Brian Westbrook: Hall of Fame RB?

What about Marshall Faulk? 767rec for 6875 yards a 9.0 yards per reception to go with 36 td’s? Roger Craig had 566 recs for 4911 yards for a 8.7 ypc. Perhaps they should be mentioned when arguing in favor of RB’s whose best attribute is a mufti faceted skill-set. .

But I do agree, Westbrook is in the Roger Craig/Faulk category when it comes to all purpose backs. However, perhaps if he had a bit more longevity or won a SB I would vote ‘yes’ for the HoF. But as it stands now, taking into full account his multidimensional talent (he was a phenomenal pass-blocker as well, especially in picking up the blitz), I would have to say he falls short.

He’s 113th in rushing yards per game, 67th in rushing yards, 96th in rushing touchdowns and he’s 62nd in yards per carry. Those aren’t hall of fame numbers, volume stats and durability matter and Westbrook doesn’t have them.

And he was never a premier runner in the NFL. In the same era there was Priest Holmes, Marshall Faulk, Ladanian Tomlinson, Edgerrin James, Shaun Alexander, Adrian Peterson, Clinton Portis and Maurice Jones-Drew have all been more dominant over a longer period of time. And there were players like Larry Johnson, Curtis Martin, Chris Johnson and Ricky Williams who had better individual seasons in the same time frame. And LeSean McCoy is already better than Brian Westbrook, that hurts him too.

Brian Westbrook is even less of a hall of fame candidate than Tiki Barber who put up similar numbers per season but did it over a longer time frame. This is not the hall of good, it is the hall of fame, for transcendent players and Westbrook was not one. Simple as that.

Yes, but won’t make it is the early consensus.
I would think that longevity and lack of gaudy rushing numbers would be what hurt him the most. The fact that there is no metric for intangibles also hurts. How many guys will lay down and pass up a touchdown to secure a win.

As much as I love him, the YPT stat is to broad a stat. Meaning theirs too much to take from that. For instance…..

2217 carries, 10449 rushing yards; 586 receptions, 5183 receiving yards=6.8 yards per touch

Those are the stats of former Giants RB Tiki Barber. if you were to look at the yards per touch stat only, then one would consider Tiki Barber not only the greatest RB of all time, but one of the greatest players to gain yards of all time.

The problem is, in the case of the HoF, (most of the time) quantity speaks louder than quality. Another instance would be like Bob Sanders. Bob Sanders was maybe one the best game changing defensive players when he played. But that’s the thing, when he played. If we’re gonna go by his stats just when he was on the field then his impact per game would rank up there with Ronnie Lott and we all know, Bob Sanders ain’t no Lott.

Its not just numbers that get you into those players into the HoF, its consistency and longevity. Brian Westbrook was by far consistent, but longevity was not his strong suit in the NBA. I blame that on Marty and Reid for not using him as much as they should, but its still works against him. Whether we like it or not. As much as I love Westy, he’s not a HoF.

theres another discussion

There are only two players who deserve to be in the hall of fame that have played under Andy Reid: Brian Dawkins and Asante Samuel.

LeSean McCoy might get there if he stays on his current pace.

No. Played like a HOFer but he really only had 2-3 great seasons.

But McNabb has a better chance and McNabb is iffy.

Also this might not be a stat but it was McNabb and Route 30 for the longest time for the Eagles. In that era (the 2000’s) the only other running backs that could do that was MJD and Steven Jackson. Seriously, he carried this team and only two other running backs have done that during the same time.

i loved donovan mcnabb. but he is not a HOF’er. borderline at best.
i loved, loved, loved, brian westbrook. he is not a HOF’er.
i loved david akers. he is not a HOF’er. whoever said kickers dont make it is absolutely correct. there are very few exceptions, but they just dont garner the consideration with the crowded HOF classes each year. i dont think david akers is going in over chris carter.
i love trent cole. i sincerely doubt he will be a HOF’er.

i believe dawkins will be a HOF’er.
i believe asante has a chance, given his awesome int numbers.
i think we are far too early in mccoys career to discuss it, but yeah, if he sustains these numbers he could be. but its his 3rd year, lets wait and see how his career plays out.

dudes, westbrook was awesome. westbrook was not gale sayers.

oh, and TO is def a HOF’er. dude was one of the best ever, as well as a giant douche.

A single stat will not tell you whether a guy is a HOF player or not. For example, Kerry Collins has 40,922 passing yards in his career (no, seriously, he does). Looking at that one stat, you might that he should be in the Hall of Fame; after all, only 9 guys have more passing yards than him. However, if you look at rest of his stats, you can find out that he was a pretty mediocre QB.

If you want to use a stat like per touch, you are going to have to look at all the stats. There are total rushing yards, total receiving yards, yard per rush, rushing yards per game, receiving yards per game, and the rank for all the mention stats in their respectively years.

I’m fond of using per game stats myself, because it the best way we have of judging a player’s impact while taking out any potential missed games due to injuries or shorter seasons in older eras. With totals, it will always be down more than it should be even if a player missed just one game a year.

As for Westbrook, his career rushing yards per game averaged was 52.4 and receiving yards per game averaged was 32.6. So, basically 85 yards per game. Was that good enough?

Looking at the top 20 running backs in career rushing yards (easily way of looking at players in or potentially make HOF), here is their rushing, receiving, and total yards per game* respectively:

1. E. Smith: 81.2/14.3/95.5
2. W. Payton: 88/23.9/ 110.9
3. B. Sanders: 99.8/19.1/117.9
4. C. Martin: 83.9/19.8/113.7
5. L. Tomlinson: 80.5/28.1/108.6
6. J. Bettis: 71.2/7.2/78.4
7. E. Dickerson: 90.8/14.6/105.4
8. T. Dorsett: 73.6/20.5/94.1
9. J. Brown: 104.3/21.2/125.5
10. M. Faulk: 69.8/39.1/108.9
11. E. James: 82.7/22.7/105.4
12. M. Allen: 55.1/24.4/79.5
13. F. Harris: 70.1/13.2/83.4
14. T. Thomas: 66.3/24.5/90.8
15. F. Taylor: 76.4/1.9/78.3
16. J. Riggins: 64.9/11.9/76.8
17. C. Dillion: 74.9/12.8/97.7
18. O.J. Simpson: 83.2/10.6/93.8
19. W. Dunn: 60.6/24/84.6
20. R. Watters: 73.9/29.5/103.4

And for shit and giggles, here are two backs with shorten/injuries filled careers like Westbrooks:
Gale Sayers: 72.9/19.2/92.1
Terrell Davis: 97.5/16.4/103.9

*All total yards per game number was math done in my head. If I made a mistake somewhere, please correct me on it.

As a rusher, Westbrook beats none of these guys. Even the excuse of missing games doesn’t work here, Westbrook simply was not as good as a rusher compare to players
in or potentially make the HOF.

However, in receiving yards per game, Westbrook beat all of these guys except Marshall Faulk. It really is amazing that Westbrook averaged 32 receiving yards per game, definitely being his strong suit in his career.

Of course, with all that being said, Westbrook’s total yards per game mostly fall shorts to the players on the list. He only beat six guys while sixteen of them beat Westbrook in the categories. And couple of them (Dunn, Taylor) played in same era as him and probably will miss the HOF.

So, saying all that, I would have to vote no to Westbrook. He was a great back for the Eagles in his time here. However, his career rushing compare to Hall of Famers simply falls short. It is primary reason why his 85 yards per game was not higher despite his extremely high receiving yards per game.

I’ll still love Westy and his time as an Eagle no matter what, though.

Good discussion and debate here. I respect your argument AE, but I disagree. I love Westy, and I truly think he was a special player (especially because of his receiving ability), but he’s not Hall of Fame worthy in my eyes.

I’d like to see what Sumith has to say about this, heh.

But I would be curious to see where Westbrook ranks on other stats especially some of the ‘counting ones’ including # of yards, TDs, etc.

McNabb and Westbrook are going to go down as Eagles All-Time Greats but won’t end up in the HOF

Just not happening as far as Westy making the HOF.

You can’t just blatantly ignore quantity. If a running back comes in has 30 rushing attempts for 180 yards, blows out is knee, and never plays again, nobody is going to make a case for his hall of fame candidacy. Obviously that’s an extreme example, but it was a point made to show that quantity does matter. We all just have different cutoffs of when quantity is enough.

It’s not only what you do, but how often you do it. That’s where Westbrook could come up short. Do I think he had hall of fame talent? Yes. Do I think he had a hall of fame career? Despite how happy I would be if he got in (he was my favorite football player of all time), I think the answer is no.