Trying to Find the Signal in the Noise of Hall of Fame Voting

Wide receiver could be among the most interesting positions this year based on the cases of Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne and Bruce. The scoring difference among them highlights how important things like all-decade and All-Pro team selections can be, even if they are not always heavily scrutinized during a player’s career.

Bruce, Holt and Wayne each won one Super Bowl, leveling the playing field in that regard. (Bruce and Holt, teammates from 1999 to 2007, won theirs together.) But even though Bruce leads the group in receiving yards and touchdowns, and is second in receptions, his Hall of Fame monitor figure is the lowest of the group, at 90.64, which ranks him 16th among wide receivers. Wayne, in his first year of eligibility, is 13th in the monitor, at 95.23.

Bonilla attributed the gap to Holt’s presence on the N.F.L.’s all-2000s team and the fact that Wayne and Holt each had one first-team All-Pro selection. Bruce never finished better than second-team All-Pro, which was a case of awful timing. His 1,781 yards in 1995 are the fifth-best season total in league history, yet Bruce did not earn a spot on the All-Pro or Pro Bowl teams, thanks to similarly outrageous seasons by San Francisco’s Jerry Rice and Detroit’s Herman Moore.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/sports/football/nfl-hall-of-fame-voting.html?emc=rss&partner=rss