LeSean McCoy is the latest in a series of stories looking at the Hall of Fame chances of current or recent Eagles who are still active in the NFL.
Friday, July 19: Fletcher Cox
Saturday, July 20: Zach Ertz
Sunday, July 21: DeSean Jackson
Monday, July 22: Jason Kelce
Today: LeSean McCoy
Wednesday, July 24: Jason Peters
Thursday, July 25: Darren Sproles
Numbers: 10,606 rushing yards, 69 rushing TDs, 475 receptions, 3,616 receiving yards, 15 receiving TDs, 14,222 yards from scrimmage.
Postseason numbers: Shady has only played in four postseason games — three with the Eagles, one with the Bills — all losses. He’s rushed for 222 yards with a 3.9 average and one TD in those games along with 15-for-104 receiving.
Honors: McCoy has been named to six Pro Bowl teams — 2011, 2013 and 2014 with the Eagles and 2015, 2016 and 2017 with the Bills. He was a first-team all-pro in 2011 and 2013.
Favorite stat: With 25 more catches, McCoy will become the seventh player in NFL history with 10,000 rushing yards and 500 receptions.
Records and rankings
NFL
• After 10 NFL seasons, McCoy ranks 25th in NFL history in rushing yards, and 14 of the 21 eligible backs ahead of him are already enshrined in Canton.
• Despite last year’s miserable season, McCoy still ranks 24th in history at 4.5 yards per carry. That’s seventh-highest among 10,000-yard rushers.
• McCoy has 14,222 career yards from scrimmage. His 13,470 yards from scrimmage in his 20s are eighth-most in NFL history by a running back before his 30th birthday.
• Shady ranks 22nd in history in yards from scrimmage among running backs, but he can get into the top 10 if he averages 1,035 yards over the next two years (pending Adrian Pederson’s yards). Everybody in the top 10 who’s eligible is in the Hall of Fame.
• McCoy is the 11th running back in NFL history to net at least 750 yards from scrimmage in each of his first 10 seasons. If he hits 750 again in 2019, he’d join Frank Gore, Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith, Warrick Dunn, Franco Harris, Curtis Martin and Marshall Faulk as the eighth player in NFL history to do it in each of his first 11 seasons.
• McCoy’s 69 touchdowns rank him 32nd all-time among running backs, and 11 more get him into the top 20.
Analysis
Right now, Shady isn’t a Hall of Famer. He’s just short, in that group with Edgerrin James, Fred Taylor and Tiki Barber (who should be in).
But if he can rebound from that terrible 2018 season and put together two more solid seasons — say 800-900 rushing yards and 30 catches while maintaining that lofty 4.5 rushing average — it’s going to be tough to keep him out.
Only four players in history have rushed for 12,000 yards and caught 500 passes, and all four are Hall of Famers — Marshall Faulk, LaDainian Tomlinson, Marcus Allen and Emmitt Smith. And as of now, McCoy has a higher career rushing average than all of them.
To get to 12,000 and 500, Shady needs just 1,393 rushing yards and 25 catches. He’s 31, which is when running backs tend to lose their effectiveness, and he did last year. Whether that’s a permanent loss of production or something he can bounce back from we just don’t know.
But I do know that during the eight-year period from 2010 through 2017 there wasn’t a more productive running back in the NFL than Shady, who had about 1,200 more yards from scrimmage during that span than any other NFL back.
McCoy has piled up some remarkable numbers in his 10 NFL seasons. Especially considering the absence of big-time postseason numbers, he does need more to really have a chance at Canton. But he’s not that far off.
Verdict: Will not be a Hall of Famer.
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