Legends of the 13th Pick: A Countdown of NFL Greats

They say the number 13 is lucky, but maybe not so much.

In NFL draft history, it's a Hall of Fame gold mine.

From the dominance of Aaron Donald and Franco Harris to tight end goats like Tony Gonzalez and Kellen Winslow, pick number 13 is Built Dynasties and redefined eras.

Today we're counting down the top five legends who proved that being selected 13th was the best thing to ever happen to their franchises.

Welcome to the Pig Pen.

This is Pigskin Dispatch's countdown of all 32 round draft picks with Ed Cleese here building up to the NFL Draft.

Hello, my football friends.

It is pick number 13 today because we are 13 days before the NFL Draft and we're going to talk about the legends that were drafted slot number 13 of the NFL draft.

Joining us once again is Ed Cleese.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, how are you today?

I am doing great because I am in Western Pennsylvania and the draft is in Pittsburgh and we are getting pumped up for some great football picks here in a record year, I think 20, 26.

Well, you know, some interesting drafts kind of news is I think the children of Pittsburgh are going to be pumped up, too.

I'm sure you saw the reports that they're going to miss three days of school for the draft.

That blew me.

That blew my mind.

And I sat thinking, you know what?

These little kids eating their pierogies may not know how to read or write or do any kind of basic math, but darn it, they're going to know about the, the fourth round right guard from Arkansas State taken by the Bucks because we're going to make sure that they know what's up with that.

That way they can stay up late and watch the draft on Thursday night.

Yeah, it's very important.

We always talk about how important football is to Western PA and I'm not sure anything hammers that home more than canceling school for three days for the draft.

It is awesome.

I, I don't know if there's anything more important than football in Western Pennsylvania.

That's sort of the, the epitome that we love to do here.

And I love this.

I absolutely love it.

So pro football's coming home.

So we're.

So that's a great place, kids.

You might as well, you know, let's just go ahead and just drop out.

Just drop out and let's just immerse yourself in football from here on out.

Yeah, great career choice.

Don't do that.

Don't do that, you'll end up like us.

Right, okay.

So.

All right, so.

So we got some, some interesting draft picks here at pick number 13.

You know, lucky 13 has had some, some great legends.

It's had.

Some not so great players have been taken.

So what's your take on pick number 13?

Pick number 13?

You know, I, I mentioned that I've been waiting, like, when is this going to turn?

When is it going to be like a clear line in the sand where, okay, now these picks are all getting stronger and maybe it's 13, because this, I think, is probably our strongest list.

We had a couple kind of random ones in there.

This one, I think might, I might say 13 is the strongest top to bottom.

It's really strong in the last 10 years, which is counter to like the way I've started a lot of these pods.

We've got Brock Bowers last year, who looks like an absolute.

Or two years ago, I'm sorry, looks like an absolute monster.

Jordan Davis for the Eagles is awesome.

Rashawn Slater for the Chargers is great.

Tristan Wurfs for the Bucks is great.

Laramie Tunsil for the Commanders is great.

So we've had some real hits over like the last 10 to 12 years.

He was 11 and 31 in his first four years.

And then he was the quarterback in 91 for the two legit to quit Falcons that made the playoffs.

He made the Pro bowl that year.

They had a playoff win.

The next two years he went three and seven, so it was just kind of over after that.

He had one kind of decent year with the Rams, so probably wouldn't put him on the bust list, but not what you're hoping for.

With the 13th pick kind of staying on the negative.

There've been a few disappointments, but not too many real busts.

And I remember, for some reason, I really remember this guy.

Kind of a really sad story from ou.

He had a contract dispute when he was drafted, he went to Canada for a couple years.

He came back.

He played one year for the Dolphins.

They kind of limited him a little bit and he had like a decent year.

Looked like he might be coming into his own a little bit.

So he really played like, you know, he got like 300 career yards rushing in the NFL, something like that.

But those are really the only kind of like sort of negative, like real big kind of like disappointments, things that just didn't work out that I was able to find.

All right, well, hey, I mean that's some decent players you just talked about right there.

You know, it's a little bit of misery and tragedy too with, you know, overstreet getting killed.

But so when we talk about your, your honorable mentions in your top five.

Sure, the honorable mentions.

It was kind of hard to figure out like who to leave off because there's some fairly notable guys here.

I just tried to find the most impactful to mention.

I know you guy.

It was really, really nice career.

Probably would have had more receptions in a different era.

You know, he was a big burly tight end.

If he played now, he'd probably be, you know, an 80, 90 kind of catch guy.

He had a good career.

Eric Metcalf is like a guy that really from my era of watching football.

Super fun guy, that scat back, third down back and an all time great punt returner.

Very exciting player.

And Sheldon Richardson, kind of a brief career but had a really nice run as a defensive lineman for those Rex Ryan Jet teams.

Those are my honorables.

Yeah, I left out quite a few guys that you could mention.

Yeah, I'm interested to see who you're going to have in that top five and maybe some of these ones that you missed or so looking forward to this.

A linebacker for the Bengals during an era where the Bengals didn't weren't going to show up on this list very often.

He was a traditional linebacker, not a pass rusher.

He had a hundred plus tackles in his first six years.

So boom, right off the bat you're a massively productive player.

He made his.

He didn't make his first Pro bowl until The Bills in his sixth season.

And then he was an All First Team All Pro in his seventh season where he had 98 tackles and five interceptions as a linebacker.

And kind of that speaks to me.

It's like, all right, if you're having your.

If you're getting named all pro teams in your sixth and seventh year, you were probably pretty worthy early on and people were just sort of overlooking you.

He had one unremarkable year in Philly and then he had 100 tackles again at ages 34 and 35 with the Niners and Chargers.

The guy played in 15.

15 Years, 219 games.

How many playoff games do you think he played in?

See me.

5.

00.

Really?

15 Years in the NFL, never was on a playoff team.

And I think we can all say.

Even with the Niners and Chargers and.

Bills never made it.

Never made it.

Yeah, if you know you can if you're a quarterback, maybe that's a bit of an indictment on your career.

Not if you're a.

An inside linebacker because there's only so much you could control.

So it was really just bad luck that he was on such, you know, middling to bad teams.

And he probably was even better than we all think because he never played in a lot of games that mattered.

Yeah, that's true.

That's usually what gets all the television coverage where.

But you definitely took spikes was a big name to talk about and a lot of people are talking about in the NFL during his 15 year career.

So.

Yeah, very interesting.

All right, who else you have?

Well, number four is going to be the opposite in terms of career length.

One of the.

Just a massive man, a huge guy.

He reminds me a lot of his teammate Joey Browner, who was maybe like the best safety in the NFL for like a very brief period and it was just awesome.

And then Millard played at the same time as Browner did with those mid to late 80s Vikings team.

So they're on the same defense.

He was top notch at his peak, Darren.

Back to back first team all pros.

And I really like this one.

So he only played half decade but he was named to the all decade team.

That is dominant.

It's impressive.

Yeah, very impressive.

That was essentially it.

He had zero starts in 91 or 92 and then he did make six starts with the Eagles in 93, but he didn't, he didn't play much at all after that.

He held the single season sack record for interior defensive lineman until somebody else that we might talk about later broke it.

Yeah, that's true.

Millard was definitely a stud on, in the NFL and in his college days.

So.

Yeah, great, great.

Like again, I've had to struggle sometimes.

Like he only played a few years, so.

But you know, when you, when you have a peak that he peaked.

He was a hall, this way.

He was a Hall of Fame player, right?

He was, he played at a Hall of Fame level.

He just wasn't able to do it long enough.

But it's worth remembering.

Yeah, I mean a lot, lot.

Like, you know, Terrell Davis, who, you know, had some really outstanding years with the injury prevented him from continuing that.

So yeah, I have no problem with that at all.

So.

Gotcha.

All right.

Who do you have above him?

Number three is the complete opposite.

Also a dude with a lineman that kind of had like the opposite career.

He had a 15 year career.

There's a lot to like about it.

He had three Pro Bowls and a first team all Pro with the Jets.

He had a Pro bowl and a first team all Pro with the Falcons and then he made a Pro bowl with the Cardinals.

So he was one of those guys that was in the league forever and just kept producing and producing and producing and producing.

He had three double digit sack seasons with the Jets.

He had three double digit sack seasons with the Falcons and he had one with the Cardinals.

He excelled at a premium skill that is, you know, that, that, that's, that's one way I think, to really look at it.

And then kind of importantly, get this.

He is 14th all time in sacks and everyone ahead of him on that list is in the hall of Fame except for Terrell Suggs who's going to be, I think and Von Miller who definitely will be.

So he's on a list of guys.

Every single one of them is in the hall of Fame.

I don't think people consider Abraham to be a Hall of Famer, but his numbers are in that neighborhood.

Yeah, it's especially in the era that he played, and there was a lot of great interior defensive linemen and ones that we're going to be talking about, you know, we've talked about in previous part, podcast ones we're going to be talking about in future podcasts here with some outstanding things.

So it's gonna be a tough, tough battle for him to get the canton, but definitely a solid player.

And I think moving around sometimes can be viewed as a negative for certain guys if their career feels a little nomadic.

And again, he didn't play on great teams.

You know, there wasn't a lot, you know.

You know, there wasn't.

So.

So, yeah, that probably hurts him a little bit.

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely a consideration that hall of Fame voters look at.

So.

All right, so who do you have above Abraham?

Well, it's an incredible top two, and it's almost embarrassing that this guy can't be number one.

I mean, just get this.

So he's first all time in catches in the history of the NFL for tight ends, and he is third overall in the history of the league for receptions.

Okay, including everybody.

All right.

He's first in the NFL history in tight end yards, and he is sixth overall in reception yards.

He is second in tight end touchdowns.

He is 14 Pro Bowls in 17 years.

Six time All Pro All Decade Team, first team All Pro at age 36 with the Falcons, and he caught 93 passes.

So he's 36.

He's still considered the best tight end in the league, and he's catching 93 passes.

He only played in seven career playoff games.

Yeah, only.

That's it.

In that long career, productive only seven.

And in the.

But this is something to remember.

The Falcons got beat by the 49ers and Kaepernick.

But in that game, Tony Gonzalez had eight catches.

He had 78 yards, and he had a touchdown.

So it wasn't that he didn't produce when it mattered.

It just was he wasn't given a ton of opportunity to produce in those really big games, but he was looking a lot of average teams, but he was anything but.

I mean, we might as well just call him the greatest tight end of all time.

I mean, There, I mean, you know, it's, I mean we can debate maybe a couple guys, but I mean the numbers are very much in Gonzalez's favor in any kind of tight end debate.

Yeah, and I definitely agree with you there.

And many people are going to be standing, sitting or saying, how could you not have Cony Gonzalez in at the number one spot?

Well, I think this next person you're going to mention, I think you're going to mention definitely sheds a light on that and puts all that to rest.

Yeah, it makes it easy when we start talking about number one here, Darren.

I mean, the only knock on his career that you could possibly come up with, and this is a stretch, is that it was only 10 years that he retired fairly early.

So he had a 10 year career, which up against some of the other all time great players is a little short.

He was the defensive rookie of the year and then he made seven straight first team all pros, which is nuts.

And then he had one year where he just made the Pro bowl and then he was All Pro first team again in his final year.

111 Career sacks in 10 years from the interior is bananas.

That is crazy.

All right.

And then you know what gets better than this?

He had two sacks and the game deciding fourth down stop in the Super Bowl.

You know, so in the biggest game of his life in his career, for his team and everybody in the Rams, he was unstoppable.

Unstoppable.

And then I would say, and most.

Of the time fighting through double teams too, they would shift their line protection to him wherever he was.

And then I would say beyond that, Darren, is that, you know, sometimes it's hard even a really good interior lineman, whether offense or defense, to kind of notice them in the game.

Even if they're doing their job very, very well, sometimes they're hard to notice.

Donald was impossible not to notice.

So he also passed the eye test.

I don't know if there's ever been like, man, I really want to watch that defensive tackle play.

But he would do embarrassing things to Giant men, okay, on the offensive line.

Embarrassing things, like he would embarrass them.

He was a monster.

And you know what, I try to stay away from the hyperbole.

We often will say he's in the running for this.

He's argument.

I don't think there's any argument.

Darren.

Aaron Donald is the best defensive tackle in the history of the NFL.

Yeah.

He is going to be a first ballot hall of Famer when he's eligible in a couple of years, and there's.

No doubt about it.

But you know what the best thing about it is?

There's another show where we get to talk about a Western Pennsylvania guy that made number one on your list and another pit player two days in a row here.

So that's.

Maybe he didn't pay attention in school either and was just focused on football and we should all follow his lead out there in Western pa.

He, you know, he.

That's why, that's why kids are getting remote learning during the NFL draft in Pittsburgh.

Because.

Because.

Just learn how to throw an offensive guard 20 yards down the field and that's all you need to do.

You're fine.

Right, Right.

Yeah.

That's.

English.

He is probably the most impactful since Reggie White, you know.

No, no doubts about it.

Yeah.

I mean, he's right in that same class, that's for sure.

Yep.

Interior, I think he's the best ever.

We start adding in the edge guys, then maybe it becomes.

There's some debate.

But in terms of the interior, I dare somebody to find me a more dominant figure than Aaron Donald.

Yeah, it's very hard to do.

Very hard.

I mean, just.

I'd like to mention a couple names that didn't make your honorable mention that I, I'd like to mention that didn't make your top five.

Jonathan Stewart, I don't think you mentioned, you know, running back for Carolina Panthers.

It still has many of the Panthers records and had, you know, some, some great things, years there with them.

And Dante Stallworth, you know, played for New Orleans, played a little bit for the, the Patriots, but decent career that he had in the NFL.

Another one, Eric Metcalf was a great.

We talked about Metcalf.

Okay.

Yeah, we did.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, there were some hall of Famers, you know, besides, you know, we know that Aaron Donald's gonna be in the hall of Fame.

1979, Kellen Winslow, Senior, the San Diego Chargers hall of Fame tight end, most.

Iconic single game performances in NFL history in that playoff game in Miami.

Right, right.

And one of my favorite players of all time, number retired by the Steelers Franco Harris was taken out of Penn State.

1972, Sort of one of those, you know, helped the draft.

Those couple drafts there in the mid-70s that really put the Steelers on course to dominate and one that Mr.

Cowboy was drafted.

I know you love talking about the Cowboys.

Bob Lilly.

1961 Was the 14th or 13th pick of the Cowboys or the overall pick of the Cowboys.

Our hall first Hall of Famer that came out of the draft, Ace Parker, tailback.

And back then, tailbacks were the ones that threw the passes.

Stars of the show, Ace Parker, the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Once again, Brooklyn's been coming up with a lot of big picks here that kind of famous.

We talked about one the other day.

So that's, that's our hall of Famers are in there and really those are our top players to talk about there.

Also our most popular position in the 13 slot has been defensive tackle.

And I guess when you're talking, you know, the ones some of the guys we just talked about.

That's right.

Why there's been some good ones on there.

Five hall of Famers total.

And, and that takes us to our draft stat of the day.

And I guess our topic today because we just had it happen last year, is the team with the number one overall pick trading out of that spot.

How often do you think that's happened in the 90 years of the NFL Draft?

90 Years of the NFL draft.

I'll say it's happened.

Draft.

I can think of a couple off the top of my head.

So I'm going to say it's happened seven times.

Well, you're about half of what it has.

It's happened 13 times including last year that the.

Since.

I'm sorry, 13 times.

Not even 90 years.

13 Times since the merger.

Oh, wow.

So we're just looking at the merger here.

So in 60 years we've, we've had that 13 times.

So pretty high statistics there.

Almost 25% of the time the top team is drafting out of that spot.

That's our draft spot of the day and that is our, our date for slot number 13.

Ed, we really enjoyed having you on today.

Hed love to have you come back and talk about the number 12 spot tomorrow.

Can't wait.

I'll see you tomorrow, Darren.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

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