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’ll play a little contrarian here:
It’s the Hall of “Fame” not the “Hall of Elite Ability”. Eli Manning has two rings and two Super Bowl MVPs. His wins are memorable for the circumstances surrounding both runs. If Tom Brady is in conversation as the GOAT, it’s impossible to tell the GOAT’s story without mentioning “that one mfer Eli Manning who got over on him twice”. In fact, only two QBs ever beat Brady in the Super Bowl: Eli and Foles. That’s something that Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Donovan McNabb, Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Jared Goff, and Patrick Mahomes can’t say. And Eli did it twice.
This is all intentionally reductive, but I’m doing so to emphasize that people who aren’t football nerds will look at broad strokes, narratives, and “vibes” when it comes to QBs in the Hall of Fame. Eli will be remembered and talked about for those anomaly SB runs several decades from now – I can’t say I think the same for Matt Ryan (outside the context of the Falcons blowing it), let alone Phillip Rivers.