2025 Pre-Season Rank #2025, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #29, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #42, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #51, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #78, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #89. Peak Period: 2018-20/2024-25

Here is another fascinating one for us.

Quenton Nelson shot out of a cannon in 2018, finishing third in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, a rare feat for an Offensive Lineman, and in all of his eight seasons in the NFL (all with Indianapolis), he was named to the Pro Bowl.  Notably, he has six AP All-Pros (three First Team and three Second Team), yet the Colts haven’t been great around him, and he has appeared in only three playoff games.

Nelson looks like an early candidate for an All-Decade nod, and though he has not made the NFL 100 often (only four times), his AV/G is well over the MPA.  Throw in the association with only one team (thus far), his spot as the number two active O-Lineman on the list is well earned.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #34, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #42, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #59, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #74, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #86, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #93.  Peak Period: 2018-19/22-24.

The man who coined “National Tight Ends Day” would be the toast of his position over the last decade if it were not for Travis Kelce, but George Kittle has become well known just the same!

Kittle is coming off his seventh Pro Bowl, where he just broke 8,000 lifetime yards and remained one of the best blocking Tight Ends in the game.  A San Francisco 49er for all of his nine years, Kittle is now north of 30, but still plays like he is in his prime.  With Rob Gronkowski (and possibly Jason Witten) entering soon, the statistical bar for Tight Ends is growing, but if Kittle can make it to five digits in yards, coupled with the respect that he has as a blocker, he is definitely in the Canton hunt.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #100, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #113, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #116, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #124, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #137.  Peak Period: 2016-18/2020-21

If there were ever a WR2 Hall of Fame, would Adam Thielen make the first ballot?

Of course, there isn’t one, but we are impressed by how Thielen keeps chugging along.  His last Pro Bowl was in 2018, a year that he had over 100 Receptions (113) and 1,000 Yards (1,373).  He never had a three-digit Reception/four-digit Receiving Yards year again until 2023 (103 Rec/1,014 Yards) last year in his first season in Carolina, where he was one of the few weapons they had. 

Even though he is in his mid-30s the Minnesota Vikings believe that Thielen can help, as they traded for him in the pre-season, reuniting him with the team where he had 55 Touchdowns.   The PFHOF won’t call him (though he will be a longtime preliminary candidate), but a post-career accolade in Minnesota?  Definitely.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #23, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #27, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #24, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #43, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #67, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #95.  Peak Period: 2018-22

The Hall of Fame case of Davante Adams fascinates us.

A WR1 for most of his career and, at one time, the favorite weapon of Aaron Rodgers, Adams starts the 2026 season as one of the elder statesmen of the National Football League. While he is no longer the top dog on a team, he is still one of the most go-to end zone threats in the game.

Last season, in his debut for the Los Angeles Rams, Adams was Matthew Stafford’s favorite target to get six.  For the third time in his career, he led the NFL in Touchdown Receptions (14) and has a staggering 117 overall, making him the active leader and seventh overall.  Five TDs will take him to sixth to pass recent Hall of Fame inductee Larry Fitzgerald.

Yardage-wise, his 12,633 is well behind the 14,345 needed to make the top ten all-time, but the overall body of his work should be enough at this time.  Adams has a huge opportunity with the Rams to get his first Super Bowl, and if they get there, you know that Stafford will be looking at his veteran.

We think he’s done enough to get in, but we can’t forget the Wide Receiver queue for Canton has always been deep.  Ask Torry Holt.