More NFL coverage . While he has made six Pro Bowls, that's not typically enough for interior linemen to make it into the Hall. Please see our Contributors and Sources page for data source details. The Notre Dame product probably needs a second one to have a viable shot at Canton. Watt's last name and presence on a high-profile defense won't hurt. Unfortunately, Houston fans have had to wait through the years to see their stars get inducted. In recent years Seattle has gained somewhat of a reputation as being the last stop for future Hall of Fame wide receivers. Running backs mean less than they have in the past, but Terrell Davis just made the Hall for what really amounted to a three-season stretch as the best running back in football. From 2015 to 2019, his numbers are virtually identical to those of Eric Ebron. In the running (40% to 69%): DE Chandler Jones. Likely (70% to 99%): CB Richard Sherman. The two first-time eligible players who stand out on next years ballot are defensive end Julius Peppers and tight end Antonio Gates. Wide receiver, Arizona Cardinals Larry Fitzgerald's career stats: 1,432 receptions for 17,492 yards and 121 touchdowns One of the greatest wide receivers of all time, and certainly among the most dominant of his era, Fitzgerald will likely be a first-ballot Hall of Famer sometime around 2026. If a receiver can enter the league and perform well right away at a boyish age, that speaks well for his future as he develops. Campbell, who turns 34 next month, is probably going to miss out, which is a shame given how good he has been. Top-10 picks who make it to the Pro Bowl as rookies have a great track record. Goff took a major step backward in 2019 and doesn't appear to be on the same level as the other top quarterbacks in the conference. Texans great Andre Johnson fell short of election to the Hall of Fame again this year in his second time as a modern-era finalist. The first game of the 2023 NFL calendar is . If you want to know why people are excited about the Cowboys' offense in 2020, consider that they could have as many as five future Hall of Famers lining up when everyone's healthy. 1. Since 1970, 55 players who are eligible for Canton have hit that 8+2 mark, and 52 of them earned enshrinement. Inside linebackers generally need to become Defensive Player of the Year candidates and earn multiple first-team All-Pro appearances to get serious consideration for Canton, but Edmunds is off to a great start. Since there have been only 346 people elected to the Hall of Fame (some of whom aren't even players), we don't always have great measures or estimates for what players at each given position have to do to make it. He needs only three more years to get to 60,000 passing yards, and if that gets Philip Rivers in, Ryan shouldn't have much trouble. In the running (40% to 69%): OT Trent Williams. He probably needs two more All-Pro seasons to finalize his case. The suspension hurts Peterson's chances, but with eight Pro Bowls and three All-Pro appearances across his first eight seasons, his prior track record was impeccable. Do you have a sports website? Of the 16 Hall-eligible first-rounders who were first-team All-Pros as rookies, nine are enshrined. How Antonio Brown is hurting his Hall of Fame future, and what the volatile wide receiver needs to do to fix it Brown's continued off-field distractions have cast doubt on when -- and if -- he . Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens are two of the greatest players to ever catch a football, ranking first and second, respectively, in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns in NFL history. Likely (70% to 99%): S Earl Thomas. Likely (70% to 99%): QB Russell Wilson, LB Bobby Wagner. Lock (100%): LB Von Miller. In my Week 10 WR/CB matchups piece, I highlight the upcoming matchup between Evans and Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson and say that we might be seeing two Canton-bound players go at each other in a one-on-one heavyweight matchup.. Only nine players have done that in league history; outside of Green, the only player of the bunch who isn't in the Hall of Fame or a lock to get in is offensive tackle Richmond Webb, who played a much less notable position. In his final college season, he had a nice 69 receptions for 1,394 yards and 12 touchdowns in 13 games as a redshirt sophomore. Marcedes Lewis has been in the NFL for a long time. Ingram wasn't very good for extended stretches of time until his fourth season in the league in New Orleans, and while he has made three Pro Bowls since, he hasn't had a top-five season in terms of production or won a Super Bowl. Worthy Hall of Fame (HOF) NFL Wide Receivers: The shoo-ins Let's start by running through five obvious cases of overly-qualified receivers who have not yet been enshrined. In one of Coach Saban's press conferences, he spoke about some of the questions asked by the players to . Larry Fitzgerald won't be suiting up for the Arizona Cardinals for the start of the season, but the future Hall of Fame wide receiver stopped just short Friday of announcing his retirement. We still have to see what happens with the former LSU star, but of the 24 quarterbacks drafted with the first overall pick since the merger, five are either Hall of Famers or extremely likely to be enshrined. What will define Eric Bieniemy's success? Published: August 24, 2021. Work to do (10% to 39%): S Tyrann Mathieu. Regardless of age, Evans has had an impressive start to his career. Martin, who also turns 30 during the season, might not even need another nod. It was a good weekend for wide receivers at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Thomas now has three Pro Bowls and two first-team All-Pro nods in four years, and while there might be some sort of drop-off if Brees retires, the Ohio State product did just fine with Teddy Bridgewater on the field in 2019. Ten years after he retires, we're more likely to look at his two first-team All-Pro nods and forget those times he guessed wrong and gave up touchdowns with the Chiefs and Rams. He ranks seventh all-time in receiving touchdowns (116), 30th in yards (11,841) and 17th in receptions (955). His PFR Hall of Fame score of 94.2 ranks ahead of several wide receivers already in the Hall of Fame, including Michael Irvin, Art Monk, Andre Reed and Lynn Swann. Six players have done that since the merger: Murray, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, George Rogers, Billy Sims and Earl Campbell. Just play along. Art Monk. At the same time, no tight end in history has more than four 1,000-yard seasons over their respective careers, and Kelce has just run off four consecutive 1,000-yard campaigns. Hall of Fame Wide Receivers. Kuechly played just eight seasons with the Panthers from 2012-19, but they were very good ones, with five first team All-Pro selections, seven Pro Bowls and a spot on the All-2010s team. Of the nine corners who have debuted since the NFL-AFL merger and made the Hall of Fame, just two had been a first-team All-Pro by their third season, which puts White in good company alongside Rod Woodson and then-corner Ronnie Lott. Like Campbell, Heyward didn't earn widespread notoriety until he was approaching 30, with the Steelers star becoming a first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler for the first time in his seventh season. We present them here for purely educational purposes. Quarterbacks like Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason and Steve McNair won league MVP without earning enshrinement. Erica Farber and Bill Siemering, prominent figures in U.S. commercial radio and public radio, respectively, are among eight new members of the Radio Hall of Fame. Wentz's injury history this early in his career also doesn't bode well for his chances of playing deep into his 30s. The 2021 Radio Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at the in-person 2021 Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday, October 28, 2021, at Chicago's Wintrust Grand Banking Hall. I worry a little about Atkins because he plays in a small market and in an era in which he's second fiddle to a better version of the same player (Aaron Donald), but history suggests Atkins is in. Likely (70% to 99%): RB Ezekiel Elliott, G Zack Martin, OT Tyron Smith. Work to do (10% to 39%): QB Matthew Stafford, CB Jeff Okudah. Work to do (10% to 39%): WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, G David DeCastro, DE Cameron Heyward, S Minkah Fitzpatrick. Jackson and teammate Kyle Fuller both slipped last season, but each earned Pro Bowl nods, and that's going to matter more to voters 15 years from now than how either player actually performed in 2019. Let's run team-by-team and try to estimate each notable player's chances of making it to the Hall of Fame given his current rsum. Jalen and Reggie Wayne connected while he was in college, and his uncle has helped him every step of the way since. While Tucker would be the overwhelming choice as the best kicker in football, the Hall has elected just two full-time kickers in its history. Stafford posted gaudy numbers earlier in his career when the Lions had him lead the league in attempts, but he has made it to one Pro Bowl and hasn't won a playoff game in 11 seasons. I addressed this in my MVP column in July. He has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first six seasons, adding four first-team All-Pro appearances. Players with that sort of injury history early in their careers typically don't have the sort of lengthy peak needed to become a Hall of Famer. Work to do (10% to 39%): RB Mark Ingram, OT Ronnie Stanley, DE Calais Campbell. Okudah's presence owes to his draft status as the No. Watson is one of the best quarterbacks in football, although he might struggle to earn first-team All-Pro nods when stuck in the same time frame as Mahomes. Rockets great and championship coach Rudy Tomjanovich was only inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021. The list of players who have done that isn't long, as it consists of Lawrence Taylor, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Patrick Willis, Aaron Donald and Martin. Gurley was a first-team All-Pro in 2017 and 2018, but he wasn't able to clinch a rushing title and didn't look like his old self last season. Pictured: Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13). This is the big question: How much longer will Evans play and how productive will he be? Jimmy Smith's peak was among the best ever. Browns star left tackle Joe Thomas and Jets greats Joe . Both players are on a streak, and their chances depend on keeping that streak going. The others are Moss, Keenan Allen and Amari Cooper. The one-time tight end has made nine Pro Bowls and was a first-team All-Pro twice. A candidate must get 80 percent of the vote to be elected. 1 pick and winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, but that hasn't historically been a helpful combination. More on the Ring of Honor found on the team website. He's the second-most productive receiver in football history. The Saints have the best tackle combination in football, but Armstead went underappreciated before picking up steam over the past couple of years and Ramczyk raised his game in 2019. Hekker got a two-season head start, but he has been a first-team All-Pro four times before turning 30 in February. What will the Buffalo Bills do without defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier? Gronkowski dominated at his position, played a key role on four Super Bowl winners, was on the all-2010s team and a first time All-Pro on four occasions. He has three first-team All-Pro nods and a Super Bowl MVP before turning 31. 3 pick. Sanders started 16 regular season games at cornerback and another eight at wide receiver - becoming the first two-way starter in the NFL since the Philadelphia Eagles Chuck Bednarik, who retired in 1962. Three different Cowboys defenders make this list, and you could make a case for Jaylon Smith, too. All 259 picks | Every team's class Gore is the football equivalent of somebody like MLB outfielder Jim Rice as a compiler who plays a position the electorate loves. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. The only eligible player with that sort of rsum who hasn't made it to Canton is Webb, and while Webb was also a left tackle, he didn't make a single Pro Bowl after turning 30. Round 1: Kiper | McShay | NFL Nation Houston probably had the best shot of these four earlier in his career, given that he made four consecutive Pro Bowls and led the league with 22 sacks in 2014, but he hasn't been dominant since dealing with a knee injury between 2015 and 2016. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Buckner made the Pro Bowl in 2018, but he was otherwise underappreciated during his four seasons in the Bay Area. If he can stay healthy, he's probably going to retire in the top 10 for career passing yardage, but will that really be enough to get him in without more individual awards or team success? Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans is having himself a season. I think his five-year peak with the Seahawks probably would have been enough to get him in, but earning a sixth Pro Bowl trip with the 49ers last season only helped his chances. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. In the running (40% to 69%): DT Ndamukong Suh. Rent the Hall. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. All but. He played 16 seasons, but never led the league in any notable statistical category other than interceptions. If you were asked to name off the top of your head the three best NFL receivers to enter the league at 21, you might say Moss, Larry Fitzgerald and DeAndre Hopkins. While guys like Franco Harris and Champ Bailey managed to make it to the Hall with similar starts to their careers, standouts like Chris Hinton, Ricky Watters and Donovan McNabb have come up short without getting to that next level. Lock (100%): QB Patrick Mahomes. Marriott has since been ordered by a judge to release footage of Irvin and the woman's altercation and the name of the . He followed that by posting a passer rating of 135.3 in the playoffs, which was the second-best mark in league history for a quarterback with at least 75 attempts. He's going to get in on the first ballot. Whitworth was criminally underrated during his time in Cincinnati, earning just one Pro Bowl nod during his first nine seasons with the Bengals. He has been one of the five best players at the second-most lucrative position in football over the past five years, and the fact that he was traded for two first-round picks and then delivered a wildly successful season with all of that attention in 2018 helps him. Hill's game still relies on speed, so he could be more susceptible to a career shortened by injuries than most other candidates, but if he gets three more seasons with Mahomes, he's probably in. Peters might not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he should get in eventually. Itll be interesting to see if his postseason prowess carries him, as it arguably did Lynn Swann in his eventual election. One more nomination should get Smith in. Bakhtiari, likewise, is blocked by Tyron Smith. But history suggests that his on-field performance makes him a Hall of Fame lock. Peters might look better in the long term than he does now. Pro Football Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Village. Work to do (10% to 39%): WR T.Y. Just nine tight ends are enshrined, and Kelce's game leans more toward receiving than any of them. Only Campbell is in the Hall of Fame. Like Hill, if Kelce gets three more seasons with Mahomes, I think he's a Hall of Famer. All HOFm Positions: QBRBWRTEGTCDTDEILBOLBDBKP, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2:32PM. He's ahead of guys like Von Miller, Dwight Freeney, Terrell Suggs and Bruce Smith, and while he played more games than all but Suggs, the fact that he was a productive pass-rusher from the jump as a 21-year-old is a positive. Peterson, fifth all-time in rushing yards (14,918), is a good bet for election on the first ballot. Both are locks for election. On a weekly basis, Evans is a volatile player, but his year-over-year production has been incredibly consistent. "Nuk" has been a first-team All-Pro in each of his past three seasons, which is the sort of run that earns skill-position players a trip to Canton on their own. Nelson is one of seven players to start his career with two consecutive first-team All-Pro nods, a group that includes four Hall of Famers, Devin Hester and Keith Jackson. He should have a very strong case for election. Since the merger, 11 offensive linemen have been named a first-team All-Pro in four consecutive seasons, and nine of them are in the Hall of Fame. Often, I'm making an educated guess as to what would get a player in by looking at which accomplishments and plaudits matter more to voters. Barnwell and friends discuss sports -- usually. Nelson doesn't play a high-profile position, but he's off to a great start. Greg Rajan is the senior editor for Texas Sports Nation, the Houston Chronicle's sports website, and also curates the daily TXSN newsletter and writes about sports media. Last season, Thomas became the second wide receiver to win Offensive Player of the Year. The Bucs already have the best receiver duo in the NFL in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and the addition of a player like Brown in his prime would make this unit completely unfair. Former Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly, ex-Giants quarterback Eli Manning, ex-Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs and longtime Patriots/Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri are the notables on the 2025 ballot. A healthy, available Garrett is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and could rise quickly. Work to do (10% to 39%): OT Terron Armstead, OT Ryan Ramczyk. Work to do (10% to 39%): DE DeMarcus Lawrence, DT Gerald McCoy, LB Leighton Vander Esch. CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND Scouting reports | More draft coverage. I would put Gronkowski's chance somewhere around 99%. Only Chandler Jones and Aaron Donald have more sacks since the start of 2017. In the running (40% to 69%): S Eddie Jackson. We're in a pass-happy era, but Thomas has more receptions (470) and receiving yards (5,512) than any other players in league history through their first four seasons. Only two full-time kickers Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen are in the Hall of Fame, but it would be hard to see Vinatieri shut out given his accomplishments. Will the Dolphins get a veteran QB? Lock (100%): WR Larry Fitzgerald. In the running (40% to 69%): WR Odell Beckham Jr., WR Jarvis Landry. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Gronk has five first-team All-Pro appearances. Membership Foundation Corporate Partners Artifact Donations Commemorative Brick . Henry plays a Hall-friendly position and just won a rushing title. Wagner turned 30 in June, and after eight seasons in the league, he has six Pro Bowl appearances and five first-team All-Pro nominations. Work to do (10% to 39%): DE Chase Young, S Landon Collins. Contemporaries Torry Holt and Reggie Wayne also made the finalists cut from 15 to 10 with Johnson, but likewise didnt gain election.