Surefire first-ballot players:
- QB Peyton Manning
- QB Tom Brady
These two stand far and away on top of the pack, and their lead has become a yawning chasm. If this is the end of the line for Manning, it will leave Brady standing alone in this category, and it may take at least a few years for anyone else to join him…
Borderline first-ballot players:
- RB Adrian Peterson
- QB Drew Brees
- QB Aaron Rodgers
- DT Kevin Williams
…by which I mean, maybe one or two more years of Adrian Peterson performing as he has. His career is all the more remarkable for how short most running back careers have been recently. In general, this year marks the point at which the current generation of players officially grabbed the brass ring and started positioning themselves for potential first-ballot induction. As such, the list is going to get a bit awkward the next few years until the All-Decade Team of the 2010s is named, which’ll be before any of the names on this year’s list are up for consideration; there’s considerable evidence the Hall of Fame voters weight All-Decade teams fairly heavily when deciding who to induct, with All-Decade players ending up inducted more often than not. As such, there’s increasingly going to be a divide between players who’ve played long enough to make the 2000s All-Decade Team and those who haven’t and are waiting for the 2010s Team to be named. I’m assuming Peterson and Rodgers are making that team, but the divide really makes itself felt in the next category; starting next year I may attempt to start predicting who makes the All-Decade Team and re-sort the list accordingly.
Surefire Hall of Famers:
- TE Antonio Gates
- CB Charles Woodson
- WR Calvin Johnson
- DE Julius Peppers
- CB Darrelle Revis
- TE Jason Witten
- LB DeMarcus Ware
- DE Dwight Freeney
- WR Andre Johnson
I’ve seen talk that Charles Woodson not only might go in first ballot, but might be in the running for best cornerback ever. Yeah, no. Even with Champ Bailey retiring a couple years ago, it’s only this year he even became the best active defensive back by resume, as his resume remains comparable to Troy Polamalu (Woodson has one more Pro Bowl selection with his swan song this year, but the AP at least named Polamalu a first-team All-Pro an additional time). Polamalu should get in the Hall of Fame in his first few years on the ballot and the same is true for Woodson, but best-ever they are not. As for Calvin Johnson and his own retirement talk, he should get into the Hall without too much delay (realistically I think his resume is on par with Gates), but the shortness of his career is likely to cost him a first-ballot spot.
Borderline Hall of Famers:
- WR Larry Fitzgerald
- WR Steve Smith
- WR Wes Welker
- DE Jared Allen
- RB Jamaal Charles
- RB LeSean McCoy
- RB Arian Foster
- OT Joe Thomas
- DE J.J. Watt
- TE Rob Gronkowski
- S Earl Thomas
- QB Ben Roethlisberger
- CB Patrick Peterson
- RB Marshawn Lynch
- DE Haloti Ngata
- WR Antonio Brown
- QB Eli Manning
- WR Brandon Marshall
- QB Michael Vick
- P Shane Lechler
- OT Jahri Evans
- DT Ndamukong Suh
- QB Philip Rivers
- KR Devin Hester
- K Adam Vinatieri
Because this list assesses players’ resumes if they retired today, it’s only this year that J.J. Watt, who may well prove to be one of the greatest defensive players ever, and Rob Gronkowski amass resumes good enough to even have a chance at the Hall. See the Class of 2020 list to see what can easily happen to players with Hall of Fame-caliber talent that cut their careers too short. Vinatieri remains an interesting situation: very few non-quarterbacks have been propelled into the Hall of Fame on the strength of their Super Bowls… but Vinatieri could be one of them, despite being a kicker, a position with only one other representative in the Hall at all.
Need work:
- RB Chris Johnson
- LB Navorro Bowman
- T Jason Peters
- S Eric Weddle
- S Eric Berry
- DT Gerald McCoy
A couple other players have similar resumes to McCoy and Doug Martin, but those two actually improved their resumes this year, so I can avoid having anyone “back” onto the list just because of players retiring. Probably I should have just thrown on one or two special-teams players, maybe a fullback like Mike Tolbert.
Young stars (exclamation marks indicate players with resumes already strong enough to be among the top 50):
- LB Von Miller (5th year)
- WR A.J. Green (5th year)
- CB Richard Sherman (5th year)!
- RB DeMarco Murray (5th year)
- LB Justin Houston (5th year)
- QB Cam Newton (5th year)!
- WR Julio Jones (5th year)!
- QB Russell Wilson (4th year)
- WR Josh Gordon (4th year)
- LB Luke Kuechly (4th year)
- RB Doug Martin (4th year)!
- LB Bobby Wagner (4th year)
- RB Le’Veon Bell (3rd year)
- C Travis Frederick (3rd year)
- WR Odell Beckham Jr. (2nd year)
- G Zack Martin (2nd year)
- DT Aaron Donald (2nd year)
- DE Khalil Mack (2nd year)
- RB Todd Gurley (Rookie)
- CB Marcus Peters (Rookie)
Exactly two rookies made the Pro Bowl in their own right this year, and they also just so happened to be Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year.
Players to watch for the Class of 2020:
- S Troy Polamalu
- WR Reggie Wayne
- LB Patrick Willis
- DE John Abraham
- RB Maurice Jones-Drew
After last year’s potentially three-first-ballot class, this year should provide some breathing room for players that have been waiting to get in. I’m not sure Polamalu has a good enough resume (or a long enough career) to get in first ballot, but he should get in within a couple of years, so any reprieve is short-lived. No one else is assured of getting in, although Willis’ own short career will make a very interesting case study, as he was shaping up to be a surefire Hall of Famer before his abrupt retirement but now looks decidedly on the bubble. Perhaps more than anyone else, he epitomizes why Rob Gronkowski and J.J. Watt only this year became even borderline Hall of Famers. (I’m not actually sure Wayne will be eligible this year, as he remained on the Patriots’ roster into September before being cut. It’s always fun to see where the Hall of Fame considers a player’s career to have “actually” ended in these borderline situations where a player never played, and wasn’t on a roster during the actual season, but was on the roster for just long enough for you to make an argument either way.)