Willie Anderson, OT
Drew Brees, QB
Jahri Evans, G
Larry Fitzgerald, WR
Frank Gore, RB
Torry Holt, WR
Luke Kuechly, LB
Eli Manning, QB
Terrell Suggs, OLB
Adam Vinatieri, K
Reggie Wayne, WR
Kevin Williams, DT
Jason Witten, TE
Darren Woodson, S
Marshall Yanda, G
Willie Anderson, Torry Holt, Luke Kuechly, and Adam Vinatieri advanced to this stage automatically due to each candidate reaching the Final 7 last year. With the fluctuating views of the voters, this feels like a questionable new wrinkle to the process. There are a lot of questionable wrinkles in the current voting process. Anyway, Anderson, Holt, Kuechly, and Vinatieri are Finalists this year due to the voting last year.
The list of 15 Finalists includes four players in their first year of eligibility:
Drew Brees
Larry Fitzgerald
Frank Gore
Jason Witten
I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald will be in Canton next August.
There’s one more player among the Finalists that’s a finalist for the first time.
Kevin Williams
Despite being in his sixth year of eligibility, this is the first time as a Finalist for Kevin Williams. History shows a quick Hall entrance for players with five first-team All-Pros and an All-Decade honor. Somehow, the outstanding career of Williams has eluded the voters. It’s a mystery as to how he slipped detection for so long. Is this the first year of a long wait on the doorstep or are the voters serious about addressing five years of mistakes? Richard Seymour was an equally talented peer of Williams. When Seymour was inducted in 2022, I figured that Williams would be next. Nope. Somehow, he didn’t even reach the semi-finalist stage until this year. Kevin Williams had a Hall of Fame career and is much-deserving of a bust in Canton.
Times as a Finalist:
Willie Anderson: 5
Drew Brees: 1
Jahri Evans: 3
Larry Fitzgerald: 1
Frank Gore: 1
Torry Holt: 7
Luke Kuechly: 2
Eli Manning: 2
Terrell Suggs: 2
Adam Vinatieri: 2
Reggie Wayne: 7
Kevin Williams: 1
Jason Witten: 1
Darren Woodson: 4
Marshall Yanda: 2
Years of Eligibility:
1st:
Drew Brees
Larry Fitzgerald
Frank Gore
Jason Witten
2nd:
Luke Kuechly
Eli Manning
Terrell Suggs
Adam Vinatieri
Marshall Yanda
4th:
Jahri Evans
6th:
Kevin Williams
7th:
Reggie Wayne
12th:
Torry Holt
13th:
Willie Anderson
18th:
Darren Woodson
In my opinion, there are three Hall of Fame locks among the 15 Finalists.
Drew Brees
Larry Fitzgerald
Luke Kuechly
I still can’t believe that Luke Kuechly didn’t make it in his first year. Seeing as the voters did the same shit with Patrick Willis, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Kuechly should make it in his second year.
In an effort to make induction a bit more challenging, the Hall revised the process before last year’s voting. That resulted in a tiny four-member Class. Congratulations! More of that and all you’ve done is create an insurmountable backlog of deserving Hall of Famers. Luke Kuechly should’ve been part of last year’s Class. Now, he’s probably going to take a spot from perhaps Willie Anderson this year. Or Kevin Williams. Or Marshall Yanda. Or Reggie Wayne.
I’m going to ignore the suspect voting rules and predict the following five-member Modern-Era Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
Drew Brees
Larry Fitzgerald
Luke Kuechly
Kevin Williams
Willie Anderson
I’d like to get one of Reggie Wayne or Torry Holt in this Class but Willie Anderson has been waiting longer.
The Senior, Coach, and Contributor Finalists were determined earlier.
Senior:
Ken Anderson
Roger Craig
L.C. Greenwood
Coach:
Bill Belichick
Contributor:
Robert Kraft
The new process allows for a minimum of one and maximum of three from the above five candidates. I believe that the voters will go out their way to put Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft in together. That allows one spot for the Seniors. For me, that player would be Roger Craig. That player should’ve been Lavvie Dilweg, Verne Lewellen, or Al Wistert. Unfortunately, the voters have apparently shut the door on all deserving players in the Senior pool that played before 1970.
I sure hope the ridiculous new voting process allows for an eight-member Class. There’s more than enough deserving Modern-Era players for it.
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