Frank Thomas

I thought, with a dude?

Oh, no.

I mean, definitely less than a week.

The whole Bill Belichick thing, this is obviously a really sort of subjective conversation, but through my lens, being a two-time MVP solidifies his Hall of Fame status even beyond if he led a team to two Super Bowls.

Eli Manning is not a surefire Hall of Famer in my mind.

Because in the regular season, Eli Manning was never one of the top quarterbacks in the sport.

My guy Matt Leinart a few weeks ago started talking about Matthew Stafford as a top five quarterback of all time.

That was a preposterous statement to make.

He has just entered the space of being consistently viewed as one of the top five quarterbacks in football, let alone an all-time top five great.

He's always been productive.

Matt Stafford has rarely been viewed as one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL at any one given time.

So that statement, to me, I'm like, well, yeah, I think he's productive.

probably going to be a Hall of Famer.

Top five all-time is skipping several steps for Matthew Stafford.

Well, that's where to me, because to your point, Grody, he's been a two-time MVP.

He's been viewed as the best quarterback and the best player in the league multiple times in his career.

That, to me, is where the Hall of Fame status of a player is solidified even more so than being a part of the collective.

Because you guys know how much the collective, those 53 bodies and beyond that, the 90-some bodies and then coaches and personnel, it takes to actually have a team win it all, to go to the Super Bowl and make that happen.

So the quarterback is the most important cog in that?

Absolutely.