A couple weeks back, when the Minnesota Vikings beat the Carolina Panthers, Harrison Smith put up an insane stat line with 14 total tackles (8 solo, 6 assisted), 3 sacks and a forced fumble–apparently the first player in NFL history to put up that stat line. Being a lifelong Minnesota native & Viking fan, it started a lot of talk (or maybe amplified) talk locally about Smith being a Hall of Famer.
I’m not even clear a couple weeks later if I just never heard that talk before, or if it hadn’t really started until this season, which is very possibly his last season in purple (if not his last altogether). A lot of fans locally speculated that the team would move on after last season, given their salary cap woes–but Smith agreed to cut his salary from $14.7 million to $8 million (with $2 million in incentives) to play a 12th season with the Vikings, who brought in Brian Flores as their new defensive coordinator for 2023…a move that many saw as a perfect fit for a player like Smith.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know Smith was an amazing player–anyone regularly watching the team since he was taken 29th overall in 2012 knows he’s often been the lynchpin in the defense, with a penchant for making big plays when the team needed them most. He came into the 2023 season with 34 career interceptions, 16.5 sacks, and 946 tackles. While he has definitely slowed down, he finished the 2022 season with 85 tackles and 5 interceptions in 14 games, although was perhaps not used as aggressively in Ed Donatell’s new 3-4 scheme as he was in previous coach Mike Zimmer’s schemes. But I had never really given much consideration to whether or not he was Hall of Fame caliber…not to say I thought he wasn’t worthy of consideration–but that ultimately with so many top tier safeties in the league these days, he would be in that list of guys that would maybe be fringe HOF conversation after several years of debate.
But Tweets…err…Xs(?) like the one below after that Panthers game got me thinking–clearly a lot of Viking fans think it’s a forgone conclusion that Smith will get his gold jacket…so am I underrating him?
? 14 Tackles (8 Solo)
? 3 Sacks, 2 TFL
? 1 Strip Sack Returned for 6
? Game Sealing Sack
It’s easy to be a prisoner of the moment, but that was the BEST game of Harrison Smith’s HOF career. pic.twitter.com/mEszzUX5av
Another post I saw had this graphic, which made me think maybe I really was underrating just how good his career really has been:
Of course, we all know stats aren’t the only thing that will be considered for the Hall of Fame–and some stats like tackles are generally considered somewhat subjective, meaning they’ll have even less influence. His award profile according to ProFootballReference is 6x Pro Bowl, 1x All-Pro–which falls well short of Polamau’s 8x Pro Bowl, 4x All-Pro, 2x Super Bowl Champion, All-2000’s team, and 2010 Defensive Player of the Year award.
Not that it’s at all a perfect measurement, but the ProFootballReference “Similar Player” feature has Smith listed with Adrian Wilson, Eric Davis and Mark Carrier–solid players, but not exactly knocking on the door to Canton. Their HOF Monitor rating has him at 41.48–94th among DB, and compared to the average DB HOF score of 98.02. The lowest ranked player on that list of DB’s currently in the Hall of Fame is Dick LeBeau at 48.20. The lowest ranked more contemporary HOF player is John Lynch. Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Eric Weddle are all considerably higher than Smith–as are Chris Harris Jr., Stephon Gilmore and Tryann Mathieu
All of this makes me think that Smith has a much more difficult road to the Hall of Fame than many Vikings fans think–he’s a shoo-in for the Vikings Hall of Fame, possibly a Ring of Honor level player, and might even end up having his number retired (maybe sharing the honor with Paul Krause, who has been vocal about his belief that his number should be retired).
But what says the Zoneblitz.com readership, does Harrison Smith have any shot at Canton?
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the official list of 173 Modern Era Candidates for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including nine first year eligible candidates.
Those nine include:
WR Brandon Marshall
WR Jordy Nelson
TE Antonio Gates
RB Jamaal Charles
OL TJ Lang
OL Josh Sitton
OL Max Unger
DL Haloti Ngata
DL Julius Peppers
The full list comprised of 94 offensive, 62 defensive and 17 special teams players can be seen on the Hall of Fame website. The list will be cut down to 25 semifinalists, announced in November.
On Zoneblitz, we obviously spend a lot of time thinking & discussing who should be elected to the Hall of Fame–but something I hadn’t really considered much was whether or not anyone should have their bust removed from Canton altogether. I’m not even sure if there is a way to go about doing that (given a couple people who haven’t been), although obviously there are some that are probably not really welcomed back each year for the ceremony, and likely not promoted in exhibits through the Hall.
What got me thinking about this was an article–or rather a listicle–that came up in my Facebook feed last week (although it was written back in January of 2022). It’s one of those articles designed to make you scroll for half a mile, see about 8-dozen ads, and then share it on your own socials–but I’m not going to make you go read the article (although you’re welcome to, if you’d like), unless you really want to see their logic.
While some of them <cough>OJ<cough> aren’t a big surprise, curious what you’ll think of the rest of the list. From SportScroll.com, here’s 30 NFL players that should be removed from the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
Came across a thread on Reddit about ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter going off on Mike Shanahan not being elected to the Hall of Fame this year. According to the article linked from DenverSports.com, Schefter’s rant was on the “Schlereth and Evans” show on 104.3 The Fan this morning. Schefter covered the Broncos early in his career, first at the the Rocky Mountain News and then the Denver Post.
“I think it’s a bunch of BS. Mike Shanahan is a Hall of Famer yesterday, today and tomorrow. I mean, its ridiculous. Who made these 50 people the voices of God and the deciders of fate? Like, who comes up with these stupid rules?”
Schefter said he does trust the voters, but he thinks there are other people who know even more about football. Ultimately, he feels the process feels unfair, and that unfairness is going to mean Shanahan waits longer.
“These are mistakes. Mike Shanahan is a Hall of Famer. He’s just not in the Hall of Fame. He belongs in the Hall of Fame, he should’ve been in before. He’s going to get in. But let’s just make him wait to 2024 or 2026… until the judges of the game, the arbiters of the truth, get to issue that pass to go to the Hall. Like, okay, give me a break.”
I generally don’t disagree that there could be tweaks to the process–but if I’m looking to make an argument for someone who hasn’t made it yet–especially as a non-player–I’m not sure Shanahan is the guy I hang that argument on. I have no issues with him making the Hall, but I also have no issues with him waiting while others get considered–and I don’t have a huge desire to make the Hall more inclusive, just to get some fringe guys that a small (but often vocal) fan base thinks belongs in because of what the player/coach/person meant to their team–it’s about what that person meant to the league and the game in general, and many players–even that we discuss on this site–just don’t fit that bill.
With the formal weeklong ceremonies and enshrinement of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 only a few weeks away in Canton Ohio, the process to select the next class is already underway with recent voting by the committees for the senior and coach-contributor categories, and results released by the Hall.
The senior players who are 2024 semifinalists are:
Ken Anderson
Ottis Anderson
Carl Banks
Maxie Baughan
Larry Brown
Mark Clayton
Charlie Conerly
Roger Craig
Henry Ellard
Randy Gradishar
Lester Hayes
Chris Hinton
Cecil Isbell
Joe Jacoby
Billy “White Shoes” Johnson
Mike Kenn
Bob Kuechenberg
George Kunz
Albert Lewis
Jim Marshall
Clay Matthews Jr.
Steve McMichael
Eddie Meador
Stanley Morgan
Tommy Nobis
Art Powell
Sterling Sharpe
Steve Tasker
Otis Taylor
Everson Walls
Al Wistert.
The coaches/ contributors who are 2024 semifinalists are:
From these lists, the 12 senior player and 12 coach-contributors finalists will be announced on July 27th, and then 3 seniors are selected on August 15 and 1 coach-contributor on August 22nd to have their cases presented to the full PFHOF selection committee and voted on (each finalist needing 80% yes from the 50 member committee) at their meeting in early January when the Class of 2024 will elected. The official announcement of the Class of 2024 on the NFL Honors show on Thursday February 8th, 2024.
The process to select the 5 modern candidates for the Class of 204 will occur during the fall – in advance of that January 2024 selection meeting – look for posts and discussion here on those results in coming months.
But with seniors and coach-contributor semi-finalists now released, let’s start into our debates and discussions on these deserving candidates as their potential paths to Canton have started.
Another quick Hall of Fame post from a site I just found recently–The33rdTeam.com. With a content team that features several former NFL Coaches, Executives & Players, in theory they should know what they’re talking about.
They recently put out a post about current NFL players that they believe are going to make the cut to Canton–and some that are on the fence.
Their verdict:
IN:
DL Aaron Donald
WR Julio Jones
TE Travis Kelce
QB Patrick Mahomes
G Zack Martin
LB/DE Von Miller
QB Aaron Rodgers
K Justin Tucker
LB Bobby Wagner
OT Trent Williams
LIKELY IN:
RB Derrick Henry
WR Tyreek Hill
DE Cam Jordan
C Jason Kelce
G Quentin Nelson
OT Jason Peters
QB Russell Wilson
POTENTIAL:
WR Davante Adams
G Joel Bitonio
DT Fletcher Cox
DE Myles Garrett
LB/DE Khalil Mack
WR/RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson
CB Jalen Ramsey
QB Matt Ryan
QB Matthew Stafford
DT Ndamukong Suh
What do you think of their list? Who was miscategorized? Who did they forget? Let us know!
A couple weeks back, when the Minnesota Vikings beat the Carolina Panthers, Harrison Smith put up an insane stat line with 14 total tackles (8 solo, 6 assisted), 3 sacks and a forced fumble–apparently the first player in NFL history to put up that stat line. Being a lifelong Minnesota native & Viking fan, it started a lot of talk (or maybe amplified) talk locally about Smith being a Hall of Famer.
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