Which 2010s All-Decade NFL Players Will Repeat in the ‘20s?

Can Aaron Donald, Justin Tucker and others dominate another decade? Plus, Kevin Colbert’s Hall of Fame odds, Trey Lance’s potential and more.

Nice range of questions for the first mailbag of June …

Donald and Miller both added a Super Bowl win to their legacies this February / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

From Omicron survivor (@MaazAAbbasiMD): What players you see from the 2010s all-decade team that can repeat in the 2020s? Tyreke as WR, after making it as PR before? Tucker? A.D. have a chance? Could Rodgers make it?

Omicron, I love this. So much so that I actually did some research for you to try and figure out what types of players generally pull the rare all-decade team double. Some facts to come from that research …

• A total of 26 players and two coaches have made it twice since the 1960s. Seventeen of the 26 were either specialists or linemen (11 linemen, 6 specialists), and the number goes to 19 of 26 if you count star returnmen Billy “White Shoes” Johnson and Rick Upchurch as specialists.
• Twenty of the 26 started their careers in the third season of the first decade or later, which obviously gives you more runway into the second decade.
• The position numbers are more striking of late, with 10 of the 13 two-timers selected for the ‘80s and ’90s teams, ’90s and ’00s teams, or the ’00s and ’10s teams being specialists or linemen. The three exceptions to that rule are Tom Brady, Jerry Rice and Ronnie Lott.

So with all that in mind, a few guys stuck out from the 2010s list.

The first is Aaron Donald, without question. He’s still just 31 years old, and he’s been Defensive Player of the Year once, and first-team All-Pro twice this decade. If he can get on, say, two more All-Pro lists before hanging ’em up, I’d say that would almost certainly lock up a spot on the 2020s team. And presuming he does a new deal between now and the start of camp, it’s a good bet that Donald’s got a couple more years in him.

Justin Tucker is another good call. He was second-team All-Pro in 2020, and first-team last year, is 32 (young for a specialist), and still widely considered the game’s best kicker.

Aaron Rodgers and Tyreek Hill are tougher to project. Having two MVPs already gives Rodgers headway. But the landscape at quarterback, with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence out there, makes it hard to bank on a guy who may play half the decade doing more over those five years than younger guys will accomplish over 10. And in Hill’s case, yes, he was first-team All-Pro in ’20, and a Pro Bowler in ’21, but it sure looks we’re in a golden age at his position (and he’s not with Mahomes anymore).

My feeling is that Travis Kelce and Zack Martin are two others that have a shot, if they can stay healthy—Martin was first-team All-Pro last year; Kelce was in 2020, and made second-team All-Pro in ’21—and want to keep playing a while. Like those two, Chandler Jones, Khalil Mack, Von Miller and Bobby Wagner are in their 30s, and all four will be on new teams next year, each as a complementary piece in a bigger puzzle, which makes me think they won’t have the statistical firepower needed to get in when votes are counted in 2030.

From Jake Kaplan (@jlkaplan7): Is Kevin Colbert a Hall of Famer?

Jake, another solid early June question—I think he deserves real consideration. Among the things he accomplished over 22 seasons running the Steelers’ personnel department …

• 14 playoff appearances, 15 playoff wins, 10 division titles, three AFC championships and two Super Bowl titles to go with a 226-124-3 record. (That puts the Steelers second in wins and win percentage, fourth in playoff appearances, and third in playoff wins over that time.)
• He drafted seven guys who made first-team All-Pro multiple times as Steelers (Antonio Brown, Troy Polamalu, T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Le’Veon Bell, David DeCastro, Maurkice Pouncey), and traded for another one (Minkah Fitzpatrick). The highest pick spent on any of those eight guys? Sixteenth overall, for Polamalu in 2003. He also dug out two other future first-team All-Pro Steelers on the veteran market (Jeff Hartings, James Farrior).
• At a time of quarterback uncertainty for the Steelers, he built a team that got to the AFC title game behind one he inherited, Kordell Stewart, found an effective bridge player at the position in Tommy Maddox, then landed an 18-year solution in Ben Roethlisberger in his fifth draft in Pittsburgh.
• He was a part of the hiring committee that found a young Vikings defensive coordinator named Mike Tomlin to succeed Bill Cowher. And he built strong bonds and won titles with both coaches. The result? In a league designed to force teams into valleys after they reach peaks, the Steelers never fell far. Colbert oversaw one sub-.500 team over 22 seasons, and turned the resulting draft pick of that 2003 season into Roethlisberger.

So yeah, I think Colbert should be in, and I’d put him right there with recent inductees Bill Polian and Ron Wolf with the very best football executives of his generation.

From ndetherock (@EllertNick): Why does the national media continually say negative things about Trey Lance, though all the local media who have seen him play and practice, say the opposite?

Nick, I think the variance in opinion on Trey Lance is based much on the unknown—It’s really hard to project a guy who didn’t play, or throw, that much on the college level, and whose playing time as a rookie was scarce. And to illustrate that, consider this contrast from the last four years, Lance vs. his draft classmate, Trevor Lawrence, since the two graduated high school in 2018.

• Lawrence has started 53 games and thrown 1,740 passes in games, for Clemson and the Jags.
• Lance has started 17 games and thrown 389 passes in games, for North Dakota State and the Niners.

That is a massive gap (more than three times as many starts, and four times as many throws), without even considering that Lawrence’s starts came in the ACC and NFL, and all of Lance’s came in the Missouri Valley Conference. Or that Lance, even when he was starting (and starring) for NDSU through a national championship season in 2019 was averaging just 18 attempts a game, as the Bison ran over and blew out opponents.

What does it mean? It means that Lawrence has seen that much more football from the pilot’s seat than Lance has, and has been through that much more trial and error.

So for the Niners, there’s certainly an element of the unknown ahead. The good news is Lance has a great head on his shoulders, is smart as a whip, has freakish athletic gifts, and will work his tail off to get where he needs to go. But he also came into the league raw, wasn’t the most natural thrower to begin with, and had significant ups and downs as a rookie.

I think the best bet here is that Kyle Shanahan will have to adjust his offense some to make it work for Lance in 2021, and that Shanahan will be able to showcase the best of what Lance is at this stage as he grows in other areas. But again, there’s a lot of unknown.

From Mark Zinno (@MarkZinno): Is it acceptable to use Pop-Tarts as a bread substitute for a PBJ sandwich?

Are you a sociopath, Mark?

From Jeremy Friedrichs (@FriedrichsJk): Hey Albert, can you walk us through a typical workday for you?

Sure, Jeremy. Normally, it starts for me when I wake up, at some point in the 5 a.m. hour, with a check of what I might’ve missed overnight, and maybe some texts resulting from that. Then I go for a run/workout, come back, get the kids to school, and get back to my desk around 9 a.m. From there, there’s a lot of variance based on time of year, my TV/radio responsibilities, and what I might be working on. Usually I’ll have at least some work to do into the night—could be working on a story, could be making a few last calls.

Really, there isn’t a template outside of that, which is the kind of fun part of the work. No two days are identical. It can be tough in that way, too, in that when you have a family, the volatile nature of the news can make things chaotic. But that’s part of what you sign up for in deciding to do this for a living.

And in the end, football is my job. Which is all I wanted, going back to when I was a teenager (you can ask my friends).

Pickett, the No. 20 pick in the 2022 draft, will look to take over after Roethlisberger’s retirement :: Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports

From Kevin Donahue (@BiggsDonahue): How many rookie QBs are starting by the end of the season?

Kevin, on the premise that you mean entrenched as the starter in early January (and not just pinch-hitting because of injury) let’s set the over/under at two—because I think there’s a solid chance that two out of a group of three (Kenny Pickett, Matt Corral, Desmond Ridder) will be in there by then. My feeling is the path to playing time is far less clear for Malik Willis and Sam Howell (we’ll get to why).

Pickett’s shot at getting on to the field will ride almost completely on what he can do for the Steelers in the here and now, because that’s a playoff team, and there isn’t huge downside to sitting him. With Corral, it’s based on whether Ben McAdoo’s feeling that he can get more out of Sam Darnold is correct, and then whether the Panthers acquire another veteran. With Ridder, I do think that, one way or another, late in the year, the Falcons will want to see what they have in the third-round pick to start planning forward towards 2023.

So give me Ridder as a starter at the end of the year, and either Pickett or Corral.

As for Willis with the Titans and Howell with the Commanders, I just think the teams involved have too much invested in the guys they’re starting now. And I think both teams will be competing for division titles, which lessen the likelihood that you’ll see the rookie out there.

From I'm a Bengals Fan Now! (@DonRidenour): Who takes a bigger leap this year in NY, Daniel Jones or Zach Wilson?

Don! I’ll go with Wilson just based on overall investment in the player. Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas fully hitched their wagon to the ex-BYU star in taking him with the second pick in 2021, and so they’ll do everything they can make it work with him. And Wilson can come back bigger, stronger and more advanced, having made it through a rough rookie year that included a period where the team shut him down for a few weeks.

He also has Corey Davis and Elijah Moore coming back with a year in the offense under their belts, and Garrett Wilson coming on, with an offensive line that added Laken Tomlinson in front of him, so a lot of pieces are in place for a sophomore leap for Wilson.

Now, contrast that with the Giants’ situation—Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen came in, and started what looks like a Bills-style deliberate rebuild, then declined the fifth-year option on Jones’s rookie contract. So in many ways, rather than it being coach and GM on the hook for the quarterback, in this case, it’s the quarterback on trial. And that’s not to say that Daboll and Schoen aren’t hoping it works out with Jones. They’re just keeping their options open and seeing how he does with the existing situation, rather than loading up around him.

Bottom line, Wilson’s in a better spot right now.

From Harold Nesbitt (@ServantKlNG): What’s going to happen with Lamar Jackson’s situation?

Harold, I think the Ravens and Jackson are going to get something done. That’s just a gut feeling. The trust between the sides remains strong, and I don’t think Baltimore is going to insult Jackson by trying to low-ball him. I also think Jackson values being a Raven, and genuinely wants to stay there. But I will add one caveat.

Jackson could draw a hard line on wanting a fully-guaranteed contract, like the one Deshaun Watson got. If he does, I think this situation becomes less predictable. We’ll see what happens.

From Mookie8000 (@mookie8000): Why should we listen to sports reporters on the Pats “reaching” on drafting when they said the same things about Devin McCourty, Logan Mankins and Nate Solder? Three direct Bullseyes and media cried. How many times can they cry wolf?

Mookie, no one’s crying wolf. Maybe Cole Strange makes 10 Pro Bowls, and Tyquan Thornton is the next Tyreek Hill. I don’t know if those two guys are there, or they’re out of the league in three years.

What I do know is that this felt like the Patriots failing the read the board, because the background I had said Strange likely wasn’t going until late in the second round, maybe even the third, and New England easily could’ve gotten him with the 54th pick. And Thornton was seen by most as a Day 3 pick. That, by the way, doesn’t mean they won’t be good players. They might be worthy of their draft slots.

But if my information is correct, then maybe you could’ve gotten Strange at 54, saved the fifth-round pick you used to go up for Thornton, maybe gotten Thornton at 137, where they took Bailey Zappe, and spent their first-rounder elsewhere. Which means, I’m saying you’re essentially trading a first-rounder for Zappe in this scenario. And again, I’m not saying Strange and Thornton won’t be good players.

From Jeremy Ng (@NgSprints): Best south shore bar pizza?

Poopsie’s in Pembroke (because it’s awesome and the only one I’ve tried).

From Matt Ramas (@matt_ramas): TOP GUN -- seen it yet?

I haven’t, but bringing my boys to see it soon.

From Rico de Suave (@nemo9236): Is Lambeau Field the best stadium in the NFL?

Rico, yes, absolutely. One of the many things I love about football is that every game has the ability to feel like an event—and no venue in the NFL turns a game into an event better than Lambeau Field does. From the drive through the neighborhood to get to the lots, to all the tailgating going on in the lots, to the way the fans are on top of the action inside the stadium to what a great fall day feels like in Wisconsin, it’s football in a way that you usually can only get it on the college level. I’d advise everyone put it on their bucket list.

You didn’t ask, but my other favorite places for games (and this is just for the game and gameday atmosphere itself, not the city as much)—Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Seattle, Philly, Denver and Chicago. You can have fun anywhere. But to me, that’s the top 25%.