Minnesota has a nice mixture of young players who are off to great starts in their careers, and older players who have been good for a long time.
That bodes well for the team’s chances of one day having a Hall of Famer who was currently on the Vikings 2020 roster. Bill Barnwell of ESPN recently predicted which players those could be, giving the percentage chance each player would make it.
Here’s what he came up with:
- Barnwell gave Danielle Hunter a 40% chance
- Harrison Smith had the best chance on the team, with 69%
- Adam Thielen was given a 10% chance
- Anthony Barr was given a 39% chance
I think Hunter has more of a chance than 40%, considering he’s the youngest player in NFL history to get 50 sacks. Really, he just has to stay consistent. Maybe Hunter’s percentage can be contributed to the fact that he is still very young, so he will have to produce at a high level for a long time if he wants to make it.
Smith’s high rating makes sense — he’s been one of the better safeties in the NFL for quite some time and doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Thielen’s 10% chance might be harsh, but he had to work his way up the depth chart before he tallied big stats. Also, his injury-marred 2019 sets him back a season.
For Anthony Barr’s rating, I actually thought his percentage was a little high. Barr is underrated by Vikings fans and analysts at times because he hasn’t lived up to his big contract. However, he has a 39% chance of making the Hall of Fame? Based off his career so far, I think his percentage should be closer to Thielen’s number.
If I had to take a guess, I would say that Eric Kendricks is trending to make the Hall of Fame more than Barr. Both have work to do, though.
