2024 Pre-Season Rank #54, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #86, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #90, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #95, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #122.  Peak Period: 2011-15

Brown enters the season as a Free Agent, and if his career has come to an end, has he done enough to become a Hall of Fame inductee?

He likely hasn’t, bit leaves behind 220 Games Played (218 Starts) and should be acknowledged in any Houston Texans Hall of Fame.  He could still find work in 2025 as a veteran presence on a contending team.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #75, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #120, 2022 Pre-Season Rank: #140. Peak Period: 2020-24

Joe Thuney is finally getting his due as one of the top pass protectors in football, and you can ask both Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes how good he is at it.  Thuney has been a starter in four Super Bowl Championships (two for New England and two for Kansas City) and is on a three-year run of Pro Bowls, and was a First Team All-Pro in the last two.  He now joins Chicago to lead their O-Line, and what he does in the Windy City will decide if he is a Hall of Famer or not.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #21, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #27, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #25, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #36, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #42.  Peak Period: 2017-21

Cameron Jordan is one of the many players on this list whose second half seems to eclipse his first, and isn't that a stunning statement considering that he was a 2010s All-Decade Player?  He had a six-year Pro Bowl streak snapped in 2022, but has eight in total, and a healthy number of career Sacks (121.5) and Tackles for Loss (160).  His Hall of Fame case is also bolstered by his association with only one team, the New Orleans Saints, where he has been a leader on and off the field for over a decade. However, with the state of New Orleans heading into 2025, he deserves better than that sinking ship.

As for the Hall, he has a solid resume, but bigger names in similar roles could overshadow him.  How many times have we seen that before?

2024 Pre-Season Rank #24, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #30, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #44.  Peak Period: 2015-19

DeAndre Hopkins joins the Baltimore Ravens this year in his quest for his first Super Bowl.  He was as close as he ever was last year, having been traded to Kansas City during the season, but his overall output was 610 Yards, a far cry from the dynamo he was with Houston from 2017 to 2019, and was considered one of the best Wide receivers of the game. 

He is currently the active leader in Receiving Yards (12,965), but we have him ranked below Mike Evans (the most consistent WR of this era), Davante Adams (who has over 100 Touchdowns and is within 1,100 Yards of him), and Tyreek Hill (whose best years were better than Hopkins' best).

Hopkins still has a lot in the tank, and if used and healthy, he can pad those stats, and let’s be honest:  The Wide Receiver logjam is the tightest one in Canton.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #92,2023 Pre-Season Rank #89, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #87, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #89, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #85. Peak Period:  2015-19.

More of a Swiss-Army Knife type of player than a pure pass rusher, Clowney went to three straight Pro Bowls (2016-18) with the Houston Texans, though he has not been to one since.

Clowney has been more of a role player, bouncing from various teams but still providing value.  The Hall of Fame dream is likely over, but it is a solid career that still should provide more moments this year as a Carolina Panther.  A ten-sack season (he had 9.5 twice, including last year) is still within reach if he finds a team in 2025.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #37, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #36, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #47, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #53, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #55. Peak Period: 2016-20

It looks like it is the end of the road for Ezekiel Elliott, who ended his career where it began, in Dallas.

The 2016 Consensus Rookie of the Year was an incredible performer in his first four seasons, winning the Rushing Title as a rookie and again in his third season.  Zeke was considered one of the top rushers from 2016 to 2019, but his production slowed down to where he was a backup in his final two seasons (2023 in New England and 2024 in Dallas).

11,848 Yards from Scrimmage with 88 Touchdowns is a very good career, but it likely won’t cut it in this era. 

2024 Pre-Season Rank #8, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #35, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #53.  Peak Period: 2019-23

Tyreek Hill was a three-time First Team All-Pro and Super Bowl Champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, but they traded the talented Wide Receiver to Miami for a slew of draft picks.  Miami then made him the highest-paid WR in the league, and in his first two seasons, Hill was the game’s top receiver, achieving over 1,700 Yards in both campaigns, and leading the NFL in Receiving Yards (1,799) and Receiving Touchdowns (13) in 2023.    He was also the runner-up for the Offensive Player of the Year,

Last season was a different story for Hill, who, for the first time in his career, was not chosen for the Pro Bowl.  He had a lackluster year by his standards (959 Yards/6 TDs), and whispers of his decline were in the air.

Still, he enters 2025 with 11,098 career Yards and 82 TDs, and is capable of a bounce-back year, and Hill’s candidacy might need that as off-field issues follow him wherever he goes, and that does turn off some of the voters (right or wrong). 

2024 Pre-Season Rank #69, 2023 Pre-Season #77, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #77, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #71, Last Year’s Rank #62.  Peak Period: 2014-16/18-19.

OBJ’s three Pro Bowls were in his first three seasons, and while his last Pro Bowl was in 2016, Beckham Jr. did have 1,000-yard-plus campaigns in 2018 and 2019.  Since then, injuries have accumulated, and he is no longer the same player who made the most incredible regular-season catch in history.  2021 was a year of agony and ecstasy for Beckham Jr., who seemed rejuvenated after a mid-season pickup by the Rams, where he won the Super Bowl. However, in that game, while he scored a Touchdown, he also tore his ACL.  

After sitting out the 2022 season to rehab, Beckham Jr. played a year in Baltimore with a respectable 565 Yards, but only had 55 Yards in nine Games in Miami the year after.  He starts this season without a team, and his Hall of Fame resume appears to end with an incredible start with a Touchdown catch and ACL tear in a Super Bowl win. 

2024 Pre-Season Rank #31, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #37, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #37, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #59, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #67.  Peak Period: 2011-15.

A change of scenery can change the perception.  Matthew Stafford was a Lion for 12 years, racking up passing yards but only a few wins.  A Pro Bowl once in Detroit, Stafford was entrenched as a second-tier QB.  The Rams traded for him, and he became a Super Bowl Champion in his first year in Los Angeles, gaining national recognition. Articles were written (and scoffed at) proclaiming him a Hall of Famer, and he isn't as of this writing, but he sure is a hell of a lot closer than he was.  Never forget how vital Super Bowl wins are for the Quarterback position for Canton consideration.   

Stafford is now on the north side of 35 and is entering his fifth year in L.A.   His second Pro Bowl in 2023 will help him, but he needs a lot more despite the Super Bowl win.  His key is in his statistical compilation.  Currently, he is tenth in Passing Yards (59,809), and could pass Dan Marino (61,361), Matt Ryan (62,792), and Philip Rivers (63,440), and a top-five spot all-time is in his grasp.  Say what you want about the previously mentioned three QBs, and that they were better than Stafford (we would agree), but he has a ring.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #64, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #84, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #84, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #92, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #124.  Peak Period: 2008-12

For the record, we know that the odds of Joe Flacco making it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame are minimal at best, but what he has accomplished in the last few years has been inspirational.

A Super Bowl Champion with the Baltimore Ravens, Flacco was supplanted by Lamar Jackson and continued to work in the NFL as a solid backup.  In 2023, he had to take over for Cleveland in their stretch drive and led them to the playoffs with a 4-1 record.  He also won the AP Comeback Player of the Year.   Last year, he was a Colt, but he begins this campaign as a starter once again, for Cleveland. 

Regardless of how far he gets in the Hall of Fame process, his longevity and dedication to the game are impressive, and he is a player with over 45,000 Yards. 

2024 Pre-Season Rank #3, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #3, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #6, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #10, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #18. Peak: 2016-20

Our highest-ranked defensive player has everything a Hall of Fame player needs.

Bobby Wagner, who begins his second year with the Commanders in 2025, boasts numerous accolades, including a Super Bowl ring (with Seattle), an All-Decade Selection, ten Pro Bowls, and six First Team All-Pro honors. 

At 35, Wagner is defying age and also owns impressive defensive statistics, most notably 1,838 Combined Tackles, making him the game’s active leader and fourth-place overall, trailing only Ray Lewis (2,059), London Fletcher (2,039), and Junior Seau (1,847).  Wagner, who is also a natural leader on whatever team he is on, always seems to know where the ball is going to be, and is already near the top of the list of football’s best run-stoppers.  However, despite that reputation, he is effective on the pass rush, owning 35 Sacks and 99 Tackles for Loss. 

Even if Wagner never plays another snap, his Hall of Fame case is already built, but how much sweeter would it look with a second ring?  The Washington Commanders are contenders to do just that.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #5, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #7, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #12, 2021 Pre-Season Rank: #20, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #37.  Peak Period: 2018-22

Travis Kelce's performance is exceptional, especially when compared to the only two legends in the Modern Positional Average statistics, Shannon Sharpe & Tony Gonzalez. Despite this daunting comparison, Kelce has not only measured up but surpassed expectations.  In the 2010s, he was the number two Tight End behind Rob Gronkowski, and now, he stands as the top man at his position among active players. It's not an exaggeration to say that he is the most recognized man in football.

Dating Taylor Swift (and now engaged to) will do that.

This man is a rock star of an athlete, but even if he was a mute, Kelce has the numbers of a Hall of Fame Tight End: over 12,000 Yards and 77 Touchdowns, a nine-year Pro Bowl streak, and four First Team All-Pros. Throw in three Super Bowls, and you have a man making a first-ballot Hall of Fame case and someone looking at the Mount Rushmore of Tight Ends.

Kelce might be declining, but not in popularity. 

2024 Pre-Season Rank #12, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #14, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #19, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #26, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #29.  Peak Period: 2015-19.

Oakland.  Chicago.  Los Angeles.

Everywhere Khalil Mack goes, Khalil Mack dominates.

The Outside Linebacker made history last season as the first player to secure three Pro Bowls on three different teams, when he added Pro Bowl number nine in year three with the Chargers.  The celebrated pass-rusher has 107.5 career Sacks, a Defensive Player of the Year Award (2016 with the Raiders), the longevity, the consistency, and the dominance that the PFHOF would want.

He may not dominate the defensive headlines like he used to, but Mack remains the “Mack.”

2024 Pre-Season Rank #7, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #4, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #7, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #8, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #10.  Peak Period: 2011-12/2014-16.

As it stands right now, Von Miller already has a Hall of Fame resume and might have the goods to get in on the first ballot. 

A Defensive Rookie of the Year, Super Bowl winner, and Super Bowl MVP for the Denver Broncos, Miller has all the statistical requirements the Hall looks for and the name recognition that fits the word "Fame.”   Over the last three seasons, Miller served as a pass-rushing specialist for the Buffalo Bills, and he is continuing his career in 2025 with the up-and-coming Washington Commanders.

Miller enters 2025 with 129.5 Sacks, only three behind Leslie O’Neal and the legendary Lawrence Taylor for 14th place all-time, and is the current active leader, and is sixth all-time in Tackles for Loss, notably tied with Hall of Famers Julius Peppers and Jared Allen.   Five more TFLs will get him fifth place, just ahead of first-ballot lock, Aaron Donald.  Considering what his specific role is, catching Taylor for Sacks and Donald for Tackles for Loss is doable.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #6, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #6, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #33, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #35. 2018-23*

Aging like wine, we love the story of Trent Williams, who was one of the better Offensive Linemen in Washington history, who wanted out after he felt that the team misdiagnosed a dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, a growth that was determined to be a type of cancer in 2019, but was dismissed by the Redskins medical team in 2013.  He did not play at all in 2019 and wanted out, landing in San Francisco in 2020, where he has been a First Team All-Pro the last three years and now has the most Pro Bowls (11) of any active Offensive Lineman.  

What Williams has accomplished in San Francisco has cemented a bronze bust.

*Williams sat out in 2019.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #19, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #19, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #26 2021 Pre-Season Rank #28, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #36. Peak Period: 2014-18

Longevity, talent, and class.

39-year-old Calais Campbell remains a solid Defensive End in the National Football League, and in 2025, he returns to the team he played for from 2008 to 2016, the Arizona Cardinals.

“The Mayor of Sacksonville” went to six Pro Bowls in a seven-year period (2014-20), which includes his last two in his first run in Arizona, all three of his seasons as a Jacksonville Jaguar, and his first in Baltimore.  Campbell, who won the 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year and the 2023 Alan Page Award, was also honored with a 2010s All-Decade Selection.

Campbell also has a statistical Hall of Fame resume with 110.5 Sacks and 187 Tackles for Loss, making him the active leader in that stat.  The Hall of Fame loves character guys, but they don’t get a pass unless they show what their goods are on the gridiron.  Calais Campbell did just that.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #13, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #10, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #10, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #17, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #19. (Peak Period: 2016-20)

The Russell Wilson era in Seattle ended after a Super Bowl win and nine Pro Bowls, but what if Marshawn Lynch ran on that play (you all know which one!) and punched it through the end zone?  That would have made Wilson a two-time Super Bowl champion, and when a QB leads a team to back-to-back titles, it is considered Canton worthy, but, alas, that didn’t happen.

Wilson was traded to Denver, but his two years in Denver were disastrous, evoking post-Philadelphia Donovan McNabb vibes.  Wilson then went to Pittsburgh and earned a tenth Pro Bowl (though he only had 2,482 Yards and 16 TDs), but he did successfully limit the damage to his reputation.

Wilson is now a New York Giant, and like last year, his grasp on the starting QB position has a young incumbent (Jaxson Dart) waiting in the wings.  He may need to compile statistics to secure his Hall of Fame credentials and reinforce his narrative.

2024 Pre-Season Rank #1, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #1, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #2, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #2, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #3.  PEAK PERIOD: 2008-12.

The last two rounds around the sun have been fascinating for Aaron Rodgers.  

Rodgers, who has dated Olivia Munn, Danica Patrick, and Shailene Woodley, was even considered the permanent host of Jeopardy.  It looked like he would cross over into non-sports stardom, but that came crashing down, and he has been involved in more Hollywood feuds (see Jimmy Kimmel) and was thrust into the culture war when it was revealed that he did not get the COVID-19 vaccine and espoused conspiracy theories.  He became much less marketable than he used to be, and there are circles where he is at the top of the list of the most hated athletes.  

In 2023,  after a long and fruitful career with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was injured on the first drive with his new team, the New York Jets, and he was underwhelming when healthy in 2024.

None of this will matter.

Regardless of how Rodgers performs in 2025, for his third team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, no active player has the statistical resume that he has.  No multi-time MVP has ever failed to enter Canton, and he has four.  Throw in the Super Bowl win with the Packers, and it is an open-and-shut case, regardless of what happens next.

Notably, a good year will see Rodgers reach more milestones.  He is six Touchdowns away from passing Brett Favre for fourth all-time, and 1,131 Yards will take him over Ben Roethlisberger (64,088) and Philip Rivers (63,440) for fifth all-time. 

The circus comes to the Steel City, and we can’t wait to see it play out.