2024 NFL Honors

The Pro Football Hall of Fame has seven new members ready for enshrinement. The selections were revealed Thursday night at the 2024 NFL Honors. These players will join the best team ever assembled who are already immortalized in Canton.

Here is a sneak peek at the modern era and senior inductees who will receive their bronze busts and gold jackets in August.

Dwight Freeney, LB – One of the league’s toughest, no nonsense pass rushers, whose speed off the edge paired beautifully with the fast turf in Indianapolis, Freeney is headed to Canton in his second year of eligibility. Freeney’s devastating spin move led to 125.5 career sacks and a Super Bowl ring with the 2006 Indianapolis Colts over the Chicago Bears. Freeney made his presence known immediately as a rookie in 2002 getting home to the quarterback 13 times and a league-leading 20 tackles for loss and nine forced fumbles. That season would mark his first of four straight double-digit sack seasons to begin his career, including an NFL-best 16 in 2004.

Andre Johnson, WR – In an era that featured out of this world pass catchers, Johnson established himself as one of the best of his generation despite battling inconsistent play at the quarterback position while with the Houston Texans. The greatest offensive player in Texans history, Johnson earned seven Pro Bowls nods and led the NFL in receiving on two occasions. Johnson was a model of consistency, posting seven seasons of at least 1,000 receiving yards during his 14-year career, including a trio of seasons with more than 1,500 yards. Johnson will take his rightful place in Canton in his third year of eligibility with 1,062 career receptions and 70 touchdowns to go with the reputation as one of the league’s most soft spoken but highly competitive individuals of his time.

Devin Hester, returner – One of the most explosive men in NFL history with the ball in his hands, Hester’s wait for the Hall of Fame ended Thursday night on his third attempt as a finalist. Hester heads to Canton as the most accomplished returner in league history. He holds the record for punt-return touchdowns with 14 and added five kickoff-return touchdowns and an additional return touchdown to claim another league record with 20 overall return touchdowns. Hester, a three-time first-team All Pro and four-time Pro Bowler, was a problem and a half whenever he was back to return a kick. Hester is now enshrined in Canton after returning 20 kick/punt returns to the house for touchdowns during his 11-year career. One of Hester’s most memorable moments came on the game’s biggest stage when he returned the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI for a touchdown to give the Bears an early 7-0 lead over the eventual-champion Colts. Hester also made an impact as a receiver, logging 255 receptions for 3,311 yards and 16 touchdowns in his career.

Randy Gradishar, LB – One of the foremost linebackers of his generation, Gradishar helmed the vaunted Orange Crush defense of the Denver Broncos that ruled the Rockies in the 1970s and early ’80s. Gradishar spent the entirety of his decade-long career with the Broncos, for whom he made seven Pro Bowls and earned two first-team All-Pro selections. Gradishar enters Canton as a senior finalist after being a modern-era finalist in 2003 and 2008. Gradishar also was a senior finalist for the Centennial Slate in 2020, so he will be inducted on his fourth attempt as a finalist. Gradishar was a jack of all trades and was the Broncos’ all-time leading tackler with 2,049 when he hung up his cleats in 1983. He also had 19.5 sacks, 20 interceptions, 13 fumble recoveries and four defensive touchdowns. Gradishar’s best season came in 1978 when he took home Defensive Player of the Year honors, the year after he helped lead Denver to the franchise’s first trip to the Super Bowl. He led the Broncos’ famed “Orange Crush” defense that spearheaded the Broncos’ first AFC championship in 1977.

Patrick Willis, LB – Even though Willis’ time in the league was relatively short compared to the modern day Hall of Famer, his impact and greatness is undeniable. Willis earned a whopping five first-team All-Pro honors and made seven Pro Bowls during his eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and is a member of the Hall of Fame All-2000s Team. Willis won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2007 after he paced the league with an eye-popping 174 tackles. Willis would go on to register at least 100 tackles in six of his eight seasons (he finished one year with 97 and the other season was cut short to just six games due to injury). When Jim Harbaugh left Stanford and became the 49ers head coach in 2011, much of the NFL world got to see Willis’ stellar play on the national stage as Willis helped lead a dominant defense that was the engine behind three consecutive trips to the NFC title game. Perhaps due to the length of his career, Willis had to wait out five selection processes to finally hear his name among those inducted to Canton.

Steve McMichael, DT – A long-haired hippie out of the ‘Lone Star State’, “Mongo” became one of Chicago’s favorite adopted sons and the senior finalist has now become a Hall of Famer. A 1980 third-round pick of the New England Patriots, McMichael would become a force for the ‘Monsters of the Midway’ and a standout on one of the NFL’s greatest and most revered teams: Chicago’s 1985 Super Bowl winner. McMichael was a two-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro with his first Pro Bowl selection coming during the ’85 season. He was the embodiment of the Bears’ ferocious 46 defense under Buddy Ryan, that took a no prisoners approach against the competition, losing only one game that year against Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins in route to a Super Bowl XX championship. An interior defensive lineman with a phenomenal pass rusher, he posted 95 sacks, 847 tackles and 13 forced fumbles across 15 seasons, 13 in Chicago and one apiece for New England and the Green Bay Packers, retiring after the 1994 season. He had seven years with eight or more sacks, second all-time among defensive tackles. In 2021, McMichael announced he had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but he has battled the disease since and has now been recognized for his gridiron glory all those autumns ago.

Julius Peppers, DE – A two-sport star at the University of North Carolina in basketball and football, Peppers blended his elite size at 6 foot 7 and 290lbs and athleticism to immediately become one of the NFL’s premier pass rushers. Peppers won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2002 after he recorded 12 sacks, five forced fumbles and one interception in 12 games for the Carolina Panthers. That season was Peppers’ first of nine in which he recorded at least 10 sacks, and while he never led the league in quarterback takedowns, his consistency led him to retire fourth all time in sacks with 159.5, including a franchise-record 97 with the Panthers. Peppers also is the only player to record at least 150 sacks and 10 interceptions, four of which he returned for a touchdowns. Peppers’ brilliance, three first-team All-Pro nods, and longevity, he earned a Pro Bowl nod in his 14th season while he was a member of the Packers, gave him the honor of entering Canton in his first year of eligibility. Peppers has the distinction of being named to two Hall of Fame All-Decade teams after terrorizing opposing quarterbacks from 2002-2018.