11-23-2022, 11:23 AM
(11-22-2022, 11:52 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: I would argue against the no brainer thing for Thomas. My belief is he shouldn't be in before Willie is. People will point out the Pro Bowls as his resume for going, but he only got those after all the noise that came that Anderson missed out numerous times because of team performance. He was a rookie Anderson's final year in Stripes, and Anderson retired after Thomas' sophomore season. Meanwhile, Anderson gave up a total of 13 sacks in his career. Thomas gave up 30. There's plenty more that shows Anderson as more deserving for those willing to look into it. For the record, I do believe Thomas is worthy of going, but not before players that were better than he was.
Honestly, I am not sure that Willie gets in. I am just looking at the PFR HoF monitor. It's a value that is calculated to tell you a players HoF score. It takes the players accolades, Super Bowl success and the AV value to aggregate into a final score. The average HoF T has a score of ~95. Willie has a score of ~59. Thomas, for reference, has a score of 113. It's not perfect, but it is a decent way of gauging likelihood. Willie's score is firmly in the "up-in-the-air" category.
I am going to refrain from arguing about who was better out of the two as they played different positions, but I do have to admit I have a hard time stomaching an argument that a player who received twice the amount of All-Pro selections than his competitor is somehow worse than said competitor. It's an argument that I would only expect to see in a Bengals community.
