5 Chicago Bears who should be Hall of Famers before Julian Edelman

Devin Hester deserves a spot in the Hall-of-Fame before Julian Edelman

Player #5:  Devin Hester

Devin Hester has been the butt of a lot of Hall-of-Fame talk as of late. Some say he completely deserves to be in, while others say that special teams players shouldn’t be in. I think Hester is an interesting case because he just so happens to be perhaps the greatest return man in league history. One thing is for sure, he’s more deserving than Julian Edelman.

No other returner struck as much fear into the opposing team as much as Hester. Hester retired with more return touchdowns than anyone else, this includes kickoffs, punts, and missed field goals. Hester is also tied with several others, with the longest touchdown return at 109 yards.

Something that Hester will always have against him, is that he was pretty much a return specialist only. He was drafted into the NFL as a CB, in the second round no less. After his rookie year, Hester put himself on the map as an explosive player with the ball in his hands.

By 2008, the Chicago Bears had moved Hester to WR, where he would play the rest of his Bears career. Over the first two years of the experiment, Chicago would try to feature him into the offense, sending 91 targets his way each season.

Unfortunately, for Chicago and Hester, he would never reach his potential on offense despite still being a great returner over this time. I understand the detractors from Hester’s HOF case but I think being the greatest returner of all time, has to mean something.