Top 30 NFL players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame

21. WR/ST Steve Tasker

When will special teams get their due their proper due in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Sure, there are players such as quarterback Sammy Baugh, who also excelled as a punter. There’s also Lou “The Toe” Groza, who was not only a battler in the trenches but could get the ball through the uprights.

Currently, there are only two pure placekickers, Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen, who have a bust in Canton, Ohio. Raiders’ legend Ray Guy is the only pure punter. There’s a lot more to special teams than just kicking. So, what about Steve Tasker, who did a little bit of everything and all of it well during his days with the Buffalo Bills?

A ninth-round pick in 1985 by the Houston Oilers, he was waived in his second year and wound up in Orchard Park during the 1986 season. In 11-plus campaigns in Buffalo, he was named to the Pro Bowl seven times as the AFC’s special teams’ representative.

Tasker was a member of eight Bills’ playoff teams, including those clubs that went to a record four consecutive Super Bowls. It is somewhat hard to statistically quantify what he meant to those squads as a reliable player who was an invaluable part of those kick return and coverage units.