Steve Smith: Hall of Famer?

Andre Rison signed his doomed contract with the Browns and Eric Metcalf, Bert Emanuel and Terance Mathis combined to catch 250-plus passes that season.

 

And each went over 1,000 yards receiving....only the third time that had happened in NFL history. Makes for a fun trivia question.

 

Alvin Harper is on the other end of the stick. Left an ideal situation for Tampa and was drummed out of the league in three years.
The anti-John Taylor.

 

I suspect he is, and you know what'll help him? His return stats before he was essentially taken off of those duties. Six TDs in 3 years.

I think the guy's one of the greats, and shit yes, I take into account who threw him the ball for years, the fact that Carolina was committed to running the ball into the dusty earth...he'll be in and it won't take him long as it did Reed or Bettis.

 

I think Smith will have to wait. Maybe not as long as Reed (8) but Bettis (5) territory is possible.

The receiver logjam is already starting to build up and they have shown they are making them wait.

Harrison is about to be a finalist for the third time. I assume he's going in.
Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt made the semifinalist list on their first try this past ballot
T.O. is going to be on the ballot for the first time in 2016. You have any faith the writers will put him in right away?
Hines Ward is going to be on the ballot for the first time in 2017
Randy Moss is going to be on the ballot for the first time in 2018? You have any faith the writers will put him in right away?
Reggie Wayne could end up on the ballot before him or on the same ballot since he's not signed yet/could also be playing his last season.
Andre Johnson might be playing his last season as well and be on the same ballot.

I've posted this before but with the cap at 5, a lot of the spots coming up are/should be spoken for by first-timers before Smith in 2021:
2016: Favre, Owens, X, X, X
2017: Tomlinson, X, X, X, X (other first-timers are Jason Taylor, Hines Ward and Brian Dawkins)
2018: Lewis, Moss, Urlacher, X, X (other first-timer is Steve Hutchinson)
2019: Gonzalez, Reed, Bailey, X, X
2020: Polamalu, X, X, X, X

And that's assuming all of those nine were to go in during that time-frame. If one or two don't, it's going to affect Smith. If he ends up being the top guy from this year, then it heightens his chances. But what if Peyton says after the year that he's done or he suffers a career-ending injury? Or Charles Woodson? Or Tom Brady? He could go from the best available first-year candidate to the fourth-best and an afterthought.

 

Champ Bailey?

 

Yes

 

First-ballot? I'm not challenging that; just that it never occured to me. You're way more in-the-know than I am, so I'll take your word.

 

In 15 seasons (started 212 of a possible 240 games and started all but three games in the first nine years of his career) he was a three-time first team all-pro, all of which were consecutive, and four-time second team all-pro, was a 12-time Pro-Bowler, was first-team all-decade for the 2000s.

Has the numbers -- 52 interceptions and 174 passes defended with just over 900 total tackles

His similar players on ProFootballReference are Ronnie Lott, Ronde Barber, Charles Woodson, Ed Reed, Aeneas Williams, Brian Dawkins, Paul Krause, Willie Brown, Eric Allen and Troy Polamalu.

 

Fair enough.

 

Bailey seems like a "slam dunk" first ballot guy to me. Owens and Moss should be, but I could see where their locker room and off-the-field baggage causes them to lose some support.

 

If Owens and Moss aren't first-ballot HOFers, they should just burn the place down because it's meaningless.