It is onward and upward at Notinhalloffame.com where we have a new add-on to our Football Futures, those who are eligible in 2027.

Those players are:

Alejandro Villanueva:  A two-time Pro Bowler at Left Tackle, Villanueva played most of his career with Pittsburgh.

Alex Mack:  Mack played at Center where he went to seven Pro Bowls, which he had at least one each for all three of the teams he played for (Cleveland, Atlanta & San Francisco). He was also a three-time Second Team All-Pro.

Andrew Whitworth:  Whitworth had one of the better second half careers of any Offensive Lineman, where the Left Tackle went to four Pro Bowls, earned two First Team All-Pros, and in his finale, won the Super Bowl with the Rams and Walter Payton Man of the Year.

Ben Roethlisberger:  “Big Ben” was the consensus Rookie of the Year, and would lead Pittsburgh to two Super Bowl Titles.  A six-time Pro Bowl Selection, Roethlisberger is in the top ten all-time in Pass Completions, Passing Yards and Touchdown Passes.

Brandon Brooks:  Brooks went to three Pro Bowls and the Right Guard won a Super Bowl Ring with the Eagles.

Emmanuel Sanders:  The Wide Receiver had a good career where he went to two Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl with Denver.

Eric Weddle:  Weddle returns to the futures after a brief, yet fruitful comeback with the Rams, winning the Super Bowl.  The Safety led the NFL in Interceptions in 2011, went to six Pro Bowls and secured two First Team All-Pros.

Joe Haden:  Haden had 29 INTs in a career split between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, where he was a three-time Pro Bowl Selection.

K.J. Wright:  Wright was a Pro Bowl Linebacker in 2016 and would win a Super Bowl Ring with Seattle.

Malcolm Jenkins:  Jenkins was a three-time Pro Bowl Safety who won two Super Bowls, one with New Orleans and one with Philadelphia.

Ryan Fitzpatrick:  The journeyman Quarterback had flashes of brilliance over his career and was 10 Yards shy of 35,000 over his career.

Ryan Kerrigan:  Kerrigan played most of his career with Washington and was a four-time Pro Bowl at Linebacker.

Sam Koch:  Koch played his entire career with the Ravens where the Punter went to the 2015 Pro Bowl, won a Super Bowl, and finished his career seventh in Punting Yards. 

The entire 2027 list can be found here.

As always, we here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to thank you for your support, and we encourage you to give us your opinions and cast your votes.

Sam Koch was one of the few punters to be drafted (he played his college ball at Nebraska) and the choice has proven well for Baltimore, the team he played the entirety of his 16 NFL Seasons.  Koch would make the Pro Bowl in 2015 and to date has been in the top ten in Yards per Punt four times.  Koch was a member of the Ravens Super Bowl Championship team in Super Bowl XLVII, and at the time of his retirement in 2021, he was seventh all-time in Punting Yards (52,868).

Selected in the sixth round (203rd overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft out of Nebraska, Sam Koch arrived in Baltimore as one of the rare punters taken in the draft. Over a remarkable 16-season tenure spent entirely in Charm City, Koch revolutionized special teams across the league by pioneering new directional punting techniques, solidifying his status as a foundational pillar of Baltimore's special teams.

Koch changed the punting game from just focusing on distance to using clever placement as a powerful tool. Knowing that returners found traditional spiral punts easier to track, he created a wide variety of creative kicks, like his well-known rotational "whirlybird" or "knuckleball" punts, as well as end-over-end drop-pouts and tricky corner-pins. By tweaking the spin and flight of the ball, he often caused muffed catches, closed off return options, and kept opposing teams pinned inside their own 10-yard line, making his punts both exciting and strategically effective.

Koch's technical mastery was instrumental during the Ravens' journey to Super Bowl XLVII in 2012. Throughout that championship campaign, his control of field position consistently provided Baltimore's defense with advantageous, long fields to defend. In the Super Bowl XLVII victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Koch executed a renowned late-game maneuver: with 12 seconds remaining, he deliberately scrambled through the end zone to calculate a strategic safety, thereby running down the clock and expending crucial seconds to ensure a 34–31 victory.

His standout moment came in 2015 when Koch led the NFL in net punting average at 42.9 yards and gross punting at 46.7 yards. That impressive season earned him his first Pro Bowl selection and Second-Team All-Pro honors. Throughout his career, Koch was often among the top in yards per punt, ranking in the top 10 four times, and he regularly placed high in punts downed inside the 20-yard line.

After retiring following the 2021 season, Koch ranked seventh all-time in NFL history with 52,868 punting yards on 1,168 punts, and he placed 453 of those kicks inside the 20-yard line. He immediately transitioned to coaching, staying with Baltimore as the team's special teams consultant. In 2023, the franchise honored his legendary career by inducting him into the Ravens Ring of Honor.