Tag: Senior Bowl Hall of Fame

Texans HC DeMeco Ryans named to Senior Bowl 2024 Hall of Fame class

DeMeco Ryans will forever represent the Houston Texans and Alabama Crimson Tide as a member of the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.

DeMeco Ryans is going to the Hall of Fame.

The one in Mobile, Alabama, and not Canton, Ohio, just to clarify.

The second-year Houston Texans coach and former Pro Bowl linebacker was named to the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame. Ryans, a former standout for the University of Alabama, became a sensation down at Ladd-Peebles Stadium during the 2006 Senior Bowl.

“Being from Alabama, it was a huge honor to get the invite and participate in the 2006 Senior Bowl,” Ryans said in a statement. “I’m thankful to have played my last collegiate game in front of my home state fans. This game provided me a pivotal opportunity as a draft prospect to prove myself against the best competition in college football. Now as a coach, I continue to follow the game closely to evaluate the top talent in the draft each year. Now, as a coach, I continue to follow the game closely to evaluate the top talent in the draft each year. This game helped me as a player many years ago, and it is still assisting players in reaching their dream of playing in the NFL.”

Ryans was one of five inductees for the Class of 2024, joining Marty Lyons (1979), Carson Palmer (2003), Eric Weddle (2007) and Roddy White (2005).

A second-round pick for the Texans in 2006, Ryans would go on to win Defensive Rookie of the Year under first-year coach Gary Kubiak. A year later, he’d earn first-team All-Pro honors and his first Pro Bowl nomination.

Ryans spent six seasons in Houston before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. He retired in 2015 and almost immediately caught the coaching bug, joining the 49ers’ staff in 2017.

Hired by the McNairs last offseason, Ryans was the architect for the team’s turnaround after a woeful three seasons. Houston was on its fourth coach in four years after Bill O’Brien, David Culley and Lovie Smith combined for 11 wins in three years.

Headlined by Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud, the Texans coasted to a 10-7 regular-season record and their first division title in four years. Ryans, who finished second in AP Coach of the Year voting, became the seventh coach since 2019 to improve by at least six wins since the previous year.

Houston also secured its first playoff win since 2019 with a victory over the Browns in the wild-card round.

Ryans and the Texans will look to build off their dominant first season in 2024 and should be considered an AFC favorite. Entering next week’s draft, the Texans have the seventh-best odds to win this year’s Super Bowl, according to BetMGM.

Former Ravens great named a member of the 2023 Senior Bowl Hall of Fame class

A former Ravens guard was named as a member of the 2023 Senior Bowl Hall of Fame class

It has been announced by the Reese’s Senior Bowl that Baltimore Ravens Ring of Honor inductee Marshal Yanda has been selected as one of the members of the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame class of 2023.  Yanda was drafted in the third round of the 2007 NFL draft out of the University of Iowa.

Yanda had an outstanding career as a Baltimore Raven and was part of their 2012 Super Bowl winning team.  During the 2022 season, he was inducted in to the team’s Ring of Honor.

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott to be inducted into Senior Bowl Hall of Fame

Prescott impressed Cowboys coaches during a “team swap” in the lead-up to the 2016 Senior Bowl; it got him drafted by Dallas months later. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has his sights set on some big things that he’d like to add to his list of football accomplishments. A Lombardi Trophy or three would no doubt top the list. An MVP award might be nice. He’s already got the 2016 NFL Rookie of the Year Award on his mantle, along with a couple Pro Bowl nods, twenty Dallas franchise records (so far), and a Walter Payton Man of the Year nomination. That doesn’t even count his SEC and Mississippi State school records that still stand.

But his latest accolade comes for just a handful of days in early 2016 spent among the cream of the college crop in Mobile, Alabama.

Prescott has been chosen for induction in the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame, it was announced Thursday.

He’ll join Bills linebacker Von Miller, former 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis, former Patriots running back Kevin Faulk, and former Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers in the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame Class of 2022.

Following his final year at Mississippi State, Prescott represented the South Team at the collegiate all-star event, hurling a touchdown pass in a 27-16 win. Despite playing just the second quarter, he was named the game’s MVP.

It was during the week leading up to the game, though, that Prescott really impressed the Cowboys coaching staff, who was leading the North Team that year.

Prescott was taken by Dallas in the fourth round of the draft a few months later. By opening day of the 2016 season, he was the starting quarterback, having taken over for an injured Tony Romo and bypassing an injured Kellen Moore on the depth chart.

Safe to say that without the Senior Bowl and Prescott’s experience in Mobile that January, his pro career would likely have started out much differently.

“It’s a great honor to be inducted as part of such a distinguished class of 2022,” Prescott said in a statement. “I view my week in Mobile as a game-changer in terms of competing against the very best and helping me prepare for moving on to the NFL. I will forever be grateful to the community leaders, bowl executives, and sponsors who present this game every year, and for the fans of Mobile who provide the support that makes it so very special.”

Prescott and the Class of 2022 will be honored at an induction ceremony to be held in across the bay from Mobile in Point Clear, Alabama on June 26. The ceremony will include a special spotlight for current Chiefs center Creed Humphrey as 2021 Rookie of the Year; Prescott won that award in 2017.

Among the legends already enshrined in the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame are Cowboys players Lee Roy Jordan, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Bob Hayes, Chuck Howley, Larry Allen, Terrell Owens, DeMarcus Ware, Jay Novacek, and coach Tom Landry.

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