HOF or FOH: Luke Kuechly

[The Lonious Monk]

Using numbers isn't as strong an argument for defensive players unfortunately. The problem is that teams can prevent really good defensive players from getting numbers up because they simply avoid that player. Champ Bailey is a good example. Teams basically admitted that when he was out there, they purposely didn't throw to his side of the field. So that meant some days he didn't have the most tackles or INTs on the field. It wasn't because he had a bad game, it was because he was so good the other team was willing to limit its options to avoid him. The same goes for on the line too. People have always criticized Clowney because his numbers are never the best. They don't really recognize that when he is out on the file, the offense almost always goes to the opposite direction. Whenever they don't, he pretty much gets pressure on the QB.

Numbers work for offensive arguments better because the defense doesn't really have the ability to an offensive player out of the game without actually beating that player.

 

[Playmaker88]

Even numbers aren't a great measure on its face because philosophy changes rule changes sometimes sheer numbers are not indicative its a hard complex argument look at Matt Ryan for instance no one thinks he is a great player but he will have far better numbers than players who were great such as Steve Young/John Elway/Joe Montana/mcnabb /McNair

 

[The Lonious Monk]

Even numbers aren't a great measure on its face because philosophy changes rule changes sometimes sheer numbers are not indicative its a hard complex argument look at Matt Ryan for instance no one thinks he is a great player but he will have far better numbers than players who were great such as Steve Young/John Elway/Joe Montana/mcnabb /McNair

Yeah, the problem there is eras. You can compare numbers, but you have to make the caveat that they only matter within an era because rule changes are why some of these QBs are throwing up huge numbers now.