NFL.com’s Adam Rank predicts Tony Boselli will finally make the Hall of Fame in 2022

Former Jacksonville offensive tackle Tony Boselli was named a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the fifth-straight year in 2021. The players selected for the Hall were inducted Sunday night, a list that includes Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, and Calvin Johnson. But for the fifth-straight season, it was no dice for Boselli.

Boselli finds himself in a strange position to stake a Hall of Fame claim. First of all, offensive line play is much trickier to evaluate than that of skill position players. Statistics are not nearly as helpful in differentiating players, and Boselli’s case is even harder to litigate than most due to how short his playing career was.

He was the Jaguars first-ever first-round pick in 1995, and starting in his second season in 1996, he made it to five straight Pro Bowls. He was also a First-Team All-Pro from 1997-99.

Boselli’s play was a major part of Jacksonville’s AFC title game runs in 1996 and 1999, and he was considered one of the elite tackles in the league at the time. But after the 1999 season, injuries hamstrung his play. He was never the same, and though he got a second chance with the Texans, who took him in the 2002 expansion draft, he spent the whole season on the injured reserve and then retired.

At his best, Boselli was among the best offensive linemen in the league, and if he had a full-length career that wasn’t hampered by injuries, it’s not hard to imagine him becoming a Joe Thomas-esque figure in the league. Thomas, for reference, is expected to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he becomes eligible in 2023.

However, if Boselli continues to be a finalist year after year, it may just take a relatively weak class to get him in. That could be the case in 2022.

Without any players of Manning’s caliber becoming eligible for the first time, the best player becoming eligible is wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. That said, NFL.com’s Adam Rank thinks Boselli will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to finally earn acceptance into the Hall.

I wrote this last year (and likely previously) and I’ll stick by this statement: voters really need to finally make a decision on Boselli. Dude is a finalist seemingly every year. He’s one of the most amazing talents to play the position. And, yes, his career was cut short by injuries — but that hasn’t stopped other players from making it. Either put Tony in this year, or never speak of it again. You can’t do this to the man.

Rank is right that the length of a player’s career hasn’t always kept them from making it into the Hall of Fame. This year’s class included Johnson, who retired after just nine seasons in the league at the age of 29 — the same age Boselli was when he decided to hang up the cleats.

Boselli would almost certainly be in the Hall of Fame by now if injuries didn’t cut his career short, but after more than a decade of eligibility, 2022 could finally be the year Jacksonville puts its first player into the Hall of Fame.