Russell Wilson’s career as a New York Giant is effectively over three games after it started. Giants fans have quickly moved on to focus on Jaxson Dart’s NFL debut as an actual (as opposed to zone read-only)
quarterback this Sunday against the Chargers. The rest of the NFL chattering class couldn’t resist taking some shots on Wilson’s way out, though. On the Thursday Night Football pre-game show, Tony Gonzalez and Richard Sherman were not kind discussing Wilson’s chances to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
Those are a couple of authoritative voices. Gonzalez is not only a HOFer himself, he is by far the most highly graded tight end in NFL history in Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame Monitor metric that tries to predict whether specific players will (as opposed to should) be elected to the HOF. Sherman was Wilson’s teammate during the “Legion of Boom” era when Seattle won one Super Bowl and almost won a second. His HOF Monitor credentials are pretty good, too, slightly ahead of those of Ronde Barber, who was elected this year.
Apparently, though, being gracious is not a criterion for Hall of Fame consideration, and X users roasted the pair for their comments, especially Sherman. Here are just a couple of the many reactions:
That last point references the fact that Wilson gave Seattle a 24-14 fourth quarter lead over New England in Super Bowl XLIX, only to have the Seattle defense surrender two TD passes to Tom Brady in the final eight minutes to ultimately lose the game. Even on the final drive after the Patriots took the lead, Wilson completed passes of 31, 11, and 33 yards to get the ball to the New England 5. Then Marshawn Lynch ran 4 yards to the 1, and Pete Carroll called a pass rather run Lynch again for the final yard, and the rest is history.
Of course none of this matters to Giants fans, who are likely to forget Wilson’s three-game Giants career as soon as this Sunday if Jaxson Dart somehow summons some magic and beats the Chargers, or even if he turns the season around after Sunday.
Still, the question is worth asking: IS Russell Wilson a Hall of Famer?
Pro Football Reference thinks: Maybe. Here is their HOF Monitor for QBs:
Players in boldface are already in the Hall, those not are not yet eligible or still active. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees are the only active/non-eligible quarterbacks with a HOF Monitor score above the average for QBs who are already in the Hall. Surely all three of them will go in on the first ballot when they become eligible. Among those not yet in or not yet eligible below the average, there are some interesting cases. Not Patrick Mahomes – he’ll get in if he retires tomorrow. Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers will eternally be part of the Eli Manning discussion. Roethlisberger checks the most boxes of the three, with two rings, six Pro Bowls, and 418 TDs. The Rivers vs. Eli discussion will be heated once Rivers becomes eligible, since he never got to a Super Bowl but bests Eli in most statistical categories. Rivers is likely to get in first because of Eli’s mediocre record outside of his two Super Bowl runs.
The other fascinating discussion, I think, will be Russell Wilson vs. Matt Ryan. This is the classic rings vs. stats argument. Ryan is the ultimate stats guy. He was one of the most prolific passers in NFL history…yet the one time he got the Falcons to the big stage, he and his team blew a 28-3 mid-third quarter lead and lost. Wilson is somewhat the opposite. His stats aren’t as prolific as Ryan’s, and as we saw in Dallas, he definitely still has the arm. A good season as a Giant and he probably would have punched his ticket, but that was not to be. Unless he hooks up with an offensive coordinator who can help him dissect split safety defensive alignments and take the short/intermediate gain when he has to, voters’ last memory of him will be that debacle against the Chiefs.
Even without that, his one Super Bowl ring plus the one he should have had the following year were it not for his defense, his 10 Pro Bowls, one All-Pro selection, and his 353 passing TDs, are in my opinion enough to get him a gold jacket. Oh, and don’t forget his 5,556 rushing yards, fourth all-time at the moment among QBs:
Russell Wilson will be a Hall of Famer. Not on the first ballot, but at some point. It’s just too bad he didn’t add to his legacy as a Giant.
