Few people questioned it when wide receiver Julian Edelman won Super Bowl MVP last month. His 10 receptions for 141 yards easily led all Patriots receivers, and made up over half of Tom Brady’s passing yardage in the game. At halftime, he was the only offensive player that seemed to even be making an appearance: His 93 receiving yards in the first half were more than double any other player’s.

While some argued a defensive player should have won MVP of a game that ended 13-3, no individual defensive player stood out among the others the way Edelman did among offensive players. And Edelman’s ability to generate first downs in a game where no one else could helped the Patriots keep the Rams off the board, giving us the opportunity to punt from mid-field and repeatedly keep Los Angeles backed up against their own end zone.

But when Nate Burleson said "Julian Edelman is no question a Hall of Famer" during the Super Bowl post-game show, chaos and debate ensued. Google "Julian Edelman Hall of Fame" and you’ll get a mix of prominent figures agreeing he should be headed there, and articles with titles like "No, Julian Edelman isn’t even close to being a Hall of Famer. Stop saying that". For everyone who believes he should be considered, someone not only disagrees, but thinks it’s ridiculous that we’re even talking about it.

Usually, any Hall of Fame debate comes down to precedent: You look at whether similar resumes have been enough to get players inducted in the past. And that is precisely what makes the debate over Edelman so difficult to settle.

Nope, the regular season numbers aren’t there

There are currently 27 wide receivers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Julian Edelman, who turns 33 in May and has already missed a season due to a torn ACL, currently sits 219th in career regular season receiving yards among wide receivers, behind players like Brandon LaFell, Michael Floyd, and the 26 year-old Odell Beckham Jr. He is 119th in receptions and 273rd in receiving touchdowns.

While Terrell Davis set the precedent that a player with relatively low career numbers can still make the Hall of Fame, Davis did so on the back of a much higher peak. Like Edelman, Davis has multiple rings and a Super Bowl MVP. But he also has a regular season MVP and was a 3x First Team All-Pro. From 1996 through 1998, Terrell Davis was simply the best RB in the league. Julian Edelman has never even made the Pro Bowl. His career high in receiving yards is 1106-a number over 200 players have surpassed.

While obviously 500 career receptions and 5000 career receiving yards in the NFL is an impressive feat, players with no regular season accolades who don’t rank in the top 100 in any major career stat simply don’t make the Hall of Fame.

This is why my initial reaction was to agree that, as much as I love Edelman—who’s clutch, funny, and fiesty, who wrote a children’s book, and sometimes posts on reddit—he isn’t a Hall of Famer.

But on the other hand…

Making a comparison means comparing not just what Edelman doesn’t have, but what he does have.

It’s true that winning Super Bowl MVP doesn’t guarantee a trip to Canton. Malcolm Smith and Deion Branch, to give two recent examples, will not be getting a gold jacket. But Tom Brady's favorite receiver has a lot more on his resume than that.

Julian Edelman is second all time in playoff receptions and playoff receiving yards by a healthy margin, trailing only Jerry Rice in each category. And if he hadn’t been injured during the 2017 run, his lead on Reggie Wayne and Michael Irvin in those two categories would be even greater. Edelman is not a one or two game wonder with a Super Bowl MVP, but one of the most prolific playoff performers of all time.

In addition to the raw numbers, Edelman has made some of the most iconic plays of the second Patriots dynasty since the 2014 season. Before winning MVP of Super Bowl LIII, he threw the double pass against the Ravens in the 2014-15 Divisional Round, three weeks before scoring the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLIX against the Seahawks, and two years later made the single most iconic play of Super Bowl LI against Atlanta. Indeed, there might not be a single non-QB in history with more iconic playoff moments than Julian Edelman.

The top five leaders in career playoff passing yards and rushing yards are all in the Hall of Fame or headed there. #1 and #3 in receiving yards (Jerry Rice and Michael Irvin) are in the Hall of Fame. #4 and #5 (Cliff Branch and Reggie Wayne) aren't, but each have several Pro Bowls and All-Pros and likely will make it eventually. Also note that Branch is only 10th in receptions, and that neither Branch nor Wayne has a Super Bowl MVP. Hines Ward is another receiver that won SB MVP—but he is only 7th in playoff receiving yards.

So while it’s true that players without a much greater regular season resume do not make the Hall of Fame, this is misleading, because so few players have even close to the playoff resume that Edelman does, and those that do (like Jerry Rice or Michael Irvin) also happen to have a regular season resume to go with it. There is no precedent either way, because no player with zero regular season accolades has ever been this prolific in the playoffs before. Julian Edelman is a statistical outlier that will force Hall of Fame voters to re-define their criteria for admission.

To put it another way, it comes down to this: The list of players with Edelman’s regular season resume who have made the Hall of Fame is zero. The list of players with Edelman’s playoff resume who aren’t in the Hall of Fame is also zero.

The difference for me is that any Hall of Fame is about remembering and honoring the history of the game as much as it is about evaluating player careers. If a player’s accomplishments put him on the edge, the first tie-breaker should be significance. Can you tell the history of pro football without talking about Julian Edelman? I think you know the answer to that.

So in my heart, as a biased Patriots fan, Julian Edelman should be headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. But I wouldn’t hold it against anyone who disagrees. It’s an unprecedented question, because Julian Edelman is an unprecedented player.

/u/douglasmacarthur is a moderator on reddit’s r/Patriots community and hosts The Official r/Patriots Podcast. r/Patriots is on Twitter as @rslashpatriots.