Postby mikey » Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:14 pm
"Impact" is a nebulous term to represent a season in which something positive was added to a resume. I think his rookie season qualifies as such.
All-Rookie Team, Second Team All-AFC, 9th in rushing yds (6th in per game), 4th in yards/carry...that's very clearly a positive season, it's very clearly a part of his prime and would be considered a part of any players' prime. You could debate whether it has "peak" capabilities on a player that shone even brighter, fine...but that season added to a HOF resume, so I classify it as "impact"...
To bring it closer to home...Jagr's season last year (45-50 points, whatever it was) is not an impact season...it added nothing to his resume at all...just to quickly illustrate the point further...
That said, a pretty convincing case could be made that he's not a HOFer just on the amount of time he put in...it's like the old thing with MVP voting, you can't win it if you miss 25% of the season (Jagr 2000, Brady 2016, etc.) - can you be in the HOF with four seasons? Five? Three? If they're all impact...? Que se yo?