Troy Polamalu has announced that he’s retiring after a mostly spectacular 12-year career with the Pittsburgh

Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Steelers.

During his career he racked up eight Pro Bowls and four first-team All Pro awards, one behind Ravens safety Ed Reed in both categories. Polamalu also was a second-team All Decade safety on the team of the 2000s. Reed and Brian Dawkins won first-team and Polamalu shared his honors with Darren Sharper.

So Polamalu’s credentials as a Hall of Famer should be without question, right?

Probably so. He’s a year behind Reed in eligibility, so I would normally think he’s a year behind Reed in induction – though Reed could go in slightly more quickly due to the additional honors. Still, Polamalu’s credentials are solid. He becomes eligible in 2020 and one would think he’d have a pretty good shot of making it then or, at least, shortly thereafter.

However, it’s been very difficult in recent years to figure out how voters view the safety position. There are several top-notch candidates from the last three All-Decade teams – among others – who have still not been voted into the Hall – guys with similar postseason profiles to Polamalu and Reed. So how long they wait really depends on how voters decide to sort out the backlog.

Here’s at least a partial list of guys who seem to be viewed as legit candidates:

Brian Dawkins (9/4)is eligible in 2017. Darren Sharper (5/2), whose legal mess throws some interesting side notes into his journey, becomes eligible in 2016.

While Sharper’s case was weaker than Dawkins, Reed or Polamalu, the list does not end there. Three of the safeties who made the 1990s All-Decade team — Steve Atwater, Le Roy Butler, Carnell Lake – have not been inducted in Canton yet. Ronnie Lott, a second-team All Decade player in the 90s, played most of his career in the 1980s – and he is the last true safety enshrined in Canton. He made it in 2000.

Atwater’s case is a strong one. He, too, had eight Pro Bowl appearances. He scored two first-team All Pro awards. He has been a Hall of Fame semifinalist in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Yet, he’s never been a finalist. It’s a little harder to be upset about the cases for Lake, who had a 5/1 profile, or for Butler, who had a 4/4.

Then you’ve got the Team of the 80s. Lott is in the Hall as a first-team safety. But the other four honorees from the position – Kenny Easley (5/3), Deron Cherry (6/3), Nolan Cromwell (4/3) and Joey Browner (6/3) – have not gotten a whiff of interest.

The voters’ collective lack of interest in Easley, who shared first-team All Decade honors with Lott, can likely be explained by the length of his career. He put up his profile, impressively, in a seven-year, injury-shortened career.

At least based on the profile of other safeties from the last three decades who have not been enshrined in the Hall of Fame, it’s hard to see Cromwell getting much of a look at this point. And while Cherry and Browner have never seriously been mentioned as candidates, it’s hard to believe that 6/3 profiles can be completely ignored.

You could also go back to legit candidates like Cliff Harris from Dallas, who was first-team on the 1970s All Decade team, but at this point players from that era are no longer eligible for modern era enshrinement. However, you do have more guys who have retired in recent years – such as John Lynch (9/2) Darren Woodson (5/3) and Rodney Harrison, who I was surprised to see only put up a 2/2 profile, but who retired as the all-time leader in NFL history for sacks by a defensive back with 30.5 while also picking off 34 passes – and you’ve got a collection of worthy players creating a massive logjam.

So, what does this all mean? I suspect Polamalu does get enshrined. And a bunch of these other guys hopefully will, as well. But this is a position that has largely been ignored for more than a decade now, to the detriment of some really, really game-changing, worthy players.

It’s been noted on our comment board that the current slate of voters for the Hall of Fame have done a pretty decent job in recent years of righting some wrongs from the past and getting some logjams cleared (see Cris Carter, Tim Brown, Andre Reed and the challenges that trio faced for several years before finally they each were selected).

But this one could take some time. And if the voters go with safeties the way they did with wide receivers, they may start taking some of the previously eligible players and putting them in before the current era of players get the nod.

So, is it possible Reed and Polamalu each hear their names called, respectively, four and five years from now? Absolutely – and I’d have no problem with that. But if it took each of those guys a couple additional years of eligibility to get in while voters make room for guys like Dawkins or Lynch, that wouldn’t surprise me – and, to be honest, it would not offend me either.