Tag: Lyle Alzado

Full list of 30 former Broncos nominated for 2025 Hall of Fame class

The Broncos have 30 former players nominated for the 2025 Hall of Fame class, and Mike Shanahan is expected to be a top coach candidate.

Earlier this week, the NFL announced 19 former Denver Broncos players have been nominated for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class as modern-era candidates.

Those 19 players join a previous list of 11 senior candidate nominees who were announced earlier this month, giving the Broncos 30 total players who have been nominated for next year’s Hall of Fame class. Here are the full lists.

Broncos modern-era HOF candidates

  1. WR Rod Smith
  2. C Tom Nalen
  3. K Jason Elam
  4. G Mark Schlereth
  5. LB Bill Romanowski
  6. DL Neil Smith
  7. WR Demaryius Thomas
  8. CB Aqib Talib
  9. WR Wes Welker
  10. RB Clinton Portis
  11. WR Brandon Marshall
  12. RB Glyn Milburn
  13. CB Dré Bly
  14. TE Vernon Davis
  15. DL Jamal Williams
  16. LB Keith Brooking
  17. RB Jamaal Charles
  18. DL Ted Washington
  19. DL Simeon Rice

Broncos senior HOF candidates

  1. LB/DL Karl Mecklenburg
  2. LB Tom Jackson
  3. DB Dennis Smith
  4. WR Lionel Taylor
  5. WR/R Rick Upchurch
  6. CB Louis Wright
  7. WR Bob Scarpitto
  8. DL Michael Dean Perry
  9. RB Sammy Winder
  10. DL Lyle Alzado
  11. DE Rich Jackson

Former Denver coach Mike Shanahan is also expected to be nominated for the 2025 Hall of Fame class in the coach category.

The Hall of Fame’s selection committee will trim the list of nominees in mid-October before announcing semifinalists and finalists later in the fall. The 2025 class will be announced before Super Bowl LVIX next year.

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2 ex-Broncos make list of ‘Elite Defensive End Duos’ not in the Hall of Fame

Barney Chavous and Lyle Alzado represent one of the best defensive end duos that didn’t reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the highest individual honor bestowed to a player once his playing career ends. The Denver Broncos features the likes of John Elway, Terrell Davis, Peyton Manning and more than a dozen others in Canton. However, two notable defensive stars are currently not in the Hall of Fame. 

Barney Chavous and Lyle Alzado played six seasons together in Denver and according to John Turney of the website Talk of Fame Two, Chavous and Alzado are the eleventh-best defensive end duo in NFL history not to enter the NFL’s Hall of Fame.

“Both were extremely good vs. the run, and both were solid pass rushers, especially Alzado,” Turney wrote on TalkOfFameTwo.com. “Their peak was during the early ‘Orange Crush’ years, including 1977 when the Broncos won the AFC championship and faced the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XII.”

Perhaps Alzado’s admission of steroid use could have derailed his Hall of Fame status. Alzado retired with 112.5 sacks, three All-Pros and two Pro Bowls. As for Chavous, his 75 sacks are minimized by his lack of All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods.

Alzado was first-team All-Pro in 1977, second-teamer in 1978 and a Pro Bowler both seasons. Chavous never went to a Pro Bowl nor was All-AFC, but he was one of the best players never to gain all-star notice.

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