The NFL recently unveiled its annual list of the league’s top 100 players as determined by players. One player who was left off the list isn’t happy with it.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson, a Pro Bowler and second-team All-Pro in 2023, got snubbed.
“It’s bullshit,” Johnson said Sunday, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “There ain’t no way. I don’t know how you make Pro Bowl, All-Pro and not [be] a Top 100 guy. I could’ve been 101 I guess, but god damn, [Jets quarterback] Aaron Rodgers didn’t even play in the season and he was voted [92nd].
“I mean, hey, everybody makes mistakes, it ain’t just the media that do it. Players clearly -- if they voted for it -- they made some god damn mistakes. But it is what it is. At the end of the day I know the truth and it’s all right, I got some more for them.”
Johnson’s play demands respect. His peers didn’t give it to him.
“It’s disrespectful because I go out there, line up and I know receivers go out there and can’t say that I’m not one of [the] best players that they play against,” Johnson said. “So I mean, whatever it is, it happened. Doing it wouldn’t have moved me to where I’m complacent, but just to see it -- ain’t no way there are 100 guys who are better.
“Ain’t no way. Especially guys who didn’t play, who were hurt, played half -- ain’t no fucking way. Excuse my language. Ain’t no way. Ain’t no way.”
Here’s one of the main reasons why he missed the top 100. The league asks the players who vote (and they never say who voted) to list their own personal top 20 players. Those lists then get slapped together, with points applied and a list of 100 players generated.
So when players listed their top 20 in the league, Johnson got overlooked. Often, apparently.
Johnson said he could have been 101. He actually could have been 21 for every player who voted. All that matters is each player’s top 20.
Of course, Johnson’s snub isn’t the biggest problem with the list. The fact that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes should that the players, some of whom like to complain about media members determining awards, got this wrong.
Julius Peppers didn’t need long to earn induction of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He didn’t need long to finish his induction speech either.
Peppers, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, took just long enough to thank more than two dozen people, many of them in the Panthers organization where he spent 10 seasons. The second overall pick in 2002 played 17 seasons and made 159.5 sacks.
He used a story he heard from Tyler Perry throughout his speech, referring to the root people, the branch people and the leaf people in our lives.
“Some people come into our lives for a season,” Peppers said. “They get easily influenced and probably don’t last through the tough times. When the wind blows, they fall away. Those are the leaf people. Some people come into our lives for support, and they’re a little stronger than the leaves, but if you put too much pressure and weight on them, eventually they break. Those are branch people. Then, sometimes you meet people that are solid, that you can depend on no matter what, to help you build a stable foundation that allows you to grow. They provide strength, and they hold you through the storms. Those are the root people.”
Peppers become the 90th player to earn first-ballot induction after becoming one of only 29 players in history to be on two All-Decade teams. He was the best of the best edge rushers in the 2000s and 2010s.
Peppers spent his first eight seasons with Carolina before playing for the Bears (2010-13) and then the Packers (2014-16). He finished his career with a two-season reunion with the Panthers.
He made 11 sacks in 2017 at the age of 37, one of only five players in NFL history with a double-digit sack season at 37 or older.
Five years after his retirement, Peppers is enshrined with the best of the best, and NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan was one of those who came to Canton to celebrate Peppers’ induction.
Peppers said he wouldn’t be where he is without all the “root people” in his life, and encouraged everyone to be a “root person” for others.
“Everyone can’t be a Pro Football Hall of Famer,” Peppers said. “But everyone can be a Hall of Famer in life. . . . Whatever it is you do, do it with respect, passion, resilience, dedication and gratitude. That alone will make you a Hall of Fame person. And you, too, can have the legacy that lives on forever.”
Devin Hester became the first returner to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the fourth of seven former players to earn induction into Canton in a weather-delayed ceremony Saturday.
“When I first exploded on the professional scene, there was a lot of negativity, because people didn’t respect the return game,” Hester said. “But eventually, it got to the point where they put in a new rule — which was called, you guys know, the Devin Hester rule — to move the kickoff up, so it made it easy for the kicker to kick it out end zone, which eliminated me from getting a lot of returns. So, I guess the NFL had started taking the return game seriously.
“I hope that me being here today opens up the door and brings some attention to other guys like Brian Mitchell and Josh Cribbs, because I’m not the only returner who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. I’m just the first.”
That’s appropriate considering Hester’s penchant for first-play touchdowns.
He holds NFL records in career kick return touchdowns (19), punt return touchdowns (14) and return touchdowns (20), which includes punts, kickoffs, missed field goals, fumbles and interceptions.
Hester returned the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI for a 92-yard touchdown in a game the Bears lost to the Colts.
“I fell in love with football back when I first started playing two-hand touch in the streets,” Hester said. “As young kids, we couldn’t kick the ball too far, so we would throw it high, and make it look like it was a kickoff. And every time they would throw the ball off, out of 10 times I would take about seven of them back.
“I felt like football chose me. From Pop Warner to high school to college to the NFL, the first play of every game, I always did something special. My first carry in high school football, I took a handoff 22 yards for a touchdown. Then, when I got to college, my first time playing in the Orange Bowl, the first time I touched the ball, I took a 97-yard kickoff back for a touchdown against the Florida Gators. There it goes again.
“Every glimpse of me trying to go to the next level, it would happen on that first play. It was a sign that let me know that football was meant for me. I love this game more than I could ever say, and more so, it loved me back.”
Hester, a second-round pick of the Bears, wanted to be a running back. He ended up the best returner in history.
“I accepted my calling that God had in store for me, and by me embracing it, it made me the best returner that ever walked the face of the earth. At least as of right now,” he said.
Steve McMichael announced in 2021, at the age of 63, that he was battling ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Since he couldn’t get to Canton for Saturday’s enshrinement ceremony, the Hall of Fame took the ceremony to him.
Hall of Fame president Jim Porter and several of McMichael’s Bears teammates, including Hall of Famers Richard Dent and Jimbo Covert, joined McMichael’s bedside in his home in the Chicago suburb of Homer Glen. McMichael’s wife, Misty, and their daughter, Macy, unveiled the bust.
“That’s you, baby, forever,” Misty said.
One of McMichael’s sisters read a short speech from McMichael, who is unable to speak.
McMichael had said he didn’t want his legacy to be ALS.
“What I did on the field was my legacy,” McMichael said.
His legacy now is home in Canton after a 25-year wait, having played his final game in 1994.
McMichael played 13 seasons with the Bears before finishing with one year in Green Bay. He ranks second in team history with 92.5 sacks and played in a franchise-record 191 consecutive games.
With “Mongo,” as he’s affectionately known, the Bears won six division titles and Super Bowl XX.
The 1985 Bears defense, one of the best in NFL history, now has four Hall of Famers.
The Bears made a couple of roster moves a day after opening up their preseason schedule by playing the Texans in the Hall of Fame Game.
They have signed defensive back Ro Torrence to the 90-man roster. Long snapper Cameron Lyons was waived to open up a spot for Torrence in Chicago.
Torrence played 21 games at Arizona State the last two seasons. He had 73 tackles, two tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble while playing for the Sun Devils.
Lyons had three snaps in the game against the Texans on Thursday night. Longtime Bears long snapper Patrick Scales is now the only player at that position on the roster.
Chicago’s Matt Eberflus and Houston’s DeMeco Ryans were the first two NFL head coaches to see how their teams do with the NFL’s new kickoff rule, as the Bears-Texans matchup in the Hall of Fame Game provided the first live-action look at the radical rule change. Figuring out the proper strategies is a work in progress.
Eberflus said after the game that the Bears tried a few different techniques on both returns and coverage and will continue working on it for the rest of the preseason.
“You have to figure it out, like, ‘Hey, what is it going to look like?’” Eberflus said, via ESPN. “So, certainly, we’ve tried different things on the return team and different ways to attack on the cover team and putting different bodies in different spots. So, we’re really just trying to figure it out, and I think that’s where all coaches are. We’re just trying to figure it out and do the best thing we can. And that’s going to be ongoing through the whole season. You’ll have to adjust. That’s the way the NFL is.”
One preseason game is far too small a sample size to make any real judgments of the new rule, but in the first game there were lots of returns but little excitement: All but one kickoff was returned — a dramatic departure from last season, when most kickoffs went for touchbacks — but the longest return was 31 yards and the average field position was almost exactly at the 25-yard line, which is where the ball went on all those touchbacks last year.
Coaches are hard at work trying to design returns that will break big plays. But we didn’t see any big plays on kickoffs on Thursday night.
Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker said this week that it will be “near impossible” for a deal on a new stadium for the Bears to come together before the end of 2024, but that isn’t altering the team’s view of when they can get the ball rolling on construction.
Bears president Kevin Warren did an interview with ESPN during Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game and he said that the team’s goal is still to be “in the ground moving dirt in 2025" with an eye on being in a new stadium for the 2028 season.
“It’s exactly where I thought we would be at this point in time,” Warren said.
Warren said that building a new stadium in the city remains the team’s preference, but noted that the land the team owns in Arlington Heights remains a possibility as well. Based on Pritzker’s comments, nothing will be moving forward at either site for quite some time.
The NFL’s new kickoff rules made their debut in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night.
The game started with Texans returner Steven Sims taking a kick 21 yards to the team’s 26-yard-line and Tyler Scott of the Bears had a return of the same length after a Houston touchdown. Scott returned another kick 19 yards later in the game and there were seven overall returns for a total of 159 yards over the course of the evening.
Numbers like that won’t make a major impact on games, but Scott said after the game that he thinks the rules will result in bigger plays as the season unfolds.
“You grew up your whole life just catching it, having different levels and things of that nature; and now, everyone is kind of stacked,” Scott said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “If a kick is kind of short, guys are right up on you. You’ve got to make one cut and go. I think there’s benefits to that, because if one guy misses, then you’re good. But at the same time, if you make the wrong cut, somebody is right there. So far, I feel like it kind of protects guys a little bit more. Guys aren’t getting a full head of steam coming down the field, taking shots on people. But I think for the most part, it’ll work out pretty good. Just think we’ll have a lot of explosive plays.”
If there are a lot of explosive plays, teams are likelier to just revert to kicking the ball through the end zone and taking touchbacks rather than risking big plays. That wasn’t the case Thursday, but there’s still a lot to play out with this year’s biggest change to how the game is played.
The NFL’s new kickoff rules were put to the test for the first time Thursday night.
The Texans and Bears met in the Hall of Fame Game, with everyone watching the great kickoff experiment. One of the most entertaining Hall of Fame Games in memory ended because of inclement weather with 3:31 left in the third quarter. The Bears won 21-17.
The teams combined for eight kickoffs, with only one resulting in a touchback, though two other kickoffs reached the end zone and could have been downed for touchbacks. The receiving team takes over at its own 30-yard line after a touchback.
Of the seven kickoffs returned, the average starting position was the 25.6-yard line.
The longest return was a 31-yarder by Bears receiver John Jackson.
Each team had an illegal formation penalty, both of which were declined.
Texans punter Tommy Townsend held the ball on the tee for kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn to start the third quarter, with Townsend running off the field as soon as the ball was kicked.
It gave teams around the league a first look at what is supposed bring a dead play back to life, and it likely will be a work in progress for awhile as teams try to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams is warming up with teammates before tonight’s Hall of Fame Game. The No. 1 overall pick won’t play against the Texans, but he will play in the preseason.
Courtney Cronin of ESPN reports that Williams will get 45-55 snaps in the Bears’ final three preseason games.
Williams has called preseason snaps “paramount” for his growth.
Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, received 11, 21 and 22 snaps in the Panthers’ three preseason games last year, and C.J. Stroud, the No. 2 overall pick in 2023, saw action on 12, 22 and nine plays for the Texans in three preseasons games as a rookie.
Stroud is not expected to play tonight in the NFL preseason opener.
Tyson Bagent, Brett Rypien and Austin Reed are the available quarterbacks for Chicago, while Houston has Davis Mills, Case Keenum and Tim Boyle behind Stroud.