The Pro Football Hall of Fame has begun its annual process for selecting the class of inductees for entry into the Canton shrine next year. And Jets legends are well-represented on the initial list of 128 Modern Era nominees released Wednesday.
In fact, a trio of Jets first-round draft choices jump out from the position rosters — Nick Mangold, John Abraham and James Farrior — along with a reliable long-time Green & White corner in James Hasty.
It seems as if Mangold, the 29th overall pick of the 2006 draft out of Ohio State, has been around the team forever. He played 11 NFL seasons, every one of them as a Jet, starting 164 games and being selected for 7 Pro Bowls in an eight-season span. He was selected to the team's Ring of Honor in 2022 and remains a fixture around 1 Jets Drive at Legends events and alumni gatherings.
Abraham arrived as the 13th pick of the 2000 draft out of South Carolina, the second of the famed "Four Aces" taken in Round 1 that April. "Abe" was a Jet for only six season but he posed an irrepressible presence in the pass rushes of the early years of the new millennium, recording 53.5 sacks, forcing 19 fumbles and being selected for three Pro Bowls from 2000-05.
Three drafts before Abraham, Farrior in 1997 was the first draft pick by the Bill Parcells Jets, eighth overall out of Virginia. He built his profile slowly in green and white but steadily to a 16-start campaign in 2001 before departing for Pittsburgh, where he had a 10-year run in the middle of the Steelers' vaunted defenses from '02-11.
And nine seasons before Farrior, it was Hasty stepping into the team's secondary as the 1988 third-round selection out of Washington State. The first seven of his 14 pro seasons were spent as a highly productive Jet who missed only one game and notched 24 interceptions, tied for fourth on the franchise's all-time list.
RB Thomas Jones is another big NFL name who added his considerable skills to several Jets teams. Acquired in trade from Chicago in 2007, Jones forcefully followed close on the heels of Curtis Martin's Hall of Fame career by notching three 1,000-yard campaigns as a Jet. In his second season of 2008, he ran for 1,312, a team-record 13 rush TDs and made his only Pro Bowl. For an encore before he moved on to Kansas City, Jones topped both numbers with 1,402 rush yards and 14 rush TDs. The TDs remain the top two single-season totals by a member of the Green & White.
WR Brandon Marshall's tour of excellent pass-catching around the NFL made a memorable two-season stop with the Green & White. Marshall's 2015 was particularly memorable as he set franchise single-season receiving marks that still stand with 109 catches and 1,502 yards, and his 14 TD grabs tied the franchise mark and led the league that year.
Three other backs made stops with the Jets. Frank Gore wrapped up his glorious 16-season career that included 16,000 rushing yards with 14 starts and 653 rushing yards for the 2020 Jets. Gore is in his first year of eligibility to enter the Hall.
RB Chris Johnson, between his Tennessee and Arizona stints, spent a season in the Jets backfield in 2014, when he ran for 663 yards on 155 carries and added 151 yards on 24 catches. His starring season came with the Titans in '09, when he ran for 2,006 yards and had 2,509 yards from scrimmage.
FB Lorenzo Neal played 16 NFL seasons for 7 teams, primarily New Orleans and San Diego. He had one season for the Jets, primarily as the big-blocking fullback in front of RB Adrian Murrell and the Jets' RBs in 1997.
Another NFL standout with a Jets stop was WR Derrick Mason, who had a 15-season career in which he grabbed 943 receptions. He began his last season in the league in 2011 with the Jets and finished it with the Texans.
Besides Mangold, offensive linemen in the initial nominee list include Ryan Clady, who followed his Denver Pro Bowl incarnation with 8 starts as the Jets' LT in 2016, and Ryan Kalil, who starred for 12 Carolina seasons with one last year as a Jet, making 7 starts in 2019. And among special-teamers, Josh Cribbs was a Pro Bowl kick returner for the Browns before finishing his decade in the NFL with 6 games as a Jet in 2013 and six more with the Colts in '14.
In the next step in the selection process, the Hall's Screening Committee will reduce the list of 128 nominees to 50 (plus ties, if any, for the 50th spot). The results of that reduction will be announced in mid-October.
The full 50-person Hall of Fame Selection Committee then will reduce the list later this fall to 25 semifinalists. Another vote will create the list of 15 Modern-Era Player Finalists who will be discussed at the annual selection meeting ahead of Super Bowl LX. The Class of 2026 can consist of three, four or five Modern-Era Players under the Hall of Fame's bylaws.
In addition to 15 Modern-Era Player Finalists, the 50-member Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee will discuss three Seniors Finalists, a Coach Finalist and a Contributor Finalist as potential members of the Class of 2026. While there is no set number for any class, the selection process bylaws provide that between four and eight new members will be elected.
Finalists must receive at least 80% support from the Selection Committee to join the Class of 2026. The Modern-Era Player Finalists will be trimmed during the annual selection meeting from 15 to 10, then to seven. Committee members then will vote for five of the seven Finalists.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2026 will be enshrined next August.
