The number of players who just became eligible for the Hall of Fame this year (players are not on the ballot until five years after retirement) that should be first- or second-ballot locks is pretty absurd. For this reason, I’m leaving the Ray Lewis/Randy Moss/Brian Urlacher group aside for the sake of this piece, and instead focusing on players who have been snubbed for at least two years already.

In addition, Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value (AV) metric will be used as the starting point for this list but supplementing that basic career value metric with numberFire’s Net Expected Points (NEP) and other stats as necessary.

As mentioned earlier, there are always debates over players’ careers due to the “stats vs. rings” question. I firmly fall in the production and stats camp but will break ties in favor of narrative and legacy.

Let’s induct some players into the Hall of Almost There!