FLOWERY BRANCH – Falcons special-teams coordinator Marquice Williams believes that former Falcons returner/wide receiver Devin Hester belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Hester, along with former Falcons defensive end Dwight Freeney, was named one of the 15 finalists Wednesday.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will be selected before the Super Bowl and presented on the NFL Honors TV show Feb. 9.
“For sure, one of the best to every do it,” Williams said. “If not the best to ever do it.”
Hester played most of his career with the Chicago Bears (2006-13). He played with the Falcons for two seasons (2014-15) and with Baltimore and Seattle in parts of the 2016 season.
He was named to four Pro Bowls and was a three-time All-Pro selection. He was a Pro Bowler with the Falcons in 2014, when he led the NFL with 45 kickoff returns for 1,128 yards.
In 2014 with the Falcons, he also played wide receiver and caught 38 passes for 504 yards and two touchdowns.
Over his career, Hester, who played in college at Miami, returned five kickoffs and 14 punts for touchdowns.
“He changed the game of special teams,” Williams said. “He really changed the way people viewed special teams in the return game. … Offensively and defensively, you game-planned based on if Devin Hester was on that team when he was with the Chicago Bears, even when he was playing for Atlanta. Even when he was playing for Baltimore.”
Some teams elected to punt the ball out of bounds inside of kicking it to Hester.
“Those were things as a returner where you’re trying to limit reps of him touching the football,” Williams said. “Teams would change how they attacked certain defenses and move the chains based on not putting themselves in a position to punt the ball to 23.”
Old-school returners such as Billy “White Shoes” Johnson and Rick Upchurch have been overlooked by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
Johnson, a Falcons and Oilers wide receiver/returner, is the lone member on the NFL’s 75th anniversary team who has not been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Johnson, who broke the NFL record for punt-return yards in 1985, was a seniors-committee semifinalist for the Class of 2023.
If Hester breaks through, perhaps Johnson and the old-school returners will get more consideration from the seniors committee.
“I’m rooting for him,” Williams said. “I wish him nothing but the best because he changed the game as a returner. That’s very, very hard to do, and that’s a rare trait to have.”
Falcons defensive coordinator Dean Pees believes that Freeney, one of the game’s top pass-rushers, eventually will get to Canton. He’s a finalist along with pass-rushers Jared Allen and DeMarcus Ware.
Robert Mathis and former Falcons defensive end John Abraham also are Hall of Fame-worthy.
Ware heads up the group with 138.5 sacks, followed by Allen (136), Abraham (133.5), Freeney (125.5) and Mathis (123).
“Which one do you want to pick?” Pees said. “They all are going to end up in someday. Usually, those nominations, one guy is going to get in. Those guys are all great dudes. I’d put (Terrell) Suggs in that category, too.”
Suggs returned in 2019 and has 139 sacks. He played for Pees in Baltimore and will be eligible after his five-year waiting period.
Mathis, who played at McNair High and Alabama A&M, was a semifinalist in 2022 and 2023.
“What always got me about Mathis was how small he was and how good he was, but that’s the way (James) Harrison was, too,” Pees said. “When I had (Harrison) in college, nobody wanted him because he was 5-foot-11. But those two could get underneath you. The tackles were so big that those guys were underneath them all the time and could turn the corner.”
Pees said that Patriots coach Bill Belichick had a special way to prepare for Mathis when they were facing the Colts.
“He was so fast that you couldn’t simulate it in practice,” Pees said. “Since you couldn’t really simulate anybody on the (scout) team coming off the edge that fast, he did was let that guy line up offside. Those tackles, Matt Light and those guys, had to get back fast.”
Credit: Curtis Compton
Credit: Curtis Compton
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Sept. 11 Saints 27, Falcons 26
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Sept. 25 Falcons 27, Seahawks 23
Oct. 2 Falcons 23, Browns 20
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