Quote:
Originally Posted by RedinTexas
Elway's TD numbers each season:
1983 - 7 TDs
1984 - 18 TDs, 11th in league (Marino 48, Krieg 32)
1985 - 22 TDs, tied for 7th in league (Marino 30, 4 w/ 27)
1986 - 19 TDs, tied for 9th in league (Marino 44, O'Brien 25)
1987 - 19 TDs, tied for 8th in league (Montana 31, Marino 26)
1988 - 17 TDs, tied for 11th in league (Everett 31, 2 w/ 28)
1989 - 18 TDs, tied for 12th in league (Everett 29, Esiason 28)
1990 - 15 TDs, tied for 18th in league (Moon 33, Cunningham 30)
1991 - 13 TDs, tied for 11th in league (Kelly 33, Rypien 28)
1992 - 10 TDs, 22nd in league (Young 25, Marino 24)
1993 - 25 TDs, 2nd in league (Young 29)
1994 - 16 TDs, tied for 12th in league (Young 35, Favre 33)
1995 - 26 TDs, tied for 6th in league (Favre 38, Moon 33)
1996 - 26 TDs, 4th in league (Favre 39, Testaverde 33)
1997 - 27 TDs, 4th in league (Favre 35, George 29)
1998 - 22 TDs, 9th in league (Young 36, Cunningham 34)
As you can see, Elway's TD pass numbers are not great. It looks like his average finish over his career is around 10th place or worse. Except for the one season where he finished 2nd with 25, his TD totals were never comparable to the leaders.
Let me reiterate that I think Elway deserves to be in the hall of fame. I am not saying he was undeserving. However, his TD pass numbers were mostly pedestrian numbers on a year-by-year basis. He clearly brought more to the table than just his TD numbers, but I don't think anyone can look at the numbers above and argue that they clearly merit the hall of fame.
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That's why you don't just look at stats for HOF. And, you clearly showed my point about Reeves.
And, again at the time of his retirement, having played 16 seasons, Elway had 300 career regular season passing TDs.
As of his retirement in 1998, Elway ranked 3rd behind Marino and Tarkenton. So, despite your view on his career TD totals, #3 all time at retirement after the 1998 season is a pretty sweet place to be.
Since then, following along with the narrative of the league becoming incredibly more passer friendly and protective of QBs, Elway has fallen from #3 to 13 with Brady, Brees, P Manning, Favre, Rodgers, Rivers, Roethlisberger, Ryan and Stafford taking the leap above 300.
Think about it, as of the start of the 1999 season - only 3 QBs had thrown more than 300 career regular season TDs.
In the last 23.5 seasons, there are 8 QBs over 400 career TDs (one being Marino who was above Elway and another being Favre, in the league as of 1991).
3 guys in the history of the NFL from the merger through 1998 cleared 300... since then, it's taken off like a rocket. The game has advanced, rules are different and the style of play is completely different. It's a process of the league evolving, but again - that's why you just can't compare players (not just QBs) against their peers that played decades apart.