Several former Detroit Lions among initial nominees for 2025 Hall of Fame class

The Pro Football Hall of Fame released its list of 167 initial modern era nominees for the Class of 2025 on Wednesday. Several players who played for the Detroit Lions are on the list, including:

-WR Herman Moore
-K Jason Hanson
-OT Lomas Brown
-WR Anquan Boldin
-K David Akers
-QB Jeff Garcia
-DT Haloti Ngata
-CB Dre' Bly
-OL T.J. Lang
-LB Julian Peterson
-DT Henry Thomas

A screening committee will reduce the list to 167 nominees to 50 (plus ties, if any, for the 50th spot). The results of that reduction will be announced in mid-October. The full 50-person Hall of Fame Selection Committee then will reduce the list to 25 semifinalists later this fall.

From there another vote will create the list of 15 finalists, who will be discussed at the annual meeting ahead of the Super Bowl to produce the 2025 class. Three, four or five Modern Era Players can make it, under the Hall of Fame's bylaws.

Former Lions among nominees for 2025 Hall of Fame class

The headliner nominees with Lions' ties are clearly Moore, Hanson and Brown.

Moore led the league in receptions twice in a three-year span (1995 and 1997), including 123 catches in 1995 that stood as the single-season record until Marvin Harrison had 143 catches in 2002. The year in that stretch where he didn't lead the league in catches, 1996, he had 106 receptions for 1,296 yards and nine touchdowns. That three-year peak holds up against any receiver in NFL history, and he had over 1,100 yards the year before it in 1994.

Hanson spent his entire career as the Lions' kicker (1992-2012). He is top-five in league history in points, field goals made, field goal attempts and 50-plus yard field goals made. That he is not yet a Hall of Famer feels like an oversight.

Brown is one of the most underrated left tackles of his era. He was a six-time Pro Bowler over 11 seasons with the Lions (1990-1995), and he earned seven straight Pro Bowl nods overall. He was inducted into the Pride of the Lions in 2023.

The Seniors category of nominees for the 2025 Hall of Fame class, announced last week and narrowed to players that have to have most recently played in 1999, featured 15 former Lions.