Let's see whether we can get a sense of who those 50 are right now: Jump to a team: 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. One issue: Five of those six are running backs, with Randy Moss as the only exception. Mack is entering what is likely to be his final season with the Falcons. 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. 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. 2 with 6,103 yards. 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. Work to do (10% to 39%): WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, G David DeCastro, DE Cameron Heyward, S Minkah Fitzpatrick. If Evans goes his entire career without gaining widespread notoriety or making a memorable run in the playoffs even if he has a long and steadily productive career and is regarded as one of the top receivers of his generation his chances to make the Hall of Fame will be materially diminished. The 2010 No. Work to do (10% to 39%): QB Jared Goff, OT Andrew Whitworth, P Johnny Hekker. Just play along. He's the second-most productive receiver in football history. Even if Hopkins takes a step backward without Deshaun Watson, he's probably just a couple of Pro Bowls from getting in. Peterson, fifth all-time in rushing yards (14,918), is a good bet for election on the first ballot. 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 2 pick was a four-time Pro Bowler and a three-time All-Pro during his five seasons in Detroit. 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. In both cases, I'm looking mostly at the historical output for first overall picks. 260 players who could win MVP Hekker got a two-season head start, but he has been a first-team All-Pro four times before turning 30 in February. Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor. One more Pro Bowl would probably do the trick. Kelce has been a first-team All-Pro three consecutive times, although he oddly didn't make the Pro Bowl in two of those campaigns. Do you have a sports website? 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. While injuries have cost Watt 32 games over the past four seasons, his unprecedented four-season peak from 2012 to 2015 locked up things. Okudah's presence owes to his draft status as the No. 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. Assessing Browns' FA needs. Twelve of the 29 Hall-eligible players who have started their careers with three consecutive Pro Bowl nods have made it to Canton. 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. Adam Vinatieri will eventually join Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen, but those guys averaged 22 seasons in the league. Harold Carmichael finished his career with 590 receptions and 79 touchdowns. Last season was the first time Peterson missed an NFL game or failed to make the Pro Bowl, with both owing to his six-game PED suspension. What will the Buffalo Bills do without defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier? He has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first six seasons, adding four first-team All-Pro appearances. Only Campbell is in the Hall of Fame. Find out more. Its rattlesnake season in Texas. I think Thomas is a prohibitive favorite to get in. This was. The others are Moss, Keenan Allen and Amari Cooper. 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. Buckner made the Pro Bowl in 2018, but he was otherwise underappreciated during his four seasons in the Bay Area. Since 1980, there have been 23 Modern-Era Wide Receivers honored by the Hall of Fame, with an average Legends Score of 29. 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. Work to do (10% to 39%): QB Matthew Stafford, CB Jeff Okudah. What will define Eric Bieniemy's success? 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. He could roll off a string of these nods in the years to come. Every two-time winner got in easily, so while Watt might not have the longevity he hoped for, the Houston icon could retire tomorrow and get in. Some players draw more attention after getting traded or signing a big extension, and Buckner did both this offseason. Outside of that one year, though, he has three Pro Bowl nods, no first-team All-Pro spots and a 2-5 record in the postseason. All 259 picks | Every team's class 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. Jones now has five consecutive seasons with at least 10 sacks. Roethlisberger won two Super Bowls with the Steelers and spent 18 seasons as Pittsburghs starter. We don't talk enough about Hunter, who only has two Pro Bowl nods over his first five seasons. The only exceptions are a pair of interior offensive linemen (Alan Faneca and Steve Wisniewski) and safety John Lynch. Gore had the misfortune of playing for some bad San Francisco and Indianapolis teams, but his numbers are certainly impressive. Watt is off to a dominant start, having racked up 34.5 sacks over three seasons while earning two Pro Bowl nods and a first-team All-Pro berth last season. Brees could have retired five years ago and comfortably made the Hall of Fame. Rent the Hall. He needs to have a second act and have another selling point -- either winning a Super Bowl, competing for another MVP award or making it to a handful of Pro Bowls -- to have a viable path to a gold jacket. Donald clinched his gold jacket when he won his second Defensive Player of the Year award. 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. 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. Smith needs a similar sort of run over the next few years to have a shot. Jarrett made his first Pro Bowl last season, but his disruptiveness hasn't yet led to a gaudy sack total, which is what you need to get in as a defensive lineman. 1 min read. Syndication Packersnews Rivers is probably the most difficult case to parse among veteran players. Will the Dolphins get a veteran QB? Mosley needs to be recognized as the best inside linebacker in the game at least a couple of times; after missing virtually all of 2019 with a groin injury, he has opted out of the 2020 season over concerns for his family's health. If the Falcons had held on to their lead and won the Super Bowl, Ryan would have won game MVP, and his 2016 probably would have been enough for a gold jacket. Since 1950, 12 players have won two or more rushing titles. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC. I think Rivers probably gets in, but it might take a while. Evans has a chance to continue making history in 2022. A big individual season and a few MVP votes in 2020 would be enough to push him into the next category. He is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University and Bowie High School in Austin. 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. In recent years Seattle has gained somewhat of a reputation as being the last stop for future Hall of Fame wide receivers. 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. Finish reading this entire article absolutely FREE in our app. Naturally, now seems like a good time to look forward. Newton has an MVP award, which goes a long way toward pushing any player into the Hall of Fame. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. After five consecutive Pro Bowl campaigns, I wonder whether Landry actually has a better shot of surpassing his friend and longtime teammate. Just nine tight ends are enshrined, and Kelce's game leans more toward receiving than any of them. For a list of other positions, click here. He was excellent in his third season, but since then, his production has roughly been in line with that of Robby Anderson. Manning won two Super Bowls with the Giants, winning MVP both times. 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. No offensive lineman is ever a lock when guys like Faneca still aren't enshrined, but Smith plays the most prominent position on the line for the most popular team in the league. 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. If Brown has a Whitworth-esque autumn to his career, he has a shot. Winning an MVP in Year 2 obviously leaps Jackson into consideration on its own, but it doesn't seal it. Casey has made five consecutive Pro Bowls, but the Titans were willing to cut him this offseason before trading him for a seventh-round pick, which also seems telling about where they saw his future. While Pro Bowls and All-Pro awards are hardly gospel, they're the best measure we have of how league observers valued a particular player in his time. As I mentioned with Prescott, Barkley's Offensive Rookie of the Year nod gets him in this category alone. 1 pick and winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, but that hasn't historically been a helpful combination. 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.
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