KhaDarel Hodge Eyes Bigger Goals after Pro Bowl Breakout with Falcons

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga – Atlanta Falcons wide receiver and special teams ace KhaDarel Hodge is doing everything in his power to prove that the 2024 season was not a fluke. Hodge sat down with Dukes & Bell on Sports Radio 92.9 The Game to discuss his breakout season and what he is doing to run it back this fall.

“I just go out and do my job,” Hodge said. “I got bigger goals this year – first team All-Pro and a two-time Pro Bowl. I don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.”

Hodge, who earned his first career Pro Bowl nod last season, earns his paycheck with his elite special teams play. He scored a touchdown on a muffed punt against the New Orleans Saints in Week 4 and earned NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 15 after blocking a punt and tipping another.

For Hodge, that season was the culmination of a seven-year journey.

“The journey is what I really appreciate about the game,” he said. “I think the work is what really makes you appreciate it, and remembering where you’ve come from.

“I appreciate that because I went through that for a reason. I appreciate my journey. Everybody has a story, especially in this league. It’s why you see a lot of guys come out here and work as hard as they do, and celebrate as hard as they do when they make a play that could look small to you, but to them, from what they’ve come from, that play could be life-changing to them and it shows the work they put in.”

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The 30-year-old finished the season with six tackles, tied for the second most on the Falcons’ special teams unit. All told, Hodge is one of the more important members of the team, despite his general lack of involvement on the offensive side of the ball.

Hodge played in all 17 games, starting the final two of the regular season, and registered seven catches for 131 yards and a touchdown.

The wide receiver is not frequently targeted when he lines up on offense, but he did have a major exclamation point in Week 5 when he had a game-winning, 45-yard touchdown reception to beat Tampa Bay.

KHADAREL HODGE CALLED GAME#TNFonPrime | NFL+ pic.twitter.com/vtKobQt7gc
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) October 4, 2024

“That whole situation [against Tampa] was like a movie,” he said. “It was one of those crazy endings in a crazy movie. It was slow-mo, and then it kind of sped up after I caught it and slipped out of the tackle. When I saw green [grass], it was over with.”

He said he usually had a celebration ready to go in case he scored a touchdown, but he “blacked out” after crossing the goal line.

The Pro Bowl special teamer, who re-signed with the Falcons this offseason, has been with the franchise since 2022 and has not missed a single game since joining the team. He will be under contract through the 2026 season after signing his contract in March.

Now, Hodge is working to play his part in helping take the Falcons back to the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

“We’re just getting better, day by day,” he told Dukes & Bell about how confident he is in this year’s team despite the fall-off in the second half of 2024. “We’re never getting comfortable, and we gotta stay hungry [because] it’s a long season. 17 games, we gotta be hungry the whole season and can’t get comfortable with records.”

For Hodge, he’s working to make sure his Pro Bowl wasn’t the peak, but instead was a starting point. If his journey has taught him anything, it’s that the biggest moments often come when nobody’s looking for them.