The 2021 NFL Draft is currently getting plenty of sports media coverage and rightfully so, as it is one of the most important events in the NFL’s offseason calendar. However, the news that former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is retiring is getting attention and not just because he’s hanging up his cleats.
Edelman is getting the spotlight because there’s a group of media personalities that believe the former wide receiver deserves to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame. Among them are Adam Rank of NFL Media and Adam Kaufman of IHeartRadio, who believe that the 2009 seventh-round pick is worthy of a gold jacket.
Rank says that a player’s performance in the playoffs matters, and in that regard, Edelman has three Super Bowl rings and is second in receiving yards in postseason history. However, you need to take into account that his stats are inflated because the Pats constantly played in the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl during his tenure with the team. If other wideouts made the playoffs as often as Edelman, they would surely have better numbers than him.
Over his ten-year career in Foxboro, Edelman never earned a Pro Bowl nor a First-Team All-Pro designation. Also, he reached the 1,000-yard receiving mark just three times. However, you spin it, his production doesn’t scream Hall of Fame.
Now, it will be a few years before Hall-of-Fame voters discuss his case. Nevertheless, these three Jaguars should make the hall before Edelman as they had more fruitful and productive NFL careers.
The Jacksonville Jaguars’ best running back has to make the Hall of Fame.
Running backs don’t have the impact they used to have 30 or even 20 years ago. Do you remember the 2005 NFL draft? Three running backs went in the top 5, Carnell ‘Cadillac’ Williams, Cedric Benson, and Ronnie Brown, and the New Orleans Saints made USC superstar the second overall pick the following year. Around that time, Fred Taylor was the Jaguars’ starting running back.
A first-round selection in 1998, Taylor is the most productive running back in Jags’ history. Over his 11-year stint in Jacksonville, the Florida product racked up 2,428 carries for 11,271 yards and 62 touchdowns. Moreover, he averaged 4.6 yards per carry and 89.5 yards per game. While he went on to have two non-productive years with the Patriots, Taylor was a key cog in the Jaguars’ offense. In fact, he, along with wide receiver Jimmy Smith, was one of their most recognizable players in the early 2000s.
Honestly, who do you remember from the Jack Del Rio Era besides Smith and Taylor? Cornerback Rashid Mathis? Safety Donovin Darius? Linebacker Mike Peterson? All of them were fine players but none of them had a bigger impact than the running back.
It’s true that Taylor only made one Pro Bowl, but his career numbers compare well to other running backs that have made the Hall of Fame. He has more rushing yards than Earl Campbell and O.J. Simpson and neither of them had great playoff performances, so it’s clear they earned the honor due to their regular-season exploits, that’s why Taylor also needs to be in.
This former Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver was better than Edelman.
When listing the reasons why Julian Edelman should get a gold jacket, you will probably hear that he’s one of the toughest wide receivers of his generation. Putting aside that’s not remotely true, as Steve Smith and Anquan Boldin were significantly better and tougher players, this is the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of the grittiest.
Not long before the Edelman debate arose, a post on social media highlighted how great former Jaguars wide receiver Jimmy Smith was. Besides him, only Randy Moss, and Jerry Rice had at least nine 1,000-yard receiving seasons in NFL history. That’s some pretty good company to be with. You are doing something right if your production matches that of the greatest wide receiver ever (Rice) and the most athletically gifted one (Moss).
Although Smith was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, he registered no receptions and was waived in 1994. The Philadelphia Eagles claimed him the same year but quickly moved on from the Jackson State product. A year later, the Jags signed him, a decision the team felt great about, as he went on to have a successful NFL career in Jacksonville, appearing in 171 games with 150 starts and hauling in 862 receptions for 12,287 yards and 67 touchdowns.
You could argue that Smith’s off-field issues should disqualify him from Hall-of-Fame consideration, but former Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin, who already got in, stabbed a teammate in the neck with a pair of scissors and voters didn’t think much of it. After all, players make the hall because of their on-field accomplishments.
Former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Tony Boselli has to get in.
This may be the most outrageous omission, as former Jaguars offensive tackle Tony Boselli should have the Hall of Fame years ago and as was a finalist to earn the honor as recently as last year. In the end, he didn’t make the cut but he should have.
Boselli was part of a golden era of dominant offensive tackles in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Do you remember Johnathan Ogden of the Baltimore Ravens or Walter Jones of the Seattle Seahawks? What about Orlando Pace, who was part of one of the greatest offenses in league history, the Greatest Show on Turf, with the Los Angeles (then St. Louis) Rams? All of them played around the same time as the Jaguars’ first draft selection ever?
You could point out that Boselli didn’t play as long as Pace, Jones, or Ogden, but you will have a hard time finding someone who doesn’t think Boselli was as dominant, if not better, than all of them during his prime. In the end, injuries cut his career short, something that has been held against him.
Nevertheless, other players, such as running backs Terrell Davis and Gale Sanders have had short careers too and they have made the Hall of Fame. Although career length and stats are important, the impact players had on the field carries weight too, and the Boselli had a big one in Jacksonville. He ended up playing just seven years in the NFL, but he shined brightly in that span.