Versatile running back Roger Craig, former MVP Ken Anderson and returning finalists Maxie Baughan and Jim Tyrer are among the 34 players who advanced to the next stage for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 in the seniors category.
A blue-ribbon committee reduced the list down from 52 nominees from a screening committee of players who last could have appeared in a professional football game in the 2000 season.
The committee will cut down the list to nine semifinalists and then three finalists who will advance to voting conducted before the Super Bowl in February. There also will be 15 modern-era finalists, one coach and one contributor for the Class of 2026. Between four and eight new members will be elected in the second year of this current format.
The candidates revealed Thursday also included 2024 finalist Art Powell, who fell short in the final voting that season.
Anderson was a four-time Pro Bowler for Cincinnati and won the MVP in 1981, when he helped the Bengals reach their first Super Bowl before losing to San Francisco. When Anderson retired after the 1986 season, he ranked sixth all time with 32,838 yards passing and 13th with 197 TD passes.
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Craig was a key part of San Francisco’s dynasty in the 1980s with his ability as a physical runner and as a receiver out of the backfield. Craig was the first player ever to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season, which happened in 1985, and he led the NFL with 2,036 yards from scrimmage in 1988 when he helped the 49ers win the Super Bowl.
Craig also was part of the title-winning teams in San Francisco in the 1984 and 1989 seasons. His 410 yards from scrimmage in those Super Bowl wins are the third-most ever behind Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Franco Harris.
Baughan was one of the top linebackers in the 1960s for Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Rams. He helped the Eagles win an NFL title as a rookie in 1960 and made nine Pro Bowls in a 10-year span, with one first-team and five second-team All-Pro selections.
Tyrer was a six-time All-Pro and member of the AFL all-decade team for the 1960s as the left tackle protecting Len Dawson on the Kansas City Chiefs. He won three AFL titles and one Super Bowl with the Chiefs before ending his career with Washington in 1974.
Tyrer was considered a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame at the time of his retirement. Every other nonspecialist who was a six-time All-Pro and eligible for the Hall has been inducted.
But shortly after he was picked as a finalist for the first time, Tyrer shot his wife in a murder-suicide in September 1980. Tyrer had been dealing with depression and severe headaches that experts now believe might have been chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that has been found in many former NFL players who endured repeated blows to their heads during their career. CTE can be diagnosed only posthumously.
Tyrer didn’t get voted in that year and wasn’t nominated again until last year.
The candidates also include one of the best special teams players ever in Steve Tasker.
Tasker excelled on coverage of punts and kicks, recording seven blocked kicks and catching nine TD passes as a receiver on offense. He helped Buffalo win four straight AFC title games before losing in the Super Bowl and made seven Pro Bowls in his 13-year career.
The nominees
Quarterbacks: Anderson, Charlie Conerly, Roman Gabriel.
Running backs: Craig, Chuck Foreman, Cecil Isbell, Paul “Tank” Younger.
Wide receivers and tight ends: Isaac Curtis, Lavvie Dilweg, Henry Ellard, Harold Jackson, Stanley Morgan, Powell, Otis Taylor.
Offensive linemen: Joe Jacoby, Mike Kenn, Bob Kuechenberg, Tyrer, Al Wistert.
Defensive linemen: L.C. Greenwood, Jim Marshall.
Linebackers: Carl Banks, Baughan, Larry Grantham, Lee Roy Jordan, Clay Matthews Jr., Tommy Nobis.
Defensive backs: Dick Anderson, Bobby Boyd, Albert Lewis, Eddie Meador, Lemar Parrish, Everson Walls.
Special teams: Steve Tasker.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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