Super Bowl LIX is full of stars. Here’s the elite tier … and who could get to Canton if they continue to ascend.
Super Bowl LIX is full of stars. Here’s the elite tier … and who could get to Canton if they continue to ascend.
The Kansas City Chiefs will play in the Super Bowl for the fifth time in the past six years, with the Philadelphia Eagles standing in the way of the first three-peat of the Super Bowl era.
On Feb. 6, as part of the run-up to Super Bowl LIX, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 will be announced during the NFL Honors show. With that in mind, it’s a good time to take a peek at the two Super Bowl rosters and see who might have already put together a résumé worthy of a bronze bust, as well as those who, with a little more good fortune, could be on a path to Canton:
Kansas City Chiefs
Get the measurements for the gold jacket
The Hall’s board of selectors loves Super Bowl rings. Year in and year out, it’s title winners — especially multiple-title winners behind center — who have a far more favorable chance to be enshrined.
If the Chiefs win Feb. 9, Mahomes will have helped the franchise author the first three-peat of the Super Bowl era. He’s just 29 years old, in pursuit of a fourth Super Bowl win in his first eight seasons. Also, if the Chiefs beat the Eagles, Mahomes would become the first quarterback since Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw to start and lead his team to four Super Bowl wins over a span of six years.
That’s Tom Brady territory — Brady had three of his seven career Super Bowl wins within his first seven years in the league. Mahomes — who has played in the AFC Championship Game every year since becoming a starter in 2018 — is already a six-time Pro Bowl selection, a three-time first-team All Pro, a two-time league MVP and a three-time Super Bowl MVP before this year’s title game even kicks off.
Eight years into a career that could go for at least twice that if he stays healthy and motivated, Mahomes is already second all-time in playoff wins among quarterbacks (17), and he has had two 40-touchdown seasons.
Brady’s 23-year career could be divided into three Hall of Fame-worthy segments, and Mahomes, win or lose, has already matched the first leg of Brady’s historical journey.
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TE Travis Kelce
Start with Kelce’s production — he was the fastest tight end in league history to 10,000 career receiving yards at 140 games. By comparison, it took Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez 177 games and Antonio Gates, one of 15 modern-era players considered as Hall of Fame finalists this year, 179. Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe reached the plateau in 203 games.
Kelce is also the first tight end since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 to have a 1,000-yard receiving season at age 33 or older — 1,338 yards in 2022.
He’s third all-time in receiving yards among tight ends, while he and Mahomes have also set the career postseason touchdown record for a quarterback-receiver duo. Toss in three Super Bowl rings already, and the fact that Kelce has led all receivers in postseason touchdowns four different times.
DT Chris Jones
Jones is a playoff star, and when his case is presented, he will be on the positive side of a long-standing Hall of Fame coin. Defensive players without a Super Bowl ring or championship game win, especially those from the pre-Super Bowl era, might have the most difficult road to enshrinement of all.
But three Super Bowl wins and counting, with performances good enough to have been the MVP of at least two of those games, will serve Jones well.
Jones has had plenty of big-game moments despite being an interior player who regularly battles double-teams. He also has a stout regular-season résumé that includes 80.5 career sacks (two seasons with 15.5), six Pro Bowls and three first-team All-Pro selections.
Hopkins has been a Chiefs player for all of 10 regular-season games and two playoff games. But his career numbers are hefty, and the board of selectors has consistently shown a penchant for pushing modern-era receivers with numbers into the list of finalists each year.
Once there, receivers have recently tended to split the votes for enshrinement, but the likes of Isaac Bruce in 2020, Calvin Johnson in 2021 and Andre Johnson in 2024 have eventually powered through for a gold jacket. Torry Holt and Reggie Wayne have already been finalists in multiple years, and Larry Fitzgerald is eligible for the first time next season, so the jam will to get more crowded in the years ahead. It’s the byproduct of an era that saw passing-game numbers explode.
For his part, Hopkins is a three-time first-team All-Pro and had a seven-year run with at least 1,300 yards receiving in each of those seasons. Like Andre Johnson, there will be plenty of consideration given to the numbers Hopkins put up without a marquee quarterback for many of those seasons — he was 32 when he joined the Chiefs and Mahomes.
Still some work to do, but maybe …
It’s the most extreme case, but here’s how tough it is for a guard to earn the gold jacket: Jerry Kramer was the only guard selected to the NFL’s 50th anniversary team and still had to wait until he was named to the Hall’s Class of 2018 as a seniors finalist, 44 years after he was first eligible.
Chiefs legend Will Shields was named to 12 consecutive Pro Bowls to close out his career and wasn’t selected for enshrinement until his fourth year of eligibility. He was the third right guard to be enshrined.
There are almost as many centers (11) in the Hall of Fame as true guards (15), but the 32-year-old Thuney has a profile that will get some support in the years ahead. He’s a four-time Super Bowl winner and a three-time Pro Bowl selection overall, to go with back-to-back first-team All-Pro selections over the last two seasons.
It’s the Mahomes effect to some extent: Three of Thuney’s Pro Bowl selections have come in his four seasons with the Chiefs. His finishing kick for Hall consideration may depend on his health and desire in the seasons ahead.
Way too early, but …
Humphrey, 25, has already been selected to three Pro Bowls in his four seasons, as well as a first-team All-Pro selection and one second-team All-Pro. He received votes for Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2021 — finishing third when the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase ran away with the award.
Humphrey hasn’t sat out a game in his career, and as long as he stays healthy snapping the ball to Mahomes at quarterback, with the Chiefs remaining in the title conversation, he is on the path.
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Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles’ best and most recent chances at gold jackets have worn the team colors — just not during this Super Bowl run. Center Jason Kelce and tackle Jason Peters will have strong cases.
But the Super Bowl LIX version of these Eagles does have some players nudging Hall consideration.
Still some work to do, but maybe …
Six Pro Bowl selections will put any player in an initial conversation, especially a player such as Johnson who was regarded as the best right tackle in the league for significant portions of his career. But the conversation about Johnson will also be filled with some intrigue. Johnson is on record that he should not be considered for football’s greatest individual honor because of two suspensions during his career for performance-enhancing drugs: four games in 2014 and 10 games in 2016, in what were his second and fourth years in the league.
In an interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia in 2019, Johnson said, “I don’t think I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame … I don’t think it would be right.”
Johnson has also dealt with injuries at times and hasn’t played every game in a season since 2015. Another Super Bowl victory would surely be an asset to his case.
Derrick Henry is the only active running back with over 10,000 career yards rushing, a benchmark that has been foundational for backs enshrined in the past. Edgerrin James (13th all time in rushing yards) is the most recent back to be elected, in the Class of 2020.
Two backs went in with the Class of 2017 — Terrell Davis and LaDainian Tomlinson. Frank Gore is eligible for the first time next year and Adrian Peterson (No. 5 all time) will be eligible in 2026.
It’s possible Barkley, Henry and Christian McCaffrey will come up in the same timeframe for consideration, so it’s potentially crowded and Barkley lacks some of the numbers compiled by those other two backs. But if Barkley, now with three Pro Bowl selections, keeps the momentum (or anywhere close to it) of his 2,005 yards rushing in his first season with the Eagles, he could shove his way into future conversations. A Super Bowl win would obviously help. But he might need several more years like 2024, when Barkley logged 27.8% of his career total of 7,216 rushing yards.
CB Darius Slay Jr.
Slay had a run from 2017 to 2023 when he was selected to six Pro Bowls in seven seasons, also leading the league in interceptions once. But the clock might be running out, given that Slay is 33 and in his 12th season.
Way too early, but …
DT Jalen Carter
For this exercise, you’re looking for profile. As in players who are consistently impactful and considered by personnel executives to be at or near the top of the pyramid at their positions.
If the Eagles can turn this Super Bowl appearance into a longer run, their best players will be on the path for consideration. Players such as wide receiver A.J. Brown, with over 7,000 receiving yards at age 27, would be in the mix. But among the team’s most youthful core, the 23-year-old Carter will bear watching.
Carter has one Pro Bowl selection in his two seasons, and Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has turned him into an every-down defender who has rarely come off the field in this postseason.
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