We are a bit abbreviated today with a commitment for the rest of the day and the time spent making the Hall of Fame case for someone excluded by ESPN’s Bill Barnwell in his opus on the next 10 Hall of Fame classes (see below).

Full coverage tomorrow.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

No QB CALEB WILLIAMS for you NFL fan!  The number one overall pick will not make his debut in Canton on Thursday night.  Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com:

Caleb Williams will have to wait another week to make his NFL debut.

The Chicago Bears rookie quarterback and other starters will not play in Thursday’s Hall of Fame Game (8 p.m. ET, ABC, ESPN), coach Matt Eberflus announced. Second-year quarterback Tyson Bagent will start for the Bears against the Houston Texans.

Chicago concluded its ninth practice of training camp Tuesday and will hold a split session Wednesday before departing for Canton, Ohio. Players who are expected to play against the Texans will go through a walk-through while primary starters are on a different field.

Eberflus declined to say whether Williams will start at Buffalo in the Bears’ second preseason game Aug. 10, stating that the decision on the quarterback’s preseason availability will be looked at from “week to week.”

At the start of training camp, Eberflus said the Bears would aim to play Williams in the range of 45 to 55 reps in the preseason, which is based on the workload last year’s first-round quarterbacks received in exhibition games. After Thursday’s preseason opener, the Bears will have three more games in August (at Buffalo, vs. Cincinnati and at Kansas City) as well as a one-day joint practice with the Bengals.

“I do know that we’re getting a lot of good reps in practice, those are also equally as valuable, and the Cincinnati work is going to also be equally as valuable as those games because there you can run some more things and you’re doing some different things there,” Eberflus said. “It’s good-on-good there, too.”

Williams said he feels “on track to be ready” for the start of the regular season at the conclusion of his eighth practice Monday. After an uneven day for the first-team offense in 11-on-11 drills, the quarterback led a successful two-minute drive that culminated with a touchdown to rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze.

“I would agree with that,” Eberflus said of Williams’ assessment. “He’s really made some big strides here. We’re really talking about a massive amount of reps in the first eight or nine practices that we had, because we have it set up for the walk-throughs prior to practice, as you saw today, and then also in the evening we had a massive amount. … His way is to know the scheme, know his fundamentals, know it cold, and keep operating that way.

“To me, he’s really starting to pick up his leadership too. Because now he feels comfortable in the offense, you can really start to see him coach other guys, encourage other guys, bring guys together, which he has done in the past, and that’s a good sign too.”

– – –

Another big money WR extension, this to a receiver who is not a household name.  Cronin again on WR D.J. MOORE:

The Chicago Bears and wide receiver DJ Moore reached agreement on a four-year, $110 million contract extension, the largest in franchise history, his agents told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Tuesday.

The deal — negotiated by Drew Rosenhaus, Jason Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey — includes $82.6 million guaranteed, which ranks third for a wide receiver on a single contract in NFL history (Justin Jefferson $110 million guaranteed, A.J. Brown $84 million). All three players agreed to their deals this offseason.

Moore, 27, had two years remaining on the extension he signed at the end of his rookie contract with the Carolina Panthers and was set to hit free agency in 2026. He is now under contract with the Bears through the 2029 season and headlines a wide receiver room with 12-year veteran Keenan Allen and the draft’s ninth overall pick, Rome Odunze.

A former first-round pick, Moore was the focal point of a 2023 trade that sent the No. 1 overall selection from Chicago to Carolina in exchange for Moore and four draft picks. At the time of the trade, Chicago general manager Ryan Poles said he was “over the moon” about receiving Moore in the haul from the Panthers and was worried the receiver wouldn’t be available had the Bears waited past the date they executed the trade March 10, 2023.

In his first season with the Bears, Moore put together a career year, leading the team in receptions (96), receiving yards (1,364), receiving yards per game (80.2) and touchdowns (8). He accounted for 39.9% of Chicago’s receiving yards, the highest percentage for any player for a team in 2023.

In one season, Moore changed the trajectory of the Bears offense. His 1,364 receiving yards were the fourth most by a Bears player in franchise history, trailing only Brandon Marshall (2012), Alshon Jeffery (2013) and Marcus Robinson (1999).

Since entering the league in 2018, Moore has caught a pass from 12 different quarterbacks — yet still ranks seventh in the NFL in receiving yards over that span despite playing with a rotating cast of QBs.

“Our best player has got to be our hardest workers and they’ve got to be our best finishers and they’ve got to be available to practice out there, and DJ certainly is that,” Chicago coach Matt Eberflus said in June. “He’s as tough as they come and he is a great teammate and he is our hardest worker and one of our most talented guys.”

Offseason Wide Receiver Extensions

Team    Player                                 Deal

Vikings Justin Jefferson             4 years, $140M

Bears    DJ Moore                       4 years, $110M

Lions    Amon-Ra St. Brown       4 years, $120.01M

Dolphins Jaylen Waddle             3 years, $84.75M

Texans Nico Collins                    3 years, $72.75M

Eagles  A.J. Brown                     3 years, $92M

Eagles  DeVonta Smith               3 years, $75M

Colts     Michael Pittman               3 years, $70M

Browns Jerry Jeudy                     3 years, $52.5M

The Bears rewarded Moore with an extension earlier than they have for players under Poles’ direction. Last summer, Chicago extended tight end Cole Kmet going into the final year of his rookie deal. The team let cornerback Jaylon Johnson play out the final year of his rookie contract in 2023 before signing him to a four-year extension this offseason, after using the franchise tag as a placeholder for negotiations.

In March, Poles said he wanted to be “intentional with the order that we do negotiations,” which eventually meant that Moore would leapfrog other Bears players who are headed for contract years in 2024.

Allen, who was traded to the Bears from the Los Angeles Chargers, has one year remaining on his deal. Left guard Teven Jenkins is entering the final year of his rookie contract and said the Bears told him and his agent that he would have to wait until after Chicago’s Week 7 bye to enter negotiations.

By extending Moore, Poles now has the team’s offensive core locked down for quite a while; Chicago has its first overall quarterback (Caleb Williams), two first-round wide receivers (Odunze, Moore), a top-10 pick offensive tackle (Darnell Wright) and starting tight end (Kmet) all under contract for at least the next four years (including fifth-year options on first-round contracts).

Moore is the latest to cash in during a summer of mega contract extensions for wide receivers. His deal makes him the second-highest-paid wide receiver behind Minnesota’s Jefferson, who signed the richest contract in NFL history at the position (four years, $140 million) in June.

AFC WEST

DENVER

Sean Payton won’t say it – but QB ZACH WILSON seems to have fallen behind, as expected, in what was said to be a three-way battle for the starting role at QB.  Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com:

– Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton would not say he had trimmed the starting quarterback competition down to two, but he did skip Zach Wilson’s turn in the rotation Tuesday.

After Jarrett Stidham practiced with the starters Saturday and rookie Bo Nix did so Monday, Wilson was next in line to get the majority of work with the starters in the rotation that Payton has used throughout the offseason program as well as the first week of training camp.

Wilson, however, was with the third-team offense Tuesday. Instead, Stidham spent the day with the starters as Nix worked with the second-team offense much of the time.

“Look, we’ve got a plan,” Payton said when asked about the change in the order. “Bo ran with the 1s [Monday], Zach with the 2s; today, it was [Stidham] with the 1s. No news to announce there. I know you’re looking for it, but …”

Asked if Wilson would get additional opportunities with the first-team offense moving forward, Payton added: “We’ll see.”

The three had split the work with the starters evenly: Stidham has gone first in the order, Nix second and Wilson third.

At least until Tuesday.

Payton has not said he has a formal timetable to make the starter decision to open the season Sept. 9 at the Seattle Seahawks, but he had said the rotation could change before the Broncos were too deep into training camp.

Stidham started the final two games of the 2023 season after Payton benched Russell Wilson. Nix, the 12th overall pick in April’s draft, is the first rookie who Payton has had in a quarterback competition in his long run as a head coach.

The Broncos acquired Wilson, a former No. 2 pick of the draft, in a trade with the New York Jets just before the draft.

“It’s a healthy thing,” Stidham said of the competition this week. “It’s one of those things. Every year, their job upstairs is to bring in people they think can help the football team. And guys that are on the team, their job is to keep their job.”

THIS AND THAT

THE NEXT 10 HALL OF FAME CLASSES

If you don’t want to wait, Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com lets you know who will be in the next 10 Hall of Fame classes.  We await his definitive word on the candidacy of Matt Ryan.

(For space reasons, we won’t include his discussions of “eligible” but not elected. You can read it here):

Predicting what will happen in the NFL over the next 12 months is impossibly difficult. You have to account for every single bit of player movement, foresee injuries that will alter the season in a moment and adjust for everything from weather that’s too hot to conditions that are icy cold. And then, after all that, the Chiefs just end up winning the Super Bowl anyway.

Naturally, I want to raise the difficulty even higher. The good news for me is I’m going to be predicting upcoming Pro Football Hall of Fame classes, so many of the players have already finished their careers and finalized their credentials. The bad news is I’ve chosen to predict the next 10 Hall of Fame classes, so if you thought figuring out what’s going to happen in 2025 is tough, imagine how hard it’ll be to prognosticate the goings-on in 2034, a decade down the line.

I’m going to try my best. Since active players and coaches become eligible five years after retiring, the classes toward the tail end of this exercise will be full of players currently in the NFL. As a result, I’ve had to do some guesswork as to when veteran players will retire and what their résumés will look like when they do call it quits. Players I project to be playing through the 2030 season, including Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons, won’t appear in this piece.

I’ll be considering players who are already retired and eligible for the Hall and coaches who have recently been active, but I won’t be focusing on senior candidates from the past. I’ll mention candidates as they become eligible each year and then again if I project them to make it to Canton, as needed. And finally, just to be clear: These aren’t my suggestions for who should make the Hall of Fame; these are my predictions for who will make the Hall of Fame if the voters act as they have in previous years.

Class of 2025

New Hall of Famers

QB Eli Manning (first year of eligibility). Let’s start with a notable example of the difference between a player I think should not be in the Hall of Fame and one who will likely end up enshrined in Canton. Manning was a good quarterback who never once engendered serious consideration as an MVP candidate or as the best quarterback in football. His only award vote was a sixth-place finish in the Comeback Player of the Year award in 2011. The only “black ink” on his résumé is leading the league in interceptions three times. He was healthy for nearly his entire career and made four Pro Bowls; if he’s a left guard, that’s the sort of résumé that gets a player “Where are they now?” videos on the team website, not Hall of Fame consideration.

Of course, Manning wasn’t a left guard but instead a quarterback who beat Tom Brady in two Super Bowls. History tells us the electorate values Super Bowl wins, and the only eligible quarterback with two Super Bowl victories who isn’t in the Hall is Jim Plunkett. Manning is probably close in historical impact to someone like Bob Griese, who didn’t last as long as a pro but earned more MVP consideration in multiple seasons. It took Griese a decade, but he made it into the Hall. Without many other Giants from those teams who will earn serious consideration and with a relatively weak class in 2025, Manning should be in.

TE Antonio Gates (second year of eligibility). I was a little surprised Gates didn’t make it in in the 2024 class, frankly. The longtime Chargers standout made eight straight Pro Bowls at his peak and ranks third among tight ends in career receiving yards, trailing Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten. Gates hung around for a long time, which can hurt a player’s chances if they’re not performing at a high level, but we’re talking about one of the best players at his position in NFL history.

EDGE Terrell Suggs (first year of eligibility). Will T-Sizzle show up on Suggs’ plaque? He entered the NFL as a 20-year-old, so he was around for a long time; he was a Ravens player long enough to play with both Orlando Brown Sr. and Orlando Brown Jr. He had seven different seasons with double-digit sacks, won Defensive Rookie and Defensive Player of the Year and managed to help the Chiefs win a Super Bowl as a waiver acquisition in his final season.

Suggs is eighth on the official sack leaderboard, and every eligible player above him (and quite a few of the players immediately below him) is in the Hall. It’s tough for me to see a case in which he doesn’t make it quickly.

EDGE Jared Allen (fifth year of eligibility). Likely the first Hall of Famer to make an appearance on MTV’s “Jackass,” Allen had a solid case as the league’s best pass rusher during his peak with the Chiefs and Vikings. He racked up 77.5 sacks over a five-year span between 2007 and 2011 and was a first-team All-Pro four times, although he never did manage a Defensive Player of the Year award.

Allen might be hurt by the reality that his best years came on subpar teams, like the 2007 Chiefs and 2011 Vikings. He nearly made a trip to the Super Bowl with the Vikings in 2010, only for Minnesota to lose to New Orleans in the NFC Championship Game. He was a bit player on the Panthers team that was blown out by the Broncos in what turned out to be his final NFL game.

K Adam Vinatieri (first year of eligibility). There might be some voters who won’t select a kicker on principle, but if you’re open to the idea, how could you not say yes to Vinatieri? A three-time first-team All-Pro who spent 24 years in the NFL, he holds the career records for points, extra points and field goals made.

On top of that, Vinatieri won two Super Bowls with last-second kicks, although I’d argue the most dramatic kicks he ever made were the 45- and 23-yarders he put through the uprights in the snow at Foxboro against the Raiders in the 2001 AFC Championship Game.

Eligible but not elected

Marshawn Lynch

Marshal Yanda

Ryan Kalil

Luke Kuechly

Aqib Talib

Earl Thomas,

Class of 2026

New Hall of Famers

QB Drew Brees (first year of eligibility). Dismissed early on when the Chargers drafted Philip Rivers, Brees immediately turned around his career before becoming arguably the best free agent signing in NFL history. A four-time MVP runner-up, Brees was a perfect match for Sean Payton’s passing attack in New Orleans, delivering completion percentages that would have been unthinkable a generation earlier into his age-40 season. He has been an easy pick since about 2014.

RB Frank Gore (first year of eligibility). After dropping to the third round of the 2005 draft because of an injury-riddled career at Miami, Gore became one of the most unlikely top backs in league history. In an era in which teams were increasingly reticent to give their lead back significant carries, he topped 200 carries in 10 different seasons and only missed three or more games just once in 16 tries. His 16,000 career rushing yards are third on the all-time list, so while he was never a first-time All-Pro, his lengthy success at a position voters love to reward make him a strong candidate.

WR Larry Fitzgerald (first year of eligibility). This class is full of no-brainers. Fitzgerald, who Bill Connelly had in the top 10 of his ranking of the greatest college players of the 21st century, racked up a 1,409-yard season in his second year and never looked back. While he was somehow only a first-team All-Pro once, the one-team wideout had nine different 1,000-yard seasons. He also produced what might have been the best postseason by any wide receiver ever in 2008, as his 30 catches for 546 yards and seven touchdowns nearly earned the Cardinals a Super Bowl title.

TE Jason Witten (first year of eligibility). Witten would be in already if it weren’t for his yearlong stint with ESPN and subsequent two years back in the NFL with the Cowboys and Raiders. He had already long earned his trip to Canton before leaving and returning to the league, as he had metronome-like consistency throughout his career. After missing a game due to injury as a rookie, he played 16 games in each of his 16 subsequent pro seasons. He averaged more than 900 receiving yards per season over a 12-season run before slowing down at the end.

CB Richard Sherman (first year of eligibility). Sherman’s peak came and went relatively fast — he made first-team All-Pro three times in his first four years with the Seahawks and never got back — but the Legion of Boom member had a strong case as the most feared cornerback in football at his best. His size and ability to create takeaways made him an extremely valuable player in Seattle, and his late-career resurgence in San Francisco helped push the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance in 2019. Sherman’s playoff exploits and status as a member of a legendary defensive unit will help his first-ballot chances.

Eligible but not elected

Philip Rivers

Alex Smith

Julian Edelman

Dez Bryant

Greg Olsen

David DeCastro

Maurkice Pouncey

Geno Atkins

Class of 2027

New Hall of Famers

QB Ben Roethlisberger (first year of eligibility). With all due respect to C.J. Stroud, it’s difficult to remember a quarterback who burst onto the scene and was more immediately impactful and successful than Roethlisberger. The 2004 first-rounder went 13-0 as a rookie in the regular season, and while he was felled by the Patriots in the playoffs, he led the Steelers to the Super Bowl title the following season.

He was ruthlessly efficient in a run-heavy offense early in his career before eventually producing spectacular passing numbers during the Antonio Brown era. Like Manning, Roethlisberger was never really an MVP candidate or a pick as the league’s best quarterback, but his long run of above-average play, 165-81-1 record and two Super Bowl victories make him an obvious selection.

RB Marshawn Lynch (third year of eligibility). Lynch makes it in now, although the timing with these ballots somehow made him the sole member of the peak Seahawks teams to be inducted in 2027. Not bad for a guy the Bills dumped on the Seahawks for fourth- and fifth-round picks.

RB Adrian Peterson (first year of eligibility.) Will he be the last running back ever to win MVP? I believe we’ll see a back or two win the league’s top regular-season honor in the decades to come, but his 2,097-yard season in 2012 was one of the single most impressive years I’ve seen from a player, as he dragged an offense with Christian Ponder at quarterback into the postseason. Injuries might have prevented Peterson from challenging the all-time greats at his position, but he’s one of nine players with five 1,300-yard seasons. The only player in that group who isn’t in the hall is Clinton Portis.

TE Rob Gronkowski (first year of eligibility). Gronk and Lynch making it to the Hall of Fame the same year should make this weekend a must-watch. He has a reasonable case as the most dominant tight end in league history at his best, combining elite ability after the catch and in the red zone with spectacular, highlight-reel blocking. It’s entirely possible Gronkowski’s high-ankle sprain in 2011 cost the Patriots the second Super Bowl against the Giants. As it stands, he won four Super Bowls in 11 seasons and goes down as an utterly essential, unmissable NFL player.

LB Luke Kuechly (third year of eligibility). After an impenetrably high top end denied Kuechly in 2006, he deservedly makes it in as the best player on a series of Panthers teams that physically overwhelmed the NFC.

Eligible but not elected

Cam Newton

Antonio

Andrew Whitworth

Alex Mack

Gerald McCoy

Ryan Kerrigan

Eric Weddle

Malcolm Jenkins

Class of 2028

New Hall of Famers

QB Tom Brady (first year of eligibility). If you need me to explain why Brady is a Hall of Famer, you’re reading the wrong article. Getting the seven-time Super Bowl champion into the Hall of Fame might be the easiest projection on the entire list.

EDGE J.J. Watt (first year of eligibility). I shouldn’t need to say too much about Watt, either. At his peak, he was a revelation, putting up virtually unprecedented knockdown and tackle-for-loss numbers to go with gaudy sack totals. He had 69 sacks over a four-year span between 2012 and 2015, winning three Defensive Player of the Year awards in the process. Injuries limited Watt to two excellent seasons over the rest of his career, but he might have had the hottest peak for any defensive player in modern league history.

C Maurkice Pouncey (third year of eligibility). Getting Pouncey in with his former quarterback would have been a good story, and it’s entirely possible things play out that way in real life. If there’s any splitting of the Steelers vote, though, it might take Pouncey this extra year to get in.

G Marshal Yanda (fourth year of eligibility). In a class with two no-doubters and not much else in terms of significant candidates, we’re going to see a few of the players who have been waiting sneak in. Yanda’s streak of eight consecutive Pro Bowls is going to keep drawing more voters as the years go on; virtually every player to pull that off at some point during their career has eventually gotten into the Hall, although it should take interior linemen longer than their more notable counterparts.

S Earl Thomas (fourth year of eligibility). For however Thomas’ time ended in Seattle and Baltimore, his run as the NFL’s best center-fielder and an utterly essential, irreplaceable part of the Legion of Boom should eventually get Thomas into the Hall. Pete Carroll’s defense was never the same without Thomas and his ability to play the post and the seam.

During Thomas’s nine-year run with the Seahawks, Carroll’s defenses allowed a full yard per pass attempt more when Thomas was off the field. They had four No. 1 scoring defenses and six top-10 defenses in Thomas’ eight years as a regular and didn’t have one after Thomas’ departure.

Eligible but not elected

Matt Ryan

DeSean Jackson

A.J. Green

Jarvis Landry

Ndamukong Suh

Chandler Jones

Devin McCourty

Class of 2029

Here’s where some active or nominally active players begin to become eligible for the Hall of Fame. I’m assuming the players listed in the 2029 section are finished with their NFL careers and don’t make it onto another roster.

New Hall of Famers

QB Philip Rivers (fourth year of eligibility). With the glut of no-doubt Hall of Fame quarterbacks temporarily cleared, there’s an opening for Rivers to sneak in ahead of Ryan. While I can see some voters opting for Ryan’s higher peak given that neither won a Super Bowl, Rivers was the more consistently productive quarterback. Heck, as a 39-year-old, Rivers was completing 68% of his passes and averaging nearly 8.0 yards per attempt for a Colts team whose leading receivers were a fading T.Y. Hilton and Zach Pascal. Don’t ask Ryan about his time with Indianapolis.

WR Julio Jones (first year of eligibility). Here’s a Falcons player who will have no trouble getting in. Jones fell from grace quicker than anybody expected — he led the league in receiving yards at age 29, posted a 1,394-yard season the following season and then played for four teams over the next four years with decreasingly impactful results — but his peak was undeniable. He averaged more than 100 receiving yards per game in five different seasons. The only other players to do that more than two times are Antonio Brown and Calvin Johnson.

OT Jason Peters (first year of eligibility). Offensive linemen struggle to make it to the Hall in their first year of eligibility, but an exception might be made for this converted tight end. Peters emerged as a standout with the Bills, then became a stalwart for the Eagles after Andy Reid traded a first-round pick to acquire him. Peters made nine Pro Bowls in 10 years at his peak, only missing out in 2012 after rupturing his Achilles twice in the same offseason. His absence that year helped get Reid fired and changed the course of NFL history. Peters was a viable starting lineman deep into his 30s and should eventually land a jacket, even if it isn’t in Year 1.

C Jason Kelce (first year of eligibility). Getting two longtime Eagles linemen to the same weekend in Canton would be pretty special. I’ve mentioned how tough it might be for players from the same era in the same organization to earn votes at the same time, but Peters and Kelce were so good for so long that they should prove to be the exception. Kelce’s visibility off the field won’t hurt his chances, but six first-team All-Pro nods should make it clear he was a legendary pivot between the lines. The only sixth-round pick in modern history better than Kelce is TB12.

DT Aaron Donald (first year of eligibility). The single most unblockable player in football after Watt faded from his peak, Donald routinely made other NFL players look like children. Nominally undersized for a defensive tackle at 6-foot-1 and sub-300 pounds, he routinely got underneath, around and through offensive linemen to disrupt play after play in the backfield.

His presence on the field defined the Super Bowl win for the Rams; the Bengals spent the entire first half shifting their protections to his side and when the Rams finally responded by coming out with five linemen and forcing the Bengals to play one-on-one upfront at the snap, Donald and the defense turned the game around. His pressure of Joe Burrow on fourth down also might have saved the title. He’s an inner-circle Hall of Famer.

Coach Bill Belichick (first year of eligibility). Oh, and then there’s the greatest coach of all time. This election assumes Belichick doesn’t return to coaching, but given that he led the league’s top defense over the second half of 2024 without his two best players and with a dismal offense offering no help, I have little doubt he could step in and be an excellent coach somewhere if given a competent quarterback.

The rough end to the Patriots era and Belichick’s struggles to find a post-Brady successor on offense weren’t the ideal end to his run in New England, but the titles speak for themselves. His success as a defensive coordinator and influence on schemes around the league are just added bonuses to his case.

Eligible but not elected

Dalvin Cook

Michael Thomas

Jimmy Graham

Fletcher Cox

Class of 2030

And now, here in 2030, we have to start taking a logical leap. I’m going to start retiring players who are currently on active rosters over the next few years and adjust their eligibility accordingly. Here, for example, players who retire after the 2024 season would become Canton-eligible for the first time.

All four of the players who make up this year’s Hall of Fame class, in fact, are players who are on NFL rosters. I don’t think anybody would be shocked if any or all of them retired after the year. I’ll project out and detail what happens to them and the other active players over the rest of their as-yet-unfinished careers if there’s anything that will impact their Hall of Fame résumé.

New Hall of Famers

QB Aaron Rodgers (first year of eligibility). Rodgers’ résumé as a four-time MVP and Super Bowl winner already has him in the Hall of Fame, regardless of what happens from here on out. In his first and only full season with the Jets, Rodgers struggles for consistency, but he finds enough of a connection with Garrett Wilson to lead New York to a 10-win season and a wild-card berth. After years of narrowly missing out on matchups with Patrick Mahomes because of COVID or injuries, Mahomes and Rodgers finally get their matchup in the playoffs, where a Chiefs victory ends his career.

TE Travis Kelce (first year of eligibility). The greatest tight end in league history, meanwhile, fades off into the sunset after the Chiefs become the first team in league history to win three consecutive Super Bowls. I wrote all about Kelce’s claim to best-ever status in December 2022, and all he has done since then is date one of the biggest pop stars on the planet and win two Super Bowls. The only reason the two Kelce brothers won’t go in together is because they aren’t retiring at the same time and have both earned first-ballot status.

WR Antonio Brown (fourth year of eligibility). Here’s where I think Brown finds his way in. As we get further away from the ugly end to his career, his performance on the field and his transcendent peak performance is going to make up a larger part of his candidacy.

EDGE Von Miller (first year of eligibility). Miller’s tenure in Buffalo hasn’t lived up to expectations after a second torn ACL, with the former Broncos and Rams star recording zero sacks in 12 games last season. He’s only on the roster because he agreed to take a pay cut down to the already existing partial guarantees on his 2024 salary, and he’s going to be in a rotational role.

While Miller might get a handful of sacks in 2024, his résumé consists of what happened before Buffalo: a Defensive Rookie of the Year award, three first-team All-Pro awards, seven double-digit sack campaigns in eight years to start his career and a key role on a pair of Super Bowl-winning defenses.

LB Bobby Wagner (first year of eligibility). The linebacker so good that Tony Dungy famously gave him an MVP vote for an 11-game season in 2014, Wagner was the perfect linebacker to play in front of the Legion of Boom. While Earl Thomas gave the Seahawks the confidence to play single-high on most of their snaps, Wagner’s range gave them the confidence they could cover the intermediate area of the field without stretching Kam Chancellor.

Wagner made six first-team All-Pro appearances during his time with Seattle and should be the third and final member of an extraordinary defense to make it to Canton.

Eligible but not elected

Russell Wilson

Joe Flacco

Ezekiel Elliott

Odell Beckham Jr.

Zach Ertz

Cameron Heyward

Cameron Jordan

Calais Campbell

Lavonte David

Stephon Gilmore

Xavien Howard

Patrick Peterson

Cordarrelle Patterson

Class of 2031

New Hall of Famers

QB Russell Wilson (second year of eligibility). Acknowledging that Wilson didn’t exactly leave a good taste in various mouths as he moved around the NFL, he won a Super Bowl, came within one yard of a second and will finish his career in the top 20 in both passing yards and passing touchdowns. He added more than 5,000 rushing yards on top for good measure, something only Michael Vick and Cam Newton have topped among quarterbacks.

WR DeAndre Hopkins (first year of eligibility). This is a relatively modest class of first-year eligibles, so while Hopkins might not have been an easy pick in other years, I think he gets through here. A three-time first-team All-Pro and a receiver who averaged more than 1,300 receiving yards per season across a seven-year span, he seemed to excel regardless of his situation. He managed a 1,521-yard campaign in a season in which Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates and Brandon Weeden all started games at quarterback.

Looking ahead, Hopkins finishes his career in 2025 with an 850-yard season for Lamar Jackson in Baltimore, coming up just three yards short of 14,000 receiving yards in the process.

G Zack Martin (first year of eligibility). The exception to the first-year class is Martin, who goes down as one of the greatest guards in league history. Once the less popular side of a draft-day debate between the Notre Dame tackle and Johnny Manziel, the Cowboys chose Martin, moved him to guard and got dominant results whenever he was on the field. He made 10 Pro Bowls across his 12-year career, but when the Cowboys made him a cap casualty after an injury-impacted 2025 season, Martin elected to retire. He waltzes into the Hall.

CB Patrick Peterson (second year of eligibility). Peterson started his career with eight consecutive Pro Bowl appearances. Fourteen other players have done that besides him, and every one of them currently eligible for the Hall of Fame has made it into Canton. Peterson will be the 15th, and we’ll hit the 16th in a bit.

Eligible but not elected

Derrick Henry

Stefon Diggs

Keenan Allen

Tyron Smith

Lane Johnson

Demario Davis

Khalil Mack

Darius Slay

Harrison Smith

Tyrann Mathieu

Class of 2032

New Hall of Famers

QB Matthew Stafford (first year of eligibility). As it stands, even with his Super Bowl win, I’m not sure Stafford has quite enough on his résumé to ensure a trip to Canton. Three final years with the Rams would help his case. In my simulations for this piece, I have the Rams coming up a game short of the postseason in 2024, but a retooled Rams team then makes a surprising trip to the Super Bowl in 2025, with Stafford throwing for 4,600 yards and garnering the first serious MVP consideration of his career. Even with the Rams falling short of the Chargers in Santa Clara, Stafford will have done enough to get on the right side of history.

Perhaps he struggles through an injury-hit final 2026 season and retires, but without any other quarterbacks in line as serious challengers, Stafford would walk in as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

WR Davante Adams (first year of eligibility). With three first-team All-Pro nods, Adams is five touchdowns away from being in the 10,000-yard, 100-touchdown club at wide receiver. While receivers are benefiting from a 17-game season and a pass-happy league, every other receiver who has hit those round numbers is either in the Hall of Fame or likely to get there. Maybe 2024 ends up being a bit of a lost season with Adams as he struggles through a year with middling quarterback play, but he could make up for it with a solid final couple of seasons somewhere else — perhaps as one of Justin Herbert’s primary targets in Los Angeles, adding a Super Bowl in the process.

OT Tyron Smith (second year of eligibility). Smith probably wasn’t quite as dominating as needed to earn a first-year nod into the Hall of Fame, but his many Pro Bowl appearances and national exposure as a longtime Cowboys cornerstone are enough to get him in one year later.

OT Trent Williams (first year of eligibility). Two tackles in the same class! Williams also had his own injury issues and missed all of 2019 as he held out from Washington, but that was the only thing that interrupted a streak of what would have otherwise been 12 consecutive Pro Bowl appearances between 2012 and 2024. With Williams again holding out this summer, the 49ers could guarantee two more years on Williams’s deal to get him back into camp in August — and Williams would proceed to stretch that streak to 13 before an injury costs him most of the 2025 season. My simulations have Williams making it back briefly onto the roster for 2026 before retiring, but the best left tackle of his generation is an easy vote.

K Justin Tucker (first year of eligibility). Tucker’s famous booming leg has quietly gotten less reliable in recent years, with the legendary kicker missing nine kicks from 50 yards or more over the past two seasons. Tucker could hold on forever and play deep into his 40s to challenge Vinatieri’s hold on the NFL record book. But I could also see the Ravens cutting him in 2026, leaving Tucker to retire and settle for finishing his career as the most accurate kicker in league history.

Eligible but not elected

Kirk Cousins

Derek Carr

Alvin

Cooper Kupp

George Kittle

Joel Bitonio

DeMarcus Lawrence

Class of 2033

New Hall of Famers

WR Tyreek Hill (first year of eligibility). Hill originally said that he would retire at the end of his extension with the Dolphins, so while he has walked back those claims at times, let’s take the man at his word. Hill’s the other member of the club I mentioned with Peterson earlier as one of the few players in league history to make it to the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight campaigns. Even if Hill never makes it back to the heights we’ve seen from him in 2022 and 2023, he has done enough already to all but ensure a Hall of Fame trip is in the cards. And hey, after one of the best receiving seasons ever, what’s to stop Hill from flirting with 2,000 yards again in 2025?

WR Mike Evans (first year of eligibility). At some point, Evans’ streak of 1,000-yard campaigns has to play into his thoughts about retirement, right? Wouldn’t it be cool to become the first (and potentially only) player ever to have a long career that consists entirely of four-digit seasons? My guess is that Evans’ streak is finally broken in 2025, a product of both inconsistent quarterback play from new Bucs quarterback Carson Beck and potential durability issues for the soon-to-be 31-year-old. But I have Evans getting back on the horse with a 1,070-yard campaign in 2026 and then deciding to call it a career.

EDGE Khalil Mack (third year of eligibility). With two 15-sack campaigns, five double-digit sack seasons and a Defensive Player of the Year award, Mack has done enough to get there. A solid finish to his career should wrap the story up nicely.

DT Chris Jones (first year of eligibility). A very good player during the regular season, Jones’ spectacular postseason performances will be more than enough to push the Chiefs standout over the threshold. I thought Jones should have been the Super Bowl MVP in 2019, had a reasonable case to win the award in 2022 and then absolutely should have been the pick this past February, when his pressures in key moments kept the Chiefs alive into and through overtime. He might never get his Super Bowl MVP award, but after a strip-sack spurs a Chiefs comeback in the second half of this season’s championship victory over the Packers (again, per my projections), it’s enough to earn Jones a new nickname: Mr. February.

CB Jalen Ramsey (first year of eligibility). One of the most complete and essential cornerbacks of his generation, Ramsey helped spur the Rams to a Super Bowl and the Jaguars within a blown call of a championship game with Blake Bortles at quarterback. You can decide which one of those was more impressive. Ramsey may finish his career without a single season of even five interceptions, but his coverage ability inside and outside of the slot over an extended period of time was remarkable.

KR Cordarrelle Patterson (fourth year of eligibility). While kick return touchdowns are up across the board as the league tinkers with Sam Schwartzstein’s XFL kickoff model, Patterson’s records in what was otherwise a dead era for kickoff returns seem like more and more of a historic outlier. Patterson finally earns his nod and then suggests onstage in Canton that he could return to the league and score five touchdowns per year under the new kickoff rules. Arthur Smith, sitting in the crowd, nods solemnly.

Eligible but not elected

Nick Chubb.

Amari Cooper

Matthew Judon

DeForest Buckner

C.J. Mosley

Class of 2034

New Hall of Famers

RB Christian McCaffrey (first year of eligibility). Our final class begins with the league’s most productive running back. McCaffrey’s fresh off his first Offensive Player of the Year award, and our timeline here suggests that McCaffrey plays five more seasons before retiring. While I don’t think you can expect CMC to top 2,000 yards from scrimmage in each of those five years, we’ve seen that a healthy McCaffrey has been a wildly productive player for virtually all of his pro career. Some of that will fade with age, but I’d expect at least two more Pro Bowl-caliber years from the Stanford product, and that should be enough to get him in at a popular position.

RB Derrick Henry (fourth year of eligibility). Henry and McCaffrey basically traded widespread recognition as the best player at their position for most of the span between 2018 and 2023, with one season from Jonathan Taylor as an exception. They have both felt like transcendent players at their best and made unheralded quarterbacks look like stars. I don’t see much of a problem putting either player in, even if they don’t have lengthy careers, given how the league treats running backs these days.

TE George Kittle (third year of eligibility). The two 49ers teammates make it in together, as Kittle’s run as heavyweight champion helps spark renewed interest in his football career and gets the brutally effective tight end narrowly over the threshold.

EDGE T.J. Watt (first year of eligibility). Watt’s finished in the top three in Defensive Player of the Year voting in each of his past four healthy campaigns. He has 89.5 sacks over his past 89 games. His brother’s spectacular peak and sudden decline from injuries are a reminder of how quickly things can turn for any NFL player, but Watt has been remarkably consistent and productive over his career. Would anyone be shocked if he added another 50 sacks over the next five years before hanging up his cleats?

Eligible but not elected

Saquon Barkley

Mark Andrews

Kenny Clark

Budda Baker

Thoughts from the DB –

* Not sure why Barnwell only has four players going into the Hall in 2034, maybe that’s where Matt Ryan is supposed to go

* He has more players enshrined in their first year of eligibility than has been customary.  We count 33 of 49.

* Maybe it’s just the DB, but we would never put a kicker in the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.  We might eventually vote for Vinatieri or Tucker, but for them to walk into Canton ahead of guys who knocked heads on every play for over a decade…

And now for the big debate – we take great issue with Russell Wilson in, but Ryan out.

Here is why Barnwell keeps Ryan out, not just for his first year of eligibility, but beyond.

Matt Ryan’s candidacy might come down to losing that Super Bowl to the Patriots. Ryan was the MVP in 2015 and posted gaudy numbers through a deep postseason run, but that season stands as an outlier both in terms of regular-season performance and postseason success. He only made three other Pro Bowls during his career, had one other piece of black ink on his résumé and otherwise went 2-5 during the postseason.

In writing that Wilson was not worthy of first year selection, Barnwell points out that Russell has received a total of zero MVP votes in his entire career.  Ryan won an MVP.

Barnwell acts like 2015 was an outlier for Ryan – but he passed for 4,000+ yards in 10 straight seasons with an average of 28 TD passes per year.  With seasons of 3,500+ on either side of that run.  We think that Ryan and Drew Brees (12) are the only QBs with 10 or more consecutive seasons of 4,000+/20+.

No one thought the Falcons had overwhelming defensive personnel like Wilson enjoyed much of his time in Seattle, yet Ryan had a 113-92 record over his first 13 seasons with six postseason appearances.  Besides the one trip to the Super Bowl, he also went to the NFC title game in 2012.

With 124 total wins, Ryan is 10^th on the all-time QB wins list.  Of the 19 QBs with 100+ wins, he and Joe Flacco (17^th at 103) would be the only two not in Barnwell’s Hall of Fame.

Yes, Wilson “won” a Super Bowl – game managing a team that was overwhelmingly better that day than the Broncos.  He also lost one with a game-ending INT.

As we remember it, Ryan took one ill-advised sack during the 28-3 comeback, but really didn’t do anything else egregious.  Someone built the 28-3 lead…

And how can you ignore the sheer endurance of his numbers?

Here is the list of top 20 Fantasy Points accumulators in NFL history (we use this as an easy reference for all the stats – TD passes, yards, etc.).  Besides Ryan at #7, only #20 isn’t in the Hall or a Barnwell Hall of Famer:

1          Tom Brady                  5943.4

2          Drew Brees                 5185.0

3          Peyton Manning          4686.3

4          Aaron Rodgers            4569.6

5          Brett Favre                  4371.2

6          Ben Roethlisberger     4019.5

7          Matt Ryan                   3832.1

8          Philip Rivers                3812.8

9          Dan Marino                 3594.5

10        Jerry Rice                   3580.8

11        Russell Wilson            3541.0

12        Matthew Stafford        3489.2

13        Eli Manning                 3251.6

14        John Elway                 3220.6

15        George Blanda            3206.8

16        Fran Tarkenton           3190.2

17        Emmitt Smith              3147.7

18        Warren Moon              2834.6

19        LaDainian Tomlinson  2827.3

20        Cam Newton               2827.1

How you can put Rivers (0 SBs), Stafford (1), Rodgers (1), Roethlisberger (2, but played awful in the “win” over Matt Hasselbeck’s Seahawks) all in, but not Ryan?  Maybe not first year, sure, but as the face of a pretty successful Falcons team for over a decade, he must go in.