Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we maintain and update our existing Top 50 lists annually.  We are pleased to present our pre-2026 revision of our top 50 Detroit Lions.

As for all of our top 50 players in football, we look at the following: 

1.  Duration and Impact.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3.  Advanced Statistics.

4.  Playoff performance.

5. Their respective legacy on the team.

6. How successful the team was when he was there.

7. Respecting the era in which they played.

Criteria 1-4 will make up the lion’s share of the algorithm.  Please note that we have implemented this for the first time.  This has changed the rankings all throughout the board.

Last year, the Packers went 9-7-1 and made the playoffs, though they were bounced by the Chicago Bears in the opening round.  With a team with such a storied history, there were no new entrants or elevations, but nevertheless, we always acknowledge that we looked at the past season.

As always, we present our top five, with no changes occurring.

1. Aaron Rodgers
2. Brett Favre
3. Don Hutson
4. Forrest Gregg
5. Bart Starr

You can find the complete list here:

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

2002 SEMI-FINAL RESULTS:

Thank you for your participation in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project. If you are unaware of what that is, we acted like the PFHOF had its first class in January 1946.

We have completed the years up to 2001.

For “2002,” a Preliminary Vote with nearly 100 players whose playing career ended by 1996. We also follow the structure in which players have 20 years of eligibility, and if they do not make it into the Hall, they are relegated to the Senior Pool.

Each voter was asked to select 25 names from the preliminary list, and the top 25 vote-getters were named Semi-Finalists.

A week later, the voters were asked to pick 15 names from the 25 Semi-Finalists, and next week, they will choose five from the remaining 15. We will continue this process every week until we catch up to the current year.

32 votes were cast, with the top 15 advancing.

This is for the “Modern Era”

Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals: 

This is for the “Senior Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:

This is for the “Coaches/Contributors Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Finals:

We will post the Class of 2002 Pro Football Hall of Fame Revisited Project next Saturday.

Thank you to all who contributed. If you want to be part of this project, please let us know!

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we maintain and update our existing Top 50 lists annually.  We are pleased to present our pre-2026 revision of our top 50 Detroit Lions.

As for all of our top 50 players in football, we look at the following: 

1.  Duration and Impact.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3.  Advanced Statistics.

4.  Playoff performance.

5. Their respective legacy on the team.

6. How successful the team was when he was there.

7. Respecting the era in which they played.

Criteria 1-4 will make up the lion’s share of the algorithm.  Please note that we have implemented this for the first time.  This has changed the rankings all throughout the board.

Last year, the Lions had high expectations but fell to a 9-8 record.  Nevertheless, the team had been so bad for so long that, despite the organization's longevity, four new entrants made our top 50.

As always, we present our top five, with no changes occurring.

1. Barry Sanders
2. Joe Schmidt
3. Bobby Layne
4. Dutch Clark
5. Lem Barney

You can find the complete list https://www.notinhalloffame.com/football/top-50-football-players-by-franchise/top-50-detroit-lions">here:

The first new entrant is Offensive Lineman, Penei Sewell.  He explodes into the #30 spot.

Quarterback Jared Goff enters the list at #42.

Wide Receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown debuts at #43.

The fourth and final new entrant is Offensive Lineman Taylor Decker.  He enters at #50.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

We are diligently working away at Notinhalloffame on revising our Football lists to reflect the winter’s respective classes, but as you may have seen, we have been swamped with our main project, the United States Athletic Hall of Fame, which is the only one of its kind, where you can vote for the greatest Athletes, Coaches, Contributors, and Commentators for the 2026 Class.

This is a very important project, and please support us by voting daily at www.theusahof.com.

In the meantime, we have rebuilt the 281-300 (Part 15) on our Notinhalloffame Football List, which we are pleased to show below:

They are:

#281. Randy Cross
#282. Seth Joyner
#283. John Sitton
#284. Ed Danowski
#285. James Farrior
#286. Charles Mann
#287. Lawrence McCutcheon
#288. Ed “Too Tall” Jones
#289. Rich Saul
#290. Leon Gray
#291. Derrick Johnson
#292. Chris Samuels
#293. Charles Follis
#294. David Akers
#295. Keith Millard
#296. Dennis Smith
#297. Ray Wietcha
#298. Bart Oates
#299. Mitchell Schwartz
#300. Casey Hampton

Look for more updates soon!

Thank you all for supporting Notinhalloffame.com.