Exploring the Historical Significance of the 29th NFL Draft Pick

With the 29th pick of the NFL draft, we will hand off microphone to Ed and Darren for pigskin dispatch history of this draft position. Welcome.

Welcome. It's time to get ready for the NFL draft. And no better way to do it than to talk about the history of the NFL draft.

And as always, Ed Kleese joins me to talk about this great historic spot in the NFL draft. Ed, welcome back to the pig pen.

Hey, Darin, good to be back again.

Yeah, Ed, it's great to have you. And pick number 29 is a very interesting one. We're starting to get into the, the middle rounds.

You know, the teams that went a little bit deep into the playoffs didn't make maybe not the championship game early on. Maybe they did. Maybe they were in a Super Bowl.

I guess when we had 30 teams and a lot of times this would end up being the second round, we had 28 teams. But there has been, you know, a tie for the position being drafted in this.

12 times a tackle has been drafted in the last 90 years and 12 times a defensive back has been drafted in pick number 29. What do you have to say about pick 29 in the history?

Well, not to be a hater on pick 29, but of the four we've done so far, I found this to be the weakest bunch.

You would think that the, you know, the, the higher you, you know, as we're doing this countdown, that the picks will just get better and better, but not so much in this case, especially over the last 10 years. The last 10 years, I had a heart. I'm just kind of looking at a lot of guys that are okay, you know, no, nothing special.

I would say David and Joku for the tight end for the Browns, who's a free agent, is, is probably the best of the bunch in the last 10 years. And that's not, you know, he's fine, but he's certainly not headed to hall of Fame or anything like that.

Unless, Unless the Commanders sign him, then he'll.

Yes. And he's on his way. And yeah, we had some names like Cordell, Cordero, Patterson. You know, one of the better returners we've had in the league.

Mark Colombo was an offensive lineman that was, I believe, drafted by the Bears that had a pretty good, a decent career. George Teague, defensive back for the, the packers.

And then Bubba Paris was a offensive lineman during the glory years of the 80s for the 49ers never made like Pro Bowls or anything like that, but was a fairly steady presence.

So no quarterbacks have been taken with the 29th, 30th or 31st pick at least in the last 45 years.

And that seems like a weird statistical anomaly that that would happen that some, you know, somebody wouldn't have reached for a quarterback at that point.

You think even somebody would trade in from the right wants to come back in from the second round to try to get the quarterback they want.

He was the rookie of the year and he had three straight 100 yard seasons. Then you might be like, well, how's this guy not going to make your top five?

I think he probably had more than 100 yard season.

I'm sorry, thousand yard. Three straight thousand yard season. Sorry. Three straight thousand yard seasons. And you think, okay, why is this guy not in your top five?

I think the Birmingham, the Barons, whoever the, whoever Birmingham was.

Stallions, weren't they?

Maybe Stallions, maybe Birmingham. And I went all the way to court. There was a ruling. I think the judge actually wound up ruling.

Basically the Bills were saying that it was some sort of void in the contract that he was obligated to play for them. The judge ruled because it was a different league. They rolled in Cribs favor, but it wound up really kind of ending his career in a lot of ways.

He did come back. I think he came back to the Bills and then bounced around a couple other teams but never took off again.

And it might be, you know, don't get into a legal battle with the NFL because it's probably not going to. Even if you win, you're probably going to lose. So.

And I know a lot of people think that a lot of Bills fans consider him to be one of the bigger what ifs in Bill's history because he got off to a Stellar start, but then it was over. Just way too fast. And it was not fast enough to. Or it was too, too fast to make my top five.

Okay. All right, well, I think that probably takes us up to your. Your top five. Who do you have number five?

He played seven years in Buffalo. He had a couple Pro Bowls. He was the second team all Pro. He was one of those guys that he played a lot and, you know, he didn't miss a lot of games.

Then he got hurt and his career was over just like that. Like out of the league. Like, he played from like 87 to 94, something like that.

Was a really nice player for Buffalo, was on at least the first three, I think, Bill's super bowl teams. So he was. He was on the great teams.

He was on the Jim Kelly, the Marvel, EB teams, and he was probably certainly the best defensive back on those teams. He was one of the better defensive

players on those teams.

So a really, a really nice career for Owens.

All right, okay, so who do you have at number four?

Also a defensive back, and he is still playing.

So I'd say right off the bat, Darren, if you've played 14 years in the NFL for one team, you're awesome. Because, you know, it doesn't really have, you know, especially now with free agency and the money and how quickly teams will turn things over for.

For a team to make sure that you're the priority for that long, you're doing something right. You know, in the middle of his career, he was really awesome.

He had a bunch of Pro Bowls and a couple All Pro appearances, and, you know, he's still a good player.

And so I'm kind of thinking, you know, gosh, if you're a good to really good player in the NFL for 15 years in a row in the same spot, you might have a Canton argument.

Yeah, that definitely could happen. He's been pretty good, solid player for him, that's for sure. All right, well, who do you have above him?

Number three is a Guy that, you know, I fancy myself pretty knowledgeable about the league. Darren, as like, hopefully it comes across, I hope. And I was actually surprised to learn that he was not in the hall of Fame. I just thought he was.

So basically right out the chute, it's like, boom, you're one of the best players in the NFL right now. And so he got off to a really hot start. Lots of accolades, and then he had some decline.

He only played 10 seasons, so I wonder if maybe that hurts him a little bit. And then the other thing about Spielman, I wonder if maybe, you know, he was a.

All of these guys are good in college, of course, but Spielman was a star in college that everybody knew. You know, he was at Ohio State.

You know, he was drafted a little bit lower for a guy that was that big of a star, but he was a guy that everybody knew. He's on the COVID of magazines type. I think he had a Wheaties box or something. So he was a big time name.

And then he went right into television where he was a pretty top analyst for many, many years. And now he's in the front office for the Lions. So Spielman's had like this football life that just feels like we've been hearing about him forever.

So I just kind of assumed he was in the hall of Fame, but he's not. And at this point, he probably won't be.

That's going to be tough sledding for him, being out that long. A lot of seniors that are probably more deserving of getting a gold jacket than Ms. Bielen is, but great player indeed, both college and pros.

Yep.

Okay, so who do you have above him?

Number two is a little bit sad because I think this is a guy that's going to get into the hall of Fame, but he's not going to be able to be there in person.

Um, so he played his entire career with this ailment, and I certainly don't know enough about it to talk about the actual ailment, but I know that he had this condition that obviously ended his life way too soon, but he Made seven straight Pro Bowls for the jets to all pros.

And one of the reasons I think he really stands out is because in a sea, an absolute sea of the last 40 years of jets misery busts, terrible picks, he's like a, he's, he's like a shining beacon, right? Like they nailed this pick. This was a. And this is like one of the best jets ever. Certainly one of the best jets in the last 25, 30 years.

Like that, that's easy. But. And he did play on the last good jets teams.

Could potentially get there, you know, still, of course, but obviously very sad because he's gone too soon.

Okay.

Yeah, definitely very tragic and very public, especially during his last few months of his life where he was trying to get help and really there was nobody really could come to his rescue I guess to give him a transplant. But okay, so who do you have about above him at number one?

Number one. Another. This is a guy that, this is a robbery that he's not in the hall of Fame. We're staying on the offensive line.

The Cowboys drafted him and traded him.

It's kind of funny because that is right in the heart of the Cowboys remaking their roster and making all of these brilliant moves that just went one after the other. But that was one they actually probably screwed up a little bit. Now they did get Moose Johnson. They drafted the pick they got.

They wound up getting loose Johnson, Moose Johnston.

But that was a real winning trade for the Raiders because Steve Wisniewski was a guard, multiple Pro Bowls, multiple All Pros and should be in the hall of Fame. And the reason I say that he is on the all 90s, all 90s decade team.

And that is another marker to me, kind of like all Pro that really, really matters.

And I think that's above all pro. I mean you have a whole decade.

Yeah, being on the all decade team is a big deal. And get this, Darren, on the all decade team, they name a first team and they name a second team. So that's 22 players.

So of the 22 players on the 90s offense all decade team, 18 of them are in the hall of Fame, there are four that are not. And he, of the four is by far the most decorated. It's kind of goofy that he's not in. I don't know why this happens with the committee sometimes.

The guy was literally one of the best offensive linemen in the league for an entire decade. Everybody around him is in the hall of Fame. He's not played his whole career with the Raiders.

You know, I don't know what's up with that, but he should be there. Maybe someday he'll get in.

There's arguments not just for him, but for all members that have been all decade team that they should almost be automatic to get a big shout out

to Joe Jacoby in that regard. Don't get me started. That's my personal, biggest snub.

There's a lot all through the. Every decade that there's some missing on there. So, yeah, he's. He's in good company, but in a bad place. Yep. So.

All right, well, that's a, that's a great top five there. You know, some.

He took Minnesota to three of their four Super Bowls. And the one year he wasn't there, he. Because he was traded to The Giants and Mr. Cap was quarterbacking the Vikings that year.

And then he of course returned and took him back to the super bowl again. Never could win the big one.

Almost like, you know, the Buffalo situation where they went there four times with a great coach and some great quarterbacking and just couldn't get, you know, bring in some buzz saws, teams that were going on there and that's pretty much it.

You know, as far as really fantastic players to play, there's some really good players like we mentioned earlier, but those are our two hall of Famers. And maybe, maybe we get a couple more. Some folks that you mentioned there coming up. But overall, you know, you're right.

It's probably of our four picks we've done so far, probably the la. The most lackluster of the four.

Right? Yeah, I was kind of looking through it There was a bunch of, like, easy guys to skip over.

Yeah. That just goes to show you it's not easy to be a general manager or coach or an owner to pick these picks and hit on them.

You know, even though you think you have a high draft pick, we're going to find that as we go through here.

I'm sure over the next 28 more days going through these picks that there's a lot of people that we talk about, but there's a lot more that we don't talk about that sort of are forgotten in football history and inexact

science, to be sure.

Well, that's for sure. Well, I think we'll give you our draft stat of the day today. And this is talking about the most number one overall picks.

You know, do you know what school has the most number one picks in NFL history over the 90 years of the draft?

My first inclination was to say usc.

You would be correct. Okay. Yes.

USD holds the record with the six number one overall selections and they surpassed when Caleb Williams because there was a big tie at Log Jam, but Caleb Williams broke that tie. Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Georgia are all tied for second with five.

So Caleb only counts for usc.

Caleb counts for USC because that's where he played last when he was drafted.

Okay.

All right. Okay. He left Oklahoma, so.

Okay. That's how it works. All right. I got you.

We have 28 more days of doing this and we're going to be back tomorrow with pick 28 to talk about the history. A fun way to talk about NFL history. And we hope you join us. If you missed the previous episodes, go into our YouTube channel.

Find those or on pigskin dispatch podcast or pigskindispatch.com Ed, thanks a lot for joining us today and we will talk to you tomorrow.

See you tomorrow, Dan. Thanks.

That's all the football history we have today, folks. Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip, cleat marks comics.

Pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and don't forget the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history. Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear

of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.