17 NFL Players Could Retire Now and Make the Hall of Fame
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- Myles Garrett, Davante Adams, and Matthew Stafford are classified as locks among NFC West players — Barnwell says Stafford "will waltz in" after winning MVP and a Super Bowl, already ranking in the top seven for career passing yards and touchdowns.
- Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, and Trent Williams join them in the "in" category, with Evans and Williams called easy first-ballot selections and McCaffrey credited with multiple seasons as the league's best running back.
- George Kittle and Fred Warner sit "on the cusp" for the 49ers — Kittle has seven Pro Bowls in eight seasons before tearing his Achilles, while Warner had four first-team All-Pro nods in five years before his own serious injury.
- Budda Baker needs just two more Pro Bowls to match the threshold at which every eligible player (10+ selections) has been enshrined, while Trey McBride scored 11 touchdowns in 2025 after managing just six combined in his prior three seasons.
- Kyle Juszczyk just earned his 10th consecutive Pro Bowl as a fullback, becoming a test case for whether the 10-Pro Bowl rule extends to a position with limited alternatives — Barnwell notes the 49ers were willing to cut him this offseason before re-signing him, saving about $500,000.
- The Seahawks, defending Super Bowl champions, have zero players in the "in" or "on the cusp" categories, a product Barnwell attributes to a roster built almost entirely of young stars (Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon) plus solid veterans.
- Puka Nacua already has 1,486- and 1,715-yard receiving seasons by his third campaign, and Devon Witherspoon became just the 10th defensive back in league history to start his career with three consecutive Pro Bowl selections.
Why it matters: Barnwell's methodology — using 2002's 55 eventual Hall of Famers as a roughly 3% benchmark — gives readers a concrete filter for separating locks (Stafford, Garrett, Adams) from hopefuls across all 32 teams. Edge cases like Juszczyk and Kittle will test whether positional scarcity (fullback, tight end) can override the Pro Bowl counting rules that have historically predicted enshrinement for every eligible player with 10 appearances.
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