Who is the best among eligible quarterbacks who is not yet elected to the HOF?
Stabler, Krieg, John Hadl?
Kenny Anderson.
Probably Anderson. Stabler maybe. Krieg and Hadl not.
I’m with you.
Another vote for Anderson.
Boomer Esiason? Check his numbers, he was pretty good.
Anderson, definitely.
Checking his numbers:
He was pretty good for a few years there ('85 - '89 or '90), but then he was pretty mediocre for another 6 or 7 years.
Jim Plunkett. Only eligible QB to start and win two SuperDuper bowls and is not in Canton.
He had a great story, resurrecting his career in Oakland after being a bust early in his career – he won the Heisman, was the first overall pick, but then had 8 mediocre-to-poor seasons in New England and San Francisco.
He did win two Super Bowls with the Raiders, was the MVP of the '81 Super Bowl, and was the Comeback Player of the Year that season. But…
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He was only the Raiders’ primary QB for four seasons ('80-'83), and he shared starting duties with Marc Wilson in one of those seasons.
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He was never elected to an All-Pro team, or a Pro Bowl.
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His career QB rating was only 67.5. Even if you isolate his seasons with the Raiders, that only goes up to 75.7. By comparison, Joe Namath, who is widely regarded as one of the least-deserving members of the HoF (at least from a statistical standpoint) had a very similar QB rating (65.5).
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Pro Football Reference has a “Similarity Score”, in which they attempt to describe a player in terms of other players whose careers had similar length and quality. They consider the best “matches” to Plunkett to be Phil Simms, Norm Snead, Joe Ferguson, Tobin Rote, and Kerry Collins – all good QBs, but not even any borderline Hall of Famers.
He just wasn’t good enough, or for long enough.