While everyone out there seems to believe the Steelers are destined to sign a tight end, it just doesn't seem logical to me. QUESTION: Will Hines Ward ever get into the Hall of Fame? This is the ultimate question for Steelers fans in their 20's. Third, the Steelers don't want to bring in more high-risk players when they're finally building a young and tight-knit team on both sides of the ball.

Robert Spillane nearly found himself on the outside looking in before filling the shoes of Devin Bush for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’ll repeat, this isn’t intended to be a conclusive metric, no stat or metric ever should be, but it does show that when you factor in the number of passes thrown and the quality of the offense they were in, Hines Ward accounts for more of his team’s production than other receivers did. Wide receivers like Antonio Brown entered a league where the same hits Hines Ward would bounce up from with his trademark smile would now draw a 15 yard penalty for the offense and a fine or even a suspension for the defender responsible. Hines Ward isn’t just responsible for the adoption of the rule protecting defenders, but because of his hits, he cleared the way for WRs to be protected as well.

That is the end of the debate for most people, and likely the reason Hines isn’t even a finalist this year. First, no one has any idea what type of pay he's looking for but you don't pay a player who's virtually sat out the last two years when you're in a tight spot with cap space as it is. One retired a Super Bowl champ, the other a royal pain in the butt, With news of former Steelers receiver, Antonio Brown’s latest retirement from the NFL, some debate sparked online about how soon Mr. Big Chest could be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

No. But the victory came at a cost. Those two Super Bowl rings and Super Bowl MVP trophy places him among some of the games all time greats, and yet he gets no love in the Hall of Fame voting. I ended up with a really simple formula I call MVR (Most Valuable Receiver). During Hines Ward’s career, he was frequently put forth as a dirty player for his blindside hits to the head of opposing … Maybe with one of their four fourth and fifth round picks but nothing before then. I counter this with an additional metric, MVR2, which adds in a modifier that normalizes team YPA to the league average for that time period. Posted on February 4, 2019 at 8:30 am. It is easy to follow that line of thought, with Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison, Steve Smith, Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne, Derrick Mason, Chad Johnson, Keyshawn Johnson all being players that entered the NFL withing 3 years of Hines’ 1998 Draft class. So many diva receivers have jumped over Hines Ward for a spot in Canton. I shouldn't have to continue talking about this but here we are. throwing phallic gummy’s at his baby mama, Facebook live after the Chiefs playoff game, throwing a fit over league approved helmets, Podcast: The Steelers have the best defense the NFL has seen in a decade, NFL Week 7 Betting Preview: Steelers currently a 1.5-point favorite against the Titans, Chiefs vs. Bills: Monday Night Football double header open thread, Receptions (1,000) than: Randy Moss (982) & Steve Largent (819), Yards (12,083) than: Michael Irvin (11,904), Touchdowns (85) than: Fred Biletnikoff (76) & Michael Irvin (65). QUESTION: What are Ben's odds of playing this season? The season-ending injury suffered by Devin Bush will hurt the Steelers defense. For receiving TDs Hines ranks 4th, behind Jerry Rice, Rob Gronkowski and John Stallworth, only Gronkowski is not in the Hall, and he isn’t eligible yet. "All eyes" will be taken literally in Week 6 as Pittsburgh Steelers' wide receiver Chase Claypool takes the field against the Cleveland Browns. Ben Roethlisberger would pass for 123 yards and 2 interceptions, while Hines would record 123 receiving yards and the only receiving TD of the day. The Pittsburgh Steelers could be without former first-round pick Devin Bush following what is believed to be a serious knee injury in Week 6. It was even more effective when you had 250 lb.

For this comparison I’m going to use a simple metric that I started using a few years ago and really like, MVR. This area of his game is viewed more negatively now than it was before the 2009 rule changes, as his hits are ones that are now so out of place as to be somewhat shocking. The Steelers bring in a familiar face at punter as well as an candidate for linebacker. **If you don’t want to read about the metric I’m about to use, or are familiar with MVR from times I’ve used it before, feel free to skip the block quote section**. Share. Only Cliff Branch is eligible and not in the Hall of Fame, and he never put up an MVR close to Hines in the playoffs, nor was he at Ward’s level of production, raw or MVR, in the regular season. Here’s a comparison of the Steelers passing game, passes to Hines Ward and passes to all other Steelers combined for the 2004 and 2005 playoff runs.

Ward’s 6.59 MVR for that Super Bowl is the second best Super Bowl MVR since the merger. Hines Ward was a model teammate and ambassador for the game during his 14 year career. Hines Ward played on the Pittsburgh Steelers, and from 1998-2011, the only teams that threw fewer passes than Ward’s Steelers were the Browns and Texans, who weren’t teams for the entire 14 year span of Hines Ward’s career. I would like to say that at some point Ward finds himself in the Hall where he belongs but wide receivers are the biggest guessing game when it comes to who's getting elected. I only bring that up because I worked hard at the original formula to make sure I wasn’t double counting any particular variable and wasn’t leaving anything important out, and yards per team attempt does that perfectly. If I was in the draft room, which I'm not, the position I'd be looking at is running back. Hines ranks 8th in receiving yards among players drafted between 1995 and 2001, and 5th in TDs. Hines Ward is above his HoF level contemporaries in playoff production both in raw stats and in production per pass attempt. With his team passing less than any other team, Hines had less opportunity than other receivers of his era. So, for now, pay attention to that. MVR will help adjust for that.

You can't imagine he's still a deep threat and Diontae Johnson and JuJu Smith-Schuster handle slot duties. I hope that helps people get over Ward’s regular season statistics being lower than other receivers, but even if we take the MVR as evidence that Hines Ward was better than his stats, it still doesn’t make it an egregious omission, he’s another Donnie Shell or LC Greenwood at that point, guys that probably should be in, but may never make it in without some kind of special class, and that brings us to the second part of the argument for Hines. He's certainly not a lock but if he or Stephen Gilmore don't win this award there's going to be questions.

Lynn Swann and John Stallworth played in 6 (Stallworth 7), winning 4 and also winning 4 Super Bowls. This area of his game is viewed more negatively now than it was before the 2009 rule changes, as his hits are ones that are now so out of place as to be somewhat shocking.

There wasn't another defensive star this season that changed the game for his team as much as this edge rusher. During Hines Ward’s career, he was frequently put forth as a dirty player for his blindside hits to the head of opposing players, and that seems to be the most common take-away from his play, that he was a dirty player. The truth is somewhere in-between (although if you watch film of Hines in his prime I’d argue the truth is much closer to the MVR results than the raw numbers).

This is the ultimate question for Steelers fans in their 20's. Noah - Until his February check up we really don't have any idea what's going to happen with Ben this season. It is hard to make a logical argument for protection for yourself while also arguing that same protection shouldn’t be afforded to the players you are facing. It's mailbag time! Plus, he’s also considered the greatest blocking wide receiver of all time, which can't be measured by stats. Pittsburgh's needs are much bigger than figuring out a tight end, especially since you can't judge the lack of success from the position in 2019 because of the constant change of quarterback. Share. Why Hines Ward belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Steelers host punter and linebacker for workouts Monday. Right now, it's about keeping an open mind and for the Steelers to solve the offensive issues around him just in case. QUESTION: Is Dez Bryant an option for the Steelers? Both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns will be without starters as they square off at Heinz Field in Week 6. Hines Ward deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, the only argument against him is that he played on a team that didn’t throw the ball enough, and that’s a pretty lousy argument when you look at what he did inside of that offense, what he did on the NFL’s biggest stage, and how he impacted the game we see today.
From Terrell Owens, to Randy Moss and other receivers of his era like Isaac Bruce and Marvin Harrison, Ward has bested them and a lot of of other Hall of Fame receivers in a ton of statistical categories. Antonio Brown, however, is most well known these days for throwing furniture off of a condo, freezing his feet, throwing phallic gummy’s at his baby mama, Facebook live after the Chiefs playoff game, heinous allegations, and throwing a fit over league approved helmets among so many other things. There isn't a stat Watt wasn't able to impress in this season and if that's how this award is being judged than he's the easy pick.

MVR is not a one-stat-to-rule-them-all, no stat or metric ever is. But Hines Ward, the all-time leading receiver of a franchise that already has a pair of Hall-of-Fame wideouts, has as good a case as any receiver for a bust among the game’s greats. Available FA ILBs the Steelers could target after Devin Bush’s injury.
Tweet. I had originally computed it as catch rate * yards per target * percentage of team targets + percentage of team TDs, but I would come to realize that what I was ending up with was the same as Receiving yards / Team attempts + percentage of team TDs.

The difference between MVR and MVR2 for any player is a great way to see how effective a team’s passing game is. Each category falls in favor for Ward, the only argument you could make for Antonio is that he appeared in only 131 games compared to Ward’s 217. QUESTION: Will Hines Ward ever get into the Hall of Fame?

The Pittsburgh Steelers move to 5-0 after an impressive AFC North win. Antwaan Randle El’s 43 yard TD pass to Hines Ward offset Ben’s 43 passing yards to all Steelers not named Hines Ward that day. QUESTION: Is T.J. Watt a lock for DPOY? In MVR he ranks 3rd behind Rod Smith’s 4 games and Steve Smith’s (who also belongs in the Hall) ridiculous early 2000’s production.

Like myself, you probably grew up watching Hines Ward become the meanest and happiest wide receiver in football and it just felt like there was or ever will be another like him. Hines Ward changed that argument.