Kurt Warner: NFL Hall of Fame Inductee?
by Paul Eide
Fantasy Football Director/Senior Writer
1/18/09

With the specter of the Cardinals making it to the Super Bowl looming as a real possibility, this question has begun to be asked in ever increasing frequency; Does Kurt Warner deserve to be in the NFL Hall of Fame if the Cardinals win the Super Bowl? If he wins, absolutely, hands down, no doubt about it.

But if he doesn’t? That’s where it gets really interesting. What do you use as criteria? His stats?

-Warner is a two time NFL MVP (99,01)

-Warner led the Rams to two Super Bowls, winning one, and is on the cusp of appearing in a third.

-In the three seasons where he has played a full 16 game schedule, Warner has led the league in passing once (01) and finished second the other two times (99, 08).

-Currently, his 28,591 passing yards ranks him 38th of all time and his 4,583 in 2008 was second highest in the NFL. Another season like that would make his career total 33,174, which would place him in front of QB’s like Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Phil Simms as the 21st best of all time.  

-Currently his 182 career passing TD ranks 40th of all time. Say he only throws for a little more than half as many (18) as he did this year (30) next season. That would make him only the 27th QB in NFL history to throw 200+ TD. If he throws another 30?  212 ties him with Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw, and eclipses other notable HOF QB’s Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Phil Simms.

Even after reading these numbers I was still somewhat undecided, mostly because of his one year (it felt longer, didn’t it?) stint with the Giants where he seemed to be scared all the time, thanks to numerous concussions suffered at the end of Rams career, and fumbled way too much. But did you know that in that one year with the Giants his QB rating (86.5) was higher than Eli Manning has ever posted in a single season? I had no idea.

The other argument; did he his presence on the field make his team better? In his career with the Rams and the Giants, he was 40-19 as a starter. With the Cards, a historically weaker team, only 17-25, but he is on the cusp of greatness for the franchise. I think the answer is yes, he did makes his team better.

So is he a Hall of Famer as it stands right now? I really don’t know. Based on the stats the numbers say he should be. What do you guys think? Email me at paul@thefootballexpert.com and share your opinion.

I’m not saying, I’m just saying