Another Redskin Headed To The Hall of Fame?

Do you remember 2009 Hall of Fame Inductee, Bruce Smith? Sure you do—he played 217 games with the Buffalo Bills. During that time, he was voted to 11 Pro Bowls, named to the All Pro First-Team nine times, and won the AP Defensive Player of the Year twice.

In a Bills uniform, he also amassed 171 career sacks, which at the time was only second to Reggie White's 198 sacks. However, after the 1999 season, the Buffalo Bills cut ties with Smith, along with Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed to conserve cap space.

Smith signed a five year contract with the Redskins just two days after he was released. With his signing, he joined a slew of highly toughted veteran players to join the Redskins in 2000, including Deion Sanders, Jeff George, and Mark Carrier.

In his first season with the Skins, Smith sacked the opposing quarterback 10 times, the most by a Redskins since the 1996 season when Rich Owens had 11 sacks. The next two seasons, Smith only found the quarterback fourteen times and by the end of the 2002 season he was just three sacks shy of tying Reggie White on top of the all-time sack department.

In the eleventh game of the 2003 season, Bruce Smith and teammate Renaldo Wynn sacked Miami Dolphins quarterback Brian Griese, the half sack gave Smith sack number 198. Two games later, Smith threw down bachelor Jesse Palmer for a seven yard loss, moving him into immortality as the No. 1 sack leader in a career. Two weeks later in Chicago, Smith recorded his last career sack, putting him at an even 200 sacks in his career. 

Even though his career was short with the Redskins, in just four seasons he finished with 29 sacks, good for sixth on the Redskins all-time sack leaderboard. He ended behind the likes of Dexter Manley, Charles Mann, Monte Coleman, Ken Harvey, and Dave Butz. The question is, after Darrell Green and Art Monk were inducted last year as true Redskins, can Bruce Smith be considered the same?