Robert Brazile and Jerry Kramer are the two Seniors Nominees for the Hall of Fame this year. The man known as “Dr. Doom” was a great outside linebacker for the Houston Oilers, and is remembered as the first great pass rusher from the 3-4 position. In fact, it was Brazile who helped create the position that Lawrence Taylor made famous — as Jene Bramel once noted, he was “LT” before Taylor came into the league. The 3-4 defense entered the NFL in 1974, with Bum Phillips in Houston being one of the early proponents.  In 1975, the Oilers used the 6th overall pick on Brazile, who became an instant star. He was a first-team All-Pro by at least one major publication in each year from ’76 to ’80 under Phillips, but there are three reasons why Brazile never made it to the Hall of Fame.

1. Sack totals were not kept during his time, which made it hard to quantify his strong play.
2. He only played for 10 years, which is relatively short for a Hall of Famer.
3. He didn’t play for great defenses.

Thanks to the great John Turney, we do have unofficial sack totals for Brazile.  He had 48 in his career; although that’s not a remarkable number, Brazile was not just a pass rusher.  He was an all-around linebacker with strong coverage skills and was regarded as strong against the run.

The third item is the most interesting one. We know that Bum Phillips was a great defensive coach, at least by reputation.  And we know that the Oilers had not just Brazile, but two Hall of Famers on defense: Elvin Bethea and Curley Culp starred at RDE and NT, respectively, for Houston, and each was 29-34 years of age from ’75 to ’80. That *should* have been enough to produce a great defense, right? Except, it didn’t. The Oilers ranked 11th, 10th, 14th, 17th, 13th, and 5th in yards allowed and 5th, 17th, 14th, 16th, 16th, and 2nd in points allowed during those years, when the NFL had only 28 teams (and 26 in 1975). In terms of estimated DVOA, the Oilers ranked 6th, 10th, 4th, 20th, 4th, and 10th — which isn’t bad, but it’s not exactly notable for a team with three Hall of Famers and Phillips.

The graph below shows the Oilers’ estimated defensive DVOA in each year of Brazile’s career. Remember, for defensive DVOA, negative is better, so a lower defensive DVOA indicates a stronger defense.

I looked at all defensive players since 1950 with at least 70 points of AV (Brazile has 74). Then, I calculated their average defensive DVOA, weighted based on the numbers of games played by the defender in each season. The table below shows players with positive averaged defensive DVOAs, meaning they played on below-average defenses:

There are only 7 Hall of Famers on that list: Roger Wehrli, Aeneas Williams, Jimmy Johnson, Lee Roy Selmon, Andre Tippett, John Randle, and Dave Wilcox.  And only the two Cardinals cornerbacks, Wehrli and Williams, played on worse defenses than Brazile.

I don’t have a strong opinion on Brazile’s candidacy: he’s held in high regard and his All-Pro numbers are consistent with Hall of Famers. And the impact any one defensive player can have on a defense is pretty small. But I do find Brazile to be an interesting choice, and it cuts against the typical preference for players on great teams (or, at least, great offenses/defenses).