Should Darren Woodson be in the Hall of Fame?

On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys will induct former safety Darren Woodson into the franchise’s Ring of Honor. Along with being the Cowboys’s all-time leading tackler, Woodson won three Super Bowls, was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a four-time All-Pro selection.

Now, that Woodson will take his rightful place along side the other Dallas Cowboy legends, the question that remains is whether Woodson deserves to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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The position of safety is one of the most underrepresented positions in the Hall of Fame. In the past 26 years, only one full-time safety has been enshrined in Canton, Paul Krause of the Minnesota Vikings. Shockingly, ten safeties named to an all-decade team have not been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Now, some players known as safeties, such as Ronnie Lott and Rod Woodson, have been inducted into the Hall of Fame but both played corner back for a significant portion of their careers.

Darren Woodson, a linebacker in college at Arizona State, played his entire career at safety making him one in a recent group of true safeties that is worth of consideration for the Hall of Fame. So how do Woodson’s numbers compare to those of his contemporaries?

As the NFL has evolved into a passing league, the role of safeties has become more important than ever. Therefore, the past decade has seen a rise in the number of high-profile players at the position.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ safety Troy Polamalu, the Baltimore Ravens’ Ed Reed and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Brian Dawkins are three players that Woodson will be compared to.

During his 13-year career, Woodson recorded 1,350 tackles, 11 sacks, 17 forced fumbles, 11 fumble recoveries, and 23 interceptions (two of which were returned for touchdowns). But despite these lofty numbers, Woodson has yet to be a finalist for the Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, Polamalu ended his 12-year career with 770 tackles, 12 sacks, 14 forced fumbles, 7 fumble recoveries, 32 interceptions and 3 career touchdowns.

As for Reed, in 13 seasons he amassed 644 tackles, 6 sacks, 11 forced fumbles, 10 fumble recoveries, an incredible 64 interceptions and 7 career touchdowns.

Finally, there is the career of Brian Dawkins to consider. In 16 seasons, the former Eagle and Denver Bronco accumulated 1,131 tackles, 26 sacks, 37 forced fumbles, 16 fumble recoveries, 37 interceptions and two touchdowns.

So what do these numbers reveal? Despite playing in an era when the passing game was not as prominent as it has been in the last decade, Woodson’s career stats are on par with the players against whom he will be measured for Hall of Fame consideration.

However, it is unlikely that Woodson will receive the Hall of Fame nod any time soon because several factors are working against him.

First of all, considering that the maximum number of players elected to the Hall of Fame in any given year is seven, there is going to be a logjam for enshrinement due to a large pool of obvious inductees in the upcoming years. Players like quarterback Brett Favre, wide receivers Terrell Owens and Randy Moss, running back LaDainian Tomlinson, line backer Ray Lewis and tight end Tony Gonzalez are all virtual locks for Canton.

Woodson also suffers from the fact that he has been away from the game since 2003 meaning that he has been eligible since 2008 and is yet to come close to being selected. Woodson’s career has been out of mind to most while Reed, Polamalu and Dawkins were in the NFL spotlight more reently.

Finally, there is the fact that the Hall of Fame seems determined to keep from selecting an inordinate number of players from one franchise. There are currently 15 former Dallas Cowboys in the Hall of Fame but there should be many more (Drew Pearson, Chuck Howley, Lee Roy Jordan, Cliff Harris) but these deserving players are not even in consideration.

Yet, despite the fact that the odds seem stacked against Woodson, the reality is that he deserves to be enshrined in Canton. The Hall of Fame is supposed to honor players that dominated or transformed the game and Darren Woodson fits into the later category.

Woodson was a trailblazer when it comes to the safety position. In an era when safeties were primary run stoppers that played deep coverage on passing downs, Woodson was athletic enough to be used as a man-to-man cover player on slot receivers.

This strategy has now become commonplace in the NFL as safeties are asked to play tight coverage against tight ends and slot receivers on the majority of snaps in a game. Woodson was one of the first safeties to prove that such a strategy was possible.

Another aspect of Woodson’s career that is overlooked is that he was a stalwart on the Cowboys’ special teams units throughout his career. He was the team’s best kickoff and punt coverage player for his entire career, something that today’s starting safeties would never be asked to do.

But despite the merits of his candidacy for Canton, Sunday’s induction into the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor will probably be the most prestigious honor bestowed upon Darren Woodson. It is unlikely that he will be selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame due to the politics of the selection process.

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However, that does not diminish his fantastic career. Darren Woodson was one of the greatest Dallas Cowboys in the history of the franchise and his while his induction into the team’s Ring of Honor is a no-brainer, so too should be his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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