Whenever Charles Woodson decides to call it a career, you can immediately start the clock counting down the five years until he will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Nearly two decades after being selected by the Oakland Raiders in the first round (No. 4 overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft, Woodson remains near the top of his game, and the accolades he has accumulated in his 17 years in the league speak for themselves: Eight Pro Bowls, Seven All-Pro Honors, the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year, the AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and he is the only player in NFL history to have at least 50 interceptions and 20 sacks in a career – and that's just scratching the surface.
Not too shabby.
It's for these reasons and more that NFL Media senior analyst Gil Brandt named Woodson as one of his active players who are Hall of Fame locks.
"To spend 17 years in this league and still be playing like a five-year veteran is amazing," wrote Brandt. "Woodson seems to have a sixth sense for success in the secondary; he's got a knack for making big plays at opportune times and capitalizing on them. Woodson has 11 career pick-sixes, tied for second-most all time. He also always gets the other defensive backs lined up correctly. What impresses me the most is that he seems to be as excited to play for a Raiders squad coming off a 3-13 season as he was to play for a Super Bowl heavyweight in Green Bay."
The rest of Brandt's list, in alphabetical order, is as follows:
QB Tom Brady
QB Drew Brees
WR Calvin Johnson
QB Peyton Manning
RB Adrian Peterson
CB Darrelle Revis
QB Aaron Rodgers
QB Ben Roethlisberger
DT Ndamukong Suh
LT Joe Thomas
DE J.J. Watt
TE Jason Witten
