Darren Woodson, Jason Witten miss out on 2026 Hall of Fame

Thursday night was the NFL Honors show on NBC and NFL Network, and during that time is when they always present the newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

2026 was a year that two Dallas Cowboys legends of the game had a chance to make it in, and for one of them he has been waiting for four consecutive years in a row.

Woodson was a finalist for a fourth consecutive year, while Witten made the finalist group in his first year of eligibility.

The chances are high that a player will eventually get in when a first-ballot name reaches finalist status on their first chance. Witten was an 11-time Pro Bowler who is second all-time in NFL receptions and yards for tight ends, yet neither of them got in.

Torry Holt, Marshall Yanda and Darren Woodson are HOF players. You will never be able to convince me otherwise

— trey wingo (@wingoz) February 6, 2026

Over For Woodson?

Woodson is the Cowboys’ all-time leader with 1,250 tackles, and he made five Pro Bowls, serving as a defensive catalyst for three Super Bowl teams during his 12-year career. He’s the only player in Cowboys history to play for five different head coaches.

Hopefully, this makes sense, but Woodson probably won’t get in as a modern-era player which is a bunch of garbage.

Woodson, in his 18th year of eligibility, has two years remaining as a modern-era Pro Football Hall of Fame candidate.

After being passed over for the Class of 2026, he has limited opportunities left before his 20-year window expires, and he must move to the more competitive senior category.

That is the issue also though. If he misses out the next two years and moves to the senior category, it is filled with players just like Woodson. Guys who got screwed over time and time again and now have to compete with other greats to make it into the Hall.

As for Witten, the fact that he made it to the finals in his first year of eligibility shows that he will probably in fact get in within the next couple of years, but I thought this class was the easiest for either of them to make it.

Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri and Roger Craig (senior), all made it over Witten and Woodson.

I have no issues with Larry and Luke, but I don’t think a kicker, regardless of how great Vinatieri was should have gotten in over Woodson at the least.

The Hall of Fame voting process is broken anyway. I mean Bill Belichick got snubbed and don’t try me with all the cheating stuff. That is a conversation for another day.

Every summer, the selectors are presented with a list, usually of more than 100 modern-era candidates, and then asked to make a series of reduction votes — to 50, then 25, then 15. By the end of the year, there are 15 modern-era finalists.

Rules require voters to pick three of five finalists. For any of them to be elected, they need 40 of the 50 votes.

So this has clearly been an issue of the voters snubbing Woodson over the last four years. I do not know how they need to change the process, but we are leaving the fate of these great players up to the random votes of folks and to be that does not seem fair.

At some point Darren is going to get in, but it is hard to tell when that will be. It seems like they just want to get all these other guys in first and then wait until Woodson moves into the other category so they can start feeling bad for them.

It just sucks that someone that changed the game at his position is going to have to wait probably a few more years to get in.