Peppers, Hester, Johnson headline 2024 Pro Football HOF class (2024)

By Mike Sando, Dan Pompei, Joseph Person, James Boyd and Matt Barrows

Julius Peppers, Andre Johnson, Dwight Freeney, Patrick Willis and Devin Hester headline the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2024 class, revealed Thursday during the NFL Honors ceremony.

The five modern-era selections won out over 10 other finalists in Jan. 17 balloting by the Hall’s 50-member selection committee.

Senior committee candidates Randy Gradishar, a linebacker for the Denver Broncos in the 1970s and ‘80s, and Steve McMichael, a defensive tackle on the Super Bowl-winning 1985 Chicago Bears, also won enshrinement.

A third senior committee candidate, former Oakland Raiders receiver Art Powell, did not receive the required 40 “yes” votes for enshrinement. Former Detroit Lions coach Buddy Parker, who was put forth by the coach/contributor committee, also failed to meet the 40-vote threshold.

The five modern-era selections prevailed from a pool of finalists that also featured Antonio Gates, Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne, Willie Anderson, Jahri Evans, Jared Allen, Eric Allen, Rodney Harrison, Darren Woodson and Fred Taylor. Those 10 remain eligible for consideration in 2025.

Peppers, a defensive end who was named to the NFL’s All-Decade teams for both the 2000s and 2010s, earned selection in his first year on the ballot. He had 159.5 sacks in 17 seasons for the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers.

Gates, the San Diego Chargers tight end and member of the 2000s All-Decade team, was this year’s only other modern-era finalist who was in his first year of eligibility. Only one tight end — Tony Gonzalez in 2019 — has ever been inducted on the first ballot.

Johnson, who starred primarily for the Houston Texans and ranks 11th on the NFL’s all-time list for receiving yardage, broke a logjam at the receiver position. Holt and Wayne appear likely to earn enshrinement in the future. Both have been finalists five times, most among any modern-era candidates on the ballot. Johnson had been a finalist three times. He is the first Hall of Fame inductee who played predominantly for the NFL’s youngest franchise (the Texans debuted in 2002).

Hester, who scored 18 of his NFL-record 19 return touchdowns for the Bears before finishing his career with Atlanta and Baltimore, became the rare specialist enshrined. While Hester also played wide receiver, his 3,311 career receiving yards were but a footnote to his elite production as one of the game’s most feared returners.

Willis, who had been a finalist three times, earned selection despite playing his last NFL game at age 29. The San Francisco 49ers linebacker garnered seven Pro Bowl selections and five first-team All-Pro nods in eight seasons before retiring after the 2014 season.

Freeney, a defensive end who won a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts before playing for five other teams, was inducted in his second year of eligibility.

Came easy to Peppers

The game always seemed to come easy to Peppers — or games, plural.

Peppers spent two seasons on North Carolina’s basketball team before the Panthers drafted him second overall in 2002. The towering, 6-7 Peppers was the Defensive Rookie of the Year after a 12-sack season. And he never looked back, racking up double-digit sacks in 10 of his 17 seasons — the last one at the age of 37 in 2017 during his second stint in Carolina.

Peppers is fourth on the NFL’s career sacks list, and two of the guys ahead of him — Reggie White and Kevin Greene — spent time with the Panthers. But Peppers is the first Panthers’ draft pick to be enshrined in the hall of fame.

Considering his nine Pro Bowls, six All-Pro honors and his place on two NFL all-decade teams, it was pretty much a given that Peppers would get elected on his first ballot. His induction speech could be on the short side. Peppers was never much for talking, preferring to let his actions speak. Man, did they ever speak loudly. — Joe Person, Panthers beat writer

Johnson breaks logjam

The three wideout logjam finally has been broken by Johnson. Next up will likely be Holt or Wayne. Johnson, who has been eligible for three years, was wildly productive for the Texans without the kind of supporting casts that Holt and Wayne played with. His best quarterback was Matt Schaub (and he played with many others who made Schaub look like Peyton Manning or Kurt Warner), yet Johnson had five seasons with at least 100 catches, more than any wide receiver in the Hall of Fame. He also had three 1,500-yard receiving seasons, tied for second-most ever behind only Jerry Rice. — Dan Pompei, NFL senior writer

Hester one of a kind

The greatest return man in NFL history took three tries to make it in the Hall of Fame — longer than it usually took him to make it to the end zone. The reason for the delay probably is he primarily was a special teams player, and hall voters traditionally don’t value special teams players as much as offensive (especially) or defensive players. But he was a special teams player like no other.

He scored once for every 32.1 returns, and would have had many more returns if opponents did not try kicking away from him after his second season. Hester is the only player being inducted who was voted to the NFL’s 100th anniversary team, and one of two players, along with Peppers, who was named all-decade twice. Deion Sanders once said this of Hester: “There’s no man that was feared more than Devin Hester with a ball in his hands on special teams. And that’s coming from me.” —Pompei

Willis used lack of size to advantage

For years Willis was the best thing — the only thing — to watch on some pretty awful 49ers squads. During his rookie year in 2007, he would finish with 18, sometimes 20, tackles in one game. Afterward, it was hard to reconcile that this normal-sized football player — Willis was 6-foot-1, 242 pounds — had been doing such superhuman things on the field a few minutes earlier. It was because of his size that then-coach Mike Nolan and linebackers coach Mike Singletary initially were reluctant about taking Willis with the No. 11 pick.

Willis wasn’t the traditional, bulked-up middle linebacker Nolan and Singletary were accustomed to. Instead, he used his defensive back-like speed to strike and chase down opponents, including the 2007 Offensive Rookie of the Year Adrian Peterson, whom Willis and the 49ers held to 3 yards on 14 carries in a Week 14 win that season. Willis finished with 174 tackles to lead the league and was named the Defensive Rookie of the Year.

None of his stops were more impressive than the one in which he ran down Arizona Cardinals slot receiver Sean Morey following a 62-yard chase. The game was tied 31-31 at the time, the 49ers had been caught in a busted coverage and the 5-11, 193-pound Morey had a wide-open field in front of him. A touchdown that late in the game would have won it for Arizona. Willis’ speed and hustle instead forced a field-goal attempt that the Cardinals missed, and the 49ers went on to win the game in overtime — Matt Barrows, 49ers senior writer

Freeney perfected spin move

Even among NFL immortals, Freeney will stand out. There are few players in the history of the league who can say they perfected a technique to such a degree that it became their own. Freeney’s spin move is one of them.

“Everybody knew he was going to do it,” Hall of Fame tackle Joe Thomas once said of the Colts’ pass-rushing legend. “Everybody knew when it was coming, but you couldn’t stop it.”

.@dwightfreeney = Master of the Spin Move 🌀

(via @nflthrowback) pic.twitter.com/Rikh8NzNgZ

— NFL (@NFL) April 16, 2020

Largely because of that devastating spin move, Freeney finished his career with 47 forced fumbles and 125.5 sacks, which rank third and 18th all-time, respectively. He compiled 44 forced fumbles and 107.5 sacks as a member of the Colts. Both are second-most in franchise history behind Robert Mathis, who could join Freeney in the Hall of Fame.

Freeney’s dominance also carried over to the biggest stages. The three-time first-team All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler ranks sixth all-time with 11 postseason sacks. He was a vital part of the Colts’ playoff success during the Manning era, helping the franchise reach two Super Bowls and winning it all against the Bears in 2006-07.

Freeney told The Athletic in 2019 that his greatest moment as a Colt wasn’t defeating the Bears in the Super Bowl, but instead beating New England on the path to the big game. Tom Brady was the Colts’ boogeyman until Indianapolis finally exorcised its playoff demons and erased a 15-point halftime deficit in the AFC Championship en route to a 38-34 victory.

“I always tell people it was as if the AFC title game was the Super Bowl for us,” Freeney said. “The feeling, the history, the emotion behind that. The city was electric. Everybody knew the struggles we’d had with them, and to finally beat them and get to the Super Bowl, that’s the top for me. … Once we beat (the Patriots), we knew there was no stopping us.”

The Colts selected Freeney 11th overall out of Syracuse in the 2002 NFL Draft, and he spent the first 11 seasons of his 16-year NFL career in Indianapolis. Freeney also spent time with the Chargers (four sacks), Cardinals (eight), Falcons (three), Lions and Seahawks (three). — James Boyd, Colts beat writer

McMichael long overdue

The defensive tackle often was overlooked in a defense full of stars and personalities, which is why it took him 24 years of eligibility. Pro Bowl voters often looked past him too. But opposing players did not.

“He’s definitely up there with Howie Long, Dan Hampton, John Randle, Jerry Ball and Reggie White, all the greats I played against,” former Lions center Kevin Glover said. “He’s in that group of guys.”

Since sacks became an official statistic, McMichael was equally effective against the pass and run. In official sack statistics, McMichael ranks fourth all-time among pure defensive tackles. He led the Bears defensive line in tackles seven times, and the Bears allowed the fewest rushing yards in the league over a 10-year period when he was with them. — Pompei

Gradishar even longer overdue

None who will be inducted in 2024 waited longer than Gradishar, who last played in 1983 and will be inducted as a senior candidate. Gradishar is the only member of the Orange Crush Broncos defense inducted, and many feel his honor is long overdue. By comparison, the Steel Curtain Steelers have five hall of famers, the Doomsday Cowboys have four, the 1985 Bears have four and the Purple People Eater Vikings have three.

He has been close four previous times — he was a modern era finalist in 2003 and 2008, and a senior candidate in 2020 when the hall had a special expanded Centennial class. In addition to being a seven-time Pro Bowler, Gradishar was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1978. He averaged 16 tackles per game. — Pompei

(Photo: Jeff Siner / Charlotte Observer / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)