There are a couple of things that hold him back from the kind of recognition he deserves. One, he's a center, and only real football nerds go that deep into analysis of the guy who touches the ball on every single play.
Secondly, his career spanned 13 seasons in a way that made it hard for him to win one of the awards he probably should have won. Since he started in 2007, he was a little late to be considered for the All-Decade team of the 2000s, which included Hall of Famer Kevin Mawae and Olin Kreutz. And since he only played 16 games once after 2015 because of injuries, he lost the traction he deserved for the 2010s All-Decade team, whose centers were Maurkice Pouncey and Alex Mack, both of whom played the entire decade.
Now, these can be esoteric distinctions, and all four of those guys were great players. But Kalil was better than at least two of them.
And there's at least one number to point you in that direction.
[ProFootballReference.com has a handy tool called a Hall of Fame Monitor](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/hof/hofm_C.htm). It's an attempt to empirically measure players based on their all-time achievements and contextualize their impact.
They use a formula that gives mathematical weight to individual honors and team success, e.g., you get so many points for a Pro Bowl, more for All-Pro, etc. There's a lot that goes into this formula. But you get a 25-point bump for making the All-Decade team.
Mawae was great for a long time. His HOFm score was 98.53. Pouncey, who is eligible for the Hall this year and ought to get in someday, was a 75.18. Mack was a 71.5, and Kreutz a 58.08. Kalil was a 48.35 without making the All-Decade team. Which means if you take away that gigantic statistical bump those other four guys got from a subjective honor, Kalil is ahead of Mack and way ahead of Kreutz. And if you add a 25-point bonus to Kalil's score, he's ahead of Hall of Fame center Mick Tingelhoff, and just behind Pouncey and Jeff Saturday, who I think have strong cases for eventual enshrinement in Canton.
But this is me way down in the weeds, and I am admittedly a Ryan Kalil truther, having seen his best years with my own two eyes, allowing me a perspective on the way he impacted games on the field.
Ryan Kalil was not good at football; he was great at football. And as you can tell, I have thoughts.
Also, his name has definitely come up in Hall of Honor committee meetings, and he's certainly among the Panthers legends with a great chance to be recognized someday.