estimation he ends up with 5 or 6 straight seasons as a top 2 player at his position, with 3 seasons where I think he was the single best. Even if I ignore the DPOYs that's an easy Hall of Fame career, and considering there's 1 DPOY he definitely deserved that more than seals it, plus another he has a great argument for, Berry was absolutely amazing. Easy Hall of Famer and by far the best LB of his generation.
CORVO HAVRAN
User: @Raven
BAL (S16 - S21)
HON (S22 - S23)
QB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
-------------
AWARDS
1x Most Valuable Player (S17)
3x Quarterback of the Year (S17, S18, S19)
1x Performance of the Year (S21)
1x Offensive Player of the Year (S21)
4x Pro Bowler (S17, S18, S19, S21)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#25 Career Rush Lg (76.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#1 Season Rush Avg (S16 - 10.70)
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GAME RECORDS
#20 Game Pass Pct (S17W6 - 0.88)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#13 Career Pass Yds (2585.00)
#13 Career Pass TD (15.00)
#11 Career Pass Int (9.00)
#16 Career Pass Cmp (195.00)
#11 Career Pass Att (358.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#3 Season Pass Yds (S17 - 984.00)
#3 Season Pass TD (S17 - 7.00)
#8 Season Pass Int (S18 - 4.00)
#18 Season Pass Cmp (S17 - 64.00)
#3 Season Pass Att (S17 - 129.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#25 Game Pass Yds (S17W16 - 376.00)
#6 Game Pass Int (S18W15 - 4.00)
#24 Game Pass Att (S17W16 - 52.00)
Overall Statistics: 26,782 yards, 173 TDs, 73 INTs, 7.21 y/a, 87.08 passer rating
Havran has the 49th most pass attempts, is 49th in yards, 45th in TDs, and only 61st in INTs. He's 31st in Yards per Attempt, and 50th in passer rating. Overall he kind of functions as an inverse of Bigsby, with much less volume but notably better efficiency. He also has less awards, but we'll see why that's very misleading as we go year by year.
Havran wasn't good in his rookie S16 season, but he was at least not record shatteringly bad like a few other QBs around this time; he had a 76.43 passer rating, which sucks, but he at least kept a TD/INT ratio above 1 with 14 TDs and 11 INTs. S17 was Havran's breakout, and he was excellent: he led the league in passer rating with 95.5, tied for the lead in touchdowns with 31, and only threw 11 picks. Only Joliet Christ was anywhere close in terms of QBs, and in my opinion Havran was better. There is a slight argument that Havran should have lost MVP to Grithead being only slightly worse than his peak and forcing 7 turnovers, but Havran at the very least should have waltzed to an OPOY this year so I'm not too upset about it. S18 was a bit of a step back from Havran, as he only threw 28 TDs with 9 picks, and only had a 92.05 passer rating. Still, Havran was in my opinion the 2nd best QB on the year...behind Andrew Reese, who managed 30 TDs, 12 picks, and a 94.9 passer rating. Havran did have 400 more yards, but this was also somewhat cut into by Reese rushing the ball more at 5 yards per carry (both ran very well, but Havran had 20 less attempts). In my opinion this is a year where Havran was the 2nd best QB in the league, not the first his award would have you believe. Granted, that award was tied, so it's not like that's too much of a deal...and this was a year with really bad awards voting. If I were to do it myself, I'd give MVP to Andrew Reese, the guy who shared the QBotY award with Havran, give OPOY to Havran, and leave both people who actually got those awards without them.
S19 was Havran's 3rd straight season winning QBotY, this time tied with Franklin Armstrong. But this time, I think Havran should have been the outright winner of the award. On the year, Armstrong slightly outgained Havran when combining rushing and passing, with 3922 total yards to 3749. But this was on 543 pass+rush attempts to Havran's own mark of 498, and they had the exact same touchdown total (and Armstrong even threw an extra pick!) Overall, Armstrong produced 7.22 yards per play (counting rushes and passes) while Havran had a significantly higher 7.53. I'm guessing absolutely nobody was doing the math on this, just noticed that Havran didn't rush efficiently while Armstrong did, and that Armstrong ended up with more total yards and the same touchdowns, but overall I think Havran was the better QB outright this season...which means that Havran should have won the MVP that Armstrong did in S19.
S20 was a significant down year for Havran; he only had an 86 passer rating, put up 20 TDs to 10 picks, and was definitely not a top 4 QB on the year. This was hampered even more by Havran rushing a decent chunk this year (57 attempts, the most in his entire career) for only 2.58 yards per carry, while plenty of other people were tearing up the stat sheets running and passing. S21, on the other hand, saw Havran return to form and to the Pro Bowl. He was absolutely excellent, with 3333 yards in a 13 game season, a gargantuan 32 TDs, and only 4 INTs. This 8.0 TD/INT ratio, this almost perfect season was only beaten out by a handful of other seasons to date: Mike Boss at his peak in S6, Gambino's back to back masterclasses in S14 and S15, Gus T.T. Showbiz's own crown jewel of his career, and S21 Franklin Armstrong. Unfortunately, S21 Franklin Armstrong came at the exact same time and so this is arguably the single best QB season ever to not be the best QB season that year.
The last 2 seasons of Havran were...bad. Apocalyptic, even. Corvo went over to the expansion Honolulu Hahalua, and was asked to lead a bad team. This did not go well. S22 had 8 TDs, 9 picks, under 2500 yards, 6.56 yards per attempt, and a 75.2 passer rating; the only worse players were rookies or played half the season. S23 was amazingly even worse. There was more volume, and the TD/INT ratio was greater than 1 with 13/11, but Havran was still under 3000 yards in a now 16 game season, and had attempted nearly 500 passes in the process; his yards per attempt this year were 5.99, a bottom 50 mark in league history out of nearly 600 seasons at QB. Among Hall of Fame QBs, this is the 7th worst yards per attempt ever, and it's 8th worst in passer rating. Havran's S16, S22, and S23 are all in the bottom 100 in terms of passer rating all time.
Havran is maybe the single most boom or bust QB in the hall; granted, part of this comes from being tasked to helm a low talent expansion team for the final 2 seasons of his career. Overall, Havran was over 95 passer rating for 3 separate seasons of his career, a mark that is outstanding for the time, with another season over 90. He also only made 4 pro bowls, albeit always as at worst the 2nd best QB on the year, and was absolutely horrendous for 3 out of his 8 years in the league. The shot in the arm for his candidacy is that his already decent awards cabinet arguably should have been better; there were 2 separate years where he was a better QB in my estimation than the QB who ended up winning MVP. He also has one of the greatest ever "2nd best" seasons with his S21. I think Havran belongs in the Hall when all is said and done, but it's hard to make the Hall when you were flat out bad for over a 3rd of your career, played very little (he played only 107 total games), and is thus also low in volume on top of that. The strength of his peak gets Havran into the Hall, and thankfully for him it's a very, very good peak.
Alright, final guy.
APOLLO REED
User: @NylarthePhoenix
OCO (S15 - S20)
BAL (S20 - S23)
RB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
-------------
3x Ultimus Champion (S17, S18, S19)
-------------
AWARDS
1x Running Back of the Year (S21)
4x Pro Bowler (S15, S17, S22, S23)
-------------
Important Records
POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#11 Career Rush Att (179.00)
#11 Career Rush Yds (739.00)
#23 Career Rush TD (5.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#24 Season Rush Att (S17 - 50.00)
#9 Season Other Sacks Allowed (S16 - 2.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#24 Game Rush Att (S17W14 - 28.00)
#22 Game Rush Yds (S17W14 - 133.00)
#12 Game Rush TD (S15W15 - 2.00)
#6 Game Other Sacks Allowed (S16W15 - 2.00)
Overall Statistics: 8,835 rushing yards, 4.35 ypc, 65 rushing touchdowns
293 receptions, 1,527 receiving yards, 10 receiving touchdowns
To be clear, that's an amazing rushing yards per carry for the old sim; it is as far as I can tell the single highest mark for a Hall of Famer, beating out Marquise Brown by 0.003. However, the rest of Reed's stats are not quite as excellent. Reed is currently 32nd in attempts, 34th in rushing yards (3rd lowest among Hall of Famers, and one of the lower ones is Darren Smallwood!), and T-42nd in rushing touchdowns (2nd lowest). Reed was one of the first RBs to have a decent chunk of their production be on the receiving end, but even with it being a decent chunk of their overall production, they do not rank that highly even if I restrict it to just Hall of Fame Old Sim RBs.
Going year by year, Reed made the pro bowl in his first season, but I'm not quite certain he deserved it. Sure, he was 5th in rushing yards across the entire league with 926, and he was T-2nd in touchdowns with 9, but he boasted the single worst yards per carry among all RB1s that year with a 4.03, and this was a year where Reed had no volume or efficiency at receiving; he boasted a 3.8 yards per reception on 8 total receptions with no touchdowns. Far from being Pro Bowl worthy, I think Reed has an argument for being the single worst RB1 in the league this year. And considering this was one of Reed's 4 Pro Bowls, that's not a good start. S16 saw Reed play significantly better; he managed slightly more yards, 11 touchdowns, and a 4.17 yards per carry in a season that had just became 1 game shorter, but this year he had the 2nd lowest yards and the 2nd worst yards per carry among RB1s again. 150 yards and a touchdown receiving weren't enough to sway things, either; this was a deserved missed Pro Bowl.
S17 saw Reed be excellent for the first time in his career: he boasted a 4.40 yards per carry, had 11 rushing touchdowns and over 1200 yards (most and 2nd most respectively) and added on 200 yards and 4 touchdowns receiving as well. Overall I think Reed was the 3rd best RB on the year behind Torenson and Shady, and thus was a deserving Pro Bowler considering Shady was the only one better than him in the same conference. There's also an argument for Jimbo, who managed an astounding 4.9 yards per carry, but completely loses out because they somehow only managed 3 touchdowns combined. And either way Reed would still be a deserving Pro Bowler regardless. S18 wasn't bad, but it wasn't great and was low volume, and it's very hard to make a Pro Bowl when you're statistically not the best rusher in your own backfield, no matter how much the other guy is taking advantage of dumb coding to make that possible. I'm not going to argue for a sub 750 yards and 5 TD season to make the Pro Bowl when it only has 4.4 yards per carry, it'd need a number north of 5 if not higher.
S19 had Reed at least be the best rusher in his own backfield, but he still had under 1000 yards, only 8 touchdowns (7 others had more) and his mark of 4.22 yards per carry was now middling at best (5 others were better, most of whom had more yards). S20 was the worst year of Reed's career, with just over 800 yards, 6 touchdowns, and under 4 yards per carry. S21, however, saw Reed return to the awards, albeit in a really interesting fashion. He completely missed the Pro Bowl, despite rushing for over 1000 yards and 4.80 yards per carry, probably because he only had 4 rushing touchdowns. This was also a year where Reed had 600 yards receiving on over 10 yards per catch, and 5 touchdowns. Reed was the single best RB this year and it's not particularly hard for me to say that. Suffice to say that I think a guy who managed only 4 yards per carry definitely was worse and would probably deserve to miss the Pro Bowl in exchange for Reed.
S22 basically saw Reed force me to put my money where my mouth was about Jimbo in S17: 4.87 yards per carry but only 2 touchdowns on the season, and not even 1100 yards. He barely surpassed 1200 with receiving yards, and also didn't have any receiving touchdowns. Overall, I think Reed deserved the Pro Bowl but there were at least 3, maybe 4 or 5 better RBs that season, which just so happened to only have a single one in his conference. S23 was much, much worse efficiency with 4.35, but he managed 9 touchdowns on the season; overall I think Reed was the 3rd best RB this year and deserved the Pro Bowl.
Reed is interesting, considering he had multiple seasons that should have been in his prime where he was outrushed by his own QB. Overall, Reed ended up with 4 deserved Pro Bowls, making it in a year where he absolutely didn't deserve it and missing it in a year where he was the flat out best RB on the season. But I still don't think he deserved to make the Hall of Fame. Every year he didn't make the Pro Bowl saw him be a below average RB1, twice he was one of the worst RB1s, and considering how bad he ranks all time in volume, he needed something special to belong in the Hall. One season as the best RB and no season as the 2nd best is not enough for me.
According to the Hall of Fame ballot, the reason Reed got the nod was for his playoff performances, with the 4th most rushing yards and the T-1st most touchdowns. That was almost entirely because Reed was the RB for the entire Otters 4peat; he has the 11th most rushing attempts in the playoffs, has only 5 touchdowns, and is only 11th in yards. Heck, they were just wrong considering Smallwood had 6 rushing touchdowns at the time; today Reed ranks T-23rd in rushing TDs, and considering this was on a 4.13 playoff yards per carry, which even at the time was middling for the playoffs, Reed wasn't some legendary playoff performer, just a guy who managed to play RB for the Otters at their peak championship potential. Reed shouldn't have made the Hall, and he's not the only one from this era who fits that description.
RE: Every Hall of Famer, Reviewed (Part 6) - JBLAZE_THE_BOSS - 09-24-2024
Love it