17 NFL Players Could Retire Now and Make the Hall of Fame
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- Bill Barnwell sorts every active non-rookie NFL player into five tiers (in, on the cusp, keep it up, work to do, missing out), estimating that 17 active players could retire today and still be enshrined using historical comparables rather than personal opinion.
- Matthew Stafford jumped from borderline to lock after winning MVP and a Super Bowl last season, vaulting into the top seven all-time for both career passing yards and touchdowns despite never being viewed as the NFL's top QB through his first 16 seasons.
- Davante Adams and Myles Garrett (Rams) and Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, and Trent Williams (49ers) are the remaining players Barnwell tags as already in, with Evans and Williams called easy first-ballot selections and McCaffrey's injury history offset by multiple seasons as the league's best running back.
- George Kittle and Fred Warner sit on the cusp for the 49ers — Kittle with seven Pro Bowls across eight seasons and four 1,000-yard receiving seasons, Warner with four first-team All-Pro nods in five years — each needing one more substantial season to cross into lock territory.
- Budda Baker has racked up eight Pro Bowls across nine seasons despite one winning season from Arizona, leaving the 30-year-old safety needing just two more nods to hit the threshold where every eligible player with 10+ Pro Bowl appearances has been enshrined.
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba earned Offensive Player of the Year, while Devon Witherspoon became just the 10th defensive back in league history — and one of only three since 1980 — to start his career with three consecutive Pro Bowl selections.
- Kyle Juszczyk's 10th consecutive Pro Bowl nod sets up a live test of the 10-Pro Bowl rule alongside Matthew Slater, with Barnnell noting Juszczyk plays roughly half the offensive snaps and is likely headed to the Hall of Very Good rather than Canton.
Why it matters: Barnwell's tiered framework gives fans and front offices a historical-comparables benchmark for projecting Canton careers, anchored by the 'every eligible 10+ Pro Bowl player is enshrined' rule. Juszczyk and Slater now serve as live tests of whether that heuristic breaks down for fullbacks and special teamers — positions the Hall has historically under-credited. For contenders, the Rams' overnight jump from zero HOF locks to three (Adams, Garrett, Stafford) reframes how teams should value borderline QB résumés in contract talks.
