Championshiporbust Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Esiason had a respectable career in the 1980s and 1990s, even leading the 1988 Cincy Bengals to the Super Bowl; why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iknowcool Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 It takes a lot more than just a respectable career. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apparition Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 (edited) 1. His peak years were relatively short (4 seasons from 1985 to 1989, with a down year in '87) and outside of that he was very average. 2. He was just 80-93 as a starter. Yeah, yeah QBwinz and all that, but being that far below .500, you have to have excellent numbers that he simply doesn't. 3. Very limited playoff experience. Yes, the Bengals got to one Super Bowl with him, but it was more of a Jimmy Garoppolo run than a Tom Brady/Joe Montana run. It was mostly Ickey Woods and the defense that got them there. Esiason threw for a combined 346 yards, 1 TD and 3 picks over the three games. The better question is, why isn't the guy he replaced as Bengals QB in the HOF? Ken Anderson was one of the best QBs of his generation by any measure. Edited May 11, 2021 by Starless 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TecmoSuperJoe Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Starless said: 1. His peak years were relatively short (4 seasons from 1985 to 1989, with a down year in '87) and outside of that he was very average. 2. He was just 80-93 as a starter. Yeah, yeah QBwinz and all that, but being that far below .500, you have to have excellent numbers that he simply doesn't. 3. Very limited playoff experience. Yes, the Bengals got to one Super Bowl with him, but it was more of a Jimmy Garoppolo run than a Tom Brady/Joe Montana run. It was mostly Ickey Woods and the defense that got them there. Esiason threw for a combined 346 yards, 1 TD and 3 picks over the three games. The better question is, why isn't the guy he replaced as Bengals QB in the HOF? Ken Anderson was one of the best QBs of his generation by any measure. It's not really the same. He was the MVP that year, and was deserving. He's the reason they had HFA in the AFC. He didn't have the best three game stretch in the playoffs, but with the bigger sample size of 19 games total, he was great in most of them. There have been better QB MVP seasons that had worse postseasons. Edited May 11, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Nix Posted May 11, 2021 Share Posted May 11, 2021 Because he played for the Bengals. We currently only have 1 HOF player, Anthony Munoz. Ken Riley had 65 career interceptions, Ken Anderson was an amazing QB, Willie Anderson was the best RT in the league when he played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkippyX Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Boomer was not the reason. That loaded Bengals team ran for 2700+ yards and 27 TDs at 4.8 a pop. Boomer was a good player on a good team who had a very good year. He was 850 yards behind Marino for yardage. He was tied with Marino and 3 behind Everett for TD passes. Cunningham had more passing yards (by 236), 4 less passing TDs, but he also ran for 620 and 6 scores. Boomer did lead the league in passer rating (which was not a huge deal back then) and their incredible running attack was split 1066 at 5.3 per run with 15 TDs for Ickey Woods 931 at 5.1 per run with 8 TDs for James Brooks. They also had another 486 receiving at about 9.7 a pop with Brooks catching 6 TD passes. So they were Faulk/Tomlinson/Shaun Alexander/Priest Holmes production level, but they were two guys instead of one. The real MVP should have been shared between them (can't really work with voting unless its pre-arranged with a Peter King vote for Carnell Lake to fix it) How about teammate Eddie Brown with 53 catches 1273 yards and 9 TDs at 24.0 per catch? Oh yeah, Anthony Munoz was in year 7 of a 9 first team all pro LT in 10 years run. Its not a tragedy that Boomer won the award, he had a very good year. Its just not the kind of year that leaps you to the Hall of Fame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkippyX Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Ken Anderson > Boomer. I think the HoF people are waiting until Anderson dies so he can't enjoy going into the Hall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAF-N72EX Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Despite being old enough to watch him from time to time, I will be one of the very few to admit that I do not remember much of his career/teams enough to judge him at this stage. I remember him being widely considered as of the one best QBs during the time but that's the extent of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ET80 Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 On 5/10/2021 at 11:02 PM, iknowcool said: It takes a lot more than just a respectable career. 20 hours ago, Johnny Nix said: Because he played for the Bengals. Combination of these two things. Career was respectable (in an era of Montana, Elway, Marino, Kelly) and played for a franchise that never seems to get the spotlight. I don't think he will make it, tbh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TecmoSuperJoe Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Never winning in Houston didn't help either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibrown Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 22 hours ago, Johnny Nix said: Because he played for the Bengals. We currently only have 1 HOF player, Anthony Munoz. Ken Riley had 65 career interceptions, Ken Anderson was an amazing QB, Willie Anderson was the best RT in the league when he played. It's also because the owner does nothing to promote his players. Looking at it coldly the bengals would be one of the worse teams to play for. Average Facilities, a cheap owner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soko Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 On 5/10/2021 at 11:57 PM, Championshiporbust said: why isn't he in the Hall of Fame? Question, meet answer. On 5/10/2021 at 11:57 PM, Championshiporbust said: Esiason had a respectable career Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE DUKE Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 23 hours ago, Johnny Nix said: Ken Riley had 65 career interceptions, Ken Anderson was an amazing QB, Willie Anderson was the best RT in the league when he played. All these are way bigger snubs than Boomer, who I would agree didn't have a HoF career. Ken Riley is still something like 4th or 5th in all time NFL interceptions, and from an era where they didn't pass as much. Anderson is the Bengals QB who should be in. Willie Anderson is one of the best RT's of all time, but since he played on a lot of terrible teams he doesn't have the recognition. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrILL! Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 1st ballot Hall of Respectable inductee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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