The 14th Pick: A Historical Analysis of NFL Dominance

Does a 14th overall pick in the NFL Draft hold the secret to a Hall of Fame defense?

From the Kagun maestro Jim Kelly leading Buffalo to four straight Super Bowls, to Dedrelle Rivas who turned the league into Revis island, this specific draft slot has produced some of the most dominant forces.

To ever step onto the gridiron.

Today we're breaking down the top five players who prove that pick 14 is where perennial all pros are found. Welcome to the Pig Pen.

Let's look into the history with our guest Ed Cleese and as we enter into pigskin dispatch's 32 day journey into the draft history.

Welcome folks.

Hey Darin, how are you today?

I'm doing super. Ed is getting really exciting.

We're getting in these top tier draft picks, you know, the cream of the crop coming up, you know, and get to talk about some interesting players here at slot number 14.

Yes, especially recently I've kind of bagged on a lot of the recent picks that we've talked about. This one there's some hope. You know, Tyler Warren was taken last year by the Colts 14th overall is a really nice rookie year.

You know, there's a really good chance that in a few more years he'll already be on this top five list because he, he's a star.

Yeah, he really turned the Ravens defense around just by his play. And when he got hurt the end of last season, you could tell they sort of dropped off quite a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, he's, he's a real stud.

Yeah, definitely. All right, so you want to talk about some honorable mentions before you get in your top five?

We've had only one taken and he's going to make one of our lists. There's not a ton of notable busts Derrick Brown was taken, it was a tight end taken by the Giants in 92.

Dozier by the Vikings, Gaston Green by the Rams, and Leonard Russell by the Patriots. So Reading and Dozier never even reached 500 yards in a season. Green had one random thousand yard year and that was it.

And then kind of funny, we talked about John Stevens for the Patriots a few mini podcasts ago that he was offensive rookie of the year for the Patriots and then never did anything else as a running back. Well, in 19, I guess it was, maybe it was 91.

The Patriots took Leonard Russell, he was the offensive rookie of the year, and then never did anything after that again.

So they had two running backs that won offensive rookie of the year within like a four year span and then their career was kind of over just like that.

Yeah, they say that's one of the shortest careers in the NFL is running back. So. Yeah, so sometimes true there.

I think sort of his Persona was maybe a little bit bigger than his production.

Nine Pro Bowls for an offensive guard.

Wow, that is and doesn't make the top five of nine Pro Bowls. Oh my gosh. Bill's mafia is going crazy right now.

They're gonna. Yeah, they're gonna come after me.

Yeah.

Yep.

You might have a horse head in your bed tonight when you wake up. So. So. All right, well, who do you have in the top five then?

So top five.

He was really hot in those final years in St. Louis. A lot people don't remember him because they weren't good then, but he had 40 sacks over a three year period. That's very good.

So for there. Then he was with the Dolphins, with the Cowboys he had 11 and a half sacks with Dallas.

And there were some periods in his career where he was an elite, elite pass rusher.

Yeah. In two years of 18 or more sacks spread out throughout his career. That's.

Not many have done that.

Yeah, that's. That's really cool. It's not like you're on a hot streak, you know, doing that.

That's what pushed him over for me.

Yeah. All right. Very solid. Okay, who do you have? Number four?

The number one thing that sticks out to me, Workhorse. Just a workhorse and a stud right out of the gate. Most of his accolades came in those first five years. He was offensive rookie of the year.

And then he had 450 yards rushing in the 99 postseason when they went to the Super Bowl. And then he didn't totally die or fade after that. His last three years in Tennessee, he averaged right at 1,000 yards a year and he.

Eight years, Darren, eight years. Never missed a start first, never missed one start. And then it was over with Dallas. One year at age 31.

So those years, eight years at that position, playing running, the style that he ran, it's going to take a toll. He's not going to have a super long career.

It's really the only kind of mark against them is that it just kind of dwindled a little bit earlier than some of the real hall of Fame running backs. But man, great. Just a great workhorse back.

Yeah, I mean, you could probably say he might be one of the top Ohio State backs to have an NFL career after a great, great college career.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, really, maybe. Maybe he's number one. Unless I'm forgetting somebody obvious, you know, he was better than Zeke, you know.

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say maybe that's.

That's the only one that would be neck and wet neck with them, you know, because none of the other ones that, you know, do you think about the Claret and Archie Griffin, you know, they never really panned out in the NFL that Eddie George did.

He certainly did.

Yeah. Okay, so who do you have next?

So 12 more postseason games, including Super Bowls in that. Two Super Bowls in that time frame.

So every single start, all the postseason, all the regular season, three first team all pros, we talk about how important that is to us. Two second team all pros, 30 career interceptions, all decade team.

And then he had some like, kind of weird off field stuff. There was some. Some rumors about him maybe Matt being like.

Some people think that maybe because he wasn't necessarily universally liked that it could hurt his hall of Fame chances. There's some rumors about that, some chatter about that, that maybe some people are wanting to keep him out because he was maybe.

I don't know if he was a little bit of a pain in the rear or what, but I mean, he was awesome. And to me, I feel like he's a Hall of Famer.

When I watched the Seahawks play those years on those great defenses, it was always like Earl Thomas at the top of the list. Right. With, you know, Bobby Wagner and some of the others.

Yeah, Camp Chancellor and Richard Sherman, you know, they had a great back end on that defense, that's for sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Great. Great player, good selection. All right, who do you have next?

He entered the league at age 26, so drafted in 83 and his first year in the league was 85 or 86. So he really hit his stride in his third year. So it wasn't like until he was like 28 that he really became a big time player in the league.

And, you know, when I'm looking at him, I'm looking at.

I think your numbers have to be kind of graded on a curve when we look at, when we look at quarterbacks from that era because, you know, if we compare them to today, they don't stand out as much. But that's kind of unfair. Right. So I, you just kind of have to go back to how you felt about him at the time. The K gun offense, that was a big deal.

He did have eight years over 3,000 yards.

I know four of those, of course of those eight losses were in the super bowl, but he did, he did have a 9 and 8 career winning record in the postseason. Now one thing that was interesting, his interception to touchdown ratio in the postseason was 21 to 28.

Because now, my gosh, if Caleb Williams, through nine interceptions in the playoffs this year, he would have been, you know, taken out of Chicago and thrown into the lake. You know what I mean? It's, it's, you know, it's unbelievable. But also, Kelly means a whole. My mom's, my mom's family.

I've Mentioned this before, is from Buffalo. He means a whole lot to Buffalo. He made it his adopted home. I think he's stayed there. He's a prominent figure there. He is a legend there.

He is in the NFL. He's in the Pro Football hall of Fame, and absolutely worthy, I think, of this slot in my list.

And he's another one of the legendary Western Pennsylvania quarterbacks. You know, the breeding ground. He came. Came out of the Pittsburgh area.

All this western PA talk.

That's right. That's right. You gotta. You gotta give the love to the. The hometown and home.

You're trying to segue to number one here, aren't you?

Well, I want to talk a little bit about Kelly, you know, because we. A lot of people just sort of glance over, you know, you talk about those two years in the usfl. I mean, this guy was outstanding.

He had his highest years of passing. Okay, you're playing in the USFL. It's not the NFL. But there was a lot of talent in the USFL.

He was nowhere near the 40 mark. But you talked about the interceptions.

He.

He had 26 interceptions as a rookie with those 44 touchdowns, and he had 19 interceptions his second year with the Gamblers.

Right. It speaks to that era. Interceptions were way higher back in those days. It was just a little bit of a different game.

So I kind of don't want to hold that against him. It's better to compare him to his contemporaries at the time.

Yeah, that's very true.

But, yeah, and he was clearly one of the best quarterbacks through his era of playing in the NFL.

But, you know, he was still contending with great defenders. You know, like, names escapes him. You know, played for the Memphis.

Reggie White.

Reggie White, Yeah. Reggie White was in there. The Memphis Southman had some Reggie White. And he had another really great.

Gary Clark. There's a lot of them.

Yeah. Yeah. So there was a lot of talent in usfl, that's for sure.

Yep.

Yeah. Okay, so who. Who do you have next on your list?

We've put them on the bus list a lot. That's Darrell Revis. Just pretty, pretty obvious he only missed three games in his first five years.

He three again, three straight first team all pros, which is very rare. And it coincided with a brief period of success for the Jets.

Is he the greatest jet of all time? I think that is probably an interesting debate, interesting conversation. He is one of the better cornerbacks of all time.

I don't know if I'd put him like in the top five, but he's probably in the argument. Revis Island.

I'd probably say Joe Namath is probably going to be considered the greatest jet.

Of all in terms of like his impact on the Jets. It would be Joe Namath, but he's probably not as. He was probably not as good of a quarterback as Revis was a cornerback.

If you're looking at it, if you're looking at it from that perspective in terms of what he means to the jets, it's probably Namath. Yes. But yeah, Reavis was awesome.

Easy hall of Famer and one of the better quarter cornerbacks of the last, let's say like 40 years in the NFL at least.

And guess what else he has going for him.

What's that?

Western Pennsylvania.

Western Pennsylvania graduate. Pennsylvania. Yeah, I know all about it. Yeah. All right.

That, that is definitely some, some great players that you talk about.

I've ever mentioned that my brother in law is from Pittston.

No. Well, yeah, I think you have. Yeah, yeah.

So I hear it all the time, man. And he's a pit grad.

Okay. So he, you know, you hear a lot about revisiting.

Yeah, yeah.

And lucky for you, we're gonna be talking about a lot more western Pennsylvanias as we go through the, the next 13 slots of this program.

I know, I know, I know it's coming.

And that's the Dallas Texans were the Colts before they were the Colts.

I would have just guessed the Colts.

Yeah, Interesting story. The Baltimore Colts that came out of the AAAFC with the 49ers and the Cleveland Browns are not the Colts that we see today.

That Baltimore Colts team ended up drying up and eventually they moved the Dallas Texans from Dallas and moved up to to be in Baltimore and rename the the Colts legacy there. But you also have some great players that are not in a Hall of Fame. Well, College Football hall of Fame maybe.

And Marty Lyons, a defensive end for the New York jets, part of those stock exchange teams we talked about earlier, he was drafted in the 14th spot as well. So some great players that all around here in the 14 spot total of five hall of Famers.

The most popular position, I'm sorry, six hall of Famers most popular position drafted at the number 14 spot was defensive end. That was sort of a landslide. A lot of great defensive ends. We just talked about a few of them during our segment today and our draft stat of the day.

Now we talked about a crazy one yesterday, but we had another NFL innovation and it was called the bonus pick. Have you ever heard of the bonus pick?

I don't think so.

I never did either. It was kind of interesting to read about this. I'm going to read this word for word how I came out here.

Yeah, the next one would get it, but they, what they would do is they did it for 12 years because each team got a chance. So the Chicago Bears were eliminated out of that hat the next year.

Okay.

And they ended up going. So each team that was in the NFL, all 12 of them got the selections for it. And so each of them got it.

And once the team won the lottery, they weren't eligible to win it again for that 12 year period. So just a little bit of NFL draft history with the bonus pick.

Which bonus pick? All right. Okay.

So can you imagine if Seattle won that and they had the bonus pick and number one draft pick this year?

Yep.

Have be up in arms. It'll be murder cry. But yeah, that's sort of what we have for slot number 14 today.

You know, we are counting them down and we're gonna go to lucky number 13 tomorrow. So tune in again and we'll be right here with our friend Ed Cleese. Ed, thanks for joining us.

See you tomorrow, Darren.

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

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