By JOSH DUBOW
Four former Miami Dolphins are are among the players who advanced to the next stage in the Seniors category for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
The Hall released a list of 60 players Thursday who remained from the original list of 183 nominees made last month by a newly created Seniors Screening Committee, and among those advancing were three Dolphins championship-era stalwarts, versatile offensive lineman Bob Kuechenberg, defensive end Bill Stanfill and safety Dick Anderson, and one of the Dan Marino-era Marks Brothers, Mark Clayton.
A nine-person Senior Blue Ribbon Committee will now begin the process of reducing that list to the three finalists to be considered by the full selection committee in early 2025. The three seniors will be grouped with one coach and contributor with at least one and no more than three of those finalists getting in based on voting.
Also making the initial cut were ex-Miami Hurricanes running backs Chuck Foreman and Ottis Anderson. Foreman played in three Super Bowls with the 1970s Minnesota Vikings, and Anderson was the MVP of the 1991 Super Bowl between his New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills, won by the Giants 20-19 in Tampa.
Kuechenberg, a versatile offensive lineman who died in 2019, spanned the Dolphins title era and the high-flying Marino days, playing from 1970-83. He started 50 of the Dolphins’ 51 games in their three-consecutive-Super Bowl run from 1971-73, and then finished his career in Marino’s rookie season of 1983 with 16 starts.
Stanfill was a Pro Bowl pick as a rookie in 1969, the year before coach Don Shula’s arrival, and then made it four more times from 1971-74, earning first-team All-Pro honors in The Perfect Season of 1972. In 1973, he piled up 18.5 sacks, though the stat wasn’t officially kept until 1982. Jason Taylor tied that club record in 2002. Stanfill died in 2016.
Anderson, who played from 1968-1977, was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 1973, one of the three seasons where he hauled in eight interceptions. Amazingly in each of those seasons, he averaged more than 20 yards per interception return. In 1968, he averaged 28.8 yards per return (230 yards), in 1970, that average was (191) in 1968, and in 1973, he had an average of 20.4 per pickoff return (163). Anderson, 78, also had a postseason average length of interception return above 20, with a 21.4-yard average on five picks (107) in his 11 career playoff outings.
Clayton, who was an eighth-round selection in the same 1983 draft that brought the Dolphins Dan Marino, scored a then-record 18 touchdowns in 1984 (since broken by Raheem Mostert in 2023 when the running back piled up 21 scores). Clayton, with co-Marks Brother Mark Duper, were key cogs as Marino set every significant Dolphins passing record and many NFL marks. Clayton, 63, played from 1983-92 with Miami, piling up five 1,000-yard receiving seasons. He closed his career in 1993 in Green Bay.
Among the most decorated of the 60 are versatile San Francisco 49ers running back Roger Craig, former Cincinnati Bengals MVP Ken Anderson and key member of Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defense L.C. Greenwood
Craig and Ken Anderson are among the 10 players on this year’s list of nominees who made it to the seminal stage of 12 candidates last year when Steve McMichael and Randy Gradishar were voted in as seniors.
The other returning semifinalists are Maxie Baughan, Joe Jacoby, Albert Lewis, Eddie Meador, Art Powell, Sterling Sharpe, Otis Taylor and Al Wistert. Powell made it to the final cut but didn’t get the 80% threshold needed for induction.
Players eligible for the Seniors category must have finished their playing career by the end of the 1999 season.
Craig was a key part of San Francisco’s dynasty in the 1980s with his ability as a physical runner and as a receiver out of the backfield. Craig was the first player ever to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season in 1985, and led the NFL with 2,036 yards from scrimmage in 1988 when he helped the 49ers win the Super Bowl.
Craig was also part of the title-winning teams in San Francisco in the 1984 and 1989 seasons. His 410 yards from scrimmage in those Super Bowl wins are the third-most ever behind only Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Franco Harris.
Ken Anderson was a four-time Pro Bowler for Cincinnati and won the MVP in 1981 when he helped the Bengals reach their first Super Bowl before losing to San Francisco. When Anderson retired after the 1986 season he ranked sixth all time with 32,838 yards passing and 13th with 197 TD passes.
Greenwood is the most prominent member of the Steelers dominant defense that helped the franchise win four Super Bowl titles in a span of six seasons from 1974-79 who is not in the Hall. Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Donnie Shell and Mel Blount have already been inducted.
Greenwood was a member of the all-decade team for the 1970s, was a two-time All-Pro and made six Pro Bowls in a 13-year career. He retired a year before sacks became an official stat but research from Pro Football Reference credits him with 78 over his career as a defensive end on those teams, including four in the Steelers’ two Super Bowl wins over the Dallas Cowboys.
Powell was one of the most prolific receivers in the pass-happy AFL. His 81 touchdowns rank second best in AFL history behind Don Maynard, and his 8,015 yards receiving were third behind only Maynard and Hall of Famer Lance Alworth.
The players who remain eligible for election with the Class of 2025 are:
QUARTERBACKS (5): Ken Anderson, Charlie Conerly, Roman Gabriel, Jack Kemp, Jim Plunkett.
RUNNING BACKS (7): Alan Ameche, Ottis Anderson, Larry Brown, Roger Craig, Chuck Foreman, Cecil Isbell, Paul “Tank” Younger.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS (10): Mark Clayton, Isaac Curtis, Boyd Dowler, Henry Ellard, Harold Jackson, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Stanley Morgan, Art Powell, Sterling Sharpe, Otis Taylor.
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN (12): Ed Budde, Ox Emerson, Bill Fralic, Chris Hinton, Joe Jacoby, Mike Kenn, Bob Kuechenberg, George Kunz, Ralph Neely, Dick Schafrath, Jim Tyrer, Al Wistert.
DEFENSIVE LINEMEN (6): L.C. Greenwood, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Jim Marshall, Harvey Martin, Leslie O’Neal, Bill Stanfill.
LINEBACKERS (11): Carl Banks, Maxie Baughan, Bill Bergey, Joe Fortunato, Larry Grantham, Lee Roy Jordan, Clay Matthews Jr., Tommy Nobis, Andy Russell, Pat Swilling, Phil Villapiano.
DEFENSIVE BACKS (8): Dick Anderson, Deron Cherry, Pat Fischer, Lester Hayes, Albert Lewis, Eddie Meador, Lemar Parrish, Everson Walls.
SPECIAL TEAMS (1): Steve Tasker.
Assistant Sports Editor Steve Svekis contributed to this report.
