Today, the 2019 Hall of Fame class will be announced.  Chiefs safety Johnny Robinson is the senior’s committee candidate. He will almost certainly make it to Canton, becoming the 6th player from that great Chiefs defense to make it to the Hall of Fame. Former Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and Gil Brandt were selected as Contributors Finalists Announced, and both are expected to fly in without much debate.

And then there are the 15 modern-era finalists.  This includes 3 first-time candidates, 2 coaches, and 11 other players who have been analyzed before:

So who will make it? In the summer of 2008, Jason Lisk justifiably ranked Tony Gonzalez as the second-best tight end of all time. After that post, he put up another Hall of Fame caliber career, with 5 more Pro Bowl selections and 2 more first-time All-Pro nods. There has never been a tight end inducted on the first ballot, and Gonzalez is more than worthy of that honor. He has had the greatest career any tight end has ever had.

Ed Reed was always in the discussion for game’s best safety from ’04 to ’10, and was a legendary, game-changing player who was one of the few defensive players who could get you to a screen. Every game with Reed playing was better for it, and the NFL — in any era — would have benefited from more players like Reed.

Gonzalez and Reed require no debate. After them, it gets interesting. In my opinion, Champ Bailey resides in that gray, TO-esque area, where they are on the border between “no question Hall of Famer” and “he is a Hall of Famer”. There’s no question that Bailey will get in, and soon, but I’d say there’s a small chance he has to wait a year or two. He’s a 12-time Pro Bowler and a 3-time 1st-team AP All-Pro, but was he so much better than Ty Law that he would jump him in the process? This might be the year that the Hall of Fame takes some time to induct some long overdue players, and making Bailey wait may be part of that process. Either way, Bailey is an obvious pick for the Hall of Fame, and the only question is when.

As for Law, here’s what I said about him two years ago:

Law has an impressive resume: his 2005 season was arguably the best ever when it comes to interceptions, he won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, and had some stellar postseason performances.  He also stuck around for a long time. He probably wasn’t Champ Bailey good and perhaps wasn’t even Ronde Barber good (although they had such different styles, comparing them is tough), but both of those guys are Hall of Famers to me.  I’d vote for Law, and this is as good of a year as any.

Edgerrin James is the only running back on the list, and Isaac Bruce is the only wide receiver.  Both have good cases as dominant players for a long time, but both are also easy to place in a tier with the best non-Hall of Fame players at their position.  James joins inner-tier HOFers as one of just 4 players with 4 seasons of 1500+ rushing yards, but he played in the ultimate stud running back era.  When it comes to Hall of Fame gray ink, James is very impressive, but not necessarily more impressive than Tiki Barber or Ricky Watters.  As I wrote two years ago, Bruce  didn’t fare super well in my career rankings list, or on this list of gray ink, but was the rare wide receiver who starred on both bad teams and great teams.

Offensive line is where I expect the Hall of Fame to make some additions this year, as Alan Faneca, Kevin Mawae, Steve Hutchinson, and Tony Boselli are all up.  Here’s what I wrote about Faneca two years ago:

Faneca’s game was hard to criticize: 9 pro bowls and 6 first-team AP All-Pros is stellar. On the other hand, it’s hard for a guard to make the Hall of Fame. He was my clear choice for All-Pro guard of the ’00s, and Will Shields made the HOF (after three years as a finalist) in 2015 with 12 Pro Bowls and 2 first-team AP All-Pros. Steve Hutchinson will be eligible next year, and I think the committee may want to get Faneca in before that. Faneca was a finalist last year, in his first year of eligibility: I suspect this is his time.

And here’s what I wrote about Hutchinson last year:

For a 7-year stretch, Hutchinson was a first-team All-Pro 6 times, including 5 by the Associated Press. In 2007 and 2008, Adrian Peterson led the NFL in rushing yards per game, and in 2005, Shaun Alexander was the AP MVP. Both players had success running behind Hutchinson, who was an obvious choice for the 2000s All-Deade team. And while the All-Decade team has two starters, I suspect the majority would view Hutchinson as the best guard of the 2000s. He’s an obvious first ballot Hall of Fame candidate.

Hutchinson wasn’t so obvious a pick last year, I guess. He and Faneca have similar resumes, and I think at least one of them gets in this year.  Faneca, as the older player, probably gets in first.

Kevin Mawae? I would vote for him in the abstract, as I thought he was a great player, but I’m not sure if he’s a tier above the other centers of his era:

On Mawae, he falls on the low end on Richie’s scale here, and while I loved him as a Jets fan and voted him on my All-Decade team, I’m not sure he really separated himself from other great centers of his era.  Jeff Saturday, Matt Birk, Olin Kreutz, and Tom Nalen stand out as good choices, and I don’t think I’d say Mawae was as good (but it’s close) as the man who replaced him in New York, Nick Mangold.

For Tony Boselli, his biggest issue has been the short career.  I don’t think you make a great case for him over either Faneca or Hutchinson, unless you really want to focus on the left tackle position as requiring a lower threshold to get in.  I’m not particularly moved by that.  Boselli was a great player, and perhaps he will get a Kenny Easley-like bump down the line: both players were 5-time Pro Bowlers, 3-time first-team AP All-Pros, and started between 87 and 90 games.  Easley arguably had the better case, starting for more seasons and also picking up some non-AP first-team All-Pro honors in a fourth season.

Moving to the non-offensive players, here is what I wrote two years ago:

John Lynch: As I wrote last year, Lynch was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection, but four of those came in Denver, and at least the last two were reputation picks. He was a first-team All-Pro choice in only two years, and is not remembered as a historically great safety. He certainly wasn’t Troy Polamalu or Ed Reed, and I don’t think he did enough to elevate him from the large tier of safeties from his era such as Brian Dawkins, Carnell Lake, Steve Atwater, LeRoy Butler, Rodney Harrison, and Darren Sharper. Lynch was a great player — not being Hall of Fame-worthy is hardly a knock — but in my view, his play wasn’t historically great; given that, he wasn’t even great enough for a long enough period of time.

Don Coryell: Five [now seven] years ago, I wrote a lengthy piece on Coryell’s candidacy. Not much has changed in the interim, so I’ll just re-recommend that piece. Actually, one thing has changed: I came up with the Coryell Index, a rating system that Coryell dominated (man, he really should have seen that one coming!) Of course, dominating the Coryell Index is not necessarily a good thing. That said, no self-respecting football fan can be anti-Coryell; of the six names that I quickly dismissed, Coryell is the one that wouldn’t bother me at all if he was selected.

I would not vote for either, which leaves Steve Atwater, Richard Seymour, and Tom Flores.  Taking them in reverse: Flores was 10 games over .500 for his career.  That is enough to disqualify him, in my opinion.  Yes, Weeb Ewbank had an even worse record, but there were more extenuating circumstances.  Ewbank won titles with two franchises, won two of the most important games in NFL history, and actually built both teams.  He has a stronger case, but even now, Ewbank would struggle to make it in.

Atwater and Seymour are both solid choices, but I think Seymour is too young to get in now.  This will be the year that the Hall of Fame tries to rectify old mistakes, and that starts with Atwater.  There has been a strong groundswell of support for Atwater, and this would make it a Broncos-heavy class (with Bowlen).  Denver candidates have a long history of struggling in this process, and this is as good a year as any to reverse that trend.  I’m on the fence about him — I’d like to hear your thoughts — as a strong part of his candidate is his All-Decade selection, which is as much about the year he entered the league as anything else.  Still, I think he makes it.

My predictions: Gonzalez, Reed, Faneca, Law, and Atwater.