Levi Damien, Raiders WireThu, November 27, 2025 at 9:02 PM UTC·1 min readThis week the Pro Football Hall of Fame made another round of cuts to the modern-era nominees for the class of 2026. Making this year's cut are two Raiders legends. One who has a good chance of making it in on the first ballot.
Jason Witten made 11 Pro Bowls in his career and was twice named an All Pro. He came out of retirement in 2018 and his final NFL uniform was Silver & Black. It's where he set the record for games played by a tight end.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWitten is joined by career Raider Steve Wisniewski among the 26 semi-finalists announced. Wiz spent 13 years in the NFL, all with the Raiders. He started 206 games for the Raiders and was a fixture at the left guard spot from 1990 to 2001. In that time he made eight Pro Bowls and was twice an All Pro. He's been eligible for twenty years and his induction is long overdue considering how dominant he was over the decade of the 90s for which is was named to the Hall of Fame All 1990s team.
Two other Raiders greats were cut from the list in this round -- punter Shane Leckler, and running back Marshawn Lynch.
Lechler was statistically the greatest punter the NFL has ever seen. A position at which only one pure punter has ever been enshrined -- Ray Guy -- and he had to wait for the senior committee to get the call.
Lynch played two season with the Raiders, in their final years in his hometown of Oakland, but made his Hall of Fame career in Seattle where he went to four of his five career Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: First-ballot Raiders legend make list of Hall of Fame semi-finalists
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