Whole lot of defense joins Joe Thomas in Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2023

Finally, something in the Cleveland Browns' expansion era went beautifully well.

Left tackle Joe Thomas became a beloved draft hit, manufactured an epic iron-man stat, and motored to Canton with zero waiting.

Thomas is part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's nine-man Class of 2023 revealed Thursday night during the NFL Honors live television program. He is one of five modern-era players voted in. The others are all defensive players: cornerbacks Ronde Barber and Darrelle Revis, linebacker Zach Thomas and defensive end DeMarcus Ware.

They are joined by the finalist from the coach-contributor category, Don Coryell, and all three finalists from the senior players category: cornerback Ken Riley, linebacker Chuck Howley and defensive lineman Joe Klecko.

That means the class features seven defensive players, an offensive lineman and one offensive mastermind in Coryell.

Joe Thomas' election greatly increases chances the Browns will play in the Hall of Fame Game for the first time in 24 years.

The Class of 2023 was elected during a Jan. 17 Zoom meeting by a 49-person selection committee of media members deemed qualified to vote.

Four of the media members, Dan Fouts, Tony Dungy, James Lofton and Bill Polian, are Hall of Famers. Most of the others − Rick Gosselin, Jarrett Bell and Tony Grossi, to name a few − are conventional media members covering the NFL.

Votes were verified by the accounting firm EY the night of Jan. 17 and were shared with select Hall of Fame staff members. Anyone else made aware of the results was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that extended until tonight's announcement at the NFL Honors show.

The marathon Zoom meeting entailed two reduction votes involving 15 modern-era finalists.

Who were the other 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists?

In a cut to 10, Devin Hester, Willie Anderson, Dwight Freeney, Patrick Willis and Darren Woodson were eliminated.

In a cut to five, Torry Holt, Albert Lewis, Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne and Jared Allen did not advance.

The two Thomases, Revis, Barber and Ware all were subject to one more vote in which at least 80% of the voters had to approve as their names were brought up one by one. All five passed the final thumbs-up test.

The tricky business of keeping a major secret for three-plus weeks included getting the Class of '23 to Arizona to appear on NFL Honors. Each living new member also is an invited guest at Super Bowl 57, where they will be introduced between the first and second quarters of the Chiefs-Eagles game.

Hall of Famers Ken Riley, Don Coryell to be honored posthumously

Riley, who joins Anthony Munoz as the only Cincinnati players in the Hall of Fame, was 72 when he died in 2020. The last of his 15 seasons as a Bengals cornerback was 1983.

Coryell, who operated space-age offenses as a head coach of the Cardinals and Chargers in the 1970s and 1980s, was 85 when he died in 2010.

Howley, a sprinter in linebacker's clothing, played the last of his 13 seasons with the Cowboys nearly 50 years ago. He is 86 and did not travel to Arizona.

The other six in the Class of 2023 planned to attend NFL Honors. All have been living "the secret" since being told of their election, in person, by someone important in their lives. This will be the subject of a "knocks" show airing at 8 p.m. Saturday on NFL Network.

Possibilities for Joe Thomas include someone along the lines of Mitchell Schwartz or John Greco, who were longtime fellow linemen with the Browns.

Browns struggled, but Joe Thomas starred

Thomas's consecutive snaps streak of 10,363 is a Cleveland legend, displayed on a stadium rail. He provided excellent play and exuberant optimism in a career that spanned 10 full seasons, 2007-16.

In 2016, Bill Polian urged the NFL to block any trade that would prevent Thomas from finishing his career with the Browns.

Thomas played into 2017, a season that brought the frustrations of an era to a head. He suffered a career-ending injury seven games into a campaign that ended with an 0-16 record.

It was fitting that the Browns used two quarterbacks, DeShone Kizer and Cody Kessler, in Thomas' final game.

Prior to that, Thomas blocked for starting quarterbacks Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey, Bruce Gradkowski, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Colt McCoy, Brandon Weeden, Thaddeus Lewis, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, Connor Shaw, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, and Robert Griffin III.

His protection was better than their quarterback play, but Thomas would never say that. Until the end, he sounded as though he actually believed things could get better at any moment.

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Often, he imagined out loud how majestic a playoff game in Cleveland would be.

The closest he came to a postseason was his rookie year, when the Browns won a day game to improve to 10-6, but needed the Colts to beat the Titans in a later game for Cleveland to win a wild-card tie-breaker.

Thomas' former Wisconsin teammate Jim Sorgi quarterbacked most of the game for the Colts, in place of resting Peyton Manning. Sorgi came up short.

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Thomas, 38, and Revis, 37, are the two making it to the Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.

Star cornerbacks in Hall of Fame class

Whereas all 167 of Thomas' NFL regular-season games with the Browns, Revis played 108 games for the Jets, 16 for the Patriots, 16 for the Buccaneers and five for the Chiefs.

His "Revis Island" brand of covering top wideouts helped the Jets reach the AFC title games in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, and the Patriots win a Super Bowl in the 2014 campaign.

It was thought two wide receivers from among Holt, Johnson and Wayne might be in the Class of 2023. Instead it was no receivers and two cornerbacks, Revis and Barber.

Barber, 47, had the longest career of the new Hall of Famers, covering 241 regular season and 11 postseason games, all with the Buccaneers. In Super Bowl XXXVII, a win over the Raiders, he was part of an all-star defense that included Hall of Famers Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch.

Tony Dungy was head coach of the Bucs when they drafted Barber in the third round in 1996. Dungy molded Barber into a prototype slot corner, good at covering, playing the run and blitzing.

Barber's twin brother Tiki is the Giants' all-time leader with 10,449 rushing yards.

Zach Thomas, Joe Klecko, DeMarcus Ware continue Class of 2023 defensive theme

There's a run on short linebackers. Five-foot-9 Sam Mills made the Class of 2022. Zach Thomas, listed at 5-11, gets the call to Canton in his ninth year of eligibility.

Zach Thomas was an efficient, high-volume thumper playing middle linebacker for the Dolphins from 1996-2007. One snapshot was a playoff game against a Ravens team that went on to win the Super Bowl capping the 2000 season. Thomas made 22 tackles.

At 6-foot-6, Joe Thomas will tower over some of the others as they line up for pictures in their gold jackets.Not so with defensive linemen Ware and Klecko.

The 6-foot-4 Ware played 141 games with the Cowboys and 37 games with the Broncos in a career spanning 2006-16. Ware, 40, faced Thomas' Browns just twice, recording a sack of Derek Anderson in 2008 and a sack of Brandon Weeden in 2012.

Ware's grand finale to a career that included 138.5 regular-season sacks came with Denver on Feb. 7, 2016. In a 24-10 Super Bowl rout of the Panthers, he hit Cam Newton four times and sacked him twice.

The 6-foot-3 Klecko was a 4-3 tackle, a 3-4 nose tackle and a defensive end during a 140-game run with the Jets (1977-87).

His long wait to make the Hall of Fame is connected to missing 30 games in his final six New York seasons. He did not play in a famous playoff loss at Cleveland in January of 1987. More than a quarter of his career sacks came when he led the NFL with 20.5 in 1981.

When is the 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium?

The schedule for enshrinement week has fluctuated across the years.

This year's enshrinement is scheduled for noon Saturday, Aug. 5, sandwiched between the 8 a.m. Grand Parade and the 8 p.m. Concert for Legends, featuring the Zac Brown Band. The enshrinement and concert will by in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Opponents have not been announced for the annual Hall of Fame Game, which will kick off at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3, at Benson.

There is a good chance the Browns will be one of the teams for the first time since they came back as an expansion team in 1999. The Hall of Fame and the NFL routinely try to sync the game with elements of the enshrinement class.

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Joe Thomas, Darrelle Revis, Ronde Barber lead Hall of Fame 2023 class