The Green Bay Packers have deserving candidates for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2026, but as Mike Holmgren learned last year, deserving has little to do with it.
The Packers have five candidates still alive in the hall’s four categories. They include Cecil Isbell and Lavvie Dilweg in the seniors category, Jack Vainisi among contributors and Mike Holmgren among coaches. Guard Jahri Evans, who played 11 of his 12 years with the New Orleans Saints and was a finalist last year, remains in the modern era players category.
Modern era Packers players who did not make the cut from 128 to 52 candidates this year included Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson, Jeff Saturday, Josh Sitton, Nick Collins, Allen Rossum, A.J. Hawk and Clay Matthews III, although his father, Clay Matthews Jr., is included on the seniors list. Bruce Matthews, Clay Jr.’s brother, is a member of the hall of fame.
Only three former Packers organization members were hall of fame finalists for the class of 2025, including Holmgren, Evans and wide receiver Sterling Sharpe, who was elected and joined the hall of fame in August.
Green Bay Packers historian Cliff Christl made compelling cases that Isbell and Dilweg should be in the hall of fame. Others champion Packers executive Vainisi.
“Had Isbell not cut his career short, he almost certainly would be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame today and maybe in the conversation with (quarterback Sammy) Baugh as one of the greatest backs of the NFL’s Iron Man Era,” Christl wrote of Isbell, who was a runner, passer, kicker and linebacker.
Dilweg was recognized as the NFL’s best two-way end in the pre-Don Hutson era, Christl wrote, and he received more all-pro recognition during the Packers’ “three-peat” seasons (1929, 1930 and 1931) than teammates Cal Hubbard and Johnny Blood, both Pro Football Hall of Famers.
Getting elected from the seniors, contributor and coaches category is the most difficult because they are voted on together. Selection committees choose three seniors finalists, a coach finalist and a contributor finalist. Voters can vote for three at most. Last year, only Sharpe met the 80% threshold to be elected through that process.
With the induction of Sharpe, the Packers have 29 individuals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, second to the Chicago Bears, who have 32.
Packers seniors on this year’s list of 162 who did not make the cut to 34 include Verne Lewellen, Carroll Dale, Boyd Dowler, Billy Howton, Keith Jackson, Gale Gillingham, Charles “Buckets” Goldenberg, Fuzzy Thurston, Tim Harris, Seth Joyner, Eugene Robinson, Mark Clayton and John Hadl.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Five former Packers still candidates in Pro Football Hall of Fame selection process
Reporting by Richard Ryman, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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