Julius Peppers, Torry Holt and Thursday’s big Pro Football Hall of Fame question

Julius Peppers and Torry Holt were both born and raised in North Carolina before they went off to in-state colleges and started getting famous because of football.

Thursday, the two men will find out if they get to join their sport’s most exclusive club: the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The hall of fame’s 2024 class will be unveiled during the “NFL Honors” TV show on CBS and the NFL Network. The show airs at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Holt and Peppers are two of the 15 modern-era finalists; five of those 15 will be selected from the modern era.

Both of them will likely make the Hall of Fame one day and receive the coveted gold jacket that goes along with it. Most players who get to the final 15 do make it — eventually.

But will it be Thursday?

Here’s a synopsis of both men’s candidacies:

Julius Peppers

In his first year of hall eligibility, Peppers is considered all but a shoo-in. The former UNC star in both football and basketball was drafted No. 2 overall by Carolina in 2002 and played 10 of his 17 NFL seasons with the Panthers.

His key numbers: Peppers ended his NFL career ranking fourth all-time in quarterback sacks, with 159.5. Peppers also played so long that he made the NFL’s All-Decade Team in both the 2000s and the 2010s, a magnificent feat.

While Peppers mostly pooh-poohed individual honors throughout his career, he does consider a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction significant.

“I’m not going to downplay it,” Peppers said when we spoke briefly about his potential to make the hall of fame on his first attempt. “It’s important. My chances? I don’t know. I think the résumé is good enough, so we’ll just see. I’m hoping for the best.”

Peppers grew up in Bailey, N.C., and then went to college at Chapel Hill, where he once played in a Final Four in basketball and was a spectacular dunker, playing forward and mostly serving as a burly sixth man. In football, Peppers was a fearsome defensive end who was a first-team All-American in both 2000 and 2001. In 2000, he led the nation with 15 sacks.

In the pros, Peppers continued to get to the QB with regularity.

“It’s a no-brainer that Pep gets into the Hall of Fame,” said Mike Rucker, Peppers’ former teammate in Carolina. “He’s in the Top 5 all-time getting after the quarterback. And in our group, we get judged by whether you got to the quarterback. There are other measurables, but that’s the big one.”

Not much works against Peppers’ candidacy. He was remarkably durable, missing only two games due to injury in 17 seasons. He is the only player in NFL history with at least 100 sacks and 10 or more interceptions. He’s second all-time with 52 career forced fumbles. He’s one of four players to record 10 seasons with 10-plus sacks, and the other three are all already Hall of Famers.

Former Panther players Kevin Greene, Reggie White and Sam Mills are all enshrined in the Hall, as is former Carolina general manager Bill Polian. But Peppers would be the first Carolina player or executive in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who spent the majority of his pro career in Charlotte.

The biggest knock against the 6-foot-7, 295 pound Peppers? He never won a Super Bowl, making it once with Carolina in his second season and then never again with either Carolina, Green Bay or Chicago. He also never led the NFL in sacks in a season and never was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Still, the overwhelming evidence suggests Peppers, now 44 and living in Miami, will get in on his first try. He’s been amazing opponents for years, as well as teammates.

“He’s the first time I ever saw somebody who weighed almost 300 pounds and had a six-pack,” said former Panthers wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad, who was inducted into Carolina’s Hall of Honor along with Peppers in October. “Tall, muscular, fast, athletic: Pep was a freak of nature. We were blessed to have him here.”

Torry Holt

A former star wide receiver for N.C. State, Torry Holt has been waiting for a possible gold jacket a good deal longer than Peppers. This is Holt’s 10th year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his fifth year as a “Top 15” modern-era finalist.

When we spoke in 2023 about how close he’s come, Holt made no secret that this honor would be important to him, whenever it occurs. (The voting panel for the hall of fame is made up primarily of veteran football journalists).

Said Holt of his potential election: “I’m ready, man…. I feel like it’s my time. I feel like I’ve earned the opportunity to be voted in. And the reason why I say that is because of the responses that I get from guys who are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and then the guys that I played against: The respect and love and appreciation that they had for the way that I played the game…. I have a sense of resolve and of calmness about how the process works…. I have people who are championing me. Now I’ve just got to get a few more folks to get me across the finish line.”

Working against Holt: There’s a bottleneck of great wide receivers in the modern-era “Top 15.”

Holt joins Reggie Wayne and Andre Johnson, who also were star NFL wide receivers, in the final group for 2024. All three have been “Top 15” finalists without advancing for at least three years. Their presence at the top has also meant that former Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith isn’t a “Top 15” finalist this year (although Smith did make the semifinals, which is a 25-person list).

Working for Holt: He was an astoundingly consistent receiver. He won a Super Bowl as a rookie with the St. Louis Rams as part of “The Greatest Show on Turf.”

Holt also made the Pro Bowl seven times and posted six consecutive seasons of 1300 or more receiving yards. Now 47, he lives in the Raleigh area with his family. He and his brother Terrence, who also played in the NFL, run Holt Brothers Inc., which is involved in a variety of business and philanthropic ventures.

Born in Gibsonville, N.C., Holt went to N.C. State. There he became an All-American wide receiver and the ACC Player of the Year in 1998 and was drafted No. 6 overall by the Rams in 1999. He once scored five touchdowns in a single game for the Wolfpack, against Florida State. In the pros, he was selected to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s.

If Holt makes it Thursday night, he will be the second former N.C. State player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bill Cowher was the first and was inducted due to his coaching contributions.

The other modern-era finalists are: cornerback Eric Allen, defensive end Jared Allen, offensive tackle Willie Anderson, guard Jahri Evans, edge rusher Dwight Freeney, tight end Antonio Gates, safety Rodney Harrison, kick returner Devin Hester, running back Fred Taylor, linebacker Patrick Willis and safety Darren Woodson.

Senior category finalists are Randy Gradishar, Steve McMichael and Art Powell, and coach/contributor finalist Buddy Parker, will all be voted upon as well but won’t be in the same pool of candidates as the five modern-era inductees.