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2014 Hall of Fame Candidates

Tonight, the newest members of the Class of 2014 will be announced. Here are the 15 finalists:

Rushing Receiving
Rk Name Pos From To AP1 PB St CarAV G Att Yds TD Lng Rec Yds TD Lng
1 Derrick Brooks LB 1995 2008 5 11 14 140 224
2 Marvin Harrison WR 1996 2008 3 8 12 124 190 10 28 0 15 1102 14580 128 80
3 Michael Strahan DE 1993 2007 4 7 14 121 216
4 Will Shields G 1993 2006 2 12 14 113 224 1 4 0 4
5 Aeneas Williams DB 1991 2004 3 8 13 106 211
6 Tim Brown WR 1988 2004 0 9 13 104 255 50 190 1 19 1094 14934 100 80
7 Andre Reed WR 1985 2000 0 7 14 98 234 75 500 1 46 951 13198 87 83
8 Walter Jones T 1997 2008 4 9 12 96 180
9 Kevin Greene LB 1985 1999 2 5 11 94 228
10 John Lynch DB 1993 2007 2 9 13 88 224 1 40 0 40
11 Charles Haley DE 1986 1999 2 5 8 84 169
12 Jerome Bettis RB 1993 2005 2 6 12 79 192 3479 13662 91 71 200 1449 3 34
13 Morten Andersen K 1982 2007 3 7 24 51 382
14 Edward Debartolo, Jr. Owner
15 Tony Dungy coach

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Mathis takes down Manning

Mathis takes down Manning.

Good stat courtesy of Bill Barnwell this week: Robert Mathis has 11.5 sacks, while the rest of his Indianapolis teammates have just 10.5 sacks. Jerrell Freeman is second on the team with 3.5 sacks, Cory Redding has a pair of sacks, and no other Colt has more than one sack. That’s obviously very impressive: no other defensive player in 2013 has even 40% of his team’s sacks, with only LaMarr Woodley (5 sacks), Mario Williams (11), and Robert Quinn (10) having more than one-third of their team’s sacks.

Since the sack became an official statistic in 1982, the record for percentage of team sacks by an individual player was set by right outside linebacker Tim Harris on the 1989 Packers. Green Bay ran a 3-4 defense under Hank Bullough, and Harris had 19.5 of the team’s 34 sacks.  That means 57.4% of all sacks by Packers players that year came from Harris; no other Green Bay player had more than three sacks.

Aldon Smith had 19.5 sacks, too, playing on the 2012 49ers. Last year, San Francisco recorded 38 team sacks, meaning Smith — playing that same ROLB position in the 3-4 defense — had 51.3% of his team’s sacks.  Two other players recorded exactly half of their team’s sacks.  In 1984, when Mark Gastineau (playing at left defensive end in New York’s 4-3 defense) set the sack record, he recorded 22 of the Jets 44 total sacks. Fifteen years later, Football Perspective All Underrated star Simeon Rice (who lined up at right defensive end) had 16.5 of the Cardinals 33 sacks.

Mathis was a star 4-3 defensive end, but he’s already matched his single-season career high in sacks. He’s having perhaps his best season playing as rush linebacker in the system devised by Greg Manusky and Chuck Pagano. And his numbers look even better as a percentage of team sacks. Below are the top 50 leaders from 1982 to 2012 in percentage of team sacks, which is a cut-off deep enough to bring in another Robert Mathis season:
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