S John Lynch improved from semifinalist to finalist in this year's Hall of Fame selection process, and could make another leap to inductee in 2015

With that in mind, 2015 could be the window that Dungy and/or Lynch need. Of course, the same could be said for Tim Brown, Marvin Harrison, Will Shields, Jerome Betters, Kevin Greene, Charles Haley, Terrell Davis and others.

Those returning candidates are likely facing competition from at least one hard-to-beat first-year-eligible figure: the late Junior Seau. The former San Diego Charger was selected to 12 Pro Bowls, was named a first-team All-Pro eight teams and was included on the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1990s. He also was the NFL's Man of the Year in 1994. Basically, Seau's resume looks a lot like Brooks', minus a Super Bowl ring and a Defensive Player of the Year award but plus a few more Pro Bowls and individual honors.

Seau will be joined by a whole mess of former St. Louis Rams from The Greatest Show on Turf days: quarterback Kurt Warner, tackle Orlando Pace and wide receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt. A few other notable names that will become eligible in 2015 include Kevin Mawae, Ty Law and Edgerrin James.

That's a lot of likely future Hall of Famers, but not necessarily first-ballot selections. Warner, for instance, has two MVP awards, some of the best single-season performances by a quarterback in league history and trips to the Super Bowl with two different teams. However, there is a significant gap in the middle of his career (2002-06), where his production lagged due to injuries and his status on the depth chart. In the end, that didn't stop him from having an incredible overall impact on the game, but first-year-eligible selections usually don't have any significant question marks on their resumes.

Pace will likely follow Jones (Class of 2014), Ogden (2013) and Willie Roaf (2012) into the Hall as the four most decorated offensive tackles of their era. But will he keep the trend going and make it four in a row for his position? The careers of Jones, Ogden and Pace overlapped almost perfectly, and their relative merits have been debated for years. That there remains some disagreement about how to rank the three, and that Ogden and Jones made it in on their first tries, is obviously good news for Pace. He had a little bit more of an issue with injuries late in his career than did the other two, which might be the only reason he is denied the same first-ballot entrance.

As for Bruce and Holt, they rank seventh and 15th respectively in league history in career receptions, and fourth and 12th respectively in yards. It's hard to imagine two receivers primarily from the same team and same era getting in at the same time, but the bigger problems for Bruce and Holt are likely named Marvin Harrison and Tim Brown. The Selection Committee finally started to clear up its logjam at receiver last year with Carter, and picking Reed this year seems to indicate a pattern. A very strong statistical argument could have been made favoring first-year man Harrison over Reed in 2014; perhaps it seemed fairer to start with the long-delayed Reed and get to Harrison later. Tim Brown, whose numbers compare favorably to all of those receivers, could make it three in a row from the WR waiting list next year. All of this would suggest that Bruce and Holt will need to take a seat in the Canton waiting room for a little while.

Would Edgerrin James, the 11th-leading rusher in NFL history, show up next year and immediately leap-frog Bettis, number six on that list. Some Hall voters are surely waiting for an opportunity to give Davis a nod, too; Davis' abbreviated career is clearly holding him back, but few backs peaked higher than the former Bronco, and nobody was better in the postseason. Law (five Pro Bowls) and Mawae (eight) were star players but they seem unlikely to overcome a stacked ballot right away.

The best-case scenario for returning Hall of Fame finalists is probably that two spots are taken in 2015 by new names on the ballot, leaving (up to) three for those who have just missed in recent years. Expect one of those three to be taken by a receiver, whether it be Harrison or Bruce, as the voters continue to work on that logjam. Hopefully, at least one of those other two spots could be taken by another former Buccaneer, Dungy and/or Lynch.

It should be noted that the Selection Committee began last week's final voting process with 15 finalists and, as the first step, found a way to eliminate five of them from consideration. Both Dungy and Lynch were among those five. Does that indicate that they have one more hurdle to clear, perhaps making the final 10 next year and then getting the call a year or two later? Actually, that's not necessarily the pattern. In 2013, the first five people cut on the final day of selection were Brown, Greene and Shields and former owners Eddie DeBartolo and Art Modell. All of them had been finalists previously This year, Greene and Shields did make it into the top 10, but Brown and DeBartolo once again were eliminated in the first vote.

For those who don't take one of those anticipated open spots next February, things could start to get tougher. The list of first-year-eligibles in 2016 will include Brett Favre, an absolute no-doubt choice, and Terrell Owens, who won't have to wait long either. Depending upon one's opinions of LaDainian Tomlinson (the fifth-leading rusher of all time), Jason Taylor, Brian Dawkins and Brian Waters, there could be some room in 2017. The 2018 group is going to make things exceedingly complicated, however, as it includes Ray Lewis, Ronde Barber, Randy Moss, Steve Hutchinson and Brian Urlacher.