How good was Jimbo Covert?

[bachslunch]

There was a recent "State your case" over at the Talk of Fame website for Jimbo Covert. The usual homer-ism came out in fervent force (Bear based of course) crowing that he was among the best OT of all time, every bit as good as Anthony Munoz, pancake blocking Lawrence Taylor, and whatnot, which of course left me plenty skeptical.

My guess is that he was likely excellent for the first half of his brief career (2/2/80s honors in his first four seasons). Then the strike year hit followed by what looks like a season cut short by injury, then two more years and done. He has no honors over the last half of his career. I'm hard pressed to see him, for example, as a HoFer given what looks like a short career and short peak.

I've always wondered how he made the all-80s team over someone like Jackie Slater (honors of 4/7/none, with all but one of each honor coming during that decade). Of course that idea was met over there with pooh-poohing of Slater, mostly LT vs. RT based.

Realistically, how good was Covert? Has anyone done film study on him? Would be interested to hear opinions.

[JohnTurney]

Good run blocker, adequate pass pro. Comparison: smaller Jacoby. If he came out now, likely a RT.

[Bryan]

Covert was a nice player, but that all-80's team is kind of a trainwreck in terms of its selections. I don't put much stock in any 'all-decade' team, because so much of it is based on the timing of the player's career...Covert is a good example because his career basically spanned the decade of the 1980s. Looking at the OT selections on the all-80s team, Munoz is an easy choice. I think you need Jacoby on the team, too. Jackie Slater checks all the boxes. My fourth choice would be Mike Kenn. All four of those guys earned honors throughout the decade, and I think Munoz/Slater/Jacoby are almost perfunctory choices. IMO, Kenn is the best choice of the next grouping of guys like Covert, Marvin Powell, Chris Hinton, Gary Zimmerman. Covert was above average for only about 4 years...Zimmerman was very good but only played 4 years in the decade...Powell was great early in the decade then tailed off...Hinton just wasn't as good as Kenn.

I don't see Covert as a good all-80's selection, and Covert's career doesn't really even warrant consideration for Canton, IMO. Its much too thin.

[bachslunch]

Agreed, there are issues with the all-decade teams. The 80s one has problems with OT (as Bryan pointed out) as well as LB (Carl Banks? John Anderson??? Why not Rickey Jackson?) and DT (Dave Butz? Why not Fred Smerlas?).

There also seems to be something odd about some the Bears on some of these teams. Why is Covert on this one? Why is Larry Morris on the 60s team? Why is Joe Fortunato on the 50s team? One could perhaps quibble about Ed Sprinkle on the 40s team as well.

The HoF voters do unfortunately take all decade teams overridingly heavily into account when considering players, at least if the folks at the Talk of Fame site are any indication. I think they can be useful to a degree, but as Bryan correctly suggested, they're a bad fit for players whose careers overlap two decades (Jimmy Patton is a great example).