The NFL season has just come to an exciting conclusion, with the Los Angeles Rams defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI.
This Super Bowl featured plenty of potential Hall of Famers such as Von Miller, Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Eric Weddle.
Other players such as Matthew Stafford and Andrew Whitworth, who are fringe Hall of Famers, also competed in the nation’s largest sporting event.
Former Seattle Seahawks fullback and current NFL Network analyst Michael Robinson sparked the conversation on if Matthew Stafford is a Hall of Famer debate on ‘Good Morning Football’ saying, “Yes, he’s a gold jacket.”
Future Hall of Fame corner and former teammate of Robinson, Richard Sherman, chipped in on the conversation and made it known via Twitter how he felt about Stafford even being in the conversation as a Hall of Famer.
“I’m gonna talk about it on the podcast, but the HOF bar is incredibly low now, ” Sherman said.
“Like a participation trophy. No all-decade team. No, All pro. No MVP. 1 Pro bowl. Not even MVP of the SB. [He was] never considered the best in any year he played. At least M. Ryan has an MVP.”
Sherman’s comment had social media in a frenzy, and surprisingly there were a lot of Stafford defenders.
However, Sherman made an interesting point at the end of his statement, basically saying, what about Matt Ryan?
Ryan is seemingly always left out of the hall of fame discussions, which warrants the question, does Matt Ryan have a case for making the NFL Hall of Fame?
Let’s dive in and see.
The NFL Hall of Fame debate has been a pretty interesting one as of late.
Over the years, people have been critical of the process, feeling that the Hall of Fame is starting to look more like a joke.
However, players like Ryan have a case and a very compelling one at that.
Ryan was a top-five pick(3rd) out of Boston College in 2008 and, in his senior year, led the Eagles to an 11-3 record while throwing 31 touchdowns.
Ryan lived up to his draft stock when he was selected.
Since arriving in Atlanta, Ryan holds a win-loss record of 120-102, with a .541 win percentage.
That is a better win percentage than current hall of fame quarterbacks Dan Fouts, Warren Moon, Sonny Jurgensen, Joe Namath and George Blanda.
Some would say that is underwhelming, especially since he’s played most of his career with top-level NFL players such as Tony Gonzalez, Julio Jones, Roddy White, Michael Turner and Calvin Ridley.
In 2016, Ryan won MVP and threw 38 touchdowns and only seven interceptions, capping it off with a Super Bowl appearance where the Falcons lost 34-28.
A game where they infamously gave up a 28-3 lead to the New England Patriots.
Ryan currently sits at ninth all-time in passing touchdowns with 367 and eighth in passing yards with 59,735.
Those numbers are better than current Hall of Famers John Elway, Warren Moon, Frank Tarkenton and Joe Montana, who are all looked at as all-time greats.
Unfortunately, due to the pass-heavy NFL of today, Ryan, along with the other modern-day quarterbacks, numbers may seem “inflated” and may ultimately be overlooked by voters.
Ryan has also had 33 fourth-quarter comebacks, 42 game-winning drives and a postseason comeback in 2013.
In that comeback, Ryan faced a Seattle defense that led the league in points allowed (231), yards allowed (4,378) and takeaways (39)-featuring Legion of Boom members Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas.
The four-time pro-bowler and one-time all-pro have had an excellent career. He has been a top-ten quarterback for the better half of his career.
Ryan is a tough quarterback, and the resume he’s built shows that he deserves a yellow jacket to go along with a bust in Canton.
