gold star for USAHOF

150 Active Potential Football Hall of Famers

Our Football Hall of Fame monitor for football looks at the following criteria:

The biggest factor we look at is how each active player measures up to the last five players at their position who were chosen.  To reflect the modern era and how stats have changed, Senior Inductees will not be considered as part of the last five inductees.  To keep everything simple, we are looking at Pro Bowl Selections, First Team All-Pro Selections, traditional statistics, games played, and approximate value. 

Obviously, there are other intangibles, such as playoff success, content of character etc. and we have adjusted where we think necessary due to those considerations.

While we don’t see this as a perfect system, these are the points that people make when determining whether or not someone is a Pro Football Hall of Famer, it does put forth a good baseline for us to work with.

The other criteria we look at is dominating seasons.  We call this the Terrell Davis Rule.  In Davis’ Hall of Fame resume, you see that he was an elite player for three seasons and was the difference maker aiding the Denver Broncos to win their first two Super Bowls.  The induction of Davis and others with similar careers (like Gale Sayers for example) shows that the Pro Football Hall of Fame recognizes bursts of excellence over years of above-average consistency.  This will reflect in our ranking as a younger player who may have fewer accolades than a more tenured one could be ranked higher if he has more years where he was unquestionably an elite player at his position. 

We also have to add the caveat that we will only qualify those who have been chosen via the Modern Era class in the last fifteen years.

Please note that this list was created at the beginning of the 2023 NFL Season.  It will be updated after the season concludes and all awards are handed out.
Quarterbacks

Quarterbacks (20)

Troy Aikman (2006), Brett Favre (2016), Peyton Manning (2021) Dan Marino (2005), Kurt Warner (2017), Steve Young (2005).

Running Backs

Running Backs (13)

Jerome Bettis (2015), Terrell Davis (2017), Edgerrin James (2020), Curtis Martin (2012), LaDainian Tomlinson (2017).

Wide Receivers

Wide Receivers (22)

Tim Brown, Marvin Harrison, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Andre Reed.

Tight Ends

Tight Ends (6)

Tony Gonzalez, Shannon Sharpe.

Offensive Linemen

Offensive Linemen (23)

Tony Boselli, Alan Faneca, Steve Hutchison, Kevin Mawae, Orlando Pace, 

Defensive Linemen

Defensive Linemen (24)

Charles Haley, RIchard Seymour, Michael Strahan, Jason Taylor & Bryant Young

Linebackers

Linebackers (20)

Ray Lewis, Sam Mills, Zach Thomas, Brian Urlacher and DeMarcus Ware.

Cornerbacks

Cornerbacks (14)

Champ Bailey (2019), Ty Law (2019), Ed Reed (2019), Charles Woodson (2021), Darrelle Revis (2023) & Ronde Barber (2023)

Kickers & Special Teams

Kickers & Special Teams (6)

Note that over the last fifteen years, there was only one Place Kicker and Punter and no Special Teamers, thus we elected not to feature that average and input based on our elective opinion.

Safeties

Safeties (12)

Steve Atwater (2020), Troy Polamalu (2020), Brian Dawkins (2021) & Leroy Butler (2022)