2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

Of note, perhaps, is that Shanahan outside of the two Super Bowl seasons only won one playoff game and was one and done in five of the six seasons. He won one playoff game in his last 15 seasons. I'm just playing the devil's advocate. He never won much without Elway.

 

This. His lack of anything outside that stretch is the counter argument. It's why a guy like Tom Flores took forever to get in.

I don't want to search my Shanahan post from the past but basically

He has four seasons that are great 13-3 (which was then 0-1 in the playoffs, and then 12-4 and 14-2 Super Bowl Champions and then another 13-3.

In his 15 other full seasons, six of them are losing seasons and another three are 8-8 and there are two 9-7 -- that's 11 years of not that great.

 

Bill Belichick has a ,500 record without Brady. Tom Landry never sniffed a Super Bowl without Roger Staubach. Paul Brown never won a title without Otto Graham, not even when he had Jim Brown. Chuck Noll never won a title without Bradshaw starting. If a coach doesn't win as much without a HoF QB, it only shows how important the latter are, not that the coach got dumber somehow.

 

Landry went to three straight NFC championship games right after Staubach retired. That's a pretty good sniff

Meanwhile, the Steelers went to the AFC title game in 1984 with Mark Malone, one year after Bradshaw retired.

 

+1. I'll only add Landry lost a couple of NFL championship games to Green Bay back in the day. I guess had the Cowboys won, they technically wouldn't have played in Super Bowls at the time ... only retroactively.

 

No. ghd Packers beat the Cowboys in the 1966 and 1967 NFL title games, then went on to win Super Bowls I and II.Don Meredith was the QB. Landry, had that same "can't win the big one" reputation Shula then inherited.

 

So Landry made it to the NFL/NFC championship game consistently regardless of the qb.

at any rate, shanahan belongs in no discussion with tom landry.

 

I mean regardless of the QB -- how many titles / Super Bowl appearances does Belichick have compared to everyone ever? How many titles did Brown win period? How many titles / Super Bowl appearances does Landry have, not to mention how many times did he come close?

Landry won at least 10 games 16 times -- Shanahan coached 19 full seasons.

These aren't apples to apples comparisons.

Based on what the previous criteria was for Hall of Fame coaches, three titles was an automatic induction. Two or less has been a crapshoot.

Parcells, who I think most will agree is a better coach than Shanahan, had to wait at two titles. Flores, who has a similar trajectory to Shanahan, waited forever. Coughlin and Shanahan have very similar numbers -- did they cancel each other out on this vote?

Buddy Parker has two titles, with the freakin Lions, and yet it will 60 years for him to get in.

Shanahan's going to get in. He's on the tier with Parker, Coughlin and Holmgren as next coaches in line -- I think honestly Reeves and Schottenheimer are there to round out a ballot and will never get there unless there is literally no one in front of them. Kraft is obviously going in. Rooney Jr. I would assume has the votes in the room as well. So that's four minimum in queue and who knows how close Belichick and Reid are to where they jump right to the front of the line?

 

No, he does not. But he's a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate all the same.

 

This is an excellent assessment. Honestly, I would think Coughlin would get in ahead of Shanahan. Same number of titles, both upset wins over historic dynasty, and success with the Jaguars, an expansion franchise, before that.

 

For sure and wasn’t trying to say he wasnt, just trying to lay out what the opposition case might be.

Also I think they should factor in his work as OC for Niners’ 1994 Super Bowl win.

Why guys dont get combined credit for player/coaching in MLB and coordinator/HC work in the NFL has always baffled me.

 

So the Cowboys didn't sniff then?