The Great Yet Nameless

We, as Bengals fans, all know his name.  For 25 years he has been the picture of consistency that fans have longed for in every other area of this team; James Brooks, Ickey Woods, Harold Green, Corey Dillon, Lorenzo Neal, and Rudi Johnson all know his name because he coached them to Pro Bowls.  Garrison Hearst and Cedric Benson know his name because he revived their careers.

While there has been much talk of Dick Lebeau and his worthiness of the Hall of Fame as a coach/player, Jim Anderson's unparalleled accomplishments throughout his career continuously go unnoticed by people lacking zip codes that start with "4".  He's never been offered a promotion, but he's also survived five coaching tenures with the same team, which is a testament to his coaching ability that no coach ever saw him as replaceable.

Some could argue that coaching that many players into the Pro Bowl is enough to warrant consideration for the Hall.  More important, I think, is the career resurrection pattern that Anderson has established.  Garrison Hearst was considered to be finished, his knees no longer good enough to carry him, when he had a cup of coffee and 1000 yards with the Bengals; he would then go on to have several very good seasons in San Francisco.  Cedric Benson was the textbook definition of a draft bust when he came in off the street last season, and we've all seen how that's gone.  To a lesser extent, Larry Johnson can be considered in that group, as it took but two weeks within the offense for him to produce a 100-yard game (against the Browns, but still kind of impressive).

There's often a reason that a position coach remains a position coach throughout his coaching career, and it might be the case that Jim Anderson simply lacks the capacity or desire to be a coordinator or head coach; that doesn't mean that he should be overlooked for the unique job he has done for two-and-a-half decades of making sure at least one area of the team will be consistently productive.  Jim Anderson is a Hall of Famer as far as I'm concerned, and he should be as far as anyone with a vote is concerned, as well.