Elliott has already won two rushing titles across his first four seasons, and that might be enough on its own. We don't talk enough about Hunter, who only has two Pro Bowl nods over his first five seasons. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Hes too similar to other Hall-of-Famers and future Hall-of-Famers not to be taken seriously. 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. Allen was named a Pro Bowler after racking up 10.5 sacks as a rookie. Syndication Packersnews DeCastro has five consecutive Pro Bowl appearances and two All-Pro nods; if Faneca can't get in with nine consecutive Pro Bowl appearances and five All-Pro shots, DeCastro still has a lot of work to do. 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. So maybe the best thing for Johnson and Texans fans is to be patient. In Week 9, he led the league with 180 yards receiving, and for the year, hes No. Partner with Us Back. Aaron Rodgers has had a lack of weapons on the Green Bay Packers A Super Bowl victory would probably help. 2 with 6,103 yards. In the running (40% to 69%): C Maurkice Pouncey, LB T.J. Watt. But history suggests that his on-field performance makes him a Hall of Fame lock. Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor. Pro Football Reference's Hall of Fame monitor ranks Edelman 110th among wide receivers, and that gives him credit for winning three Super Bowls. He's an easy Hall of Famer. I mentioned the math for quarterbacks in the Bengals section; in Garrett's case, four of 26 non-QBs taken with the first overall pick since the merger have made it to the Hall. Tom Fears, WR, UCLA, 11th round, 103rd overall: Just six of 32 Hall-eligible winners made it to Canton, although that's going to rise in the years to come as the likes of Charles Woodson and Julius Peppers win enshrinement. Gilmore wasn't on track to become a Hall of Famer before he joined the Patriots, having made one Pro Bowl across his first five seasons in Buffalo, but he has made back-to-back first-team All-Pro teams and then won Defensive Player of the Year last season. We still have no idea how Thomas will perform, but if we look back through history, four of the 32 offensive linemen since 1970 who were drafted with a top-five pick have made it to the Hall of Fame. 260 players who could win MVP Judging safeties on interceptions is stupid, but we haven't evolved beyond that point. ln the running (40% to 69%): RB Alvin Kamara, DE Cameron Jordan, CB Marshon Lattimore. That wide receiver is Detroit Lions great Calvin Johnson. On the latest episode of the Let's Go! The Cowboys are blessed with two linemen bound for Canton. Bell's case as a scheme- and personnel-transcendent back fell apart in an ugly 2019 season, with the former Steelers playmaker averaging just 3.2 yards per carry. Work to do (10% to 39%): RB Melvin Gordon, DE Jurrell Casey. Published: August 24, 2021. He has a stronger case than you think. That means Robinson (who is coming off . Kamara was also Offensive Rookie of the Year, which helps his chances further. He started his career with seven Pro Bowls in seven seasons, which is rarefied air. Harold Carmichael finished his career with 590 receptions and 79 touchdowns. Brees could have retired five years ago and comfortably made the Hall of Fame. 1 with seven receiving touchdowns as well as 1,407 air yards and yards after the catch combined (perAirYards.com). But during his 15-year career, Lewis has only been a Pro Bowler and Second-Team All-Pro in 2010. At the same time, Green has missed 23 games over the past two years with injuries. With the onset of COVID, the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year moved its annual board-of-selectors meeting from an in-person session the day before the Super Bowl to a virtual communication . Lewan has three Pro Bowls. What makes Evans production especially impressive is that he entered the league at such a young age. Watt's last name and presence on a high-profile defense won't hurt. Adams has two Pro Bowls and an All-Pro nod across his first three seasons, putting him in a group with safeties such as Kenny Easley, Steve Atwater, Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu. Collins was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in 2016 and has three Pro Bowls across his first five seasons. In fact, a future Hall of Fame wide receiver recently revealed that Rodgers tried to recruit him over to the Packers. He looked to be firmly on a Hall trajectory at that point, but over the ensuing five seasons, he has just one Pro Bowl appearance. Beasley won a sack title. The only exceptions are a pair of interior offensive linemen (Alan Faneca and Steve Wisniewski) and safety John Lynch. So Johnson still has plenty of time for his credentials to be debated by the 49-person selection committee. He has three first-team All-Pro nods and a Super Bowl MVP before turning 31. Also, if a guy enters the league at a young age, he could theoretically have a longer NFL career, which would give him more time in the second half (or post-peak portion) of his career to put up the accumulation stats often needed to bolster a Hall-of-Fame case. He made only two Pro Bowls with the Cardinals, which was a farce. Marriott has since been ordered by a judge to release footage of Irvin and the woman's altercation and the name of the . All rights reserved. Erica Farber. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. There are another 11 players who aren't yet Hall-eligible, and five of them are locks to do the same. Once again, its wait til next year for Texans great Andre Johnson when it comes to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, future Hall of Fame wide receiver, led the best draft class in Rams history in 1945. A big individual season and a few MVP votes in 2020 would be enough to push him into the next category. In the running (40% to 69%): WR A.J. What Current NFL Players are Going to the Hall of Fame: NFC North He deserves it. Five seasons of 100 receptions or more plus a few others that flirted with 100 make Johnson one of the most reliable wide receivers in NFL history. Work to do (10% to 39%): WR Adam Thielen, LB Anthony Barr. After being retired for five years, players maintain modern-era eligibility for 20 years, after which their cases go to the seniors committee. Likely (70% to 99%): LB Khalil Mack. Disputed loan at center of Commanders probe, Picking the top bounce-back candidates for all 32 NFL teams, Football historians talk about the game in a previous pandemic, Ranking the NFL's top 25 prospects: Young players who could break out in 2020, last attempted something like this column in June 2016, 42.6% of voters thought Rivers was a Hall of Famer, honor his request and trade the 25-year-old, trading a first-rounder to the Bills in 2009. Jones now has five consecutive seasons with at least 10 sacks. The former Panthers quarterback has two other Pro Bowl nods besides that 2015 season, although he hasn't received a nomination since. I think the PED suspensions could help keep out players like Edelman and Lane Johnson, but it's tough to imagine Peterson not making it. Every NFL team's most likely future non-QB Hall of Fame inductee Just nine tight ends are enshrined, and Kelce's game leans more toward receiving than any of them. Can Baker Mayfield's game be fixed? Xavien Howard made the Pro Bowl in 2018 and would be the best candidate, but he has missed an average of six games per season across his four pro campaigns. He has the third most sacks through his age-25 season of any player since the league made it an official stat in 1982, trailing only Derrick Thomas and J.J. Watt. Archive: Every podcast from Barnwell . NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF 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. As long as Willis gets in, Wagner could retire tomorrow and follow his former rival right through the front door. Itll be interesting to see if his postseason prowess carries him, as it arguably did Lynn Swann in his eventual election. 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. The second-best trade in Reid's history might have been trading a first-rounder to the Bills in 2009 for Peters, who has held down left tackle for 10 of the past 11 seasons in Philadelphia and will return to play guard in 2020. A healthy, available Garrett is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and could rise quickly. Twelve of the 29 Hall-eligible players who have started their careers with three consecutive Pro Bowl nods have made it to Canton. 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. Find out more. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Should the Green Bay Packers Move On From Aaron Rodgers? Charley Taylor. Given his style, I worry about his aging curve versus that of tight ends who are basically glorified wide receivers. There are four notable first-time eligibles on this ballot: running back Adrian Peterson, tight end Rob Gronkowski, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown. The others are Moss, Keenan Allen and Amari Cooper. Roy Williams is the lone Hall-eligible safety who didn't follow his early success to Canton. Not all elite prospects turn into Hall-of-Famers, but given Evans draft capital, physical profile and college production, its reasonable to say that what hes done in the NFL hasnt been a random fluke. You could make a case Jones belongs in the Likely category based on his 2017 and 2019 seasons, although I'd argue there's a significant gap between those two campaigns and the rest of his career. Minnesota Vikings | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site 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. Rodgers is a three-time All-Pro, a member of the 2010s All-Decade Team and so much more. While Hunter's chances are probably somewhere in the 65% range, Smith is closer to the lower end of the spectrum in the 40% zone. All seven players who did that and who are eligible for the Hall are in, and the list of ineligible guys includes Hill, Patrick Willis, Joe Thomas, Adrian Peterson, Patrick Peterson, Zack Martin and Aaron Donald. He figures to have a strong case for first-ballot election. 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. After all, offensive tackle Joe Thomas was elected Thursday on the first ballot despite never playing a playoff game in 11 seasons with the Browns, who were more often than not the NFLs standard for team ineptitude. Aldon Smith, who was once the most promising young edge rusher in football, would need a miraculous comeback in his first season since 2015 to get back on the HOF radar. Who are the wide receivers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Peppers, who played for the Panthers (twice), Bears and Packers, ranks fourth on the NFLs all-time sack list with 159 and was also on the Halls All-Decade Team for the 2000s and 2010s. In the running (40% to 69%): QB Philip Rivers, G Quenton Nelson, LB Darius Leonard. Sherman has a strong case as the best cornerback of the decade and was an essential piece of what was likely the best defense of the decade. 50 Greatest QB-WR Duos in NFL History - Bleacher Report Six of the seven men ahead of him are in the Hall, with the exception of Peppers. In the running (40% to 69%): CB Tre'Davious White. Landry's hip surgery then looms as a problem; if he can get past it and keep this up, he profiles as a borderline Hall of Famer. Work to do (10% to 39%): QB Matthew Stafford, CB Jeff Okudah. podcast, future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, aware of the Raiders and Jets being interested in trading for the always-grumbling MVP. Work to do (10% to 39%): WR Keenan Allen, G Trai Turner, DE Melvin Ingram III, CB Chris Harris Jr. Turner has made five consecutive Pro Bowls, but interior linemen typically need multiple first-team All-Pro nods to draw significant Hall interest. The Hall of Fame receiver responded with a $100 million defamation lawsuit. But given the relatively small number of modern-era inductees each year a minimum of three and maximum of five now is a good time to look at the ballot in upcoming years and notable players wholl become eligible for election and may impact Johnsons fate with voters. Matthew Freedman poses and answers the burning question about Evans' future Hall of Fame chances. NFL Nation: Analysis for every pick Work to do (10% to 39%): RB Derrick Henry, OT Taylor Lewan, DE Vic Beasley Jr., S Kevin Byard. Pouncey fits that magic 8+2 formula I mentioned earlier with regard to Atkins, and at 31, he should still have a couple more Pro Bowls in him. He was excellent in his third season, but since then, his production has roughly been in line with that of Robby Anderson. He's the second-most productive receiver in football history. In part, that has been driven by health; the only other wideout ranking in the top 100 for receiving yards who has played all 80 games over the past five seasons is Larry Fitzgerald. The Best Wide Receivers of AllTime. Freedman: Mike Evans Will Be in the NFL Hall of Fame Future Hall of Fame Wide Receiver Gushes Over Giants' Kadarius Toney 123 Shares By Vinny Somma Updated Apr 30, 2021 at 1:11pm Getty Kadarius Toney #1 of the Florida Gators reacts after. Wilson is somewhere in the 90% range. Bosa's case is trickier, in part because he missed four games in 2016 and nine games in 2018 with injuries. Hunter just needs more individual recognition to raise his chances. When a group consists of you and Jerry Rice, you've done something right. But playing on so many bad Eagles teams delayed his entry into the Hall of Fame. On Saturday night, Eagles star Harold Carmichael and Rams star Isaac Bruce were inducted as part of a . Edelman's career as a starter really didn't begin until he was 27, so while his case is built on postseason performance, I still don't think he has the regular-season production needed to supplement a case. The 2010 No. Guy made only one Pro Bowl after turning 30, and Hekker probably needs a couple more All-Pro appearances to earn serious consideration. 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. Last season, Thomas became the second wide receiver to win Offensive Player of the Year. He claimed a sack title in 2017 and was half a sack behind Shaq Barrett a year ago. In the running (40% to 69%): DT Ndamukong Suh. Mosley. Roethlisberger won two Super Bowls with the Steelers and spent 18 seasons as Pittsburghs starter. Work to do (10% to 39%): S Tyrann Mathieu. Whether Johnson will be there to welcome Watt into the Hall of Fame will be interesting. Let's see whether we can get a sense of who those 50 are right now: Jump to a team: Ten of those 12 are in the Hall -- Elliott and Adrian Peterson are the other two. AP Photo/Harold Filan. The only Hall-eligible players drafted since 1970 who have five of those and aren't in the Hall are Alan Faneca and Zach Thomas. SEA | TB | TEN | WSH. 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. If that seems surprising after what he accomplished last season, remember that it was his first season with either a Pro Bowl or an All-Pro nod. In the running (40% to 69%): QB Deshaun Watson. Kittle is the best all-around tight end in football right now, and if you could tell me this minute that he would have a 12-year career, I'd expect him to be a Hall of Famer. Cooper has made four Pro Bowls in his first five seasons. Barnwell and friends discuss sports -- usually. Andre Johnson: What future Hall of Fame ballots look like Lock (100%): QB Drew Brees. If Brown has a Whitworth-esque autumn to his career, he has a shot. The Defensive Player of the Year candidate was named a first-team All-Pro in 2015 and 2019, but he hasn't received any other nominations across his other five pro seasons. The guy who hasn't played a single NFL snap? As a result, I'll mention them often, especially when looking at players who don't touch the ball frequently. After that, we have players who are Likely to get in, who I estimate have between a 70% and 99% chance of earning induction. I'll start with the two young players. The Cal product has five Pro Bowls and a first-team All-Pro appearance through his age-30 season. XFL Week 3 preview: Can AJ McCarron, Battlehawks continue their fourth-quarter heroics? If Kelce can earn that nod in 2020, that might be enough to get him in. (You might remember Mitchell Trubisky in the Pro Bowl in 2018.) Kelce is difficult to judge because tight ends aren't well represented in the Hall. Players the Jaguars could target Baker was a first-team All-Pro in 2017 and a two-time Pro Bowler, although his 2017 awards were for special-teams work, which isn't valued as highly by voters. Hall of Famer predicts controversial team for Rodgers. Rockets great and championship coach Rudy Tomjanovich was only inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021. Gates, a former college basketball player, had one of the greatest careers for an undrafted player, logging 16 seasons with the Chargers. In a normal universe, we would be celebrating the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020 right about now. The only thing likely to keep him out of Canton is an electorate that habitually underrates interior offensive linemen in favor of an endless stream of running backs. Six players have done that since the merger: Murray, Cam Newton, Sam Bradford, George Rogers, Billy Sims and Earl Campbell. "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. Both are locks for election. Warren Moon played until he was 44. David has been supremely underrated during his career, but after earning a first-team All-Pro nod in 2013, he has made it to a lone Pro Bowl over the ensuing six seasons. The reason Jackson is in this section and Fuller is in the next group is that Jackson has made two Pro Bowls in three seasons while Fuller has two across six years. White got his just due last season and was named a first-team All-Pro while tying for the league lead in interceptions (six). Heres what you need to know. 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. Prescott has made two Pro Bowls over his first four seasons, but his best rsum point is winning Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2016. The NFL's 2023 Hall of Fame Game will feature the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets, the Hall announced Tuesday. Jones should make up some of that difference in 2020, and after Fitzgerald retires, he should be able to challenge the Cardinals great for that second spot. New league weeks start every Thursday with TNF kickoff. The players listed below are the top 250 HOFm-rated players who played WR starting in 1955 or later for at least 50 career games. 19 Won't: Maurice Jones-Drew Skeptics will point out that Rivers was 5-6 in the postseason and only made it as far as one AFC Championship Game, but he's also sixth in NFL history in passing yards and passing touchdowns. Longtime teammate Jeff Bagwell, meanwhile, had to wait until his seventh year on the ballot before gaining enshrinement to Cooperstown. Ranking the top outlier contracts How many future Hall of Famers will play in Super Bowl 55? - WKYC A candidate must get 80 percent of the vote to be elected. I'd like to see a bigger sample before I treat that rate as gospel, and players such as DeAngelo Hall and Everson Walls had long careers without making it to the Hall, but Lattimore is off to a promising start. Za'Darius Smith might have been the best pass-rusher in the league last season and has been great over the past two years on a snap-by-snap basis, but he turns 28 in September. Guy earned six Pro Bowl nominations and three All-Pro picks before turning 30. While the wide receiver logjam is a disaster for Hall of Fame voters, Moss should present a no-brainer case one day as a first-ballot choice. I think Thomas is a prohibitive favorite to get in. Martin, who also turns 30 during the season, might not even need another nod. Likely (70% to 99%): WR DeAndre Hopkins, CB Patrick Peterson. Top-10 picks who make it to the Pro Bowl as rookies have a great track record. Quarterbacks like Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason and Steve McNair won league MVP without earning enshrinement. Unless he really hangs on into his 40s, he'll finish as the second-most-productive tight end in history, behind Tony Gonzalez. I think Rivers probably gets in, but it might take a while. It was a good weekend for wide receivers at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. If he recovers and returns to his 2017-18 form, he still has plenty of time to get back on the Canton track, given that he turned 26 this week. Mosley's case, meanwhile, has stalled in New York. He has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first six seasons, adding four first-team All-Pro appearances. The Hall of Fame Game, like the rest of the preseason, has been canceled during the coronavirus pandemic. In the running (40% to 69%): RB Saquon Barkley. Rams' best draft class featured two Hall of Fame wide receivers - NFL Grading the Jamal Adams trade Over that five-year span, Landry ranks third in the NFL in catches and seventh in receiving yards. Things would be different if he had actually won the MVP award or been the quarterback who ran the Eagles through the playoffs in 2017. The End of In-Person Voting for Future Hall-of-Fame Classes? Maybe Not Wagner also has a Super Bowl victory and, quite famously, an MVP vote from Tony Dungy on his rsum. Returning to form and earning a seventh Pro Bowl nod in his first season with the Ravens got Thomas back on track. He could roll off a string of these nods in the years to come. Green. The former star wide receiver on Thursday was not elected in his second time as a modern-era finalist in as many years of eligibility.