Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

His numbers and postseason honors were actually better than I thought. His 5.5 YPC is the best by any RB in NFL history (with due respect to Marion Motley.) I just wouldn't call him a lock.

conace21 wrote:His numbers and postseason honors were actually better than I thought. His 5.5 YPC is the best by any RB in NFL history (with due respect to Marion Motley.) I just wouldn't call him a lock.

Charles is not a lock at all, he has had five 1,000 yard seasons, and four seasons under 400 yards including the last two. He'll need several more big bullet points on his HOF resume besides the YPC. If he can keep up the YPC and either finish his career with over 12,000 yards, or gets a 2,000 yard season, or leads the Chiefs to two Super Bowls, then he's a lock. At this point he's nearing HOVG, but he's not a lock. This isn't Tom Brady we're talking about here.

I share the viewpoint that Matt Forte is not a HoFer. Nowhere close. As it was said, total rushing yards do not constitute automatic HoF status. Forte has only made the Pro Bowl twice and only has 52 career rushing touchdowns. That ranks below 50th all-time. He's got a long way to go before he's got a case. So right now he isn't close.

Rupert Patrick wrote:

conace21 wrote:His numbers and postseason honors were actually better than I thought. His 5.5 YPC is the best by any RB in NFL history (with due respect to Marion Motley.) I just wouldn't call him a lock.

Charles is not a lock at all, he has had five 1,000 yard seasons, and four seasons under 400 yards including the last two. He'll need several more big bullet points on his HOF resume besides the YPC. If he can keep up the YPC and either finish his career with over 12,000 yards, or gets a 2,000 yard season, or leads the Chiefs to two Super Bowls, then he's a lock. At this point he's nearing HOVG, but he's not a lock. This isn't Tom Brady we're talking about here.

The sad thing is that it looks that he might be done, based on the injuries he's had over the past two years.

sluggermatt15 wrote:I share the viewpoint that Matt Forte is not a HoFer. Nowhere close. As it was said, total rushing yards do not constitute automatic HoF status.

Historically it seems if a RB gets beyond 12,000 career rushing yards, that has been sufficient. But as has been said above, Forte has a good ways to go to reach that mark. He'd need about 3 more years averaging 850+ yards to get there, and at age 31 I have my doubts he can do it. But who knows?

bachslunch wrote:

sluggermatt15 wrote:I share the viewpoint that Matt Forte is not a HoFer. Nowhere close. As it was said, total rushing yards do not constitute automatic HoF status.

Historically it seems if a RB gets beyond 12,000 career rushing yards, that has been sufficient. But as has been said above, Forte has a good ways to go to reach that mark. He'd need about 3 more years averaging 850+ yards to get there, and at age 31 I have my doubts he can do it. But who knows?

That would essentially mean that the career yardage would constitute what amounts to a Jim Brown Threshold. He finished with 12,312 yards, which would allow the contender's supporters to accurately claim, "Well, he gained more yards than Jim Brown!" Of course, they'll conveniently leave out things like a games-played comparison, hash mark differences, etc. when making such arguments.

BD Sullivan wrote:

bachslunch wrote:

sluggermatt15 wrote:I share the viewpoint that Matt Forte is not a HoFer. Nowhere close. As it was said, total rushing yards do not constitute automatic HoF status.

Historically it seems if a RB gets beyond 12,000 career rushing yards, that has been sufficient. But as has been said above, Forte has a good ways to go to reach that mark. He'd need about 3 more years averaging 850+ yards to get there, and at age 31 I have my doubts he can do it. But who knows?

That would essentially mean that the career yardage would constitute what amounts to a Jim Brown Threshold. He finished with 12,312 yards, which would allow the contender's supporters to accurately claim, "Well, he gained more yards than Jim Brown!" Of course, they'll conveniently leave out things like a games-played comparison, hash mark differences, etc. when making such arguments.

Yes, but Jim Brown put on rushing clinics every time he hit the field. He has tons of highlight reel plays, runs, etc. Matt Forte cannot make the same claim.

sluggermatt15 wrote:

BD Sullivan wrote:

bachslunch wrote:
Historically it seems if a RB gets beyond 12,000 career rushing yards, that has been sufficient. But as has been said above, Forte has a good ways to go to reach that mark. He'd need about 3 more years averaging 850+ yards to get there, and at age 31 I have my doubts he can do it. But who knows?

That would essentially mean that the career yardage would constitute what amounts to a Jim Brown Threshold. He finished with 12,312 yards, which would allow the contender's supporters to accurately claim, "Well, he gained more yards than Jim Brown!" Of course, they'll conveniently leave out things like a games-played comparison, hash mark differences, etc. when making such arguments.

Yes, but Jim Brown put on rushing clinics every time he hit the field. He has tons of highlight reel plays, runs, etc. Matt Forte cannot make the same claim.

No doubt. On a list possible HOFers, Forte wouldn't even come to mind on my list.