On August 3, the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2024 will formally be inducted.
We’re looking at which players from the 32 clubs in the league, both current and former, that we believe will one day be awarded a comparable accolade as the yearly ceremony in Canton, Ohio, approaches in less than a month.
These three Buffalo Bills deserve to live on in football history at some point.
Despite just having played in six NFL seasons, the two-time Pro Bowler has started his career with performances worthy of the Hall of Fame. With a chance to surpass the record for the most running touchdowns by a signal-caller, Allen, the seventh overall choice in 2018, is destined to become one of the NFL’s best dual-threat quarterbacks.
Allen required some time to mature into the player he is now, but since 2020, he has established himself as one of the top three quarterbacks in the NFL. Allen is now Buffalo’s third-all-time leading passer with 22,703 yards. In 2023, Allen broke a number of NFL milestones, including being the first player in history to record four straight seasons with 40 or more touchdowns. With eleven touchdowns on the ground and in the air, he broke the record for most games in a season.
For Allen to be regarded as one of the greatest of all time, he must still win a Super Bowl, but a ring is not a prerequisite for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ultimately, the five quarterbacks that are inducted into the Hall of Fame—Dan Marino, Warren Moon, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, and Jim Kelly—never raised the Lombardi Trophy.When Miller agreed to a six-year, $120 million contract during the 2022 free-agency period, neither the organization nor he had anticipated that his time with the Bills would begin this way. The 35-year-old is still on the small list of active players who will one day be recognized as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.After going second overall in the 2011 NFL Draft, the No. 2 selection became one of the top pass-rushers in the league in his first season with the Denver Broncos. In addition to being selected an All-Pro second-team player and winning Defensive Rookie of the Year, Miller also received his first of eight career Pro Bowl selections in that season.
In 2015, Miller’s career reached its pinnacle when he won the MVP Award in Super Bowl 50 with Denver after holding the Carolina Panthers to only 10 points. After being moved to Los Angeles in the midst of that season, Miller went on to win his second title, Super Bowl LVI, with the Rams in February 2022.
Miller is second only to Calais Campbell in tackles for loss (164) and leads all active players in sacks (123.5). By winning a Super Bowl with three separate teams, Miller will become the first player in NFL history. This season, he hopes to regain his form and help the Bills win their first Lombardi Trophy.
Williams played for the Bills for 13 years, the seventh-most in franchise history, after being selected in the fifth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. The six-time Pro Bowler concluded his career with 609 defensive tackles—the 16th most in NFL history—and 48.5 sacks, the sixth-highest in Bills history. Williams has tenth-best career quarterback hits total, although it’s important to note that metric just started to be formally tracked in 2006.
