Lamar Jackson is Wrong About Michael Vick Being a Hall of Famer

Lamar Jackson tweeted about Michael Vick over the weekend, seemingly flabbergasted that someone might think Vick wasn't a first-ballot Hall of Famer. This is absurd because there is no way that Vick will make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

This is not to say that Vick wasn't an incredible player. He was undeniably talented and breathtaking to watch. He was like a video game character and as an actual video game character he was unstoppable. He inspired a generation of football fans and will be remembered for a number of reasons. Getting a bust in Canton will not be one of those reasons.

To start with the obvious, Vick missed three years in his prime as he spent two years in jail for dog fighting and another as a backup getting acclimated to the NFL again. He then had the two most complete seasons of his career under Andy Reid in Philadelphia. Who knows what Vick's career might have looked like if he had been with Reid for most of it.

Vick only had seven close-to-full seasons as a primary starting quarterback for a team and those numbers are pedestrian. His entire argument rests on the fact that he was a game-changing runner. Until Lamar Jackson came along, Vick looked like he would go down as the most prolific running quarterback ever. Even then, Vick's combined numbers are much closer to Randall Cunningham's than Steve Young's. Cunningham played more than Vick, won more, was a better passer and wasn't that far behind Vick as a runner. Cunningham is not in the Hall of Fame.

Joe Montana, Jim Kelly, John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner are the only quarterbacks voted into the Hall of Fame this century. Peyton Manning will be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2021, the same year Vick becomes eligible. Tom Brady and Drew Brees will join them at some point in the next decade. Out of that group, only Kelly, Marino and Moon failed to win a Super Bowl.

When that's the baseline of the modern Hall of Fame quarterback, do you really think MIchael Vick is going to join that club? Mike Vick may be a legend. He's just not a Hall of Famer.