Most NFL players never announce their retirement. At some point, they leave NFL rosters and never return, waiting for a next chance and another contract that never comes.

Running back Mark Ingram hasn’t announced his retirement after 12 NFL seasons. But FOX Sports did it for him on Thursday, when it announced the former Alabama All-American would join the network’s Saturday college football show this season.

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The end of Ingram’s NFL career means the start of his countdown to the College Football Hall of Fame. Ingram could not be considered for enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame while he was an active NFL player.

As the Heisman Trophy winner for the Crimson Tide’s 2009 BCS national-championship team, Ingram appears virtually certain to be inducted. It seems only a matter of when.

Of the 64 players who won the Heisman Trophy before 2000, all are in the College Football Hall of Fame. Of the 11 Heisman Trophy winners in this century who have been eligible for at least one College Football Hall of Fame ballot, five already are enshrined, including Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman Trophy two years before Ingram.

But is the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Ingram’s future, too? He’ll become eligible for consideration in the nomination process for the Class of 2028.

Ingram’s NFL achievements include becoming the New Orleans Saints’ career leader in rushing yards with 6,500 and rushing touchdowns with 52, running for more than 1,000 yards in three seasons and earning three Pro Bowl invitations.

Since Ingram entered the NFL as the 28th selection in the 2011 draft, his three Pro Bowl selections are tied for sixth among running backs. (LeSean McCoy has the most Pro Bowl selections among running backs since 2011 with six.)

Ingram’s 8,111 career rushing yards also are tied for the sixth-most in the NFL since 2011 (with Frank Gore leading the way with 9,586 rushing yards) as are his 65 rushing touchdowns (with Derrick Henry, another former Alabama running back, on top of that list with 78, even though he entered the league in 2016).

With 10,236 yards from scrimmage (8,111 rushing yards and 2,125 receiving yards), Ingram ranks fourth among NFL running backs since 2011, behind McCoy (the leader with 12,383), Gore, Ezekiel Elliott and Adrian Peterson.

Among the players that profootballreference.com lists as “players whose career was of similar quality and shape” as Ingram’s are Marshawn Lynch, Larry Csonka, Earnest Byner, Floyd Little, Reggie Bush (the man that Ingram replaced on the FOX Sports college football show), Corey Dillon, Freeman McNeil and Jerome Bettis. Csonka, Little and Bettis are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But on profootballreference.com’s Hall of Fame monitor, Ingram ranks 85th among all running backs in NFL history. The Hall of Fame has 50 members listed as running backs, halfbacks and fullbacks.

Eight Alabama alumni are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. None played running back.

Among the Crimson Tide ball-carriers who have played in the NFL, Ingram has the third-most rushing yards, trailing Shaun Alexander’s 9,543 and Henry’s 8,335. That’s the same lineup for rushing touchdowns, with Alexander at 100 and Henry had 78.

Ingram also ranks third among Alabama alumni in NFL yards from scrimmage behind Julio Jones’ 13,792 and Alexander’s 10,973.

The NFL MVP in 2005, when he set a league single-season record with 27 rushing touchdowns, Alexander has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame nine times in the past 10 years. But he has yet to reach semifinalist status for enshrinement.

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Ingram played in 156 regular-season games. That’s 16th on Alabama’s all-time NFL list, but it’s first among running backs, with Alexander and Tony Nathan well behind in second with 123 games apiece.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.