Is Edgerrin James a Hall of Famer?

by BigBlueShoe on May 15, 2008 4:36 PM EDT in Analysis Comment 4 comments

SB Nation's new Arizona Cardinals blogger is cgolden, and he is an excellent blogger. His blog also has the single best logo of all SB Nation blogs.

Just an awesome logo.

He also has a very well-written post up talking about Edgerrin James' Hall of Fame credentials. If you look at Edgerrin's stats, this season (if he runs for roughly 1,000 yards) he will likely pass Jim Brown or Tony Dorsett for #7 or #8 all time on the NFL rushing list. Edge has played pro football for 10 years. Dorsett played for 12 and Brown for 9, and both are in HoF. If Edge gathers 1,400 total yards from scrimmage this season (which is very possible), he will jump to #10 all-time on the total yards list, ahead of HoFers like Eric Dickerson.

Edge is obviously most known as a member of the Triplets in Indy, which lasted from 1999-2005. Of the Triplets, Edge was the RB, Peyton Manning the QB, and Marvin Harrison the WR. Since leaving Indy, Edge has done a respectable job playing in Arizona behind a bad offensive line. He's also had shaky QB play, a head coaching change, and bad management. Yet, despite all this, he ran for 1,159 in 2006 and 1,222 yards in 2007. Prior to Edge, the Cardinals had never had a runner go over 1,000 yards since Garrison Hearst in 1995.

So, looking at all this, I say yes. Edge is definitely a Hall of Fame running back. I mean, if a total chump like Dickerson is considered a HoFer, then Edge should be as well. That's just my take.

via www.whereistheoutrage.net

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thanks for the pub

It doesn’t seem like many question his credentials. I thought more would question his HOF chances but his stats speak for themselves I guess.

Revenge of the Birds

by cgolden on May 15, 2008 5:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

comments repost from Revenge of the Birds

The all-position all-post-1970 era stat that Pro Football Reference is working on has Edgerrin as the 40th best player of the last 37 years and the 5th best runningback of that period.

I think Edge’s poor postseason play and the Colts not winning a title are related but not Edge’s fault. The Colts ran him and ran him and threw to him and ran him all regular season then when they leaned on him in the playoffs he had nothing. He topped 369 carries and 430 total touches in both his first two seasons before blowing out his knee in his third year. After a relaxing 330 touch season to recover Edge was back to nearly 400 touches a season for the rest of his time in Indy. The Colts rarely spelled James during the season so come playoff time after ~400 touches of his pounding fall forward style he had nothing left.

Look at James’ first two seasons. He was on pace to be an all-time great. The Colts did him and themselves a disservice by overworking him so badly. He lost his explosiveness after the knee injury. His long runs just stopped. They seem to have learned there lesson, they are keeping Addai’s workload at a more sustainable level and have 3 possible backups on the roster with Rhodes, Hart and Keith.

Since he almost never broke long runs after his knee injury, 4.1 career YPC means that he consistently moved the chains. He didn’t get the long runs that make up for getting stuffed by YPC. One 40 yard run and 9 runs for no gain gets 4 ypc but kills drives. 10, 4 yard runs is what makes long scoring drive possible. Football outsiders success rate is a great tool to use in combination with YPC to pick out the boom and bust runners.

my blog http://shakennbaken.blogspot.com

by shake n bake on May 15, 2008 6:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Somebody who knows what they're doing

(hint hint) can maybe help me out with this: I seem to remember that in Edge’s last year with the Colts he led the league in rushes of 5 yds or more. I know for sure that he managed 1506 yds and a 4.2 ypc with a long of only 33 yds. After the injury his game was all about moving the chains.

And yes, top 10 all-time rushing and top 10 all-time total yds is enough to get him inducted.

by ctnyc on May 15, 2008 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs