Football Outsiders argue that more Vikes and Broncos merit a place to the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
I’m going to assume that someone can explain to me why Jim Marshall is not in the Hall of Fame. 282 straight starts, 127 sacks (per the Vikings franchise), a key member of one of the all-time great defenses. I could go on and on, but I won’t. I really like Chuck Foreman as the unheralded precursor to Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk (he led the NFL in receptions in 1975), but the career’s too short. The Marshall omission is so ridiculous, it was tough to move on to other names. Who might you include?
I think Jim Marshall and Cris Carter are the two must-adds. Chris Doleman deserves to be there as much as any of the various modern defensive lineman whose names have been bandied about; I saw a comparison of his stats to another Hall-bound lineman – I want to say Strahan but that can’t be right – and Doleman’s stats weren’t just equal, they were better. Randle McDaniel is a possibility too, but I don’t put much faith in All-Pro selections; if they’re important than he’s a must too. I think far too much weight is put on Super Bowl wins; football is such a fundamentally team-oriented game that no single player can carry his team the way a superstar can in basketball. Great catch, yes, but no one who actually watched a lot of football in the Seventies would rather have Lynn Swann lining up wide than Cris Carter.
Speaking of Hall of Famers, I would very much like to see Brett Favre spend a year or two in a purple jersey. Having an elite quarterback is the single most important piece of the playoff puzzle, and it’s one that the Vikings presently appear to be missing. It’s possible that Tarvaris Jackson has improved significantly, we’re assured that he has by the usual suspects, but he’s still not going to be operating at the level that Favre is, even at Favre’s advanced age.