Hall of Fame predictions: Who will make the next 10 classes? - ESPN

Predicting what will happen in the NFL over the next 12 months is impossibly difficult. You have to account for every single bit of player movement, foresee injuries that will alter the season in a moment and adjust for everything from weather that's too hot to conditions that are icy cold. And then, after all that, the Chiefs just end up winning the Super Bowl anyway.

Naturally, I want to raise the difficulty even higher. The good news for me is I'm going to be predicting upcoming Pro Football Hall of Fame classes, so many of the players have already finished their careers and finalized their credentials. The bad news is I've chosen to predict the next 10 Hall of Fame classes, so if you thought figuring out what's going to happen in 2025 is tough, imagine how hard it'll be to prognosticate the goings-on in 2034, a decade down the line.

I'm going to try my best. Since active players and coaches become eligible five years after retiring, the classes toward the tail end of this exercise will be full of players currently in the NFL. As a result, I've had to do some guesswork as to when veteran players will retire and what their résumés will look like when they do call it quits. Players I project to be playing through the 2030 season, including Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons, won't appear in this piece.

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I'll be considering players who are already retired and eligible for the Hall and coaches who have recently been active, but I won't be focusing on senior candidates from the past. I'll mention candidates as they become eligible each year and then again if I project them to make it to Canton, as needed. And finally, just to be clear: These aren't my suggestions for who should make the