Is Jared Allen a Hall of Famer?

Is Jared Allen a Hall of Famer?

by | Apr 20, 2020 | Hall of Fame

Just a quick hitter here, on a player that I’m kind of surprised we didn’t write about earlier–possibly because his retirement came during one of our doldrums of writing, or possibly because we hadn’t even considered the topic worth of discussion…

As I was doing some writing for another Hall of Fame post that will hit in the next day or two, a tweet came across my phone screen–I think what I was seeing was a retweet, but I can’t seem to find it, so I’ll embed the original:

I saw that, and knew I wouldn’t have to dig very far in the comments to find people asking the same question I had–sure enough, right away:

Side note–I also saw a Tweet from an apparent Vikings fan claiming that the Chiefs still won the Jared Allen trade…they used the first round pick on Branden Albert, and one of the third round picks on Jamaal Charles…neither team won a Super Bowl with the picks. That might be worth a post all on its own.

Back to the question at hand–aside from the fact that if & when you are elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, you don’t choose which team you go in as, the question remains–will Jared Allen some day be on the stage in Canton donning the yellow jacket?

jared allen vikings photo

Photo by Mike Morbeck

He played in 187 games over 13 years, amassing 136 sacks, 32 forced fumbles, 19 fumble recoveries, six interceptions, two defensive touchdowns, plus two touchdown receptions on his two career catches, for Kansas City. He led the NFL in sacks in two separate seasons, including a 22 sack season in 2011, and was named to five Pro Bowls, in addition to being named All-Pro four times. He will be eligible for election to the Hall of Fame for the first time in 2021.

Normally the sack totals would seem to indicate that he would be in–but in today’s NFL, with the increase in the passing game, it’s a good total, but is it really great?  He’s 12th on the all-time list right now–the only three ahead of him on the list that aren’t in the Hall of Fame (Julius Peppers, Terrell Suggs and DeMarcus Ware) are also very possibly Canton bound.  Of course, the first name behind him (with 133.5) is John Abraham, who is…not exactly what I think of when I think Hall of Fame. Behind him, tied with Lawrence Taylor, is Leslie O’Neal–another non-Hall of Famer.

So what says you, Zoneblitz readers–is Jared Allen a Hall of Famer?

Is Jared Allen a Hall of Famer?

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By The Numbers: The Best #79 in NFL History

By The Numbers: The Best #79 in NFL History

by | Apr 20, 2020 | 70's, By the Numbers, Hall of Fame, NFL History

Almost eight years ago now we started this series, and apparently more than five years since our most recent, thanks to the COVID19 shut down that has us working at home, we’re going to try to get back into our By The Numbers series.

We’ve seen quite a few go down this path over the years—many just using a list of their opinions as way to drive pageviews–but our audience of Hall of Fame fanatics, combined with our non-traditional approach of bouncing around by picking numbers out of a hat leads to better content (in our opinion).

So, with the goal of getting us back to averaging more than one of our number posts per year, we finally get into the trenches with number 79.

(more…)

Is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer?

Is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer?

by | Apr 9, 2020 | Hall of Fame

We’ve done a fair number of “Is player xx a Hall of Famer” posts here – Eli Manning, Tony Romo, and Patrick Willis as a few examples – but somehow this one is one we never really considered that much. It first came across my Twitter feed last week, when I saw Lamar Jackson’s initial response to user Grantlong (@grantlonggg) asking if Michael Vick is a first ballot hall of famer…keeping in mind, I missed the “first ballot” part of that tweet the first several times reading that.

Lamar Jackson clearly is in the camp of “Yes” to that question:

I, on the other hand, am more in the camp of Reddit user LunchThreatener, who’s post reminded me of the tweet earlier this week, who thinks Vick isn’t even HOF worthy, much less first ballot.

Just looking at the stats–Vick played in 143 games, but started just 115, finishing with a 61-51-1 record. He finished with a 56.2% completion percentage, 22,464 yards, 133 touchdowns and 88 interceptions (a 2.7% INT rate).  He was named to 4 Pro Bowls, zero All-Pro teams, played in six playoff games, had 14 comebacks and led 15 game-winning drives.

A lot of people will say he revolutionized the position–and he started that process, but to me, the 56.2% completion percentage is the most glaring problem with that argument–when critics called Lamar Jackson a running back in disguise, they were more accurately describing Vick.  By comparison, Jackson finished his second season with a 66.1% completion percentage–a mark Vick never even came close to (career high was 62.6% in his 2010 resurgence with the Eagles). Jackson also finished with a 36:6 TD:INT ratio. If you project those numbers out for the length of Vick’s career, even accounting for Vick’s two year layoff, he would finish with 468 touchdowns (if he remained a full-time starter, which Vick couldn’t).

So Jackson is much more in line to be considered a revolutionary at the position (after Cam Newton bridged that gap, albeit with a different QB running style)–and personally I think that Vick will likely not make the cut in Canton.

What say you, Zoneblitz readers? Vote in the poll and leave your comments below.

Is Michael Vick a Hall of Famer?

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Photo by Matthew Straubmuller

NFL Announces All-Decade Team for 2010’s

NFL Announces All-Decade Team for 2010’s

by | Apr 6, 2020 | NFL Breaking News, NFL News

The NFL announced on Monday their All-Decade Team for the 2010 decade, which featured 8 unanimous selections among the 42 players and two coaches.

Tom Brady, who was also an All-Decade Team member for the 2000’s, was named as one of the two quarterbacks, and joined DT Aaron Donald, LB Von Miller, RB Adrian Peterson, OT Koe Thomas, K Justin Tucker, DE JJ Watt and OG Marhsal Yanda as unanimous selections by the 48-member Pro Football Hall of Fame committee.

Not surprisingly given their success in the last decade, the New England Patriots led the way with nine selections, including coach Bill Belichick–Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Stephen Gostkowski, Logan Mankins and Chandler Jones made the list with more than 50 games played with the team, while Cordarrelle Patterson, Darelle Revis and Antonio Brown also made the list having played at least one game for the team.

Darren Sproles joined the list at two spots–punt returner and offensive flex player–just the fourth player in NFL history to do so, joining Mel Gray (punt and kick returner), Dante Hall (punt and kick returner) and Deion Sanders (cornerback and punt returner).

2010s ALL-DECADE TEAM ROSTER

* – denotes unanimous selection

OFFENSE

QB Tom Brady*
QB Aaron Rodgers
RB Frank Gore
RB Marshawn Lynch
RB LeSean McCoy
RB Adrian Peterson*
WR Antonio Brown
WR Larry Fitzgerald
WR Calvin Johnson
WR Julio Jones
FLEX Darren Sproles
TE Rob Gronkowski
TE Travis Kelce
OT Jason Peters
OT Tyron Smith
OT Joe Staley
OT Joe Thomas*
OG Jahri Evans
OG Logan Mankins
OG Zack Martin
OG Marshal Yanda*
C Alex Mack
C Maurkice Pouncey

DEFENSE

DE Calais Campbell
DE Cameron Jordan
DE Julius Peppers
DE JJ Watt*
DT Geno Atkins
DT Fletcher Cox
DT Aaron Donald*
DT Ndamukong Suh
LB Chandler Jones
LB Luke Kuechly
LB Khalil Mack
LB Von Miller*
LB Bobby Wagner
LB Patrick Willis
CB Patrick Peterson
CB Darrelle Revis
CB Richard Sherman
S Eric Berry
S Earl Thomas
S Eric Weddle
DB Chris Harris
DB Tyrann Mathieu

SPECIALISTS

P Johnny Hekker
P Shane Lechler
K Stephen Gostkowski
K Justin Tucker*
PR Tyreek Hill
PR Darren Sproles
KR Devin Hester
KR Cordarrelle Patterson

COACHES

Bill Belichick
Pete Carroll

Bet the Mortgage: NFL Week 3, 2019

Bet the Mortgage: NFL Week 3, 2019

by | Sep 21, 2019 | 2019 season, NFL Gambling

Well, Tony had a good week. For the first time in at least 317 weeks, a Zoneblitz bettor had an undefeated week. Oh, yeah, Andy won some hypothetical pocket change too. It’s a bit odd here, where the normally self-indulgent segment has actually, through two weeks, proven a little bit profitable.

Week 2 W/L Week 2 $ Season W/L Season $ Bankroll
Tony 4-0 +$3,375 6-2 +$3,784 $13,784
Andy 2-2 +$325 3-4-1 -$75 $9,925

 

Andy

Well, I’m down $75 for the season, which is almost like a tie, which is like … well, never mind. I’m happy Tony had a good week and I’m happy I’ve been close to having some good weeks, but come on. Breaking even is boring. Here we go.

$1,500 – Kansas City (-6, -105) vs Baltimore – The Ravens have beaten up on the Dolphins and hung on to squeak by Arizona. Lamar Jackson is looking good, but the Chiefs are the first real test of the season for Baltimore. I don’t think they can keep up.

$800 – Green Bay (-7.5, -105) vs Denver – Joe Flacco looks old. And bored. The Broncos have been bad. Green Bay looks just good enough on offense and much better on defense this season. This could be a letdown after a couple big divisional wins to start the year, but I’m not betting on it.

$800 – Philadelphia (-5.5, -110) vs Detroit – This game opened at -8.5, but the number has gone significantly toward Detroit. Why? The Eagles stumbled on the road against a motivated Atlanta team last week, but I don’t see much indication that Detroit is going to make a game of this game on the road.

$300 – Oakland (+345 money line) at Minnesota – Kirk Cousins usually plays well under the covered roof of a noon-time kickoff. So, this may be a long-shot. But the Raiders’ season has already been bizarre. The Antonio Brown saga seems to have left them with a chip on their shoulder that showed up in an opening week win against Denver and a hot start against Kansas City. They lost to the Chiefs, but Kansas City might win the Super Bowl. Minnesota isn’t that good. And this would be a lot less surprising than the shellacking Buffalo handed them in a similar situation last season.

 

Tony

Huh, I didn’t even look at how I was doing after week 1, and wouldn’t have known this week if Andy hadn’t told me–maybe completely ignoring my bets is the best way to go about this.

$500 – Dallas (-23, +105) at Miami – I’m not going crazy on the amount of the bet, with a 23 point spread–but there’s nothing so far this season that makes me think Miami will cover a spread at all.

$1,000 – Seattle (-4.5, -105) vs New Orleans – I’m not sure how this one opened with New Orleans as a two point favorite…unless it opened before Drew Brees hurt his hand. Not sure that Teddy Bridgewater can go on the road and hang with Russell Wilson, even if the Saints are probably the better overall team.

$1,000 – Baltimore at Kansas City: Over 52 (-110) – I found one book with it at -109, but I’ll keep it simple for the sake of Andy doing math. If the total line stays under 60 on this game, I’m sticking with the over.

$500 – Pittsburgh (+255 money line) at San Francisco – I don’t love Mason Rudolph’s chances, but they’re better than Joe Flacco’s chances of beating Green Bay, so I’ll take this upset. The 49ers still have a lot to prove, and Pittsburgh does still have James Conner, Juju Smith-Schuster and enough talent on defense to turn the tide.