Heres what those guys did in their first five seasons and where they rank among all receivers in the age-21-to-25 cohort. The only player in the Hall of Fame primarily for his work as a punter is Ray Guy, and you could make a case that Hekker is on that track. It's tough to rack up interceptions in the modern NFL, but Peters has 27 since entering the league, nine more than any other player. Giants fans would be happy if Thomas solidified a position that has been a mess since Will Beatty tore his pec in 2015. An interesting case could be made for Frank Gore, who is third all-time in rushing with 16,000 yards in a 16-season career with five teams, but tied for 19th in touchdowns with 81. That wide receiver is Detroit Lions great Calvin Johnson. Pro Football Reference's Hall of Fame monitor ranks Edelman 110th among wide receivers, and that gives him credit for winning three Super Bowls. 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. One issue: Five of those six are running backs, with Randy Moss as the only exception. Tucker is only nine years in, and while he can kick for a long time if he stays healthy, asking anyone in the NFL to do anything for 13 more seasons is risky. Nelson doesn't play a high-profile position, but he's off to a great start. What makes Evans production especially impressive is that he entered the league at such a young age. 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. Published: August 24, 2021. Hightower and McCourty have made only two Pro Bowls each, and while they'll get a bump for their Super Bowl rings, it's tough to imagine them getting in when guys like Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel didn't make it from the first era of Pats Super Bowl winners. 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. 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. Assessing Browns' FA needs. In 1996, he decided to play football full-time. 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. Let's see whether we can get a sense of who those 50 are right now: Jump to a team: Work to do (10% to 39%): DE Chase Young, S Landon Collins. Heres what you need to know. AP Photo/Harold Filan. Pro Football Reference Hall of Fame Monitor, Frequently Asked Questions about the NFL and Football, Pro-Football-Reference.com Blog and Articles, Subscribe to Stathead Football: Get your first month FREE. 50 Greatest QB-WR Duos in NFL History - Bleacher Report The NFL's 2023 Hall of Fame Game will feature the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets, the Hall announced Tuesday. Leonard, with one All-Pro spot and a Pro Bowl appearance last year, is right behind. A score of 100 is around the average modern-era inductee. Astros great Craig Biggio had to wait until his third time on the ballot to be voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and fell an agonizing two votes shy the previous year. Peterson, fifth all-time in rushing yards (14,918), is a good bet for election on the first ballot. Both are locks for election. In the Super Bowl Era. NFL Nation: Analysis for every pick Bosa won Defensive Rookie of the Year, which hasn't been quite as big of a boon as you might think. Washington Commanders sign former Chiefs wide receiver/special teamer 1. Allen was named a Pro Bowler after racking up 10.5 sacks as a rookie. You can't make the Hall of Fame while you're still in pads, but Mike Evans has been making his case over the past six seasons. He deserves it. Theyre easily first-ballot selections. It hasn't been for lack of trying on his part, though. 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. The content on this page is for informational purposes only. Just nine tight ends are enshrined, and Kelce's game leans more toward receiving than any of them. 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. 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. Joe Fortenbaugh breaks down why Julio Jones is the safer bet over DeAndre Hopkins to lead the league in receiving yards. 10 Recently Retired NFL Players Who Will Make The Hall Of Fame And 10 Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. But history tells us that's a lot to ask. Peters might look better in the long term than he does now. Whether Johnson will be there to welcome Watt into the Hall of Fame will be interesting. All HOFm Positions: QBRBWRTEGTCDTDEILBOLBDBKP, Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2:32PM. Instead, legendary players and coaches like Troy Polamalu and Jimmy Johnson will wait until next year to give their speeches in Canton, Ohio. Typically, there are between 45 and 50 Hall of Famers playing at any one time. Cowboys News: Potential WR trade target off the board, Michael Irvin update 4 overall pick will start his career at left tackle after Nate Solder opted out of this season. The only wide receiver from Carmichael's era who had more TD catches was Paul Warfield, who had 85. 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. As a result, I would expect him to make it to the Hall someday. Pro Football Reference's Hall of Fame monitor ranks Edelman 110th among wide receivers, and that gives him credit for winning three Super Bowls. Wilson is somewhere in the 90% range. Vander Esch's chances are stronger than his fellow linebacker because he was a first-round pick and made the Pro Bowl as a rookie, while Smith was a second-round pick and didn't make it until his third campaign. As he enters the league, Young's chances of making the Hall of Fame on draft status alone sneak him into consideration. 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. I'll start with the two young players. In the running (40% to 69%): DE Chandler Jones. We may be compensated for the links provided on this page. Meanwhile, Johnson spent the first 12 years of his career with the expansion Texans, who didnt make the playoffs until his ninth season with quarterback play that ran the gamut from dreadful to above average. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. He also has worked at the Austin American-Statesman and Temple Daily Telegram. Jeremy Fowler polled a panel of more than 50 coaches, execs, scouts and players to come up with top-10 rankings for 2020: QB | RB | TE | WR | OT 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. Archive: Every podcast from Barnwell . The Cal product has five Pro Bowls and a first-team All-Pro appearance through his age-30 season. Both are among the all-time leaders in every notable stat at their positions. 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. Adam Vinatieri will eventually join Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen, but those guys averaged 22 seasons in the league. Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, future Hall of Fame wide receiver, led the best draft class in Rams history in 1945. 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. How Calvin Johnson compares to the Pro Football Hall of Fame WRs McShay's favorite pick for all 32 teams Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Even if Hopkins takes a step backward without Deshaun Watson, he's probably just a couple of Pro Bowls from getting in. Evans is on pace to join Randy Moss as the only other player in NFL history to open his career with six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving campaigns. podcast, future Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, aware of the Raiders and Jets being interested in trading for the always-grumbling MVP. Wentz's injury history this early in his career also doesn't bode well for his chances of playing deep into his 30s. Gates numbers compare very favorably with those of the nine tight ends in the Hall. The first game of the 2023 NFL calendar is . A big individual season and a few MVP votes in 2020 would be enough to push him into the next category. It's possible to make the Hall of Fame as a lineman without an All-Pro appearance, but the only guy to do it since the merger is Jackie Slater. The big deal he signed with the Jags and the subsequent 14.5-sack campaign he posted in leading them to the AFC Championship Game turned the tide, as Campbell was a first-team All-Pro and made three consecutive Pro Bowl trips with Jacksonville. He has made five consecutive Pro Bowls and has three first-team All-Pro nods to go with his Defensive Player of the Year trophy from 2016. Harris has four Pro Bowls and a first-team All-Pro appearance in 2016, but his play has slipped over the past couple of years, and smaller cornerbacks typically don't do well after they turn 30. 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. 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. Evans has a chance to continue making history in 2022. 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. The former Ozen High star and 14-year NBA vet has more on his mind than basketball, offering essays on life, his family and America. Do you have a blog? In the running (40% to 69%): WR A.J. 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. 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. He has eight Pro Bowl appearances, but he has never been a first-team All-Pro, never really been a viable pick as the best quarterback in football and has a total of four MVP votes across 14 seasons as a starter. Work to do (10% to 39%): TE Jimmy Graham, CB Kyle Fuller. Manning won two Super Bowls with the Giants, winning MVP both times. From 2000-2003, Randy Moss put up video game numbers: 376 receptions, 5,649 yards and 49 touchdowns. 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. Whitworth was criminally underrated during his time in Cincinnati, earning just one Pro Bowl nod during his first nine seasons with the Bengals. The Best Wide Receivers of AllTime. Find out more. When: 1999-2004 These two probably had the greatest four-year stretch in NFL history. Smith needs a similar sort of run over the next few years to have a shot. (1:43), Barnwell: Projecting future Hall of Famers for all 32 NFL teams, The future of the NFL combine: Is there really a chance it could end forever? 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. Jets, Browns tapped for 2023 NFL Hall of Fame Game 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. 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. Hall of Famer predicts controversial team for Rodgers. Over that five-year span, Landry ranks third in the NFL in catches and seventh in receiving yards. Rodgers is a three-time All-Pro, a member of the 2010s All-Decade Team and so much more. Edelman has never made a Pro Bowl, but the only player with more receiving yards in the playoffs is Jerry Rice. Heres the top 10 in NFL and AFL history in receiving yardage through 85 games. 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. If his career lasts only six or seven seasons, though, he'll have to be a perennial All-Pro to make it to Canton. Round 1: Kiper | McShay | NFL Nation Garrett has played at a much higher level than Mayfield, but the $125 million man has missed 11 of 48 games thanks to various injuries and his season-ending suspension in 2019. 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. Jimmy Smith's peak was among the best ever. Cliff Branch and Herman Moore are two of the few exceptions, but their performance fell off significantly after their third All-Pro trip and never recovered to their prior level. In the running (40% to 69%): CB Jalen Ramsey. Kamara took a step backward last season when he ran into some touchdown regression, but he still did enough to earn his third Pro Bowl appearance in three years. Watson has earned Pro Bowl nods in each of his first two full seasons as a starter, which is easier for quarterbacks than it is for most other positions. to put up the accumulation stats often needed to bolster a Hall-of-Fame case. We present them here for purely educational purposes. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. Minnesota Vikings | Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site Donald clinched his gold jacket when he won his second Defensive Player of the Year award. 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. While he has made six Pro Bowls, that's not typically enough for interior linemen to make it into the Hall. Making sense of Mahomes' deal And thanks to coach Kelvin Sampson and the assistants he Solomon: DeMeco Ryans the right coach at the right time, 3 pressing questions facing new Astros GM Dana Brown, Jabari Smith Jr. growing up in NBA with an assist from his father, Poor parent behavior is driving high school sports refs away. So this is really a list of 15. In the running (40% to 69%): C Jason Kelce, DT Fletcher Cox. 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. At the combine, he measured in at 6-foot-5 and 231 pounds and ran an impressive 4.53-second 40-yard dash. Mahomes' rsum -- a league MVP and Super Bowl MVP -- is usually enough to get a player into the Hall of Fame, let alone doing it over two seasons as a starter. In the running (40% to 69%): S Eddie Jackson. The former Panthers quarterback has two other Pro Bowl nods besides that 2015 season, although he hasn't received a nomination since. In the running (40% to 69%): QB Cam Newton, CB Stephon Gilmore. 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. Aaron Rodgers has had a lack of weapons on the Green Bay Packers Projecting future Hall of Famers for all 32 NFL teams - ESPN.com Copyright 2023 Action Network Inc, All Rights Reserved.Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | AdChoices. Just play along. In the running (40% to 69%): S Jamal Adams. He has a stronger case than you think. The Hall is forgiving of running backs, and Bell's versatility should age well, but he has missed a lot of time through injuries, suspensions and his 2018 holdout. Many of the modern-era players to whom hes statistically comparable played well into their 30s. One more nomination should get Smith in. Browns, Jets to open 2023 NFL preseason in Hall of Fame Game Can Baker Mayfield's game be fixed? He joined the Chronicle in January 2015 as the online sports editor. 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. Evans and Godwin might end up hurting each other's chances by preventing the other from getting a 185-target season like the one Michael Thomas enjoyed in 2019. 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. Hes top-10 in passing yards and touchdowns, so hell get a gold jacket at some point, if not on the first ballot. Unless he turns things around dramatically this season, he would fall out of the "Work to do" category altogether. The only thing Pouncey is missing is a Super Bowl appearance. Meanwhile on offense, receiver Allen Robinson's three-year, $46.5 million contract (signed last spring) comes with $15.2 million guaranteed in 2023. Draft a league now and start fresh with a 0-0 record and a shortened schedule. He's an easy Hall of Famer. Hester was a (great) returner, which typically doesn't inspire the same sort of fervor as other All-Pro nods, while Jackson actually started with three consecutive All-Pro nods before dropping off and retiring after nine years. Work to do (10% to 39%): LB Tremaine Edmunds. Work to do (10% to 39%): OT Andrew Thomas. But as a running back who has been above average or good seemingly forever, he's getting in. Jalen and Reggie Wayne connected while he was in college, and his uncle has helped him every step of the way since. Jackson does an incredible job of avoiding hits and getting out of bounds, but there's naturally going to be questions about whether a quarterback can run the ball 10 times per game in the modern NFL and have a 15-year career as a starter. "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. Larry Fitzgerald on NFL future: 'I just don't have the urge to play Brown was arguably the NFLs best receiver from 2013-18 in Pittsburgh, but wasnt the same player after he left the Steelers. The Hall of Fame Game, like the rest of the preseason, has been canceled during the coronavirus pandemic. 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. The former Philadelphia Eagles great and St. Louis Rams star will become the 28th and 29th wide receivers to be honored with a place in Canton, OH. Work to do (10% to 39%): RB Melvin Gordon, DE Jurrell Casey. 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. 7 overall in the 2014 draft at the age of 20. Radio Hall of Fame Announces 2021 Inductees - RADIO ONLINE Once again, its wait til next year for Texans great Andre Johnson when it comes to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has stayed healthy and productive, so that hasn't been the issue. 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. After that, we have players who are Likely to get in, who I estimate have between a 70% and 99% chance of earning induction. Work to do (10% to 39%): WR Julian Edelman, LB Dont'a Hightower, S Devin McCourty. If he can follow in Patrick Mahomes' footsteps and win a Super Bowl this year, Jackson will have an impeccable rsum to start his career. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. That's just about a magic formula for getting into the Hall. If he can keep this level of play up for three more seasons, Jordan could get in. A Super Bowl victory would probably help. Since 1980, there have been 23 Modern-Era Wide Receivers honored by the Hall of Fame, with an average Legends Score of 29. Unfortunately, Houston fans have had to wait through the years to see their stars get inducted. Work to do (10% to 39%): OT Terron Armstead, OT Ryan Ramczyk. Pro Football WR Hall of Fame Monitor The Pro Football Reference Hall of Fame Monitor (HOFm) is a metric designed to estimate a player's chances of making the Pro Football Hall of Fame using AV, Pro Bowls, All-Pros, championships, and various stat milestones. Itll be interesting to see if that stellar stretch is good enough to get him in Canton. Henry plays a Hall-friendly position and just won a rushing title. The left tackle has seven Pro Bowls and two All-Pro nods before turning 30. Like Hill, if Kelce gets three more seasons with Mahomes, I think he's a Hall of Famer.