he's a borderline guy, the kind that should wait 10-15 years or more but he will likely get in this year due to sham sack record and popularity in the media.
Smith and White were certainly a class above Strahan.(And White a class above Smith imo). But who else can we put there? Jared Allen? JJ Watt's going to be that guy most likely. But Strahan as an all around defensive end was the best of the 2000's to the mid 2000's. He got better as his career went on. The record was silly(and any record held by Gastineau-who cares anyways). But the guy was a hell of a football player and he's not getting in because he was a "compiler" or whatever that means.
I hate that terminology used to describe football players. It works for some baseball players, though (Don Sutton, Craig Biggio). A guy can be merely good for a long time and compile statistics that may make him look great (see Biggio's hits total). Is there some magic number of sacks? What is the sack total equivalent of 300 wins or 3,000 hits? None, actually. Strahan did not reach any magic number of sacks.
he's top 5 all time b/c: a)the sack didn't become official until 1982 b) he played forever and put up decent totals, he wasn't consistently sacking the QB. He only had 4 top 5 finishes in sacks his entire career. he was a complier much like Art Monk(though I think he has a better case than Monk who shouldn't even have been borderline).
If I'm thinking about all time, Deacon Jones would be the name. If more recent, maybe Lee Roy Selmon, Jack Youngblood, Richard Dent, Howie Long, and Chris Doleman come to mind.. current guys i like Peppers, Ware and Watt quite a bit (and hopefully our very own Mo Wilk).. Doleman is a guy i thought was a much better pass rusher than Strahan. And he had to wait quite awhile to get in. Strahan will get in sooner due to his publicity, but he's not necessarily a better player than Doleman was.
I think Howie Long is vastly overrated, another guy who I believe got in b/c of how popular he is on TV. Good player but all time great?
Yeah, Deacon Jones is at the top of the list. He is either the #1 or #2 end of all-time. An earlier post made it appear the topic was best three ends of the past 25, 30 or so years. All-time, Jones, White, Smith, Selmon, Marchetti would make the top 10. It is hard to argue against those five. As for others, Len Ford and Doug Atkins would make my top ten. There are a bunch of others worth consideration.
