The 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony is about a month away and two prominent Denver Broncos — Pat Bowlen and Champ Bailey — will take their rightful places in enshrinement.

Meanwhile, Broncos fans await the day that other former players who have been overlooked get the call.

However, where Broncos fans sometimes err in how to argue cases is often the same way others — particularly those who vote — err in arguing cases. They fall into certain traps that don't really paint the big picture, which leads to certain candidates getting overlooked and other gaining too much traction.

I sat down a few years ago to think about what really needed to be considered when evaluating players, coaches and anyone else for the Hall of Fame. I rolled that list out and I'm sharing it with Mile High Huddle readers. This isn't the first time I've broached the topic.

For anyone who is asking what makes this list so special, I will say this: When I rolled it out at a forum where sports writers frequent, at least one person remarked that what I delineated, if used to determine candidacies, would have put Terrell Davis into the Hall.

No, I don't take credit for my list getting Davis into the Hall. But if it's good enough to get people to conclude that Davis is HOF worthy, then I hope Broncos fans will consider this list.

Let's go over a few things first.

HOW THE LIST CAME ABOUT

The list is loosely based on the questions that longtime baseball statistician Bill James put together to get people to evaluate Hall of Fame cases for baseball players. James rolled out the questions in response to a contingent of baseball fans who argued that third baseman Ken Keltner should be in the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame. James' intent was to get people to put a player's career into perspective.

The questions to be asked weren't simply about scoring points, though. Sometimes the answers to a few questions will strongly support a player's case, without having to look at others. In other cases, answers to nearly all questions help the player's case, but not a single answer indicates the player is a lock.

What the questions are designed to do is get people thinking more clearly about how a player measures up in terms of his overall career, how he compares to others and how much works in favor of his case.

It's what Broncos fans really need to do if they want to see, say, Steve Atwater get in to Hall for the Class of 2020.

WHAT'S NOT CONSIDERED

James didn't want people thinking too much about conventional wisdom when evaluating baseball players. I don't want the same for football players, either.

Here's what the list isn't going to consider.

Super Bowl rings: Though many deserving Hall of Famers have been part of at least one Super Bowl winning team, many others have not. And when thinking about Super Bowl rings, too much emphasis gets placed on Super Bowl performances.

But Super Bowls are only a small part of the picture. Thinking too much about the number of rings a player has doesn't get you to look at other factors that could help his case.

Furthermore, when you start talking about Super Bowl rings, you start movements for teams that have won multiple Super Bowls to get more players into the Hall. But winning Super Bowls is a sign of great teams, not simply great individuals.

There can be exceptions (coaches would be the big one, such as Mike Shanahan), but you need to think past the rings to determine a candidate's case.

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Pro Bowls: There is a lot of fixation on the Pro Bowl to determine who should go into the Hall. While many players with multiple Pro Bowl bids deserve the honor, it's another factor that gets too much weight.

There may be years in which a player deserving of the Pro Bowl doesn't get to go, or players who skip the Pro Bowl for whatever reason lead to others getting a berth -- and in some of those cases, the players really weren't that good, but are going because there's a need to fill a spot.

More importantly, It keeps the focus too narrow, such as certain positions that voters and fans alike don't always understand how to evaluate, or players who don't get much attention because they aren't household names.

It's something to keep in mind when somebody like, say, Chris Harris, Jr. doesn't get attention from those doing Pro Bowl selections.

Statistics: Everyone makes a big fuss about statistics, but they don't always paint a full picture.

Let's take offensive linemen — what stats have been kept on a regular basis? Very little. Thus, statistics aren't a good way to evaluate players such as Tom Nalen.

Now consider the other side: What stats have only been kept more recently? Could they have helped players who have been overlooked? Did it get more recent candidates overrated because the game has changed in recent years?

While stats can be useful, they get too much emphasis, often to the detriment of players for whom stats don't tell the whole story.

Feel-good stories: If one thing has too much influence over the decisions voters make, it's looking for the feel-good narrative about a player so much, said voters want to put the player in the Hall.

This is one aspect that really needs to go away, even if it makes it more difficult to get certain players into the Hall. Because while feel-good stories are fun, they are merely one aspect of a player's career.

And when those stories get pushed too much, it can lead to candidates who were good but not great, slipping into the Hall.

I get that Rod Smith, for example, has a feel-good story about being an undrafted player who rose to prominence. But while I won't say that Smith doesn't belong in the Hall, if you focus too much on the feel-good story for his Hall case, you then give credibility to other players who had such stories and got in when the big picture isn't so kind.

I will talk more about Smith and other Broncos as I go over my questions, but let's get to the questions that fans should consider more to weigh Hall of Fame cases.