By: Jake Rajala

The former Miami Dolphins pass rusher Cameron Wake was a pillar of dominance in his football journey. Wake was unusually talented at sacking opposing quarterbacks in 10 seasons as a Dolphin and then he played one season in Tennessee. The former CFL stud hasn’t technically retired, but it doesn’t appear he will return to competing in-between the white lines. Nonetheless, Wake ought to be remembered as a gifted edge rusher and one of the best-undrafted players of all time.

With that enunciated, the ultimate question is: Is Wake a future Hall of Famer? Well, I’m going to untwine the overall production of Wake and then compare his resume to a fascinating, relevant pass rusher that is Canton-bound.

Here is an in-depth look at the magic from Wake:

• 100.5 career sacks
• 224 QB hits
• Five-time Pro Bowl selection
• First-team All-Pro in 2012

This is how Wake stacks up to the Ravens mythical pass rusher Terrell Suggs — who is a HOF lock.

T-Sizzle

• 139 career sacks
• 200 QB hits
• Seven-time Pro Bowl selection
• DPOY winner in 2011
• First-team All-Pro in 2011
• Super Bowl LVI champion

Wake has similar pass-rushing production as Sizzle, but Suggs has the edge w/ a piece of defensive gold (aka a DPOY award) & a pivotal SB ring (which is clearly an utterly impressive combination). Suggs isn’t only a future Hall of Famer, but he should be a first-ballot HOFer.

I certainly don’t expect Wake to be a first-ballot HOF player, but will he eventually be cast into football heaven? I honestly don’t believe Wake is going to end up in the HOF. He’s authentic, inspiring, and he was a consistent wrecking ball. Nonetheless, he didn’t have enough top-end success or SB glory in his career. His production is very similar to Justin Houston — who recorded 102 sacks, four Pro Bowl nods, one All-Pro team, but failed to win a Super Bowl. I sadly don’t forsee either edge rusher wearing a gold jacket at the end of the tunnel.

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By: Jeremy Trottier

Cameron Wake had one of the more impressive careers in the NFL for a pass rusher, and certainly had an interesting story on how he got to the league.  Wake spent 10 seasons in the NFL, and another 2 in the CFL, which is how he made his way up the ranks.  Cameron started off as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State, which led him to be signed to the New York Giants practice squad prior to being cut.  This led him to move onto a short-lived career with the BC Lions of the CFL, where he would accrue 39 sacks in 2 seasons and won the Most Outstanding Defensive Player both of the two seasons he spent there.  In 2007, he had a total of 23 sacks for BC, as well as 5 forced fumbled and 3 fumble recoveries, 1 for a touchdown. 

The Miami Dolphins would take a shot on Wake, signing him for the 2009 season, which spurred a career that essentially no one saw coming.  He would go on to make the pro bowl in 5 of the next 7 seasons (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016) as well as making the second team all-pro 3 times, first-team all pro once, and a heap of other records that he went for.  He is second all-time in Dolphins franchise history for sacks with the team (98) and is second all-time in sacks by a UDFA at 100.5. 

Wake’s best season in the NFL came when he got moved to outside linebacker (2012), as he would have 53 tackles and 15 sacks that year.  While Wake was most notorious as a Dolphin, and will primarily be remembered as one, his 100^th sack came for the Tennessee Titans in 2019 against the Cleveland Browns, where he sacked Baker Mayfield 2.5 times and pushed himself to his final total of 100.5 sacks on a career.  Unfortunately, Wake’s last season was cut short after 9 games where he would be placed on IR and then cut.  Regardless, Cameron Wake is up in the list of undrafted free agents to make the league and thrive, and truly changed the game for the better by proving CFL players/players outside the NFL can still be elite when transferring. 

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