2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

Taylor's problem is that he got overshadowed in a non-major market and he doesn't really have many skins on the wall -- one Pro Bowl appearance and a second-team All-Pro aren't going to scream put me in.

Why Taylor over Stephen Jackson? Over Corey Dillon? Over Warrick Dunn or Jamal Lewis?

Among the four running backs that made it this far, comparing resumes I'd put him last in that group.

 

+1

 

They always seem to "spread it around," expect an OL, a DL, an LB, DB and WR. Then start counting Pro Bowls. (though there is a HUGE difference between being named a starter when the teams are annouced and being a later addition due to injury or SB involvement).

 

Every running back ahead of Taylor in career rushing yards is in the Hall of Fame except for Frank Gore and Adrian Peterson, who haven't been retired for five years yet.
Taylor is ahead of Jackson, Dillon, Dunn and Lewis.

 

yes he does, and the difference in their totals is negligible

He is not head and shoulders above these. Stephen Jackson has a better resume. Dillon is equal or has a slightly better resume.

Fred Taylor 2,534 for 11,695 yards, 66 TDs / 290 catches for 2,384 yards, 8 TDs / 1 Pro Bowl / 1 2nd Team All-Pro / 7 1,000 yard seasons

Stephen Jackson 2,764 for 11,438 yards, 69 TDs / 461 catches for 3,683 yards, 9 TDs / 3 Pro Bowl / 2 2nd Team All-Pro / 8 1,000 yards seasons

Corey Dillon 2,618 for 11,241 yards, 82 TDs / 244 catches for 1,913 yards, 7 TDs / 4 Pro Bowl / 1 ring / 7 1,000 yard seasons

Warrick Dunn 2,669 for 10,967 yards, 49 TDs / 510 catches for 4,339 yards, 15 TDs / 3 Pro Bowl / 5 1,000 yard seasons

Jamal Lewis 2,542 for 10,607 yards, 58 TDs / 221 catches for 1,879 yards, 4 TDs / 1 Pro Bowl / 1 1st Team All-Pro / Offensive Player of Year / 2nd Team All-Decade / 1 ring / 6 1,000 yard seasons and a 2,000 yard season

 

The voters definitely tend to go overcorrect when a class goes defense or offense heavy.

 

Taylor's problem is also his perceived lack of durability. He missed 35 games, the equivalent of two-plus seasons, with the bulk of that over his first four seasons (23 games). So he was "Fragile Freddy" even though he was terrific from 2002-07, when he had five 1,000-yard seasons and 7,245 yards overall. But even the latter total was just seventh-best in the NFL over that time frame, behind only two HOFers (Tomlinson was first and James was fifth) as well as Shaun Alexander, Jamal Lewis, Clinton Portis and Tiki Barber.

You could make a case for everyone ahead of Taylor as a HOFer and come up with a viable non-football reason why they're not in (Alexander and Portis were weirdos, Lewis spent time in jail on drug chargers and Barber is among the most annoying twits on the planet). But everyone other than Lewis had multiple 1,500-yard seasons, and Lewis' lone 1,500-yard season was the 2,000-yard season. Taylor was great but I don't think he's a HOFer.

Barber, on the other hand...he's got a really interesting case for a super late-bloomer. He was no worse than the second-best back in football his last five seasons, ranking second behind LT2 in rushing yardage but with more receiving yardage (2,631-2,533). There are surely backs in the HOF w/worse peaks. But everything about Barber is toxic. His own teammates hated him and he torched his bridges by blasting Eli during his first season in retirement...which was the season the Giants won the Super Bowl. He left thinking he'd become the next great talking head, but he bombed out there. He left his wife when she was seven months pregnant for the couple's babysitter (a former Today show intern). He made an Anne Frank joke when he said he hid out in the attic of his Jewish lawyer. He tried coming back in 2011 and nobody cared. He's probably a HOF-caliber player, but probably can't find anyone to vouch for him in that room at the Super Bowl.

 

I think the fact that you are discussing so many running backs with similar stats makes the point they aren't HOFers.

 

That's pretty much what I said! (Except for Tiki. If he wasn't such an idiot, he'd be a HOFer)

 

Finalists have been announced:

Eric Allen
Jared Allen
Willie Anderson
Jahri Evans
Dwight Freeney
Antonio Gates
Rodney Harrison
Devin Hester
Torry Holt
Andre Johnson
Julius Peppers
Fred Taylor
Reggie Wayne
Patrick Willis
Darren Woodson

 

Guess 13 of 15 -- I had Fletcher and Watters, they went Harrison and Taylor

 

My guess at the inductees:

Anderson
Gates
Peppers
Willis
Woodson