“http://bit.ly/gnNRyE Compelling argument by @WhitlockJason for W Roaf. Disagree w/ him on Derm. Dawson, but good read”

The above was tweeted earlier tonight–on the Zoneblitz.com account, by my brother Andy. Not the first, and probably not the last, but I’ve got to disagree with my brother on this one–it really wasn’t that good of a read.

Now, before I get too far in, let me preface this by saying that I do agree with Whitlock that Willie Roaf should be (and will be) a Hall of Famer.  I just disagree with some of his arguments around it, and the degree to which he seems to be taking it personally.

Whitlock starts the column with what I would consider a fairly big statement–that Roaf is not only the second best player in this year’s Hall of Fame class, behind Deion Sanders, but that he is the second best offensive tackle (behind Anthony Munoz) of the modern era, and one of the best five offensive lineman of the modern era.

Now, with offensive linemen, there aren’t exactly stats that are tracked (outside of NFL complexes) to compare–so about all we’ve got to go with are Pro Bowls and All-Pro elections–similar to how many players are evaluated for their Hall of Fame worthiness.

And no doubt, Roaf is near the top in these categories, with 11 Pro Bowls and 3 All-Pro 1st team elections–but to claim that he is hands down one of the best two tackles in recent times is a stretch.  Jonathan Ogden (11/4) is the first that jumps to my mind as someone else who might have a claim, achieving those numbers in one fewer season played (and throwing in a couple of touchdown receptions for good measure).  Roaf, Ogden and Munoz are tied for the most Pro Bowl selections by a tackle.

Whitlock claims that “Idiots believe Jonathan Ogden was a better player.” Well, I’m not claiming he was for sure–but they sure as hell were on the same level.

He also claims that when Roaf retired, the Kansas City offense fell apart.  Was Willie the only reason?  Or did Herm Edwards replacing Dick Vermeil, Trent Green getting hurt in the first game and missing half the seasonfor Damon Huard, John Welbourn sitting out half the season, Kyle Turley being counted on to replace Roaf/Welbourn, and Tony Richardson leaving for Minnesota have anything to do with it?

And that offense that fell apart?  Yeah, they dropped from 6th to 15th in points, but still had Larry Johnson put up almost 1,789 yards rushing–more than he did in Roaf’s last season.

Walter Jones (9/4) is another guy that was at a similar level.  Orlando Pace (7/3) wasn’t far behind, although injuries derailed him late in his career. Tony Boselli might have been better than all of them, given that he racked up a 5/3 profile in just six seasons before having his career cut short 3 games into his seventh season.

And those are just guys that were contemporaries of Roaf’s–guys like Gary Zimmerman, Ron Yary, Jackie Slater, Art Shell or Dan Dierdorf could also probably claim to be one of the top tackles in the history of the game–all played in the modern era, and all are in the Hall of Fame.

And even if Roaf really is the second best offensive tackle, and one of the best five offensive linemen in the modern era–very few linemen are elected in their first year of eligibility–I found only four dating back to 1990 (Bruce Matthews, who also played some tackle, Slater, Munoz and John Hannah). Hell, Randall McDaniel, a 12-time Pro Bowler and 7-time 1st Team All-Pro (and the guy who started the Zoneblitz Hall of Fame discussions) wasn’t even a finalist in his first year of eligibility, and had to wait three years to get in.

Whitlock goes on to claim that Chris Doleman, Dermontti Dawson, Cortez Kennedy, Richard Dent, Charles Haley and Andre Reed don’t even belong in serious Hall of Fame discussion.  That, in short, is ludicrous.  I can’t claim that I would have put all of them in the Hall of Fame discussion based on what I knew of their careers before Zoneblitz ended up being a place for serious Hall of Fame discussion–in fact, before hearing the stats and arguments from many of our regular participants, Dawson is probably the only one I would have included.

But the truth is, all of those guys are worthy of serious discussion, and now that I know the facts, all of them are probably worth of inclusion.

There is definitely one thing I can agree with Whitlock on, though–the Hall of Fame voting process seems extremely flawed.  While I don’t think it should be taken completely out of the hands of media, I do think that there has to be some way to change up the voting representatives over time, and I think there should be some sort of Hall of Fame players vote included as well.

And maybe changing that system would result in more guys like Roaf making it in their first years.  But Roaf not making the Hall in his first year under the system that has been in existence for as far back as I know?  Hardly worth curling up and crying over.  Not making it at all?  Now that would be a shame–but it’s also not going to happen.  By 2013, Roaf will be a Hall of Famer.