Bobby Wagner has a gold jacket waiting for him in Canton, Ohio whenever he decides to hang up his cleats.
But in the meantime, the Washington Commanders linebacker is still considered one of the best active NFL players, landing as No. 74 on the annual list of the top-100 as judged by NFL Network.
This is Wagner’s 10th appearance on the annual top-100 list. The six-time All-Pro, who has made the Pro Bowl in 10 of the past 11 seasons including with Washington in 2024, had 132 tackles, two sacks, two fumble recoveries and four passes defended in his first year with the Commanders.
Why Is Bobby Wagner On The Top-100 List?
It may not have been the 183-tackle season he had in Seattle in 2023, which landed him at No. 59 on the 2024 ideation of the list. But Wagner’s 2024 campaign was still incredible.
The now-35-year-old played 99 percent of the Commanders’ defensive snaps and posted his 13th straight 100-plus tackle season. He also helped Washington jump from dead last in the NFL in defense to 13th and made 25 tackles in the Commanders’ three-game playoff run.
“He’s so instinctual,” Demario Davis of the New Orleans Saints said of Wagner. “He always finds a way to be around the ball [and] just continues to defy time.”
Yet, it is Wagner’s ability to quickly process information that continues to be his best asset.
“He’s one of the guys that’s always calling out formations [and] where the play is going,” Eagles tackle Lane Johnson said. “He knows what’s going on before it happens.”
Wagner was a second-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks in the 2012 NFL Draft and is set to enter his 14th season. But is Wagner’s continued love for the game, and respect for it, that has rubbed off the most on his Commanders teammates.
“He still treats the game like he’s a rookie,” Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. said. “You can’t even tell he’s been in the league 13 [or] 14 years.”
Is Bobby Wagner A Hall of Famer?
Wagner helped the Seahawks win their first Super Bowl in 2013 and qualify for back-to-back Super Bowls in 2013 and 2014.
So between his team success, and his consistency, Wagner reaching the Hall of Fame is a given at this point and has been for some time.
“He’s gonna be a Hall of Famer one day,” former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said in 2018. “He’s hands-down one of the best defensive players I’ve ever played against.”
“He has a great defense around him, but as the middle linebacker, he has to be the nucleus of that defense,” said Emmanuel Acho, a fellow linebacker from the 2012 draft class, in 2015.
So Wagner will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame soon, and even his current teammates in Washington are considering the fact they get to play with one of the best to ever play his position.
“I tell him ‘it’s an honor to get to play on the same team with you,’” Robinson said. “It’s no surprise that he’s always at the top of the charts.”
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