Analysis: Dear Hall of Fame selectors, meet the most overlooked member of the NFL’s all-decade team of the 2000s

There are 22 defenders on the NFL’s Team of the Decade for the 2000s. Eighteen are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Former Vikings tackle Kevin Williams is one of four being excluded despite having five Associated Press first-team All-Pro selections that are exceeded by only one defender on that all-decade team: Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis (seven).

Four other defenders on that all-decade team — voted on by members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s selection committee, including this reporter — can match Williams’ five first-team All-Pro selections: linebackers Zach Thomas and Derrick Brooks and safeties Brian Dawkins and Ed Reed.

Brooks (2014) and Reed (2019) joined Lewis (2018) as easy first-ballot Hall of Fame selections. Dawkins (2018) reached Canton in his second year of eligibility while Thomas (2023) made it in his ninth year of eligibility and fourth year as one of the 15 finalists that get discussed by the full board of selectors, now at 49 members, during the annual selection meeting.

And Williams?

(Crickets …)

Next year will be Williams’ sixth year of eligibility. Not only has he never been a finalist, “I’ve never been a semifinalist to my knowledge,” Williams said Wednesday by phone from his home in Mayflower, Ark., just outside of Little Rock.

He’s right. A second-team choice on an all-decade team, Williams has never even made the top 25 in the Hall of Fame’s cutdown process.

“I’m not going to worry myself with it,” he said. “I really haven’t put much thought into it. It would be nice to get in. I would love it. It would be awesome. Amazing. All the words you could list to describe it. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

Williams always has been country strong and as soft-spoken as his dear friend, former teammate and Class of 2025 Hall of Famer Jared Allen is boisterous. Williams enjoys the quiet life in Arkansas. His primary connection to sports in recent years was serving as Central Arkansas Christian High’s defensive line coach and assistant basketball coach until his son transferred this school year.

“I hope Kevin doesn’t keep getting overlooked,” said Allen, who was introduced as a member of this year’s four-member class during last week’s NFL Honors show in New Orleans. “Kevin was an absolute beast. He’s got all the credentials. He should be in, too.”

Allen ranks 12th in career sacks with 136, but he never made an all-decade team. He also had one fewer Pro Bowl (five) and one fewer first-team All-Pro selection (four) than Williams.

The ninth overall pick in 2003, Williams played 11 years with the Vikings, one year with Seattle, losing to the Patriots in the Super Bowl, and a final year with the Saints.

Through seven seasons, he had his five first-team All-Pro selections and 48½ of his 63 sacks. Through eight seasons, he had all six of his Pro Bowl nods.

“I think there’s only two guys at my position who were 100-sack guys or close to it,” Williams said, referring to Warren Sapp’s 96½ and John Randle’s 137½. “But my numbers are better than a lot of guys in there.”

Former Patriots tackle Richard Seymour was inducted in 2022, his fifth year of eligibility. He had one fewer first-team All-Pro selection than Williams.

Williams played 203 games in 13 seasons. Seymour played 164 games in 12 seasons. Williams has more sacks (63-57½), tackles (528-498), tackles for loss (113-91), quarterback hits (90-79), forced fumbles (10-4), fumble recoveries (13-8), passes defensed (73-39), interceptions (5-2) and defensive touchdowns (4-1).

“But,” Williams adds, “he’s got me in Super Bowls [3-0], I guess.”

The other defenders from the 2000s all-decade team not in the Hall of Fame are tackle La’Roi Glover, linebacker Joey Porter and safety Darren Sharper, a former Viking who’s in prison serving a 20-year term after pleading guilty or no contest to drugging and raping women in four states. He could be released as early as 2028.

Williams also played on five top-three run defenses, including a Vikings defense that ranked No. 1 from 2006-08 and No. 2 in 2009 on its way to the NFC Championship Game.

“I think consistently winning your matchups, dominating guys is what matters, regardless of stats,” Williams said. “I might not have 100 sacks, but I pushed that pocket consistently and helped guys make a lot of plays on the edge.”

Said Allen: “Absolutely, Kevin helped me get to the Hall of Fame. No doubt.”

With Allen’s Hall of Fame case finally put to bed, more light probably will be shed on Williams’ case.

“I hope so,” he said. “But, like I said, it doesn’t worry me. What God has for me, He has for me.”