The Pro Football Hall of fame will induct five new members as a part of the 2026 class in August. Quarterback Drew Brees, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, linebacker Luke Kuechly, kicker Adam Vinatieri and running back Roger Craig will receiver their gold jackets and unveil their bronze busts in Canton, Ohio.
They earned their way to football immortality by consistently performing excellence on the field. Let’s take a look at some of the most undeniably great campaigns by Hall of Famers all-time.
15. Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals: 2008
- 96 receptions, 1,431 receiving yards, 12 touchdowns
Speaking of Fitzgerald, he gets things started off on this list with his incredible 2008 campaign. The only player to best him that year was Andrew Johnson with 144 more yards and 19 more catches. He benefitted from the twilight resurgence of quarterback Kurt Warner, the pair leading the Arizona Cardinals to the NFC playoffs where the real sparkling part of Fitzgerald’s season took place.
Arizona marched into Super Bowl XLIII on the back of Fitzgerald’s postseason heroics. He still holds the NFL record for best four-game playoff stretch with 30 catches, 546 yards and 7 touchdowns. Most famously, he took a pass from Warner 64-yards to the house with 2 minutes and 37 seconds remaining in the Super Bowl for what looked like the franchise’s crowning moment. Despite the heartbreak that occurred after, Fitzgerald delivered a defining performance that only set up the rest of his Hall of Fame career.
14. Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions: 2012
- 122 receptions, 1,964 receiving yards, 5 touchdowns
The man known as “Megatron” put up a transformative campaign in 2012, catching just about every ball in sight and piling up a disgusting number of yards. To this day no other receiver has been able to catch Johnson’s 1,964 yards but some have come close. The mark he broke then was previously held by the great Jerry Rice (1,848 yards).
Johnson went 8 straight weeks with at least 100 receiving yards, including a five-week stretch with at least 125 yards which tied the NFL record held by Pat Studsill from 1966. Despite his consistent success, Johnson’s Lions were consistently unsuccessful. Detroit went 4-12 that year which makes his record-setting performance even more impressive.
13. Randy Moss, Minnesota Vikings: 1998
- 69 receptions, 1,313 receiving yards, 17 touchdowns
Could you point to a better season Randy Moss had in his career? Sure, 2003 comes to mind but his rookie year set quite a high bar and he never looked back. Moss announced himself to the league — and the 20 teams that skipped out on drafting him — with a league-leading 17 touchdowns and blistering 1,313 receiving yards which were third most among all receivers.
Moss took the already stacked Vikings offense and boosted it up to the highest scoring in league history at the time. The 1998 campaign also featured his iconic Thanksgiving Day performance of three catches for 163 yards and a trio of touchdowns. He earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and finished third in league MVP voting.
12. Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns: 1963
- 291 carries, 1,863 rushing yards, 15 total touchdowns
After controversially being denied his fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season in 1962, Jim Brown took things personally and wound up putting out one of the greatest campaigns by a running back. Take a look at how few times he touched the ball. The man was efficient, safe to say, and it resulted in breaking his own NFL record for single-season rushing yards.
Brown led the league with a whopping 133.1 yards per game which contributed well towards his still-standing NFL record 104.3 career yards per game. Only O.J. Simpson did better in a single campaign (1973). Brown’s 1963 rushing total remains a franchise record for Cleveland and the oldest of any franchise. He would shockingly retire after two more seasons while still in top shape.
11. Barry Sanders, Detroit Lions: 1997
- 335 carries, 2,053 rushing yards, 14 total touchdowns
Everyone at the time thought 1994 was Sanders’ best season with 1,883 rushing yards until 1997 rolled around. At 29 years old he became just the third rusher in NFL history to eclipse the 2,000-yard mark and the first in 13 years to do so. He had an additional 305 receiving yards which wasn’t out of the ordinary for one of the most versatile players of his time.
Sanders earned NFL MVP honors for his efforts which included a 10 game stretch with at least 100 rushing yards, the first time any running back had done so. It was also the year he passed the great Eric Dickerson for second-most career rushing yards. Sanders’ playoff disappointments overshadow his career achievements far too often but the 1997 campaign is the brightest spot in a tragically short career that was deserving of a gold jacket.
10. Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants: 1986
- 20.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 105 tackles, 5 passes defended
The 1986 campaign solidified Taylor’s chances of eventually reaching Canton given the unprecedented nature of the first six years of his career it capped off. His league-leading 20.5 sacks earned him the unanimous MVP honor — the only defensive player to have that distinction — becoming just the second defender in history to have that title (Alan Page in 1971). Taylor also earned his third Defensive Player of the Year award in that stretch.
Taylor’s dominance was the most crucial component to New York’s first Super Bowl title that season as well. The team outscored its divisional and conference championship opponents by a suffocating 66-3 margin and held the high-powered Denver Broncos offense to 20 points in Super Bowl XXI. Taylor made a clutch goal line tackle on QB John Elway in the first half which set the tone for the rest of the Giants dominant victory.
9. Marshall Faulk, St. Louis Rams: 1999
- 253 carries, 87 receptions, 2,429 scrimmage yards, 12 total touchdowns
The Greatest Show on Turf was Marshall Faulk. Okay, yes, Kurt Warner and Tory Holt were amazing too but the 1999 season was the pinnacle of Faulk’s career. He was a dual threat on offense, leaving opponents practically defenseless against his versatility. Faulk set the NFL record for single-season scrimmage yards at 2,429 (only eclipsed by Chris Johnson a decade later) and receiving yards by a running back which was last held by Lionel James (Del Shofner was never technically listed as a rusher). At the time he was one of just two players to total 1,000 yards or more in both rushing and receiving categories (Roger Craig).
Those efforts earned him his first of three career Offensive Player of the Year awards and catapulted the Rams to their Super Bowl XXXIV title. He’d win those awards in consecutive seasons, being named league MVP in 2000, but never reaching the 1,000-receiving yard benchmark again. Since Faulk’s historic campaign, only one other player has joined him and Craig in their exclusive club: Christian McCaffrey.
8. Deion Sanders, San Francisco 49ers: 1994
- 34 solo tackles, 6 interceptions, 303 return yards, 3 touchdowns
Sanders needed only one year in the Bay Area to put up the best campaign of his career. Yes, he was a two-way player but he didn’t need to record any stats on offense (which he didn’t that year) to earn this spot. “Prime Time” made six interceptions and returned three of them for a touchdown. Two of those pick-sixes went for at least 90 yards — the first time in NFL history that had ever happened — with the other going for a humble 72 yards. His 303 interception return yards were the most in a single season since Charlie McNeil (349) in 1961.
The dominance Sanders displayed against opposing quarterbacks earned him the Defensive Player of the Year award while finishing an impressive third in the league MVP vote. He helped lead the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl XXIX title and got paid by the Dallas Cowboys in free agency the following year. Oh, and he did all that while playing in Major League Baseball.
7. Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49ers: 1987
- 65 receptions, 1,087 receiving yards, 23 total touchdowns
You could quite literally point to any of Jerry Rice’s first 11 seasons in the NFL, blindly pick one and be amazed. Yet only one of those campaigns is special for a very unique reason. His 1987 season was shortened by a mid-year player strike in which he missed four games while picketing. Once the strike concluded, he exploded for an insane 22 receiving touchdowns (and one rushing). His 1,087 receiving yards were the lowest total of his career 14 seasons eclipsing the 1K mark but notice he did so on 65 catches, his second-lowest total of those 1,000-yard years.
Rice scored a receiving touchdown in every game he played that year. His 22 scores through the air broke a then-NFL record held by Mark Clayton (18) which Randy Moss would top by one during his fantastic 2007 campaign. Rice went on to become the first wide receiver in NFL history to earn Offensive Player of the Year for his efforts and was the first player since the 1970 merger to double up his next closest competitor in a scoring category (Mike Quick, 11 receiving touchdowns). He went on to record 9 more consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards.
6. Eric Dickerson, Los Angeles Rams: 1984
- 379 carries, 2,105 rushing yards, 14 touchdowns
This is arguably the best season by a running back from a pure rushing perspective. Dickerson had already exploded onto the scene with rookie records shattered the previous year but he continued his upward trend by breaking O.J. Simpson’s single-season rushing record (yes, he had two more games to do it in). No one since 1984 has been able to touch Dickerson’s record.
That wasn’t the only mark set by Simpson that Dickerson surpassed. The Los Angeles Rams stud ran for at least 100-yards in 12 contests, besting Simpson by one game. Dickerson averaged 5.6 yards per carry, his career best, and helped lead the Rams to a playoff berth. His 14 touchdowns also led the league, the only time he’d ever do so.
5. Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins: 1984
- 5,804 passing yards, 362 completions, 64.2 completion percentage, 48 touchdowns
The only reason Dickerson didn’t earn NFL MVP honors for his record-breaking season was because of Marino. The Miami Dolphins super star put up one of the greatest campaigns by a quarterback in only his second year in the league. At the time his whopping 5,804 passing yards and 48 touchdowns smashed the previous NFL records (Dan Fouts, 4,802 yards & Y.A. Tittle, 36 touchdowns). He also casually broke four other single-season passing records.
He, of course, was named league MVP (the first QB to do so in his second season) as well as Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Pro. It would take another 27 years for Marino’s passing yards mark and 20 years for his touchdowns record to each be caught. A lack of a Super Bowl ring is the only empty space in Marino’s resume but he made an instantaneous mark on the league that only grew into his gold jacket career.
4. LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers: 2006
- 348 carries, 56 receptions, 2,323 scrimmage yards, 31 total touchdowns
If Dickerson’s 1984 season was the best from a rushing perspective, LaDainian Tomlinson’s 2006 campaign was by far the best all around performance for a non-QB player. The modern “LT” scored 186 points on his own which is an NFL single-season record that still stands for non-kickers. Tomlinson was the very definition of dual threat — he also had two passing touchdowns — but his legs put on an absolutely dominant show.
His 28 rushing touchdowns are also the best in a single season, the record still standing 20 years later. Tomlinson earned NFL MVP honors, the first San Diego Charger to do so, on the back of other broken records like passing John Riggins for most consecutive games with multiple touchdowns (8). He was also named Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Pro. Falling short of a Super Bowl title puts him in the same company as Barry Sanders, Dan Marino and Calvin Johnson but his gold jacket was well earned and it was apparent he’d get it from this moment onward.
3. Tom Brady, New England Patriots: 2007
- 4,806 passing yards, 398 completions, 68.9 completion percentage, 50 touchdowns
Yes, Tom Brady technically isn’t in the Hall of Fame but he’s eligible in 2028 and there’s no way anyone believes he won’t be a first-ballot inductee, especially not with the nearly invincible 2007 campaign on his resume. Brady nearly became the second quarterback in NFL history to throw for 5,000 yards but he and others would eventually crowd in with Dan Marino on that list in the coming decade. However, he created his own exclusive club after reaching the 50-touchdown mark, something no QB had ever done before.
Brady’s efficiency and deadliness helped lead his New England Patriots to an undefeated regular season and threatened to top the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ perfect 17-0 campaign. Of course, Super Bowl XLII was his and the team’s only blemish. That doesn’t tarnish the fact that Brady put up one of the best seasons by a quarterback since Marino (or Peyton Manning in 2004 depending on who you ask), resulting in the first of his three league MVP awards.
2. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints: 2011
- 5,476 passing yards, 468 completions, 71.2 completion percentage, 46 touchdowns
Like Larry Fitzgerald, Brees will be inducted as part of the class of 2026 and there are multiple seasons one could point to as the highlights that got him into Canton. However, the 2011 campaign was a rarity among all quarterbacks for the record-setting performance he put on. Brees earned the elusive “Triple Crown” in passing by leading the league in yards, touchdowns and completion percentage. He also took down Marino’s then-27-year-old record for single season passing yards.
You can also pinpoint a single game during this season that became the pinnacle of his career (outside winning Super Bowl XLIV). In Week 15 against the Minnesota Vikings, Brees tossed for 412 yards and five touchdowns, which doesn’t initially seem that exceptional but he was the first QB in league history to do that and maintain a completion percentage of 80 percent (32-for-40). But remember how Brees topped Marino’s single-season passing record? Brady actually crept up on Brees and passed him late in the year, though that was just extra motivation to close out the year even stronger. Brees finished Week 17 by setting six NFL records, including passing Brady to reclaim the lead in passing yards, passing himself from 2009 for completion percentage and passing Dan Fouts (1982) for passing yards per game,
1. Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos: 2013
- 5,477 passing yards, 450 completions, 68.3 completion percentage, 55 touchdowns
Yes, Manning’s 2004 season is also considered one of the best ever by a quarterback but 2013 takes the cake for multiple reasons. Everything Brees and Brady did in 2011, Manning did better in 2013 and at the time it made everyone’s jaws drop. The then-37-year-old looked invincible, opening the season without throwing an interception in his first four games — including a seven-touchdown victory over the Baltimore Ravens where he became just the first player since Y.A. Tittle to own a 7:0 ratio. Every week it seemed like Manning was breaking some kind of record.
He ended the season with one more passing yard than Brees’ record and shattered Brady’s touchdown record from 2007 by five, aided by a league record-tying stretch of three games where he threw for at least 400 yards and a single-season record of nine games with four or more touchdown passes. Manning was also directly responsible for the success of the Denver Broncos that year, leading them to a record three games with 50 points or more and becoming the first team to eclipse 600 points scored in a season. Forget the embarrassing Super Bowl loss, this was an undeniably God tier-level performance.
Honorable Mentions
We only had room to rank the Top 15 but, of course, there are plenty more noteworthy seasons by those enshrined in Canton. Here’s a quick rundown of those who just missed the cut but deserve their flowers anyways.
Walter Payton, Chicago Bears: 1977
At 24 years old, Payton had his breakout year with the Bears in 1977. He rushed for 1,852 yards and 16 total touchdowns in 14 games. He set a then-NFL record with 275 rushing yards against the Minnesota Vikings while suffering from the flu. Payton’s 2,121 scrimmage yards earned him league MVP, Offensive Player of the Year and Man of the Year honors.
Frank Gifford, New York Giants: 1956
In a completely different era of the game, Gifford cemented himself as a titan of football by dominating in the run and pass games as a halfback. He recorded 1,422 scrimmage yards and nine total touchdowns in 12 games under offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi. Gifford’s versatility helped lead New York to a 47-7 drubbing of the Chicago Bears in the league championship, earning him MVP honors for the year.
Fran Tarkenton, New York Giants: 1967
After being traded from the Minnesota Vikings to the Giants, Tarkenton showed he was exactly the gamechanger New York thought he was. After a 3,088-yard and 29-touchdown campaign — both career highs — he earned a Pro Bowl nod and went on to have a fruitful five-year tenure with the Giants before returning to Minnesota in 1972.
Fran Tarkenton, Minnesota Vikings: 1975
Fast forward to Tarkenton’s age 35 season and he continued to prove he was still one of the best passers in the game at the time. He threw for nearly 3,000 yards, 25 touchdowns (league leading) and led his beloved Vikings to a 10-0 start. Tarkenton earned numerous awards such as league MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, First-Team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors for the ageless performance.
Michael Strahan, New York Giants: 2001
Forget Brett Favre’s alleged dive. Strahan was getting the league’s single-season sack record at any cost. His 22.5 sacks stood as the benchmark for 24 years after and earned him Defensive Player of the Year honors. On top of that, he led the league with six forced fumbles and 24 tackles for a loss. Outside of Lawrence Taylor, Strahan’s 2001 campaign is arguably the greatest defensive campaign by anyone in franchise history.
Terrell Davis, Denver Broncos: 1998
While it was sadly his last dominant campaign, 1998 was the year of Terrell Davis. He rushed for 2,008 yards — becoming just fourth running back in league history to break the 2k mark — and 21 touchdowns which both led the league. He averaged a whopping 125.5 yards per game and led the Broncos to the Super Bowl XXXII victory, earning league MVP honors for his heroics.
Reggie White, Philadelphia Eagles: 1987
There’s an argument to be made White’s 21 sacks in a strike-shortened 12-game season should be an NFL record of its own. It’s practically untouchable and he’s still the only player in history to do it. He was obviously named Defensive Player of the Year and kicked off his historic campaign with a prescient strip-sack fumble recovery for a touchdown in Week 1.
Devin Hester, Chicago Bears: 2007
The 2007 campaign was iconic for special teamers everywhere. While helping the Bears on their way to Super Bowl XLI, Hester broke his own single-season record with six return touchdowns. He recorded another in the Super Bowl for 92 yards, becoming the first player in league history to do so. Hester also caught his first career offensive touchdown and earned a Pro Bowl nod.
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