I'm guessing this is literally going to be just the S38 ballot, I might be able to squeeze in the S39 one as well but I doubt it.
IMMANUEL BLACKSTONE
User: @nunccoepi
COL (S21 - S33)
DE
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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1x Ultimus Champion (S22)
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AWARDS
1x Defensive Rookie of the Year (S21)
3x Defensive End of the Year (S22, S23, S24)
7x Pro Bowler (S21, S22, S23, S24, S25, S26, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#3 Career DEF TFL (116.00)
#19 Career DEF Sfty (3.00)
#1 Career DEF Blk P (2.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#11 Season DEF TFL (S23 - 19.00)
#16 Season DEF TFL (S24 - 18.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#22 Game DEF TFL (S21W8 - 4.00)
#22 Game DEF TFL (S22W12 - 4.00)
#2 Game DEF FR (S33W11 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#1 Career DEF TFL (16.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#6 Season DEF TFL (S22 - 4.00)
#22 Season DEF TFL (S23 - 3.00)
Overall Statistics: 526 tackles, 116 TFLs, 88 sacks, 3 safeties, 11/11 FF/FRs, 2 blocked punts
It feels a little strange to be opening this with Blackstone, a great player who I don't think could possibly not deserve to be unanimous, but was definitely not the most high profile of these inductions. Part of that had to do with his position, DEs in the sim haven't been high profile since the time when Jayce Tuck was breaking the game, and Blackstone in and of himself has massive stats and obviously awards. Among DEs, Blackstone is 3rd in tackles, 2nd in TFLs, 7th in sacks, T-8th in safeties, T-21st in FFs, T-3rd in FRs, and T-1st in blocked punts. To be clear, there is an argument that the only player with a better sack+TFL total among DEs is Jayce Tuck, and when bringing everything else into account I think the only other people who come into the conversation are David Moyes and Leonard Taylor. Blackstone has played the 2nd most games at DE in league history, only behind Medicinal Toblerone, but that doesn't make those stats any less overwhelming.
Blackstone came right into the league with a Pro Bowl caliber season, amassing 7 sacks, 12 TFLs, and a safety. Honestly, it might have flat out been the best DE season; Idlewyld and Taffy are the two people who compare, all are really close and thus Blackstone was close to winning DLotY in the final season of its existence. S22 was even better; sure, he only had 6 sacks this time along with his 12 TFLs and safety, but he also had 2/2 FF/FRs and a blocked punt. He won DEotY and I don't feel like there was anyone with a good argument over him. S23 had Blackstone repeat as DEotY, but this is a season I think he was only 2nd best. 7 sacks, 19 TFLs, and 2/3 FF/FRs is amazing, but Logan Noble Jr. managed 10 sacks, 18 TFLs, 1 FF, and a safety. Considering that each forced fumble is basically equivalent to half a turnover, maybe a little more, that would give Noble almost inarguably a better turnover count AND a better slate of sacks+TFLs, with both a higher number combined and a better amount of the more important sacks. Still a Pro Bowl, still a hypothetical 1st team All Pro, but I'd give it to Noble Jr over Blackstone because to be clear, FRs are not all that impressive because they're basically just down to being in the right place at the right time. I value Noble's Safety more than all of Blackstone's FRs combined.
S24 finished the 3peat for DEotYs, as Blackstone had 7 sacks, 18 TFLs, 1/2 FF/FRs, and a safety, an even better year than S23. This time, there was nobody who competed with him for the award. While that was the last positional award Blackstone got in his career, he was still a good DE in the seasons to follow: S25 saw him get 5 sacks, 17 TFLs, and a blocked punt, though with everyone else's performance on the year, I think there were a double digit number of better DEs on the season and 3 or 4 easily better players in the conference. As such I think Blackstone didn't deserve the Pro Bowl this season. S26, the last season of the old sim and the last of Blackstone's 6 straight Pro Bowls to open his career, and was basically a repeat of S25, with a forced fumble instead of a blocked punt. This was the 4th best DE season overall and thus easily deserved the Pro Bowl it got.
Blackstone did not take to the new sim very well; with only 6 sacks and 8 TFLs, a double digit number of better DEs, Blackstone was not close to making the Pro Bowl in S27. And S28 was even worse, with 5 sacks and 2 TFLs. Blackstone was one of the worst DEs in the entire league this season. S29, though, was good enough to get Blackstone back to the Pro Bowl with 13 sacks, 3 TFLs, and a FF. It's possible that if we had full DE All Pro teams instead of EDGE teams in S29, Blackstone might have made the 2nd team; he was at worst 5th, and I think I'd put him 4th overall. S30 saw another decent Blackstone season, with 10 sacks, 4 TFLs, and a FF. There were 7 or 8 better DEs on the year, so Blackstone ended up just missing out on the Pro Bowl, but it was overall a fine year that just had steep competition and lacked fumbles. That was the last year of Blackstone's career where he had an argument for being a Pro Bowler, though; S31 was mediocre at best, with just 6 sacks and 2 TFLs. There were a double digit number of better DEs that season. S32 was better, with 8 sacks, 2 TFLs, and 1/1 FF/FRs, but there were still about 10 better DE seasons. S33, Blackstone's final season, was...weird. Not good, just weird: 19 tackles, 3 sacks, 2 FFs, 3 FRs. One of the worst DEs in the league, but considering this was his final year that's not a big deal.
Blackstone overall ends up with slightly less awards in my retrospective than otherwise, though he was hit nowhere near enough to somehow fall out of the Hall of Fame conversation. I don't love his S25 Pro Bowl, I think it was due to people valuing TFLs compared to Sacks more than they should have, and I think a similar statement can be made about his S23 DEotY along with recovered fumbles. In terms of awards he missed out on, I think he should have gotten a 2nd team All Pro in S29 and S26, and could have gotten a 1st team All Pro in S21. Thinking about it more I'm not sure that's a huge downgrade; -1 Pro Bowl, -1 DEotY, but the equivalent to 4x 1st team and 2x 2nd team is very nice. Add that to what is at minimum a top 4 statline among DEs ever and Blackstone easily deserved his status as a Unanimous Hall of Famer, even if circumstances mean he wasn't the headline act of this class.
BRUCE BUCKLEY
User: @NicholasTheGreat
AZ (S22 - S25)
YKW (S25 - S31)
BAL (S31 - S34)
OL
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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3x Ultimus Champion (S26, S28, S33)
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AWARDS
2x Offensive Lineman of the Year (S23, S26)
7x Pro Bowler (S22, S23, S24, S25, S26, S27, S28)
2x Second Team All-Pro (S28, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#2 Career Other Pancakes (1339.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#8 Season Other Pancakes (S32 - 138.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#6 Game Other Pancakes (S32W9 - 17.00)
#17 Game Other Pancakes (S29W12 - 16.00)
#17 Game Other Pancakes (S30W16 - 16.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#11 Career Other Pancakes (65.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#4 Season Other Pancakes (S28 - 25.00)
#6 Season Other Pancakes (S33 - 24.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#13 Game Other Pancakes (S28W18 - 11.00)
Overall Statistics: 1339 Pancakes, 18 Sacks Allowed
Buckley boasts the 2nd most pancakes ever, and is T-110th in sacks allowed. He has just under 75 pancakes per sack allowed, which is an above average mark among Hall of Fame OL. Buckley played part of his career in the Old Sim, about a third of it, and thus might suffer a tiny bit in terms of total pancakes. Either Buckley's stats or his awards might be enough to get him to the Hall on their own, and combined they'd make it a no brainer...assuming that they were deserved.
Buckley was the 10th best OL in his rookie S22 season with 63 pancakes and a sack allowed, which wouldn't be deserving of Pro Bowl except for the fact that I'm pretty sure he was the 3rd best non-bot OL. S23 saw Buckley put up one of the greatest old sim OL seasons ever seen up until that point, with 84 pancakes and no sacks allowed, and easily won OLotY. S24 wasn't quite as good, 82 pancakes and a sack allowed, and saw Buckley be statistically the 8th best OL on the year, though with at least 2 of them being bots and only a pair of better OL in the conference outside of that, Buckley still deserved his Pro Bowl berth. S25 had 85 pancakes and no sacks allowed, but this time it was merely the 2nd best OL season. S26 one upped that with 87 pancakes, and he deserved the OLotY award yet again.
S27, the move to the new sim, saw Buckley amass 117 pancakes, still without allowing a sack, and was the 2nd best OL on the year. S28 had Buckley make the inaugural All Pro 2nd Team, because 113 pancakes and no sacks allowed was still a great year. By the eye test it was the 5th best OL season, but its lack of penalties had it get the 3rd most votes among Tackles. Either way, an easy Pro Bowl. S29 had Buckley statistically put up the best season of his career: 130 pancakes, no sacks allowed. This was only the 2nd or 3rd best season by the quick eye test, though because it didn't avoid penalties as well as some other seasons I think I'd call it the 4th best season. As such it got unlucky and missed the Pro Bowl because 2 of the 3 better tackles were in the NSFC along with Buckley. S30 was still a great year but went without awards, as the 5th best T season and the 3rd best T season in his conference with 128 pancakes and a sack allowed.
S31, however, was when Buckley fell out of award contention. Only 107 pancakes and 4 sacks allowed meant that there were 14 better OL including multiple Centers and Guards on the quick count. He avoided penalties, but that wasn't enough to even get Buckley in the top 10. S32 saw Buckley manage 138 pancakes, but also allow 4 sacks, meaning that there were 7 better OL on the quick count, and this time Buckley was more average in penalties. Buckley managed to be in the "also receiving votes" category, but wasn't anywhere close to the Pro Bowl with at least 4 better NSFC OL. S33 continued this trend, with 114 pancakes and 3 sacks allowed, 8 better OL on the quick count, and 5 better Tackles at minimum with Buckley not even receiving votes for All Pro. S34, as expected from a 13th year OL, was bad, with 91 pancakes and 4 sacks allowed. Even in what was an all around bad year for OLinemen, Buckley was well outside the top 10 among the position.
I mean, I just covered him for the All Time OL ranking, right? Buckley's not controversial in the slightest. He has the Pro Bowls, the major awards, the stats, and deserved all of it. I don't like how nearly a full third of his career saw him rack up 3 sacks allowed per yer minimum, but that doesn't change the fact that Buckley had about 800 pancakes and 3 sacks allowed over his first 9 seasons, with 5 of those coming in the Old Sim with much lower pancake totals. Buckley is one of the greatest OL ever, and there's a significant number of HOF ballots where he'd be the single best player. It still feels weird to me that Buckley went into the Hall partly as a Hawk, when he had no awards, 1 ring, and just a bunch of mediocre at best seasons on the team, but that was his user's choice.
TATSU NAKAMURA
User: @qWest
OCO (S22 - S26)
AZ (S27 - S32)
BER (S33 - S33)
SJS (S34 - S34)
RB
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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AWARDS
3x Running Back of the Year (S24, S28, S29)
1x Offensive Performance of the Year (S28)
1x Most Valuable Player (S28)
1x Offensive Player of the Year (S29)
5x Pro Bowler (S23, S24, S27, S28, S29)
3x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29, S30)
2x Second Team All-Pro (S31, S34)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#4 Career Rush Att (3125.00)
#3 Career Rush Yds (14061.00)
#1 Career Rush TD (156.00)
#2 Career Other Sacks Allowed (42.00)
#16 Career AllPurpose Yds (20729.00)
#4 Career Scrimmage Yds (18747.00)
#16 Career Points (1110.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#5 Season Rush TD (S28 - 22.00)
#7 Season Rush TD (S29 - 21.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#14 Game Rush Yds (S28W7 - 208.00)
#8 Game Rush TD (S28W7 - 4.00)
#8 Game Rush TD (S32W2 - 4.00)
#23 Game Rec Avg (S27W5 - 57.50)
#8 Game Scrimmage Yds (S28W7 - 255.00)
#17 Game Points (S28W7 - 24.00)
#17 Game Points (S31W1 - 24.00)
#17 Game Points (S31W9 - 24.00)
#17 Game Points (S32W2 - 24.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#10 Career Rush Att (184.00)
#12 Career Rush Yds (710.00)
#25 Career AllPurpose Yds (1282.00)
#12 Career Scrimmage Yds (1135.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#11 Game Rec TD (S30W18 - 2.00)
#16 Game Scrimmage Yds (S30W18 - 178.00)
Overall Statistics: 14,061 rushing yards, 4.50 ypc, 156 rushing TDs
487 receptions, 4,686 receiving yards, 29 receiving TDs
Tatsu Nakamura has more touchdowns than anyone else in league history. He has the 4th most yards in league history. He's 45th among RBs in yards per carry despite spending a significant chunk of his career in the worse for RBs old sim, he's 21st in receiving yards and T-21st in receiving TDs despite having the exact same handicap (arguably to an even worse degree), and was the king of the RB in the greatest time period to ever play. While Jamar Lackson, Frost, and a couple other players who are going to be named later managed to eke out a Hall of Fame niche during this period, they all had to exist in Nakamura's shadow, and he cast a very, very long shadow.
Nakamura did not immediately become a candidate for the Greatest RB of all time, however. He started out sharing the backfield with Franklin Armstrong and being one of the worse RBs on the year with 800 yards, 5 TDs, and only 3.90 yards per carry, only 4 even medium usage RBs had worse marks. S23 was significantly better, Nakamura had 4.36 yards per carry, 9 TDs, and 1400 rushing yards, the most in the league. The only better RB in the entire league was Hanyadi during his MVP campaign. S24 saw Nakamura lead the entire league in rushing yards and rushing TDs, with 1200 and 12. He also had 4.12 yards per carry, which shouldn't have been enough to win RBotY by my reckoning, even considering the fact that this was a really weak year. The most efficient RBs managed 6 and 4 total touchdowns to Nakamura's 13, but they were also well over a 3rd of a yard per carry better and Nakamura was bad at receiving this year; I'd call Nakamura the 2nd best RB and give 1st to Hanyadi.
S25 saw Nakamura regress from back to back seasons as the 2nd best RB in the league, with only 900 yards and 3.81 ypc. He did tie for the league lead in rushing TDs with 12 and had a pair of receiving TDs, but was still probably the 3rd or 4th worst RB1 in the league. S26 was the last year of the old sim, and Nakamura was significantly better than the year prior, with 4.19 yards per carry, just under 950 yards and 13 TDs. I think Nakamura was the 5th best RB in the league, and actually deserved to make the Pro Bowl as the 3rd best RB in the conference. Let's just say that there were some really bad pro bowl votes this season...
S27 saw the move to the new sim, and immediately Nakamura started putting together all time great seasons. Nearly 1600 rushing yards on 5 yards per carry, 15 rushing touchdowns, along with another 400 yards and 3 touchdowns receiving. As discussed in the Frost section in Part 9, I think Nakamura was slightly better than Frost's own all time great season that got him the OPOY and RBotY, and thus Nakamura should have gotten those awards instead. S28 was, arguably, even better; Nakamura managed 4.95 yards per carry, 1500 yards, and a monstrous 22 touchdowns. He had nearly 2000 yards and 24 touchdowns overall, and earned RBotY and MVP. S29 wasn't quite as efficient, with only 4.81 yards per carry, but he still had over 1500 yards, leading the league by 300, 21 rushing touchdowns, and this time had over 500 yards and a touchdown receiving. This was the most scrimmage yards of his entire career, and he repeated as RBotY and won OPOY. There were a couple more efficient RBs this year on the ground (Zoe Watts had 5.17 ypc, 1100 yards, and 12 rushing TDs, and Captain Rogers had 5.23 ypc, 1150 yards, and 6 touchdowns) but both were significantly less efficient receiving and were hundreds of yards and plenty of touchdowns behind Nakamura. As such I think Nakamura's awards were rightly given in 29.
S30 did not see Nakamura get a Pro Bowl, but he did repeat for 1st team All Pro. He only had 1000 yards rushing on 4.72 yards per carry and 14 touchdowns, along with close to 700 yards and 7 touchdowns receiving. This was enough to get Nakamura a 1st team All Pro as the 2nd best RB in the league, though there were realistic arguments that he wasn't the best RB on his own team: Deadly Memes, his backfield partner, had 1 less yard and 2 less touchdowns on 22 less carries, good for 5.26 yards per carry, the 2nd highest in the entire league. But with 7 less touchdowns on the whole and matching in receiving efficiency (7.83 for Memes to 7.90 for Nakamura in terms of yards per target) the All Pro team gave Nakamura the edge. In my opinion, looking back I'd give him 3rd behind Memes and Lackson. Nakamura missed the Pro Bowl, because this was a season where the competition was close and all of the top 5 RBs by All Pro votes were in the ASFC. S31 had Nakamura miss the 1st Team for the first time, though he still got a 2nd team spot as the 4th best RB in the league (and the 4th best RB in the conference, thus missing the Pro Bowl). He had under 900 yards rushing for the first time since his rookie season, but still had 11 touchdowns and was the most efficient RB in the league with 5.36 yards per carry and 7.86 yards per target. Honestly, there was an argument that Nakamura was the best RB in the league this season, though I think I'd place him 2nd; the highest volume RBs in the league this year had really bad efficiency for the time, and Nakamura still managed 1500 scrimmage yards and 15 touchdowns. All three players who managed more TDs and more yards this year were far, far worse at both receiving and rushing to compare, and this time it's not like Memes was being a more efficient player in the same backfield, he had 4.93 yards per carry, which was excellent and also a far cry from what Nakamura was doing.
S32 finally saw Nakamura regress after over a calendar year of being at least in the conversation for a top 2 RB in the greatest time to ever play RB. Memes was the lead back now, and Nakamura barely missed out on 800 yards on 4.68 yards per carry, though he still had 12 rushing touchdowns. He wasn't even efficient receiving this time, with only 6.33 yards per target. S33 was another season with Nakamura as the 2nd fiddle, this time behind Goat Tank, and he managed 600 yards and 5 touchdowns on 4.61 yards per carry. S34 saw Nakamura, for the final season of his career, switch to Fullback, manage 3.90 yards per carry, and 8.41 yards per target along with 1100 scrimmage yards and 8 touchdowns to snag a 2nd team All Pro fullback spot in the retirement season of his career.
Nakamura arguably did not deserve the S24 RBotY, arguably should have been 2nd team instead of 1st team in S30, and was still significantly under-awarded over his career. He was a top 2 RB six separate times, with an argument to be one a seventh time. He probably should have made both the S30 and S31 Pro Bowls, definitely the S31 one, should have won RBotY and OPOY for S27, and is easily the best player on this entire ballot over both Blackstone and Buckley. The only arguments against Nakamura's peak from S27-31 on Arizona being the best period for a single RB in league history are either Old Sim vs New Sim arguments, or what was about to transpire about 3 seasons after that ended. Easy Hall of Famer, one of the greatest players of all time, and the best player I ever shared a roster with, sorry Darkness and Zeagle.
TARO RAIMON
User: @xTri
AZ (S25 - S34)
WR
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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AWARDS
1x Offensive Breakout Player of the Year (S26)
8x Pro Bowler (S26, S27, S28, S29, S30, S31, S32, S33)
1x First Team All-Pro (S33)
1x Second Team All-Pro (S28)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#15 Career Rec Yds (12408.00)
#22 Career Rec Lg (90.00)
#10 Career Rec TD (95.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season Rec Lg (S27 - 90.00)
#8 Season Rec TD (S33 - 15.00)
#4 Season ST KRAvg (S26 - 41.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#25 Game Rec Lg (S27W11 - 90.00)
#1 Game Rec TD (S33W4 - 4.00)
#9 Game Rec TD (S28W8 - 3.00)
#9 Game Rec TD (S32W6 - 3.00)
#17 Game Points (S33W4 - 24.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#18 Career Rec Yds (875.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#14 Season Rec Lg (S30 - 64.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#2 Game Rec Yds (S29W18 - 182.00)
#13 Game Scrimmage Yds (S29W18 - 182.00)
Overall Statistics: 833 receptions, 12,408 receiving yards, 95 TDs
I honestly don't have much to add to the overall statistics breakdown; Raimon played 156 games, the 36th most at WR in league history, and has the 14th most yards and the 10th most touchdowns of any WR ever. I believe Westfield and Willie from the old sim are the only players with more touchdowns in less games, and despite not getting the top spot in any season of his career (maybe), those 8 Pro Bowls are probably enough with a stat sheet like that.
S25, Raimon's rookie year, was a classic "buried on the depth chart" year, where Raimon had the 6th most catches of any player on Arizona and thus only managed 300 yards. S26 saw Raimon boosted up to the 2nd most targeted player (probably) on Arizona, and he managed to be by far the most productive, with 1350 yards and 11 touchdowns, a top 3 or 4 WR and an easy Pro Bowler, the first of 8 straight. S27, the switch to the new sim, had just under 1500 yards and 10 touchdowns, and was about a top 4 WR on the year yet again. S28 saw Raimon get a 2nd team All Pro with a respectable 9.14 yards per target, as the 5th best WR on the year despite what was a lower down year by pure volume; only 1250 yards, though Raimon still managed 11 touchdowns. Raimon was the 5th best WR in the conference by pure volume, but his efficiency made him at minimum top 3 in my eyes and thus a deserved Pro Bowler. S29 was one of Raimon's 3 seasons where he was a primary target but didn't manage 10 touchdowns, with only 9 but 1400 yards. Raimon had 9.13 yards per target, was the 3rd best WR in the conference, and the 6th best in the league for yet another deserved Pro Bowl.
S30 was the first time since his rookie year that Raimon wasn't the best WR on Arizona. Raimon wasn't bad by any means, he had 1400 yards, 14 TDs, and 10.12 yards per target, probably the 4th best WR season in the league that year. It should definitely have made the 2nd team All Pro at the time and would certainly make a 2nd team All Pro with the expanded roster we use nowadays. S31 was not as good, with only 1300 yards and 7 TDs, statistically the worst season of his career by volume. He had a decent 8.94 yards per target, and was still a top 3 WR in the conference, so he deserved the Pro Bowl, but was more like the 9th best overall by pure volume, maybe 8th or so with yards per target considered. S32 was a bit of a rebound year for Raimon, with 1350 yards and 10 touchdowns, 9.45 yards per reception, and overall saw Raimon as about the 6th or 7th best WR on the year and a deserving Pro Bowler.
S33 was the year that Raimon was the highest voted player on the All Pro team, but missed out on the WRotY. He managed 1300 yards, 15 touchdowns, 9.44 yards per target, and lost out to his fellow 1st team All Pro, a player with 1600 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 9.25 yards per target. S34 is most notable for how good of a season it statistically was despite being the final season of Raimon's career, well into regression; despite not being the top target on Arizona any more, he managed 1100 yards and 8 touchdowns, while maintaining 9.44 yards per target.
Taro Raimon does not have the greatest peak ever; what he does have is basically being a better version of Mike Evans from the real life NFL. Evans is notable for basically always putting up 1000 yards, often getting double digit touchdowns (5 times over his 10 seasons, with 8 TDs on 2 other occasions) but rarely making the Pro Bowl and only getting a 2nd team All Pro spot twice. The worst year of Raimon's career outside of the years where he was not a top 2 target for the offense was 1300 yards and 7 touchdowns. He had double digit touchdowns 6 times over those 8 seasons, and the lowest yard total he had was 1261. There's a couple seasons where if we had either an extended All Pro team or had voted for All Pro earlier (or in S30's case, properly awarded him) he'd have gotten a 2nd team All Pro, maybe even a 1st team in S26. Very few WRs in league history can boast a median season of 1300 yards and double digit touchdowns, and that's why he has 8 Pro Bowls and is a surefire Hall of Famer despite not having all that high of a peak. Raimon kind of functions as an offensive version of Bubba Thumper, in a way. Weird comparison but I think it tracks.
HARRISON ANDREWS
User: @abh89
SAR (S25 - S33)
SJS (S34 - S34)
CHI (S34 - S34)
CB
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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3x Ultimus Champion (S27, S30, S34)
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AWARDS
1x Cornerback of the Year (S28)
4x Pro Bowler (S27, S28, S29, S33)
3x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29, S33)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#15 Career DEF PD (227.00)
#13 Career DEF Int (36.00)
#6 Career DEF TD (8.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#6 Season DEF Int (S28 - 9.00)
#6 Season DEF TD (S28 - 3.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#9 Career DEF PD (20.00)
#6 Career DEF Int (4.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#18 Season DEF PD (S30 - 6.00)
#7 Season DEF Int (S27 - 2.00)
#23 Season DEF FF (S27 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#24 Game DEF PD (S27W18 - 4.00)
#4 Game DEF Int (S27W18 - 2.00)
#11 Game DEF FF (S27W18 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 920 tackles, 227 PDs, 36 INTs, 8 TDs, 10 FFs/4 FRs
Among CBs, Andrews is 9th in tackles, T-16th in PDs, T-6th in INTs, T-4th in TDs, T-50th in FFs, and T-61st in FRs. Most of the people above and around him in tackles, PDs, TDs, and INTs are surefire Hall of Famers or at least in the conversation for it, so he's definitely got the stats for it, especially considering he played only 160 games.
Andrews started off pretty decent, with 15 PDs, 2 INTs, a sack, and 1/1 FF/FRs. While it was good, there were a double digit number of better CBs during S25, his rookie season. S26 saw a huge sophomore slump, with 16 PDs, an INT, and a FF. There were over 20 better CBs that season. S27, the switch to the new sim, made Andrews significantly better, he had 21 PDs, 5 INTs, and 2 TDs. He was either the 3rd or 4th best CB on the season, would have made an All Pro team if we'd started them a season earlier, and made his first Pro Bowl. S28 was outstanding, with 31 PDs, 9 INTs, 3 TDs, and a forced fumble. At the time, he fought with a season from Rich Triplet who set a record with 46 PDs, 6 INTs, and a TD, and they shared the inaugural 1st team spots for CBs. The league voted Andrews as CBotY, though the All Pro team had Triplet above. As someone on that initial vote, I still agree with Triplet as the overall better candidate, he had nearly a 6% (57.5% to 63.4%) better catch rate allowed, with the lowest catch rate allowed among non-Nickel corners to Andrews being average, and no penalties or missed tackles all season. The 3 more picks and 2 more TDs were great but I feel this was decided wrong; it was really close though. Either way, well deserved 1st team All Pro and Pro Bowler.
S29 had Andrews repeat as a 1st Team All Pro, though not a CBotY. He had 29 PDs, 6 INTs, and 2 FFs, was considered the 3rd best CB by the All Pro team, and easily made the Pro Bowl. His 61.27% catch rate was near the top in the league this time and he actually has an argument to be considered the 2nd best CB on the season behind Colt Mendoza. S30 saw Andrews regress, with only 23 PDs, an INT, a TD, and a FF. Andrews also had a mediocre catch rate (64.63%), and as such there were over a double digit number of better CBs. S31 wasn't amazing, with 24 PDs and 1 INT, but also had 3/3 FF/FRs. However, because he allowed over 71% on catches, the 2nd worst mark in the entire league, I have Andrews as a bottom 5 CB at best on the year. S32 was similar in raw stats, with 22 PDs, 3 INTs, and a FF. Andrews' catch rate was 67.33%, which was still bad but not bottom of the league. Still, in a season where 9 CBs made the All Pro team or at least also received votes, Andrews was nowhere to be seen and was still a bottom half CB in the league.
S33, after a few seasons where Andrews went without awards, finally saw him return to the Pro Bowl, and the All Pro teams, this time as the top rated CB in the league. Andrews managed a good 62.66% catch rate against, had 35 PDs, 6 INTs, and a TD. While he lost out on the CBotY award to Rich Leaking, who had a similar TO total, 2 more TDs, 11 less PDs, and a 3% higher catch rate, this is extremely close to call. I can see why Leaking got it, I see the argument for Andrews, I think I lean Andrews overall though. S34, Andrews' final year, did not get him awards, pro bowls, or all too many stats, with only 11 PDs, 2 INTs, and a TD. However, it did get him a 3rd ring for his career, which was probably what he was going for.
Andrews isn't the most highly awarded player in league history, though I don't see too much fault with his awards. At most he could have lost a pair of coinflips to have no CBotY, but he could have easily won both to be CBotY twice. He was a 1st Team All Pro 3 times, could have made another 1st team or at least a 2nd team in S27, and while I wouldn't say his awards were enough to get him into the Hall on their own, his awards plus his stats definitely were. He did have a bit of a problem with completion percent allowed, I really don't like how often he was over 65% in that regard, but that's nowhere near enough to keep him from being a well deserved 1st ballot unanimous Hall of Famer.
BRANDON BOOKER
User: @Memento Mori
PHI (S22 - S25)
OCO (S26 - S34)
CB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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AWARDS
4x Pro Bowler (S23, S24, S26, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#10 Career DEF Int (37.00)
#6 Career DEF TD (8.00)
#1 Career ST PRLng (98.00)
#8 Career ST PRAvg (14.42)
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SEASON RECORDS
#1 Season ST PRLng (S26 - 98.00)
#18 Season ST PR_TD (S26 - 1.00)
#25 Season ST PRAvg (S26 - 14.42)
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GAME RECORDS
#14 Game ST PRYds (S26W1 - 132.00)
#1 Game ST PRLng (S26W1 - 98.00)
#3 Game ST PR_TD (S26W1 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season DEF FF (S33 - 1.00)
#10 Season DEF FR (S33 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#11 Game DEF FF (S33W19 - 1.00)
#6 Game DEF FR (S33W19 - 1.00)
#13 Game ST KR (S26W17 - 5.00)
Overall Statistics: 964 tackles, 4 TFLs, 16 sacks, 204 PDs, 37 INTs, 8 TDs, 11/4 FF/FRs
Uh oh, that's not a very good award cabinet; only 4 Pro Bowls over 13 seasons, topping out at "also Receiving Votes" over the 7 seasons where he was playing at the same time as the All Pro Teams, at least 4 of those seasons when he should have been in contention for it. At the very least, that's a nice set of stats over 204 games, the 2nd most in league history for a CB: Booker has the T-4th most tackles, the T-11th most TFLs, the T-14th most sacks, the T-29th most PDs (hilariously enough exactly 1 PD per game), the T-4th most INTs, the T-4th most TDs, the T-40th most FFs, and the T-61st most FRs. At first glance, this is a Quentin Bode type of Hall of Fame candidate, though thankfully Booker is high up in more than just Tackles, especially INTs and TDs, actually important stats.
Booker's rookie year was OK, 17 PDs and 3 INTs. There were about 7 or 8 better CBs on the year, including 3 in his conference, so he just missed out on the Pro Bowl. S23 was Booker's first Pro Bowl, with 16 PDs, 3 INTs, 1/1 FF/FR, 2 TDs, and 2 sacks and a TFL on top of that. It was the 2nd best CB season in the entire league by my judgement, only losing out to a 24 PD, 5 INT, 1 TD season. A hypothetical 1st team All Pro, which does a lot to ease my feelings on Booker's inclusion. S24 saw Booker as a Pro Bowler again, with 10 PDs, 5 INTs, 2 FFs, 2 TDs, 3 sacks, and a TFL. I think Booker was the 3rd best CB this year (behind Andrew Witten and Lavelle Jr) and would have gotten yet another 1st team All Pro. S25 saw a bit of regression, with 13 PDs, 4 INTs, and 1 TD, an OK season, but one with a double digit number of better CBs. S26 saw Booker's 3rd Pro Bowl, but I'm pretty sure this was for returning; his season was 18 PDs, 2 INTs, 1 sack, 1 TFL. There were enough better CBs for Booker to be average at best this year, nearly 20 by my count. Heck, I'm pretty sure the reason Booker got the Pro Bowl was because the actual best returner in the conference was an IA, Eddie Jeeta. So we've had a player who should have 2 first teams but also should have missed one of their 4 Pro Bowls, as we enter the New Sim era.
S27 saw an explosion in stats among so many players, and Booker wasn't one of those who was most helped. He had 23 PDs, 4 INTs, and a TD, which was about the 9th best CB in the league, 5th best in the conference by volume and thus missed out on the Pro Bowl. Thank goodness, because he also led the entire league in catch rate allowed with 75.8%. Booker was arguably one of the worst CBs in the league this season. S28 saw another explosion in CB stats, while Booker remained steady with 20 PDs, 3 INTs, 1 TD, and 1/1 FF/FR, along with a still last 74.63% catch rate allowed. There were about 15 better CBs by volume and a couple dozen considering that he allowed nearly 3/4ths of all passes his way to be caught. S29 saw Booker have his final Pro Bowl, and while Booker wasn't as good comparatively as his early career Pro Bowls, he was still capable of putting up big numbers, with 23 PDs, 5 INTs, 3/1 FF/FRs, and a TD. He probably made the CBotY ballot, with only a handful of players even in the same stratosphere. So what was the issue? Booker had a 68.1% catch rate allowed. This was one of the worst marks in the league (shoutout to Maverick Bowie for allowing 77.3%), well below the average of 64%, and as such this was a worse season than you might have thought; I think it was closer to the 8th or 9th best season overall, getting lucky that after the top 2 players at the position were ASFC corners, none of the next 5 or so were.
S30 was a poor year from Booker, with 19 PDs and 3 FFs only. This time Booker allowed a 72.87% catch rate and would be my choice for worst CB in the entire league. S31 seemed significantly better, 17 PDs but 4 INTs, and a 71.53% catch rate was technically an improvement while still being the worst in the entire league. He was bottom 5 yet again among CBs in my view. S32 was, by raw volume, worse, with only 13 PDs, 3 INTs, 1 sack, and 1/1 FF/FR. That being said, Booker finally got down to a better though still not great catch percent of 67.50%, so this time he was merely a below average CB with there being a double digit number of better ones instead of one of the worst in the league. S33 had Booker relegated to Nickel Corner and his stats suffered as a result, with only 9 PDs and 5 sacks. Hilariously enough, this was the first year where his catch rate was acceptable, with only 62.69% allowed. Not enough to be an exceptional Nickel Corner, but better than he had been in any year prior. S34, Booker's final year, had 6 PDs, 1 INT, and 4 sacks. He allowed only 56.58% catch rate, and thus was at least a decent nickel corner in his final season.
I'm going to be honest, I went into this expecting to dislike Booker, considering he had only 4 Pro Bowls over 13 seasons, but I turned it around after he was the equivalent of a 1st team All Pro twice in the first 3 seasons of his career. It'd have taken something really bad for me to dislike Booker at the end of that, and then that turned out to be what the rest of his career was. His other two Pro Bowls were a Returner Pro Bowl and a really, really low down one in the new sim. And almost every other year of his time in the New Sim was either "end of career, mediocre at best Nickel Corner" or "arguably worst CB in the entire league". I really dislike Booker. I hate that 6 out of his 11 seasons where he wasn't playing nickel were below average, with 2 of them being "worst CB in the entire league" caliber. Most of all, I hate that so, so much of his production came in terrible seasons, such as S31, S27, and S28. That's 60 PDs, 11 INTs, and 2 TDs over 3 seasons of good volume but bad CB play. Of course they were throwing at him constantly, he was more likely to let up completions than maybe any other player in league history! In my mind, Booker kind of functions as a version of McCormick, Tweed, and Gambino, where half of his career was HOF worthy and the other half wasn't. The issue is that top tier Booker was nowhere near as great as any of those three, as seen by the complete lack of positional excellency awards, much less major ones, and bad Booker existed for a longer period of time than all of the above mentioned players. New Sim Booker was 8 out of 13 seasons, and the closest thing to All Time Great Booker was literally just S23-S24.
ICEBOX RIPOSTE
User: @Mavfatha
CHI (S25 - S34)
OL
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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1x Ultimus Champion (S34)
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AWARDS
1x Offensive Lineman of the Year (S33)
5x Pro Bowler (S25, S29, S32, S33, S34)
3x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29, S33)
1x Second Team All-Pro (S32)
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CAREER RECORDS
#13 Career Other Pancakes (956.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#6 Game Other Pancakes (S30W11 - 17.00)
#17 Game Other Pancakes (S34W4 - 16.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#20 Career Other Pancakes (49.00)
#8 Career Other Sacks Allowed (4.00)
Overall Statistics: 956 pancakes, 9 sacks allowed
That's over 100 pancakes per sack allowed, 106.2 to be precise. I believe there are only 3 other OL in the Hall you can say that about. That being said, Riposte did play part of their career on the inside of the line, which seems to hinder total pancakes and makes it easier (though not by as much) to not allow sacks.
Icebox's rookie year in S25 had 89 pancakes and 2 sacks allowed. He was the 6th best OL and 4th best in the conference, which I believe deserved the Pro Bowl back in the day. S26 was slightly worse, with 74 pancakes and 1 sack allowed. There were a double digit number of better OL and thus Icebox missed the Pro Bowl. S27 was Icebox's worst season of his career, with 57 pancakes and 2 sacks allowed, one of the worse OL in the league. S28, on the other hand, got Icebox a 1st team All Pro because despite being listed as Tackle, he lined up at Center, managed 86 pancakes, no sacks allowed, and no penalties. He was the best interior lineman in the entire league, and would have gotten 1st team All Pro even at the team's most restrictive. S29 saw Riposte repeat as the best center, this time being awarded with a Pro Bowl for his 65 pancake, no sack allowed, no penalties committed season.
S30 finally saw Icebox moved back to Tackle, and he was pretty good; 110 pancakes, no sacks allowed, 3 penalties for 20 yards, by my count he was the 6th best OT in the league. But unfortunately he was the 4th best in his conference and thus missed the Pro Bowl. S31 had 112 pancakes and no sacks allowed, though 4 penalties for 40 yards prevented him from making the All Pro team. Honestly, I think he deserved the All Pro 2nd team spot as the 4th best OT in the league, I don't like the player who made it with 136 pancakes but 3 sacks allowed over him. This still wouldn't make him a Pro Bowler, because the top 2 OT in the league were both in his conference. S32 saw Icebox make the Pro Bowl at tackle for the first time since his rookie year, and get a 2nd team All Pro spot for amassing 124 pancakes, 1 sack allowed, and 1 penalty for 5 yards. Honestly, I think I'd have put Icebox over the player who got the 2nd spot on the 1st team, with 139 pancakes but 2 sacks allowed and 3 penalties for 20 yards. I value not having 2 penalties for 15 yards and a sack allowed (plus a fumble recovered for more spice) more than 15 pancakes personally, which would put Icebox as the 2nd best OT in the league, a 1st team All Pro, and the Pro Bowl that he got in reality.
S33 saw Icebox get 1st Team All Pro for 127 pancakes, most in his career, 1 sack allowed, and 3 penalties for 20 yards. He just beat out Alexander Franklin, who had the exact same statline except his 3 penalties were for 40 yards. He was a unanimous 1st team All Pro, and the best OL in the entire league. He won his OLotY for this performance and deserved it. S34, his final year, wasn't quite as great, with 112 pancakes and 2 sacks allowed, along with 5 penalties for 40 yards. It caused him to just miss the All Pro team, though I think he still deserved the Pro Bowl spot.
Icebox isn't the greatest OL ever, under 1000 pancakes ruins any chance of that. But they were remarkably consistent, and despite playing until year 11 (they were an S24 player) didn't have a season with more than 2 sacks allowed. I believe they're the only OL who can say that who played a significant portion of time, even counting the two Hall of Fame OL with a better pancake to sack allowed ratio. That, along with the 3 time 1st team All Pro (which I think should be 4 time) gets Icebox in the Hall. I'm really surprised Icebox got less votes than Dolls did the season prior despite significantly more pancakes, significantly less sacks allowed, and an actual OLotY award more than anything else; Icebox starts the group of players who only got 6/9 in this part.
DERRED DE VILLE
User: @Exilizer
BAL (S22 - S25)
SAR (S26 - S28)
BER (S29 - S32)
LB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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1x Ultimus Champion (S27)
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AWARDS
5x Pro Bowler (S24, S26, S27, S28, S29)
2x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#15 Career DEF Tck (1144.00)
#17 Career DEF FR (14.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#25 Season DEF Sack (S29 - 19.00)
#12 Season DEF FF (S28 - 7.00)
#2 Season DEF FR (S28 - 5.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#1 Game DEF Sfty (S29W9 - 1.00)
#1 Game DEF Sfty (S30W12 - 1.00)
#11 Game DEF FF (S26W16 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#23 Career DEF Sack (8.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season DEF Sack (S30 - 3.00)
#10 Season DEF FR (S27 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#17 Game DEF Sack (S27W18 - 2.00)
#17 Game DEF Sack (S30W17 - 2.00)
#6 Game DEF FR (S27W18 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 1,144 tackles, 31 TFLs, 104 sacks, 155 PDs, 13 INTs, 2 safeties, 23/14 FF/FRs
Derred, the 2nd best de Ville at LB in league history, is 12th in tackles, T-90th in TFLs, T-18th in sacks, 1st in PDs, T-12th in INTs, T-26th in FFs, and T-12th in FRs. That's a pretty good statline, especially in PDs, though lower in INTs than you'd like for how many PDs that is. De Ville played 173 games at LB, T-19th most.
Derred's rookie season was OK but not great; 6 sacks, 2 TFLs, 11 PDs, and a FF. There were a double digit number of better LBs. S23 saw small improvements, with 8 sacks, 2 TFLs, 13 PDs, an INT, and a FF. There were about 8 better LB that year, so Derred's first Pro Bowl had to wait for S24. 13 sacks, 2 TFLs, 29 PDs, 2 INTs, and 2 FFs. By my count, Derred was the 3rd best LB in the entire league. S25 had Derred take a break from the Pro Bowl, with only 4 sacks, 1 TFL, and 13 PDs being too much to overcome with his 2 INTs and 1/2 FF/FRs. There were about 15 better LBs on the year. S26, the last year of the old sim, had Derred return to the Pro Bowl with 8 sacks, 2 TFLs, 26 PDs, and 4/1 FF/FRs. Honestly, I don't love this season, I think there were about 7 or 8 better seasons that year, 4/1 isn't actually that amazing of a fumble statline when backed up with absolutely zero INTs, but he managed to be the 3rd best LB in his conference because the balance of power slanted towards the ASFC that season.
S27, the switch to the new sim, was much better: 16 sacks, 5 TFLs, 14 PDs, a pick, and 4/1 FF/FRs. Unfortunately this was the new sim and there was a massive stat explosion, so there were 4 better LB in the NSFC by my count and another 2 in the ASFC. I don't think that Derred should have been a Pro Bowler this season, I think he was about on par with Domine who went without a Pro Bowl this season. S28, though, was a massive improvement. Derred managed 13 sacks, 6 TFLs, 13 PDs, 2 INTs, and a massive 7/5 FF/FR stat. The 7 forced fumbles was a single season record at the time, and he was the only LB on the inaugural EDGE 1st team (we had a DE as the other guy). Dex Kennedy beat him out for the LBotY award, probably because of a...what the hell 4 defensive touchdowns on the season? but I'd say that Derred was undoubtedly a top 2 LB that year. S29 had de Ville yet again be the only LB on the 1st team EDGE, with the other being a DE, due to 19 sacks, 6 TFLs, 9 PDs, 1 INT, a safety, and 2/3 FF/FRs. Yet again, he lost out to someone else for the LBotY who was on the 2nd team for the All Pro team, this time due to a significant gap in turnovers. At worst, Derred was 2nd again.
After a career that managed to be 1st team All Pro worthy 3 times through 8 seasons, Derred didn't make any more awards in the final 3 seasons of his career. S30 had 15 sacks, 2 TFLs, 13 PDs, 2 INTs, a safety, and a forced fumble. A great season that came up just short of a Pro Bowl or an All Pro. S31 and S32 weren't great final seasons, but that wasn't important. Derred de Ville wasn't an all time great LB or anything, but he was one of the greatest pass defending LBs ever, and had quite a nice peak with back to back seasons that were at least in the conversation for LBotY. Being what was probably equivalent to a 3 time 1st team at a position as competitive as LB is enough to maybe just squeak over the line. Derred's not my favorite candidate though, he's very borderline, especially considering that there were a couple Pro Bowls where he was extremely borderline.
CUCO CLEMENTE
User: @Billybolo53
SAR (S23 - S32)
DT, CB, S
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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2x Ultimus Champion (S27, S30)
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AWARDS
2x Safety of the Year (S29, S31)
7x Pro Bowler (S25, S27, S28, S29, S30, S31, S32)
2x First Team All-Pro (S29, S31)
3x Second Team All-Pro (S28, S30, S32)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#6 Career DEF TD (8.00)
#22 Career DEF Blk P (1.00)
#1 Career ST KRLng (108.00)
#8 Career ST KR_TD (3.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#3 Season DEF Blk P (S25 - 1.00)
#1 Season ST KRLng (S25 - 108.00)
#3 Season ST KR_TD (S25 - 2.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#1 Game DEF Blk P (S25W14 - 1.00)
#1 Game ST KRLng (S25W12 - 108.00)
#1 Game ST KR_TD (S25W9 - 1.00)
#1 Game ST KR_TD (S25W12 - 1.00)
#1 Game ST KR_TD (S26W16 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 617 tackles, 12 TFLs, 43 sacks, 99 PDs, 29 INTs, 8 TDs, 9 FF/3 FRs, 1 blocked punt
The safety tab is still broken on Wolfiebot, and Clemente started as a DT and then moved to CB before settling down at Safety, so all I can say is what Clemente did over 7 seasons and 112 games at the position: T-32nd in picks, T-36th in PDs, T-3rd in TDs, T-38th in sacks, and T-33rd in FFs at Safety. All in all, a pretty decent group of stats, especially considering it's not counting his S25 in any of those.
S23, Clemente's rookie season, was a decent DT season with 8 sacks and a TFL. I believe it's actually the 5th best DT season, and 3rd best in the Conference, meaning that Clemente almost made the Pro Bowl their rookie year. S24 was worse, with only 4 sacks and 4 TFLs; there were a double digit number of better DTs. S25 saw Clemente make their first Pro Bowl...as a CB, not the Safety they would eventually go into the Hall as. They managed 19 PDs and 5 INTs, and were in my opinion the 2nd or 3rd best CB in the entire league; an easy Pro Bowler and a hypothetical 1st team All Pro. S26 saw Clemente move to Safety, and he was significantly worse; he managed 10 sacks and a TFL, but only had 2 PDs, a pick, and 2 FFs. 10 sacks was great, no safety had more, but he also was a bottom 5 safety in terms of pass defense.
S27 saw Clemente rebound in a big way, with 7 sacks, 5 TFLs, 15 PDs, a pick, a forced fumble, and a touchdown. I think he was a top 4 safety, arguably the 2nd best, and deserved his Pro Bowl and probably at least a 2nd team All Pro. S28 wasn't as well rounded, but Clemente made up for it with a ton of turnovers; he had only 3 sacks and 7 PDs, but managed 4 picks, 1/1 FF/FR, and a touchdown. He was considered the 3rd best Safety by the first ever All Pro team and made 2nd team and the Pro Bowl as a result. S29 was even better: 14 PDs, 7 INTs, 2/1 FF/FRs, 2 sacks, a TFL, and 2 touchdowns meant that Clemente was a unanimous 1st team All Pro and won Safety of the Year. S30 saw him "merely" get a 2nd team again, as the 3rd best Safety according to the All Pro team, and add on yet another Pro Bowl with 10 PDs, 4 sacks, 3 INTs, 3/1 FF/FRs, and a TD. Only 2 Safeties even had an argument to be better. S31 was Clemente's second season as Safety of the Year. He had 3 sacks, 15 PDs, 4 INTs, and a TD, as well as a ridiculous 55.79% catch rate. As such he was a unanimous 1st team All Pro again, and won the positional excellency award over some really stiff competition from Jacob Raske. S32, Clemente's final season, managed 17 PDs, 2 sacks, 4 INTs, and 2 touchdowns. Despite being a better season than his previous one, Clemente had to settle for 2nd team due to a player getting 7 picks and another getting 3 defensive TDs.
Honestly, I'm more confused than anything as to why Clemente only got 6/9 votes. He was the best safety the league had seen since it banned Safety at LB, missed the Pro Bowl a single time, and made the All Pro teams literally every time he could have before retiring. Sure, his stats weren't great compared to the people who were in the old sim and putting up double digit sack 5 INT seasons on the regular, but they were taking advantage of things Clemente literally was forbidden from doing. Seriously, as a member of the secondary he made the Pro Bowl 7 of 8 times, was worthy of at least a 2nd team All Pro literally every time by my reckoning he made it, and even had a good amount of awards. Clemente's an All Timer, and if I feel Riposte might have deserved more votes, Clemente's the player on this ballot who I'm shocked and appalled he only got 6 (as opposed to the player who I'm shocked and appalled he got 6 at all). Thank goodness he made it.
ADAM MELLOTT
User: @GuitarMaster116
NOLA (S26 - S34)
OL
Unanimous Inductee? NO
-------------
AWARDS
2x Offensive Lineman of the Year (S27, S30)
4x Pro Bowler (S26, S27, S28, S30)
2x First Team All-Pro (S28, S30)
1x Second Team All-Pro (S34)
-------------
Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#16 Career Other Pancakes (887.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#14 Season Other Pancakes (S27 - 19.00)
Overall Statistics: 887 pancakes, 7 sacks allowed
Mellott has what I believe is the 2nd best ratio in league history among Hall of Fame OL with an amazing 126.7 pancakes per sack allowed in his career. That's the 17th most pancakes in league history, and T-308th in sacks allowed. That being said, they did play what I believe to be the shortest career of any Hall of Fame lineman in league history, with only 9 seasons played, avoiding both a true rookie season and seasons in deep regression that could have led to a bunch more sacks allowed.
Mellott opened his career with what was by far his worst season ever: 72 pancakes, 4 sacks allowed. He made the Pro Bowl, but I'm not sure he should have; at most, he got REALLY lucky with proportions and bots because I see at least 15-20 better OL by the quick test, and while a significant number are bots that's still very telling to me. Simply put 72 pancakes and 4 sacks wasn't even a good season in S26. S27, on the other hand, was significantly better; Mellott managed 118 pancakes and no sacks allowed, and won OLotY as a result by one pancake. S28 wasn't good enough to repeat, but in and of itself it was 122 pancakes with no sacks allowed, along with only 2 penalties for 14 yards. He was the 2nd best OL in the league and got a 1st team All Pro spot. S29 was significantly worse, with 100 pancakes, no sacks allowed, and 3 penalties for 20 yards. There were 7 better OL and thus Mellott was barely above average. S30 saw Mellott go to the Pro Bowl for the last time in his career, as well as get his 2nd OLotY award. He had 126 pancakes, no sacks allowed, and only one penalty for 5 yards in total. A couple other OL had a few more pancakes with no sacks allowed but significantly more penalties, so Mellott won out overall.
S31 saw Mellott begin to decline, though. Sure, he still was managing to not give up sacks, but he also only had 80 pancakes and a penalty for 14 yards; I think there were 10 better Tackles on the year. S32 was even worse, only 73 pancakes and the first sack allowed in his career since his rookie season. He even had 6 penalties for 50 yards; there were a double digit number of better tackles yet again. S33 saw a lot of improvement, with 95 pancakes, a sack allowed, and no penalties, but with 5 or 6 better OL Mellott still missed out on the Pro Bowl or the All Pros. Finally, S34 was the first time Mellott had managed 100 pancakes since his OLotY season 4 years prior, with 101, a sack allowed, and 2 penalties for 10 yards. Mellott managed to get into an expanded All Pro team, as the 6th best OT in the league for an All Pro 2nd team without a Pro Bowl, considering 4 of the 5 players above him were in the same conference.
I think Mellott kind of acts as a side-grade to Riposte from earlier; he has one more OLotY, but 1 less Pro Bowl, and arguably should be 2 less. He has 5 All Pros to Riposte's 4, but only 2 First Teams to Riposte's 3. He has a better ratio and 2 less sacks allowed, but has about 70 less pancakes and played one season less. Riposte has the problem of having spent some time at guard and center, while Mellott has the problem of being extremely underwhelming between S31-S33 for reasons I can't tell. All in all, I think I prefer Riposte, but I think both belong in the Hall overall. At minimum I think both are far better than Byron Dolls and both would be above my personal cutoff point for Hall of Fame OLinemen.
(Dougie Smalls covered in first comment, I hit the character limit again)
IMMANUEL BLACKSTONE
User: @nunccoepi
COL (S21 - S33)
DE
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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1x Ultimus Champion (S22)
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AWARDS
1x Defensive Rookie of the Year (S21)
3x Defensive End of the Year (S22, S23, S24)
7x Pro Bowler (S21, S22, S23, S24, S25, S26, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#3 Career DEF TFL (116.00)
#19 Career DEF Sfty (3.00)
#1 Career DEF Blk P (2.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#11 Season DEF TFL (S23 - 19.00)
#16 Season DEF TFL (S24 - 18.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#22 Game DEF TFL (S21W8 - 4.00)
#22 Game DEF TFL (S22W12 - 4.00)
#2 Game DEF FR (S33W11 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#1 Career DEF TFL (16.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#6 Season DEF TFL (S22 - 4.00)
#22 Season DEF TFL (S23 - 3.00)
Overall Statistics: 526 tackles, 116 TFLs, 88 sacks, 3 safeties, 11/11 FF/FRs, 2 blocked punts
It feels a little strange to be opening this with Blackstone, a great player who I don't think could possibly not deserve to be unanimous, but was definitely not the most high profile of these inductions. Part of that had to do with his position, DEs in the sim haven't been high profile since the time when Jayce Tuck was breaking the game, and Blackstone in and of himself has massive stats and obviously awards. Among DEs, Blackstone is 3rd in tackles, 2nd in TFLs, 7th in sacks, T-8th in safeties, T-21st in FFs, T-3rd in FRs, and T-1st in blocked punts. To be clear, there is an argument that the only player with a better sack+TFL total among DEs is Jayce Tuck, and when bringing everything else into account I think the only other people who come into the conversation are David Moyes and Leonard Taylor. Blackstone has played the 2nd most games at DE in league history, only behind Medicinal Toblerone, but that doesn't make those stats any less overwhelming.
Blackstone came right into the league with a Pro Bowl caliber season, amassing 7 sacks, 12 TFLs, and a safety. Honestly, it might have flat out been the best DE season; Idlewyld and Taffy are the two people who compare, all are really close and thus Blackstone was close to winning DLotY in the final season of its existence. S22 was even better; sure, he only had 6 sacks this time along with his 12 TFLs and safety, but he also had 2/2 FF/FRs and a blocked punt. He won DEotY and I don't feel like there was anyone with a good argument over him. S23 had Blackstone repeat as DEotY, but this is a season I think he was only 2nd best. 7 sacks, 19 TFLs, and 2/3 FF/FRs is amazing, but Logan Noble Jr. managed 10 sacks, 18 TFLs, 1 FF, and a safety. Considering that each forced fumble is basically equivalent to half a turnover, maybe a little more, that would give Noble almost inarguably a better turnover count AND a better slate of sacks+TFLs, with both a higher number combined and a better amount of the more important sacks. Still a Pro Bowl, still a hypothetical 1st team All Pro, but I'd give it to Noble Jr over Blackstone because to be clear, FRs are not all that impressive because they're basically just down to being in the right place at the right time. I value Noble's Safety more than all of Blackstone's FRs combined.
S24 finished the 3peat for DEotYs, as Blackstone had 7 sacks, 18 TFLs, 1/2 FF/FRs, and a safety, an even better year than S23. This time, there was nobody who competed with him for the award. While that was the last positional award Blackstone got in his career, he was still a good DE in the seasons to follow: S25 saw him get 5 sacks, 17 TFLs, and a blocked punt, though with everyone else's performance on the year, I think there were a double digit number of better DEs on the season and 3 or 4 easily better players in the conference. As such I think Blackstone didn't deserve the Pro Bowl this season. S26, the last season of the old sim and the last of Blackstone's 6 straight Pro Bowls to open his career, and was basically a repeat of S25, with a forced fumble instead of a blocked punt. This was the 4th best DE season overall and thus easily deserved the Pro Bowl it got.
Blackstone did not take to the new sim very well; with only 6 sacks and 8 TFLs, a double digit number of better DEs, Blackstone was not close to making the Pro Bowl in S27. And S28 was even worse, with 5 sacks and 2 TFLs. Blackstone was one of the worst DEs in the entire league this season. S29, though, was good enough to get Blackstone back to the Pro Bowl with 13 sacks, 3 TFLs, and a FF. It's possible that if we had full DE All Pro teams instead of EDGE teams in S29, Blackstone might have made the 2nd team; he was at worst 5th, and I think I'd put him 4th overall. S30 saw another decent Blackstone season, with 10 sacks, 4 TFLs, and a FF. There were 7 or 8 better DEs on the year, so Blackstone ended up just missing out on the Pro Bowl, but it was overall a fine year that just had steep competition and lacked fumbles. That was the last year of Blackstone's career where he had an argument for being a Pro Bowler, though; S31 was mediocre at best, with just 6 sacks and 2 TFLs. There were a double digit number of better DEs that season. S32 was better, with 8 sacks, 2 TFLs, and 1/1 FF/FRs, but there were still about 10 better DE seasons. S33, Blackstone's final season, was...weird. Not good, just weird: 19 tackles, 3 sacks, 2 FFs, 3 FRs. One of the worst DEs in the league, but considering this was his final year that's not a big deal.
Blackstone overall ends up with slightly less awards in my retrospective than otherwise, though he was hit nowhere near enough to somehow fall out of the Hall of Fame conversation. I don't love his S25 Pro Bowl, I think it was due to people valuing TFLs compared to Sacks more than they should have, and I think a similar statement can be made about his S23 DEotY along with recovered fumbles. In terms of awards he missed out on, I think he should have gotten a 2nd team All Pro in S29 and S26, and could have gotten a 1st team All Pro in S21. Thinking about it more I'm not sure that's a huge downgrade; -1 Pro Bowl, -1 DEotY, but the equivalent to 4x 1st team and 2x 2nd team is very nice. Add that to what is at minimum a top 4 statline among DEs ever and Blackstone easily deserved his status as a Unanimous Hall of Famer, even if circumstances mean he wasn't the headline act of this class.
BRUCE BUCKLEY
User: @NicholasTheGreat
AZ (S22 - S25)
YKW (S25 - S31)
BAL (S31 - S34)
OL
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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3x Ultimus Champion (S26, S28, S33)
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AWARDS
2x Offensive Lineman of the Year (S23, S26)
7x Pro Bowler (S22, S23, S24, S25, S26, S27, S28)
2x Second Team All-Pro (S28, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#2 Career Other Pancakes (1339.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#8 Season Other Pancakes (S32 - 138.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#6 Game Other Pancakes (S32W9 - 17.00)
#17 Game Other Pancakes (S29W12 - 16.00)
#17 Game Other Pancakes (S30W16 - 16.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#11 Career Other Pancakes (65.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#4 Season Other Pancakes (S28 - 25.00)
#6 Season Other Pancakes (S33 - 24.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#13 Game Other Pancakes (S28W18 - 11.00)
Overall Statistics: 1339 Pancakes, 18 Sacks Allowed
Buckley boasts the 2nd most pancakes ever, and is T-110th in sacks allowed. He has just under 75 pancakes per sack allowed, which is an above average mark among Hall of Fame OL. Buckley played part of his career in the Old Sim, about a third of it, and thus might suffer a tiny bit in terms of total pancakes. Either Buckley's stats or his awards might be enough to get him to the Hall on their own, and combined they'd make it a no brainer...assuming that they were deserved.
Buckley was the 10th best OL in his rookie S22 season with 63 pancakes and a sack allowed, which wouldn't be deserving of Pro Bowl except for the fact that I'm pretty sure he was the 3rd best non-bot OL. S23 saw Buckley put up one of the greatest old sim OL seasons ever seen up until that point, with 84 pancakes and no sacks allowed, and easily won OLotY. S24 wasn't quite as good, 82 pancakes and a sack allowed, and saw Buckley be statistically the 8th best OL on the year, though with at least 2 of them being bots and only a pair of better OL in the conference outside of that, Buckley still deserved his Pro Bowl berth. S25 had 85 pancakes and no sacks allowed, but this time it was merely the 2nd best OL season. S26 one upped that with 87 pancakes, and he deserved the OLotY award yet again.
S27, the move to the new sim, saw Buckley amass 117 pancakes, still without allowing a sack, and was the 2nd best OL on the year. S28 had Buckley make the inaugural All Pro 2nd Team, because 113 pancakes and no sacks allowed was still a great year. By the eye test it was the 5th best OL season, but its lack of penalties had it get the 3rd most votes among Tackles. Either way, an easy Pro Bowl. S29 had Buckley statistically put up the best season of his career: 130 pancakes, no sacks allowed. This was only the 2nd or 3rd best season by the quick eye test, though because it didn't avoid penalties as well as some other seasons I think I'd call it the 4th best season. As such it got unlucky and missed the Pro Bowl because 2 of the 3 better tackles were in the NSFC along with Buckley. S30 was still a great year but went without awards, as the 5th best T season and the 3rd best T season in his conference with 128 pancakes and a sack allowed.
S31, however, was when Buckley fell out of award contention. Only 107 pancakes and 4 sacks allowed meant that there were 14 better OL including multiple Centers and Guards on the quick count. He avoided penalties, but that wasn't enough to even get Buckley in the top 10. S32 saw Buckley manage 138 pancakes, but also allow 4 sacks, meaning that there were 7 better OL on the quick count, and this time Buckley was more average in penalties. Buckley managed to be in the "also receiving votes" category, but wasn't anywhere close to the Pro Bowl with at least 4 better NSFC OL. S33 continued this trend, with 114 pancakes and 3 sacks allowed, 8 better OL on the quick count, and 5 better Tackles at minimum with Buckley not even receiving votes for All Pro. S34, as expected from a 13th year OL, was bad, with 91 pancakes and 4 sacks allowed. Even in what was an all around bad year for OLinemen, Buckley was well outside the top 10 among the position.
I mean, I just covered him for the All Time OL ranking, right? Buckley's not controversial in the slightest. He has the Pro Bowls, the major awards, the stats, and deserved all of it. I don't like how nearly a full third of his career saw him rack up 3 sacks allowed per yer minimum, but that doesn't change the fact that Buckley had about 800 pancakes and 3 sacks allowed over his first 9 seasons, with 5 of those coming in the Old Sim with much lower pancake totals. Buckley is one of the greatest OL ever, and there's a significant number of HOF ballots where he'd be the single best player. It still feels weird to me that Buckley went into the Hall partly as a Hawk, when he had no awards, 1 ring, and just a bunch of mediocre at best seasons on the team, but that was his user's choice.
TATSU NAKAMURA
User: @qWest
OCO (S22 - S26)
AZ (S27 - S32)
BER (S33 - S33)
SJS (S34 - S34)
RB
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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AWARDS
3x Running Back of the Year (S24, S28, S29)
1x Offensive Performance of the Year (S28)
1x Most Valuable Player (S28)
1x Offensive Player of the Year (S29)
5x Pro Bowler (S23, S24, S27, S28, S29)
3x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29, S30)
2x Second Team All-Pro (S31, S34)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#4 Career Rush Att (3125.00)
#3 Career Rush Yds (14061.00)
#1 Career Rush TD (156.00)
#2 Career Other Sacks Allowed (42.00)
#16 Career AllPurpose Yds (20729.00)
#4 Career Scrimmage Yds (18747.00)
#16 Career Points (1110.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#5 Season Rush TD (S28 - 22.00)
#7 Season Rush TD (S29 - 21.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#14 Game Rush Yds (S28W7 - 208.00)
#8 Game Rush TD (S28W7 - 4.00)
#8 Game Rush TD (S32W2 - 4.00)
#23 Game Rec Avg (S27W5 - 57.50)
#8 Game Scrimmage Yds (S28W7 - 255.00)
#17 Game Points (S28W7 - 24.00)
#17 Game Points (S31W1 - 24.00)
#17 Game Points (S31W9 - 24.00)
#17 Game Points (S32W2 - 24.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#10 Career Rush Att (184.00)
#12 Career Rush Yds (710.00)
#25 Career AllPurpose Yds (1282.00)
#12 Career Scrimmage Yds (1135.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#11 Game Rec TD (S30W18 - 2.00)
#16 Game Scrimmage Yds (S30W18 - 178.00)
Overall Statistics: 14,061 rushing yards, 4.50 ypc, 156 rushing TDs
487 receptions, 4,686 receiving yards, 29 receiving TDs
Tatsu Nakamura has more touchdowns than anyone else in league history. He has the 4th most yards in league history. He's 45th among RBs in yards per carry despite spending a significant chunk of his career in the worse for RBs old sim, he's 21st in receiving yards and T-21st in receiving TDs despite having the exact same handicap (arguably to an even worse degree), and was the king of the RB in the greatest time period to ever play. While Jamar Lackson, Frost, and a couple other players who are going to be named later managed to eke out a Hall of Fame niche during this period, they all had to exist in Nakamura's shadow, and he cast a very, very long shadow.
Nakamura did not immediately become a candidate for the Greatest RB of all time, however. He started out sharing the backfield with Franklin Armstrong and being one of the worse RBs on the year with 800 yards, 5 TDs, and only 3.90 yards per carry, only 4 even medium usage RBs had worse marks. S23 was significantly better, Nakamura had 4.36 yards per carry, 9 TDs, and 1400 rushing yards, the most in the league. The only better RB in the entire league was Hanyadi during his MVP campaign. S24 saw Nakamura lead the entire league in rushing yards and rushing TDs, with 1200 and 12. He also had 4.12 yards per carry, which shouldn't have been enough to win RBotY by my reckoning, even considering the fact that this was a really weak year. The most efficient RBs managed 6 and 4 total touchdowns to Nakamura's 13, but they were also well over a 3rd of a yard per carry better and Nakamura was bad at receiving this year; I'd call Nakamura the 2nd best RB and give 1st to Hanyadi.
S25 saw Nakamura regress from back to back seasons as the 2nd best RB in the league, with only 900 yards and 3.81 ypc. He did tie for the league lead in rushing TDs with 12 and had a pair of receiving TDs, but was still probably the 3rd or 4th worst RB1 in the league. S26 was the last year of the old sim, and Nakamura was significantly better than the year prior, with 4.19 yards per carry, just under 950 yards and 13 TDs. I think Nakamura was the 5th best RB in the league, and actually deserved to make the Pro Bowl as the 3rd best RB in the conference. Let's just say that there were some really bad pro bowl votes this season...
S27 saw the move to the new sim, and immediately Nakamura started putting together all time great seasons. Nearly 1600 rushing yards on 5 yards per carry, 15 rushing touchdowns, along with another 400 yards and 3 touchdowns receiving. As discussed in the Frost section in Part 9, I think Nakamura was slightly better than Frost's own all time great season that got him the OPOY and RBotY, and thus Nakamura should have gotten those awards instead. S28 was, arguably, even better; Nakamura managed 4.95 yards per carry, 1500 yards, and a monstrous 22 touchdowns. He had nearly 2000 yards and 24 touchdowns overall, and earned RBotY and MVP. S29 wasn't quite as efficient, with only 4.81 yards per carry, but he still had over 1500 yards, leading the league by 300, 21 rushing touchdowns, and this time had over 500 yards and a touchdown receiving. This was the most scrimmage yards of his entire career, and he repeated as RBotY and won OPOY. There were a couple more efficient RBs this year on the ground (Zoe Watts had 5.17 ypc, 1100 yards, and 12 rushing TDs, and Captain Rogers had 5.23 ypc, 1150 yards, and 6 touchdowns) but both were significantly less efficient receiving and were hundreds of yards and plenty of touchdowns behind Nakamura. As such I think Nakamura's awards were rightly given in 29.
S30 did not see Nakamura get a Pro Bowl, but he did repeat for 1st team All Pro. He only had 1000 yards rushing on 4.72 yards per carry and 14 touchdowns, along with close to 700 yards and 7 touchdowns receiving. This was enough to get Nakamura a 1st team All Pro as the 2nd best RB in the league, though there were realistic arguments that he wasn't the best RB on his own team: Deadly Memes, his backfield partner, had 1 less yard and 2 less touchdowns on 22 less carries, good for 5.26 yards per carry, the 2nd highest in the entire league. But with 7 less touchdowns on the whole and matching in receiving efficiency (7.83 for Memes to 7.90 for Nakamura in terms of yards per target) the All Pro team gave Nakamura the edge. In my opinion, looking back I'd give him 3rd behind Memes and Lackson. Nakamura missed the Pro Bowl, because this was a season where the competition was close and all of the top 5 RBs by All Pro votes were in the ASFC. S31 had Nakamura miss the 1st Team for the first time, though he still got a 2nd team spot as the 4th best RB in the league (and the 4th best RB in the conference, thus missing the Pro Bowl). He had under 900 yards rushing for the first time since his rookie season, but still had 11 touchdowns and was the most efficient RB in the league with 5.36 yards per carry and 7.86 yards per target. Honestly, there was an argument that Nakamura was the best RB in the league this season, though I think I'd place him 2nd; the highest volume RBs in the league this year had really bad efficiency for the time, and Nakamura still managed 1500 scrimmage yards and 15 touchdowns. All three players who managed more TDs and more yards this year were far, far worse at both receiving and rushing to compare, and this time it's not like Memes was being a more efficient player in the same backfield, he had 4.93 yards per carry, which was excellent and also a far cry from what Nakamura was doing.
S32 finally saw Nakamura regress after over a calendar year of being at least in the conversation for a top 2 RB in the greatest time to ever play RB. Memes was the lead back now, and Nakamura barely missed out on 800 yards on 4.68 yards per carry, though he still had 12 rushing touchdowns. He wasn't even efficient receiving this time, with only 6.33 yards per target. S33 was another season with Nakamura as the 2nd fiddle, this time behind Goat Tank, and he managed 600 yards and 5 touchdowns on 4.61 yards per carry. S34 saw Nakamura, for the final season of his career, switch to Fullback, manage 3.90 yards per carry, and 8.41 yards per target along with 1100 scrimmage yards and 8 touchdowns to snag a 2nd team All Pro fullback spot in the retirement season of his career.
Nakamura arguably did not deserve the S24 RBotY, arguably should have been 2nd team instead of 1st team in S30, and was still significantly under-awarded over his career. He was a top 2 RB six separate times, with an argument to be one a seventh time. He probably should have made both the S30 and S31 Pro Bowls, definitely the S31 one, should have won RBotY and OPOY for S27, and is easily the best player on this entire ballot over both Blackstone and Buckley. The only arguments against Nakamura's peak from S27-31 on Arizona being the best period for a single RB in league history are either Old Sim vs New Sim arguments, or what was about to transpire about 3 seasons after that ended. Easy Hall of Famer, one of the greatest players of all time, and the best player I ever shared a roster with, sorry Darkness and Zeagle.
TARO RAIMON
User: @xTri
AZ (S25 - S34)
WR
Unanimous Inductee? YES
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AWARDS
1x Offensive Breakout Player of the Year (S26)
8x Pro Bowler (S26, S27, S28, S29, S30, S31, S32, S33)
1x First Team All-Pro (S33)
1x Second Team All-Pro (S28)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#15 Career Rec Yds (12408.00)
#22 Career Rec Lg (90.00)
#10 Career Rec TD (95.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season Rec Lg (S27 - 90.00)
#8 Season Rec TD (S33 - 15.00)
#4 Season ST KRAvg (S26 - 41.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#25 Game Rec Lg (S27W11 - 90.00)
#1 Game Rec TD (S33W4 - 4.00)
#9 Game Rec TD (S28W8 - 3.00)
#9 Game Rec TD (S32W6 - 3.00)
#17 Game Points (S33W4 - 24.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#18 Career Rec Yds (875.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#14 Season Rec Lg (S30 - 64.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#2 Game Rec Yds (S29W18 - 182.00)
#13 Game Scrimmage Yds (S29W18 - 182.00)
Overall Statistics: 833 receptions, 12,408 receiving yards, 95 TDs
I honestly don't have much to add to the overall statistics breakdown; Raimon played 156 games, the 36th most at WR in league history, and has the 14th most yards and the 10th most touchdowns of any WR ever. I believe Westfield and Willie from the old sim are the only players with more touchdowns in less games, and despite not getting the top spot in any season of his career (maybe), those 8 Pro Bowls are probably enough with a stat sheet like that.
S25, Raimon's rookie year, was a classic "buried on the depth chart" year, where Raimon had the 6th most catches of any player on Arizona and thus only managed 300 yards. S26 saw Raimon boosted up to the 2nd most targeted player (probably) on Arizona, and he managed to be by far the most productive, with 1350 yards and 11 touchdowns, a top 3 or 4 WR and an easy Pro Bowler, the first of 8 straight. S27, the switch to the new sim, had just under 1500 yards and 10 touchdowns, and was about a top 4 WR on the year yet again. S28 saw Raimon get a 2nd team All Pro with a respectable 9.14 yards per target, as the 5th best WR on the year despite what was a lower down year by pure volume; only 1250 yards, though Raimon still managed 11 touchdowns. Raimon was the 5th best WR in the conference by pure volume, but his efficiency made him at minimum top 3 in my eyes and thus a deserved Pro Bowler. S29 was one of Raimon's 3 seasons where he was a primary target but didn't manage 10 touchdowns, with only 9 but 1400 yards. Raimon had 9.13 yards per target, was the 3rd best WR in the conference, and the 6th best in the league for yet another deserved Pro Bowl.
S30 was the first time since his rookie year that Raimon wasn't the best WR on Arizona. Raimon wasn't bad by any means, he had 1400 yards, 14 TDs, and 10.12 yards per target, probably the 4th best WR season in the league that year. It should definitely have made the 2nd team All Pro at the time and would certainly make a 2nd team All Pro with the expanded roster we use nowadays. S31 was not as good, with only 1300 yards and 7 TDs, statistically the worst season of his career by volume. He had a decent 8.94 yards per target, and was still a top 3 WR in the conference, so he deserved the Pro Bowl, but was more like the 9th best overall by pure volume, maybe 8th or so with yards per target considered. S32 was a bit of a rebound year for Raimon, with 1350 yards and 10 touchdowns, 9.45 yards per reception, and overall saw Raimon as about the 6th or 7th best WR on the year and a deserving Pro Bowler.
S33 was the year that Raimon was the highest voted player on the All Pro team, but missed out on the WRotY. He managed 1300 yards, 15 touchdowns, 9.44 yards per target, and lost out to his fellow 1st team All Pro, a player with 1600 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 9.25 yards per target. S34 is most notable for how good of a season it statistically was despite being the final season of Raimon's career, well into regression; despite not being the top target on Arizona any more, he managed 1100 yards and 8 touchdowns, while maintaining 9.44 yards per target.
Taro Raimon does not have the greatest peak ever; what he does have is basically being a better version of Mike Evans from the real life NFL. Evans is notable for basically always putting up 1000 yards, often getting double digit touchdowns (5 times over his 10 seasons, with 8 TDs on 2 other occasions) but rarely making the Pro Bowl and only getting a 2nd team All Pro spot twice. The worst year of Raimon's career outside of the years where he was not a top 2 target for the offense was 1300 yards and 7 touchdowns. He had double digit touchdowns 6 times over those 8 seasons, and the lowest yard total he had was 1261. There's a couple seasons where if we had either an extended All Pro team or had voted for All Pro earlier (or in S30's case, properly awarded him) he'd have gotten a 2nd team All Pro, maybe even a 1st team in S26. Very few WRs in league history can boast a median season of 1300 yards and double digit touchdowns, and that's why he has 8 Pro Bowls and is a surefire Hall of Famer despite not having all that high of a peak. Raimon kind of functions as an offensive version of Bubba Thumper, in a way. Weird comparison but I think it tracks.
HARRISON ANDREWS
User: @abh89
SAR (S25 - S33)
SJS (S34 - S34)
CHI (S34 - S34)
CB
Unanimous Inductee? YES
-------------
3x Ultimus Champion (S27, S30, S34)
-------------
AWARDS
1x Cornerback of the Year (S28)
4x Pro Bowler (S27, S28, S29, S33)
3x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29, S33)
-------------
Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#15 Career DEF PD (227.00)
#13 Career DEF Int (36.00)
#6 Career DEF TD (8.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#6 Season DEF Int (S28 - 9.00)
#6 Season DEF TD (S28 - 3.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#9 Career DEF PD (20.00)
#6 Career DEF Int (4.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#18 Season DEF PD (S30 - 6.00)
#7 Season DEF Int (S27 - 2.00)
#23 Season DEF FF (S27 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#24 Game DEF PD (S27W18 - 4.00)
#4 Game DEF Int (S27W18 - 2.00)
#11 Game DEF FF (S27W18 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 920 tackles, 227 PDs, 36 INTs, 8 TDs, 10 FFs/4 FRs
Among CBs, Andrews is 9th in tackles, T-16th in PDs, T-6th in INTs, T-4th in TDs, T-50th in FFs, and T-61st in FRs. Most of the people above and around him in tackles, PDs, TDs, and INTs are surefire Hall of Famers or at least in the conversation for it, so he's definitely got the stats for it, especially considering he played only 160 games.
Andrews started off pretty decent, with 15 PDs, 2 INTs, a sack, and 1/1 FF/FRs. While it was good, there were a double digit number of better CBs during S25, his rookie season. S26 saw a huge sophomore slump, with 16 PDs, an INT, and a FF. There were over 20 better CBs that season. S27, the switch to the new sim, made Andrews significantly better, he had 21 PDs, 5 INTs, and 2 TDs. He was either the 3rd or 4th best CB on the season, would have made an All Pro team if we'd started them a season earlier, and made his first Pro Bowl. S28 was outstanding, with 31 PDs, 9 INTs, 3 TDs, and a forced fumble. At the time, he fought with a season from Rich Triplet who set a record with 46 PDs, 6 INTs, and a TD, and they shared the inaugural 1st team spots for CBs. The league voted Andrews as CBotY, though the All Pro team had Triplet above. As someone on that initial vote, I still agree with Triplet as the overall better candidate, he had nearly a 6% (57.5% to 63.4%) better catch rate allowed, with the lowest catch rate allowed among non-Nickel corners to Andrews being average, and no penalties or missed tackles all season. The 3 more picks and 2 more TDs were great but I feel this was decided wrong; it was really close though. Either way, well deserved 1st team All Pro and Pro Bowler.
S29 had Andrews repeat as a 1st Team All Pro, though not a CBotY. He had 29 PDs, 6 INTs, and 2 FFs, was considered the 3rd best CB by the All Pro team, and easily made the Pro Bowl. His 61.27% catch rate was near the top in the league this time and he actually has an argument to be considered the 2nd best CB on the season behind Colt Mendoza. S30 saw Andrews regress, with only 23 PDs, an INT, a TD, and a FF. Andrews also had a mediocre catch rate (64.63%), and as such there were over a double digit number of better CBs. S31 wasn't amazing, with 24 PDs and 1 INT, but also had 3/3 FF/FRs. However, because he allowed over 71% on catches, the 2nd worst mark in the entire league, I have Andrews as a bottom 5 CB at best on the year. S32 was similar in raw stats, with 22 PDs, 3 INTs, and a FF. Andrews' catch rate was 67.33%, which was still bad but not bottom of the league. Still, in a season where 9 CBs made the All Pro team or at least also received votes, Andrews was nowhere to be seen and was still a bottom half CB in the league.
S33, after a few seasons where Andrews went without awards, finally saw him return to the Pro Bowl, and the All Pro teams, this time as the top rated CB in the league. Andrews managed a good 62.66% catch rate against, had 35 PDs, 6 INTs, and a TD. While he lost out on the CBotY award to Rich Leaking, who had a similar TO total, 2 more TDs, 11 less PDs, and a 3% higher catch rate, this is extremely close to call. I can see why Leaking got it, I see the argument for Andrews, I think I lean Andrews overall though. S34, Andrews' final year, did not get him awards, pro bowls, or all too many stats, with only 11 PDs, 2 INTs, and a TD. However, it did get him a 3rd ring for his career, which was probably what he was going for.
Andrews isn't the most highly awarded player in league history, though I don't see too much fault with his awards. At most he could have lost a pair of coinflips to have no CBotY, but he could have easily won both to be CBotY twice. He was a 1st Team All Pro 3 times, could have made another 1st team or at least a 2nd team in S27, and while I wouldn't say his awards were enough to get him into the Hall on their own, his awards plus his stats definitely were. He did have a bit of a problem with completion percent allowed, I really don't like how often he was over 65% in that regard, but that's nowhere near enough to keep him from being a well deserved 1st ballot unanimous Hall of Famer.
BRANDON BOOKER
User: @Memento Mori
PHI (S22 - S25)
OCO (S26 - S34)
CB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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AWARDS
4x Pro Bowler (S23, S24, S26, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#10 Career DEF Int (37.00)
#6 Career DEF TD (8.00)
#1 Career ST PRLng (98.00)
#8 Career ST PRAvg (14.42)
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SEASON RECORDS
#1 Season ST PRLng (S26 - 98.00)
#18 Season ST PR_TD (S26 - 1.00)
#25 Season ST PRAvg (S26 - 14.42)
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GAME RECORDS
#14 Game ST PRYds (S26W1 - 132.00)
#1 Game ST PRLng (S26W1 - 98.00)
#3 Game ST PR_TD (S26W1 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season DEF FF (S33 - 1.00)
#10 Season DEF FR (S33 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#11 Game DEF FF (S33W19 - 1.00)
#6 Game DEF FR (S33W19 - 1.00)
#13 Game ST KR (S26W17 - 5.00)
Overall Statistics: 964 tackles, 4 TFLs, 16 sacks, 204 PDs, 37 INTs, 8 TDs, 11/4 FF/FRs
Uh oh, that's not a very good award cabinet; only 4 Pro Bowls over 13 seasons, topping out at "also Receiving Votes" over the 7 seasons where he was playing at the same time as the All Pro Teams, at least 4 of those seasons when he should have been in contention for it. At the very least, that's a nice set of stats over 204 games, the 2nd most in league history for a CB: Booker has the T-4th most tackles, the T-11th most TFLs, the T-14th most sacks, the T-29th most PDs (hilariously enough exactly 1 PD per game), the T-4th most INTs, the T-4th most TDs, the T-40th most FFs, and the T-61st most FRs. At first glance, this is a Quentin Bode type of Hall of Fame candidate, though thankfully Booker is high up in more than just Tackles, especially INTs and TDs, actually important stats.
Booker's rookie year was OK, 17 PDs and 3 INTs. There were about 7 or 8 better CBs on the year, including 3 in his conference, so he just missed out on the Pro Bowl. S23 was Booker's first Pro Bowl, with 16 PDs, 3 INTs, 1/1 FF/FR, 2 TDs, and 2 sacks and a TFL on top of that. It was the 2nd best CB season in the entire league by my judgement, only losing out to a 24 PD, 5 INT, 1 TD season. A hypothetical 1st team All Pro, which does a lot to ease my feelings on Booker's inclusion. S24 saw Booker as a Pro Bowler again, with 10 PDs, 5 INTs, 2 FFs, 2 TDs, 3 sacks, and a TFL. I think Booker was the 3rd best CB this year (behind Andrew Witten and Lavelle Jr) and would have gotten yet another 1st team All Pro. S25 saw a bit of regression, with 13 PDs, 4 INTs, and 1 TD, an OK season, but one with a double digit number of better CBs. S26 saw Booker's 3rd Pro Bowl, but I'm pretty sure this was for returning; his season was 18 PDs, 2 INTs, 1 sack, 1 TFL. There were enough better CBs for Booker to be average at best this year, nearly 20 by my count. Heck, I'm pretty sure the reason Booker got the Pro Bowl was because the actual best returner in the conference was an IA, Eddie Jeeta. So we've had a player who should have 2 first teams but also should have missed one of their 4 Pro Bowls, as we enter the New Sim era.
S27 saw an explosion in stats among so many players, and Booker wasn't one of those who was most helped. He had 23 PDs, 4 INTs, and a TD, which was about the 9th best CB in the league, 5th best in the conference by volume and thus missed out on the Pro Bowl. Thank goodness, because he also led the entire league in catch rate allowed with 75.8%. Booker was arguably one of the worst CBs in the league this season. S28 saw another explosion in CB stats, while Booker remained steady with 20 PDs, 3 INTs, 1 TD, and 1/1 FF/FR, along with a still last 74.63% catch rate allowed. There were about 15 better CBs by volume and a couple dozen considering that he allowed nearly 3/4ths of all passes his way to be caught. S29 saw Booker have his final Pro Bowl, and while Booker wasn't as good comparatively as his early career Pro Bowls, he was still capable of putting up big numbers, with 23 PDs, 5 INTs, 3/1 FF/FRs, and a TD. He probably made the CBotY ballot, with only a handful of players even in the same stratosphere. So what was the issue? Booker had a 68.1% catch rate allowed. This was one of the worst marks in the league (shoutout to Maverick Bowie for allowing 77.3%), well below the average of 64%, and as such this was a worse season than you might have thought; I think it was closer to the 8th or 9th best season overall, getting lucky that after the top 2 players at the position were ASFC corners, none of the next 5 or so were.
S30 was a poor year from Booker, with 19 PDs and 3 FFs only. This time Booker allowed a 72.87% catch rate and would be my choice for worst CB in the entire league. S31 seemed significantly better, 17 PDs but 4 INTs, and a 71.53% catch rate was technically an improvement while still being the worst in the entire league. He was bottom 5 yet again among CBs in my view. S32 was, by raw volume, worse, with only 13 PDs, 3 INTs, 1 sack, and 1/1 FF/FR. That being said, Booker finally got down to a better though still not great catch percent of 67.50%, so this time he was merely a below average CB with there being a double digit number of better ones instead of one of the worst in the league. S33 had Booker relegated to Nickel Corner and his stats suffered as a result, with only 9 PDs and 5 sacks. Hilariously enough, this was the first year where his catch rate was acceptable, with only 62.69% allowed. Not enough to be an exceptional Nickel Corner, but better than he had been in any year prior. S34, Booker's final year, had 6 PDs, 1 INT, and 4 sacks. He allowed only 56.58% catch rate, and thus was at least a decent nickel corner in his final season.
I'm going to be honest, I went into this expecting to dislike Booker, considering he had only 4 Pro Bowls over 13 seasons, but I turned it around after he was the equivalent of a 1st team All Pro twice in the first 3 seasons of his career. It'd have taken something really bad for me to dislike Booker at the end of that, and then that turned out to be what the rest of his career was. His other two Pro Bowls were a Returner Pro Bowl and a really, really low down one in the new sim. And almost every other year of his time in the New Sim was either "end of career, mediocre at best Nickel Corner" or "arguably worst CB in the entire league". I really dislike Booker. I hate that 6 out of his 11 seasons where he wasn't playing nickel were below average, with 2 of them being "worst CB in the entire league" caliber. Most of all, I hate that so, so much of his production came in terrible seasons, such as S31, S27, and S28. That's 60 PDs, 11 INTs, and 2 TDs over 3 seasons of good volume but bad CB play. Of course they were throwing at him constantly, he was more likely to let up completions than maybe any other player in league history! In my mind, Booker kind of functions as a version of McCormick, Tweed, and Gambino, where half of his career was HOF worthy and the other half wasn't. The issue is that top tier Booker was nowhere near as great as any of those three, as seen by the complete lack of positional excellency awards, much less major ones, and bad Booker existed for a longer period of time than all of the above mentioned players. New Sim Booker was 8 out of 13 seasons, and the closest thing to All Time Great Booker was literally just S23-S24.
ICEBOX RIPOSTE
User: @Mavfatha
CHI (S25 - S34)
OL
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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1x Ultimus Champion (S34)
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AWARDS
1x Offensive Lineman of the Year (S33)
5x Pro Bowler (S25, S29, S32, S33, S34)
3x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29, S33)
1x Second Team All-Pro (S32)
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CAREER RECORDS
#13 Career Other Pancakes (956.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#6 Game Other Pancakes (S30W11 - 17.00)
#17 Game Other Pancakes (S34W4 - 16.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#20 Career Other Pancakes (49.00)
#8 Career Other Sacks Allowed (4.00)
Overall Statistics: 956 pancakes, 9 sacks allowed
That's over 100 pancakes per sack allowed, 106.2 to be precise. I believe there are only 3 other OL in the Hall you can say that about. That being said, Riposte did play part of their career on the inside of the line, which seems to hinder total pancakes and makes it easier (though not by as much) to not allow sacks.
Icebox's rookie year in S25 had 89 pancakes and 2 sacks allowed. He was the 6th best OL and 4th best in the conference, which I believe deserved the Pro Bowl back in the day. S26 was slightly worse, with 74 pancakes and 1 sack allowed. There were a double digit number of better OL and thus Icebox missed the Pro Bowl. S27 was Icebox's worst season of his career, with 57 pancakes and 2 sacks allowed, one of the worse OL in the league. S28, on the other hand, got Icebox a 1st team All Pro because despite being listed as Tackle, he lined up at Center, managed 86 pancakes, no sacks allowed, and no penalties. He was the best interior lineman in the entire league, and would have gotten 1st team All Pro even at the team's most restrictive. S29 saw Riposte repeat as the best center, this time being awarded with a Pro Bowl for his 65 pancake, no sack allowed, no penalties committed season.
S30 finally saw Icebox moved back to Tackle, and he was pretty good; 110 pancakes, no sacks allowed, 3 penalties for 20 yards, by my count he was the 6th best OT in the league. But unfortunately he was the 4th best in his conference and thus missed the Pro Bowl. S31 had 112 pancakes and no sacks allowed, though 4 penalties for 40 yards prevented him from making the All Pro team. Honestly, I think he deserved the All Pro 2nd team spot as the 4th best OT in the league, I don't like the player who made it with 136 pancakes but 3 sacks allowed over him. This still wouldn't make him a Pro Bowler, because the top 2 OT in the league were both in his conference. S32 saw Icebox make the Pro Bowl at tackle for the first time since his rookie year, and get a 2nd team All Pro spot for amassing 124 pancakes, 1 sack allowed, and 1 penalty for 5 yards. Honestly, I think I'd have put Icebox over the player who got the 2nd spot on the 1st team, with 139 pancakes but 2 sacks allowed and 3 penalties for 20 yards. I value not having 2 penalties for 15 yards and a sack allowed (plus a fumble recovered for more spice) more than 15 pancakes personally, which would put Icebox as the 2nd best OT in the league, a 1st team All Pro, and the Pro Bowl that he got in reality.
S33 saw Icebox get 1st Team All Pro for 127 pancakes, most in his career, 1 sack allowed, and 3 penalties for 20 yards. He just beat out Alexander Franklin, who had the exact same statline except his 3 penalties were for 40 yards. He was a unanimous 1st team All Pro, and the best OL in the entire league. He won his OLotY for this performance and deserved it. S34, his final year, wasn't quite as great, with 112 pancakes and 2 sacks allowed, along with 5 penalties for 40 yards. It caused him to just miss the All Pro team, though I think he still deserved the Pro Bowl spot.
Icebox isn't the greatest OL ever, under 1000 pancakes ruins any chance of that. But they were remarkably consistent, and despite playing until year 11 (they were an S24 player) didn't have a season with more than 2 sacks allowed. I believe they're the only OL who can say that who played a significant portion of time, even counting the two Hall of Fame OL with a better pancake to sack allowed ratio. That, along with the 3 time 1st team All Pro (which I think should be 4 time) gets Icebox in the Hall. I'm really surprised Icebox got less votes than Dolls did the season prior despite significantly more pancakes, significantly less sacks allowed, and an actual OLotY award more than anything else; Icebox starts the group of players who only got 6/9 in this part.
DERRED DE VILLE
User: @Exilizer
BAL (S22 - S25)
SAR (S26 - S28)
BER (S29 - S32)
LB
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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1x Ultimus Champion (S27)
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AWARDS
5x Pro Bowler (S24, S26, S27, S28, S29)
2x First Team All-Pro (S28, S29)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#15 Career DEF Tck (1144.00)
#17 Career DEF FR (14.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#25 Season DEF Sack (S29 - 19.00)
#12 Season DEF FF (S28 - 7.00)
#2 Season DEF FR (S28 - 5.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#1 Game DEF Sfty (S29W9 - 1.00)
#1 Game DEF Sfty (S30W12 - 1.00)
#11 Game DEF FF (S26W16 - 2.00)
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POSTSEASON CAREER RECORDS
#23 Career DEF Sack (8.00)
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POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#23 Season DEF Sack (S30 - 3.00)
#10 Season DEF FR (S27 - 1.00)
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POSTSEASON GAME RECORDS
#17 Game DEF Sack (S27W18 - 2.00)
#17 Game DEF Sack (S30W17 - 2.00)
#6 Game DEF FR (S27W18 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 1,144 tackles, 31 TFLs, 104 sacks, 155 PDs, 13 INTs, 2 safeties, 23/14 FF/FRs
Derred, the 2nd best de Ville at LB in league history, is 12th in tackles, T-90th in TFLs, T-18th in sacks, 1st in PDs, T-12th in INTs, T-26th in FFs, and T-12th in FRs. That's a pretty good statline, especially in PDs, though lower in INTs than you'd like for how many PDs that is. De Ville played 173 games at LB, T-19th most.
Derred's rookie season was OK but not great; 6 sacks, 2 TFLs, 11 PDs, and a FF. There were a double digit number of better LBs. S23 saw small improvements, with 8 sacks, 2 TFLs, 13 PDs, an INT, and a FF. There were about 8 better LB that year, so Derred's first Pro Bowl had to wait for S24. 13 sacks, 2 TFLs, 29 PDs, 2 INTs, and 2 FFs. By my count, Derred was the 3rd best LB in the entire league. S25 had Derred take a break from the Pro Bowl, with only 4 sacks, 1 TFL, and 13 PDs being too much to overcome with his 2 INTs and 1/2 FF/FRs. There were about 15 better LBs on the year. S26, the last year of the old sim, had Derred return to the Pro Bowl with 8 sacks, 2 TFLs, 26 PDs, and 4/1 FF/FRs. Honestly, I don't love this season, I think there were about 7 or 8 better seasons that year, 4/1 isn't actually that amazing of a fumble statline when backed up with absolutely zero INTs, but he managed to be the 3rd best LB in his conference because the balance of power slanted towards the ASFC that season.
S27, the switch to the new sim, was much better: 16 sacks, 5 TFLs, 14 PDs, a pick, and 4/1 FF/FRs. Unfortunately this was the new sim and there was a massive stat explosion, so there were 4 better LB in the NSFC by my count and another 2 in the ASFC. I don't think that Derred should have been a Pro Bowler this season, I think he was about on par with Domine who went without a Pro Bowl this season. S28, though, was a massive improvement. Derred managed 13 sacks, 6 TFLs, 13 PDs, 2 INTs, and a massive 7/5 FF/FR stat. The 7 forced fumbles was a single season record at the time, and he was the only LB on the inaugural EDGE 1st team (we had a DE as the other guy). Dex Kennedy beat him out for the LBotY award, probably because of a...what the hell 4 defensive touchdowns on the season? but I'd say that Derred was undoubtedly a top 2 LB that year. S29 had de Ville yet again be the only LB on the 1st team EDGE, with the other being a DE, due to 19 sacks, 6 TFLs, 9 PDs, 1 INT, a safety, and 2/3 FF/FRs. Yet again, he lost out to someone else for the LBotY who was on the 2nd team for the All Pro team, this time due to a significant gap in turnovers. At worst, Derred was 2nd again.
After a career that managed to be 1st team All Pro worthy 3 times through 8 seasons, Derred didn't make any more awards in the final 3 seasons of his career. S30 had 15 sacks, 2 TFLs, 13 PDs, 2 INTs, a safety, and a forced fumble. A great season that came up just short of a Pro Bowl or an All Pro. S31 and S32 weren't great final seasons, but that wasn't important. Derred de Ville wasn't an all time great LB or anything, but he was one of the greatest pass defending LBs ever, and had quite a nice peak with back to back seasons that were at least in the conversation for LBotY. Being what was probably equivalent to a 3 time 1st team at a position as competitive as LB is enough to maybe just squeak over the line. Derred's not my favorite candidate though, he's very borderline, especially considering that there were a couple Pro Bowls where he was extremely borderline.
CUCO CLEMENTE
User: @Billybolo53
SAR (S23 - S32)
DT, CB, S
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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2x Ultimus Champion (S27, S30)
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AWARDS
2x Safety of the Year (S29, S31)
7x Pro Bowler (S25, S27, S28, S29, S30, S31, S32)
2x First Team All-Pro (S29, S31)
3x Second Team All-Pro (S28, S30, S32)
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Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#6 Career DEF TD (8.00)
#22 Career DEF Blk P (1.00)
#1 Career ST KRLng (108.00)
#8 Career ST KR_TD (3.00)
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SEASON RECORDS
#3 Season DEF Blk P (S25 - 1.00)
#1 Season ST KRLng (S25 - 108.00)
#3 Season ST KR_TD (S25 - 2.00)
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GAME RECORDS
#1 Game DEF Blk P (S25W14 - 1.00)
#1 Game ST KRLng (S25W12 - 108.00)
#1 Game ST KR_TD (S25W9 - 1.00)
#1 Game ST KR_TD (S25W12 - 1.00)
#1 Game ST KR_TD (S26W16 - 1.00)
Overall Statistics: 617 tackles, 12 TFLs, 43 sacks, 99 PDs, 29 INTs, 8 TDs, 9 FF/3 FRs, 1 blocked punt
The safety tab is still broken on Wolfiebot, and Clemente started as a DT and then moved to CB before settling down at Safety, so all I can say is what Clemente did over 7 seasons and 112 games at the position: T-32nd in picks, T-36th in PDs, T-3rd in TDs, T-38th in sacks, and T-33rd in FFs at Safety. All in all, a pretty decent group of stats, especially considering it's not counting his S25 in any of those.
S23, Clemente's rookie season, was a decent DT season with 8 sacks and a TFL. I believe it's actually the 5th best DT season, and 3rd best in the Conference, meaning that Clemente almost made the Pro Bowl their rookie year. S24 was worse, with only 4 sacks and 4 TFLs; there were a double digit number of better DTs. S25 saw Clemente make their first Pro Bowl...as a CB, not the Safety they would eventually go into the Hall as. They managed 19 PDs and 5 INTs, and were in my opinion the 2nd or 3rd best CB in the entire league; an easy Pro Bowler and a hypothetical 1st team All Pro. S26 saw Clemente move to Safety, and he was significantly worse; he managed 10 sacks and a TFL, but only had 2 PDs, a pick, and 2 FFs. 10 sacks was great, no safety had more, but he also was a bottom 5 safety in terms of pass defense.
S27 saw Clemente rebound in a big way, with 7 sacks, 5 TFLs, 15 PDs, a pick, a forced fumble, and a touchdown. I think he was a top 4 safety, arguably the 2nd best, and deserved his Pro Bowl and probably at least a 2nd team All Pro. S28 wasn't as well rounded, but Clemente made up for it with a ton of turnovers; he had only 3 sacks and 7 PDs, but managed 4 picks, 1/1 FF/FR, and a touchdown. He was considered the 3rd best Safety by the first ever All Pro team and made 2nd team and the Pro Bowl as a result. S29 was even better: 14 PDs, 7 INTs, 2/1 FF/FRs, 2 sacks, a TFL, and 2 touchdowns meant that Clemente was a unanimous 1st team All Pro and won Safety of the Year. S30 saw him "merely" get a 2nd team again, as the 3rd best Safety according to the All Pro team, and add on yet another Pro Bowl with 10 PDs, 4 sacks, 3 INTs, 3/1 FF/FRs, and a TD. Only 2 Safeties even had an argument to be better. S31 was Clemente's second season as Safety of the Year. He had 3 sacks, 15 PDs, 4 INTs, and a TD, as well as a ridiculous 55.79% catch rate. As such he was a unanimous 1st team All Pro again, and won the positional excellency award over some really stiff competition from Jacob Raske. S32, Clemente's final season, managed 17 PDs, 2 sacks, 4 INTs, and 2 touchdowns. Despite being a better season than his previous one, Clemente had to settle for 2nd team due to a player getting 7 picks and another getting 3 defensive TDs.
Honestly, I'm more confused than anything as to why Clemente only got 6/9 votes. He was the best safety the league had seen since it banned Safety at LB, missed the Pro Bowl a single time, and made the All Pro teams literally every time he could have before retiring. Sure, his stats weren't great compared to the people who were in the old sim and putting up double digit sack 5 INT seasons on the regular, but they were taking advantage of things Clemente literally was forbidden from doing. Seriously, as a member of the secondary he made the Pro Bowl 7 of 8 times, was worthy of at least a 2nd team All Pro literally every time by my reckoning he made it, and even had a good amount of awards. Clemente's an All Timer, and if I feel Riposte might have deserved more votes, Clemente's the player on this ballot who I'm shocked and appalled he only got 6 (as opposed to the player who I'm shocked and appalled he got 6 at all). Thank goodness he made it.
ADAM MELLOTT
User: @GuitarMaster116
NOLA (S26 - S34)
OL
Unanimous Inductee? NO
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AWARDS
2x Offensive Lineman of the Year (S27, S30)
4x Pro Bowler (S26, S27, S28, S30)
2x First Team All-Pro (S28, S30)
1x Second Team All-Pro (S34)
-------------
Important Records
CAREER RECORDS
#16 Career Other Pancakes (887.00)
-------------
POSTSEASON SEASON RECORDS
#14 Season Other Pancakes (S27 - 19.00)
Overall Statistics: 887 pancakes, 7 sacks allowed
Mellott has what I believe is the 2nd best ratio in league history among Hall of Fame OL with an amazing 126.7 pancakes per sack allowed in his career. That's the 17th most pancakes in league history, and T-308th in sacks allowed. That being said, they did play what I believe to be the shortest career of any Hall of Fame lineman in league history, with only 9 seasons played, avoiding both a true rookie season and seasons in deep regression that could have led to a bunch more sacks allowed.
Mellott opened his career with what was by far his worst season ever: 72 pancakes, 4 sacks allowed. He made the Pro Bowl, but I'm not sure he should have; at most, he got REALLY lucky with proportions and bots because I see at least 15-20 better OL by the quick test, and while a significant number are bots that's still very telling to me. Simply put 72 pancakes and 4 sacks wasn't even a good season in S26. S27, on the other hand, was significantly better; Mellott managed 118 pancakes and no sacks allowed, and won OLotY as a result by one pancake. S28 wasn't good enough to repeat, but in and of itself it was 122 pancakes with no sacks allowed, along with only 2 penalties for 14 yards. He was the 2nd best OL in the league and got a 1st team All Pro spot. S29 was significantly worse, with 100 pancakes, no sacks allowed, and 3 penalties for 20 yards. There were 7 better OL and thus Mellott was barely above average. S30 saw Mellott go to the Pro Bowl for the last time in his career, as well as get his 2nd OLotY award. He had 126 pancakes, no sacks allowed, and only one penalty for 5 yards in total. A couple other OL had a few more pancakes with no sacks allowed but significantly more penalties, so Mellott won out overall.
S31 saw Mellott begin to decline, though. Sure, he still was managing to not give up sacks, but he also only had 80 pancakes and a penalty for 14 yards; I think there were 10 better Tackles on the year. S32 was even worse, only 73 pancakes and the first sack allowed in his career since his rookie season. He even had 6 penalties for 50 yards; there were a double digit number of better tackles yet again. S33 saw a lot of improvement, with 95 pancakes, a sack allowed, and no penalties, but with 5 or 6 better OL Mellott still missed out on the Pro Bowl or the All Pros. Finally, S34 was the first time Mellott had managed 100 pancakes since his OLotY season 4 years prior, with 101, a sack allowed, and 2 penalties for 10 yards. Mellott managed to get into an expanded All Pro team, as the 6th best OT in the league for an All Pro 2nd team without a Pro Bowl, considering 4 of the 5 players above him were in the same conference.
I think Mellott kind of acts as a side-grade to Riposte from earlier; he has one more OLotY, but 1 less Pro Bowl, and arguably should be 2 less. He has 5 All Pros to Riposte's 4, but only 2 First Teams to Riposte's 3. He has a better ratio and 2 less sacks allowed, but has about 70 less pancakes and played one season less. Riposte has the problem of having spent some time at guard and center, while Mellott has the problem of being extremely underwhelming between S31-S33 for reasons I can't tell. All in all, I think I prefer Riposte, but I think both belong in the Hall overall. At minimum I think both are far better than Byron Dolls and both would be above my personal cutoff point for Hall of Fame OLinemen.
(Dougie Smalls covered in first comment, I hit the character limit again)