SmashMouth

Former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb has never even been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he believes he should already have a bust in Canton.

“I am a Hall of Famer. My numbers speak for themselves,” McNabb told TMZ. “My numbers are better than Troy Aikman.”

McNabb does, in fact, have better numbers than Aikman: McNabb threw for more yards and more touchdowns, with fewer interceptions. But that’s a bit misleading.

For starters, McNabb played in a better passing era than Aikman: In Aikman’s rookie year, 1989, the league average passer rating was 75.6. By McNabb’s rookie year, 1999, the average passer rating had climbed only slightly, to 77.1, but by McNabb’s final year, 2011, the league average passer rating had risen all the way to 84.3. In other words, the significant increase in passing efficiency in the NFL had barely begun over the course of Aikman’s career, but it exploded during McNabb’s career. Although their careers overlapped by two years, for all intents and purposes, Aikman and McNabb played in different eras.

more on PFT

Wut?

CHA_CHING

I love how people compare X quarterback to Troy Aikman, like it's some kind of legit argument. There is always some knock against the 90's Cowboys, often a major contradiction. The same people who bash Aikman will often turn around and say Michael Irvin is overrated for having a HoF QB throw to him. I ran DVOA on the 90's Cowboys years ago and can probably debunk this stuff better than Cowboys fans themselves.

Aikman's numbers are not impressive compared to QBs of today, but between 1991 to 1996, he was a legit top tier QB. Aikman's efficiency numbers were in the top 5 in all those years except for the second half of the 1994 season where his INT ratio spiked. His TD numbers were always low cause they handed the ball off to Emmitt Smith over 80% of the time when in the red zone. He was quite possibly, the best 3rd down QB in the league in 1992. Aikman was never the same again after he suffered his back injury in 1996, the rest of his career onward, his stats tanked. His throwing motion, release and down field accuracy declined greatly after his back injury.

On stat sites, you often see something made of QBs having amazing post season runs. 2012 Joe Flacco, 2007 and 2011 Eli Manning, and a handful of others are mentioned. I never see Troy Aikman's 1992 playoff run brought up. He went for 8 TDs, 0 INTs, 68.5% completion percentage with an ANY/A of 9.50. And this was against an Eagles team with the #1 ranked defense, the 49ers in Candlestick and Buffalo in the SB.

I also like to add in all 3 of the 49ers/Cowboys match ups, Aikman comes out ahead of Steve Young in head to head match ups. Even in 1994 when the 49ers beat them, Aikman finished that game 30 for 53, 380 yards, 2 TDs and 3 INTs. Young on the other hand? 13 for 29, 155 yards and 2 TDs. The Niners jumped to a 21-0 start thanks to back to back turnovers but Young struggled the rest of that game. SF mainly ran the ball to avoid making costly turnovers like they had done in the 1992 and 1993 NFC title games. (Young was badly outplayed by Brett Favre too in all of the SF/GB playoff games.)

McNabb don't have close to the playoff stats Aikman had between 1992 to 1995. On the other hand, if there is ANY QB that should be in the Hall of Fame right now who has the numbers, awards and playoff appearances, it's Ken Anderson. I have no idea why Anderson isn't in the HoF when over 30 years after his retirement, his advanced numbers still look impressive by modern standards.

Now please excuse me to go throw up as I feel sick to my stomach having to defend the 90's Cowboys.

WhoDat!656

Now please excuse me to go throw up as I feel sick to my stomach having to defend the 90's Cowboys.

Hope this helps you feel better!

jeanpierre

I agree with Donovan McNabb on this - neither he nor Aikman should be in the Hall of Fame...

rezburna

He had a really good career with ****ty WR’s. He’s not first ballot, but eventually.

jeanpierre

Maybe two years, but then he had Terrell Owens? DeSean Jackson? And he had Brian Westbrook out of the backfield? McNabb never threw for 4000 PaYds - never...

No freaking way should he be a HOF, but the standards are much lower for the NFL HOF than MLB, so he'll get in at some point so Philly can have a gold jacket hanging around selling season tickets...

rezburna

He only had Owens for maybe a year and a half at the most and and maybe two seasons with Jackson out of his 13 seasons. He got pretty close to 4,000 yards twice. I think he gets a pretty bad wrap. The one thing I hold against him is his inability to deliver in the Super Bowl when T.O. was balling on a broken leg that I know for a fact wasn’t healed yet.

jeanpierre

Look right here in our backyard, Brother - good quarterbacks make any receivers look good; hell, look at Brady, after Gronk, what's he got?!?

McNabb also had a top 3 head coach in Andy Reid, plus Westbrook in the backfield; and then, the NFC East? Cowboys? Redskins? only the G'nats were a threat...

In no way was he doing it by himself; he was a middle of the road starter at best - And he always choked in big games...

When you put his numbers vs his contemporaries, he was the third, fourth best QB in his conference on his good years - that's not a HOFer...

But he'll get there because of name recognition and because most of Philly's HOFers are dying off and they need gold jackets to sell tickets, advertising...

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

neugey

His Aikman argument doesn't hold much water. You can't go comparing to a QB from another era. If he goes in then there will be 24 other QB's playing right now that could eventually say "we should be in because we had better numbers that McNabb" with the passing yardage posted now.