Jason Kelce Retires: Is the Star Eagles Center a Hall of Famer?

The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a brutal blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, and shortly after the game, star center Jason Kelce announced his retirement from professional football. This raises a simple question: is Jason Kelce a future NFL Hall of Famer? It’s difficult to make it to Canton as an offensive lineman, let alone as a center, but there is a strong case for Kelce’s election to the Hall. While Kelce will probably get in, it may not be as certain as some make it out to be.

Jason Kelce Retires: Is the Star Eagles Center a Hall of Famer?

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Only seven centers have qualified for the NFL Hall of Fame since 1955. You may not have heard of many of them, though — of the seven Hall of Fame centers — Dermontti Dawson, Jim Otto, Mike Webster, Dwight Stephenson, Kevin Mawae, Jim Langer and Mick Tinglehoff — only one, Mawae, played in the 21st century.

While Kelce put together an impressive career in Philadelphia, it didn’t start that way. He didn’t earn his first All-Pro selection until the 2017 campaign, six years into his NFL career. He was a two-time Pro Bowler by that point, but not earning your first All-Pro nod until your seventh year in the NFL is a bit of a red flag. None of the seven centers in the NFL Hall of Fame earned their first All-Pro selection after their sixth year, let alone their seventh.

The length of Kelce’s career — and his sustained high level of production in later seasons — certainly helps elevate his not-great (but very good!) early seasons. After his first All-Pro selection, Kelce went on to be a first-team All-Pro selection in all but one of his subsequent campaigns, Philadelphia’s embarrassing 4-11-1 season in 2020. Corey Linsley was the first-team selection that year, followed by Ryan Kelly and Frank Ragnow.

Those backing Kelce’s Hall of Fame campaign should grapple with one key question: why isn’t Jeff Saturday also a Hall of Famer? The longtime Indianapolis Colts center hasn’t been selected despite his impressive resume. Saturday also won a Super Bowl and two conference championships. He has one fewer Pro Bowl selection but started an extra season. He only earned two first-team All-Pro selections, but he earned a third as a second-team choice.

Kelce fans can obviously distinguish the two by the number of their All-Pro selections, but Saturday’s absence from the Hall illustrates how difficult it is for a center to make it to Canton. The only center to play in the 21st century, Kevin Mawae, needed to do more than what Kelce accomplished. Mawae never won a Super Bowl and only earned three first-time All-Pro selections, but he made eight Pro Bowls and started for 15 years. Mawae started 238 games between 1994 and 2009. It would take Kelce nearly three full extra seasons to reach that number.

The small number of centers in the Hall, along with Saturday’s absence from it, raises another point: centers usually aren’t that valuable. Kelce would probably agree. On the New Heights podcast, Jason told Travis that center was the easiest position in the NFL because they usually just help out guards after snapping the ball. Still, snapping the ball — both accurately and at the right time — is a major responsibility, as teams with low-quality options at the position often find out the hard way.

So is Jason Kelce a Hall of Famer? Probably — his six first-team All-Pro selections tie him for the second-most of all time. But arguments for him to make the Hall on other grounds, like his longevity and postseason accomplishments with the Eagles, are much tougher to make, especially with Saturday still on the outside looking in.