With QBs that have retired in the last 5 years, there are some interesting HOF debates that I see coming up. Right now the sure-fire HOF guys are Brady, Brees, and Rodgers when he retires. The next tier, however, is a lot more interesting. You have Matt Ryan, Big Ben, and Rivers who are all very close. What's interesting is that according to Pro Football Reference's HOF Monitor, they all have fairly similar scores even though they have different resumes. Ryan has the MVP/All-Pro 1 season which is pretty much required unless you have 2 Super Bowls. Ben doesn't have a crazy MVP season, but he does have those 2 Super Bowls and 17 good years. Then Rivers has some crazy counting stats. I think that Ryan and Roethlisberger have a slight edge over Rivers but it is very hard to separate the 3. So my question is do we think any of them make it? If they do it opens up the debate for a lot of players in the future. Also, how do we think the HOF committee weighs Rings/MVPS/All-Pro teams? The media is always so focused on the rings but looking at the resumes of HOF QBs there are a lot more without rings than there are without All-Pro seasons.
Edit: Here is the PFR Monitor. The average HOF QB has a score of 108. Ryan has a score of 106, Ben has a score of 100, and Rivers is at 98.
I think Ben get's in. he has good stats, decent longevity, playoff success, superbowl wins.
Matt Ryan has a case, mainly the MVP under his belt and stats. But then let's compare him with say... Rich Gannon. Gannon didn't have nearly as good stats, but also played in an era where you couldn't put them up the same. He also has a single MVP. He also has 4 pro bowls. He has 2 first team all pro's to Matt Ryan's only one. He also has 2 Bert Bells to Matt Ryans one.
he is not in the hall of fame, nor do I think anyone is really considering him for it. I think Matt Ryan falls there as well.
I don't want to make a hard declaration that Philip Rivers will not make the hall of fame.. but Matt Ryan imo has a better case than him and likely won't make it.