The Fifth Spot: A Historical Examination of NFL Draft Picks

Since the draft's inception, this slot has been the birthplace of the goal Jack and legends like Deion Sanders and Junior Seau, dominant forces who redefined their positions.

But for every hall of Famer, there's a cautionary tale of can't miss prospects who never found his footing.

From the game changing superstars to the picks the teams wish they would take back, let's delve into the high stakes history of the number five overall selection, the NFL draft.

And as always, we're joined by Ed Cleese.

You're in the pig pen.

Pigskin Dispatch's 32 day countdown of NFL draft picks is coming up now, ladies.

And gentlemen, you can count on your one hand the number of days till the NFL draft.

It's five days coming up, so today we're going to talk about the fifth spot in NFL draft history.

Our friend Ed Cleese joins us once again.

Ed, welcome back.

Hey, Darren.

Top five.

It's hard to believe we've made it this far.

The top five.

We're going to talk about the top five of pick number five today.

Two top fives for two top fives.

All right, well, like five golden rings in the, the Christmas song, right?

You have two top fives in the top five picks.

So.

All right, so what's your, your take overall take on pick number five?

Well, now that we've gotten to the top five, we're gonna mix it up a little bit because I feel like we need now we get serious, right?

So at this point when it's a top five pick, I think in a way you probably remember almost all of them one way or another.

So we really can't go through and talk about everybody.

Like I remember this guy, remember that guy.

So what I've decided to do is we're going to do our top five busts, going to do our top five best picks, and then you have a couple of honorable mentions that didn't make the cut.

There's going to be a lot of guys we don't mention that either got lucky and just missed the cut for the busts or got a little unlucky and didn't quite make even the honorable mention list.

There are a number of guys we're not going to talk about here that were still memorable.

All right, well, let's get at it.

We got A lot.

Let's start with the bottom five, the five biggest busts to taken number five and number five.

His first three years, he only had three starts, but he played in those games, so he wasn't hurt.

He couldn't get on the field to start.

Was more of like a rotational guy.

Obviously.

You take a guy number six, you're not hoping in year three.

You're hoping in year three that you've got yourself more than a starter.

And he wasn't even that.

He did start all 16 games in his fourth and fifth seasons, which wound up being his last two years in the league.

He had 15 career sacks.

And then just really quick looking at guys that the Giants could have taken right around him.

So I'm not going like, hey, this guy got taken in the fourth round.

I'm talking about guys that would have been on the board that were probably in the running.

You had Terry Glenn, Eddie George, Marvin Harrison, and Willie Anderson, a great offensive lineman for the Bengals that were all.

There at the time.

Giants fans are probably still cracking their knuckles over missing some of those guys.

Yep, didn't work well.

So we move on to number four.

Went to the Bears.

He had one okay season.

He did battle some injuries, but I remember, you know, kind of reading and thinking, I think, yeah, he was a little banged up, but I think they also kind of saw the writing on the wall, like, this guy doesn't have the burst.

It's just not there.

He wound up having, like, a degenerative knee issue, so it was over pretty fast for him.

And what probably really hurts is Fred Taylor was on the board and got taken like, three picks later as a running back.

Keith Brooking was there to kill.

Spikes was there.

Randy Moss was there.

Now, I'll give the Bears a bit of a pass on that one, because a lot of teams passed on Moss.

We talked about that when we talked about him.

So.

So he was falling down the board that day, but he was there, and they wanted a skill guy, so.

And with Moss, the.

The Vikings passed on the Bears quite a bit.

Yeah.

Really?

No kidding.

Very good.

Very good.

I don't know if that's very good, Darren, but it's.

I'll give you.

I'll give you a little tip of the cap there.

Going on to number three would be one.

That's a real shame.

He had some trouble in college.

He had an okay rookie year.

It was, things were looking okay.

Then before his second year, he got suspended for drugs.

He would have a four game suspension and two.

He came back and had two massive games, like big time, big time games.

He immediately got in trouble again.

He never played football again after that second year.

Tons of trouble, tons of trouble just kept coming.

I think even recently he's, I read that he's had some issues, so he just could not.

So two years in the league and he's done all because of the off field stuff.

So real a bummer there for the Jags.

Luke Keakley was on the board, taken right around there.

Stefan Gilmore, Fletcher Cox, Bruce Irvin.

So there were some, there were some guys there.

And so I want to point something out.

So Blackman was a receiver, right?

And the guys I just read that were available were Keakley, Gilmore, Fletcher Cox and Bruce Urban, all on defense.

And this is an example of why I say when you're in the top of the draft, you always got to take best player available.

Because you know what, Maybe the Jag, I don't remember this, but maybe the Jags have convinced themselves that we have to have a receiver or we have to have a skill guy.

And maybe they were like, well, you know, Blackman's got some of these issues, but he's the best receiver on the board, so let's take him.

And in the meantime, you pass up on a Hall of Fame middle linebacker, you know, how does that look five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now?

So that's why I don't think that when people talk about you take for need or best player, I don't think there should ever be a debate because when you're drafting, you should never be drafting for that season anyway.

You should always be going for the best player.

And you, this is how you get yourself in trouble is when you pigeonhole yourself into eliminating a Hall of Famer because for some reason you don't think you need him in April of this year, you know, but it turns out that of course, any of those guys would have been significantly better.

Yeah.

Interesting.

So, yep.

And then moving to number two is probably one you'll remember.

Now, he did wind up having a media career and then he's had a very successful administrative career in athletics.

He's been an athletic director.

So things turned out just fine for Trev, but it did not turn out fine for him as an NFL player.

And what I really remember about that is, do you remember when Mel Kuiper and Bill Tobin got into it on the draft and Bill Tobin said, who the hell is Mel Kuiper?

Right.

Well, it was.

It was Mel Kuiper telling the Colts that they made a mistake taking Trev Alberts.

So Mel.

Yeah, so Piper was actually right for once.

Yes.

So.

But the only thing is he was telling them to take Dilfer, but, you know, he can leave that part off.

He can just tell them.

I just told Michigan, guy has a Super bowl win.

So.

So they did pass up on some good defensive players.

The Colts did instead.

Bryant Young, hall of Famer, I think, was taking the next pick.

So a guy that made seven starts versus a guy that went to the hall of Fame that played similar positions.

Sam Adams was a great defensive lineman, and Aaron Glenn, the defensive back, who's the current coach for the jets, was available as well.

Wow.

But the word, the biggest bust ever taken at number five was by the Cleveland Browns, if you can believe that.

They took linebacker Mike Junkin, and essentially from kind of reading about it, it's almost like he got to camp and they were like, oh, this is a mistake.

They moved him inside, they moved him outside.

People thought they were misusing him, and it kind of just turned out that maybe he just couldn't play.

They fired Marty Schottenheimer not too long into Junkin's career, and he went and coached the Chiefs, and Marty brought him with him to Kansas City, but he never even, I think, barely made the team there either.

Why would they draft that position when they could have drafted a quarterback that would have failed after two or three years?

Yeah, really.

What's going on with them?

They did pass on Shane Conlon, who is a really nice linebacker.

Jerome Brown, who was a dominant defensive lineman, and this one's going to really hurt.

They passed on Rod Woodson, who only went a few picks later for Mike Junction.

Wow, that's.

Yeah, that's.

That's a downer.

So let's bring us up a little bit and talk about some players that had some good careers.

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You bet.

You know, maybe a butt fumble away from.

Yeah, butt fumble.

Unfortunately that's what he's known for.

And Jim McMahon was taking sixth overall.

So a very memorable, a very memorable player there.

My honorable mentions.

It's going to be crazy that he's not on the list.

Yeah, I didn't have him in my top five.

It's going to be close.

He was on his way.

We're talking about an all time talent, a unique body type for that position at safety.

Tall and lanky and intimidating.

A throwback player, A legend for the Redskin fan base.

I may have seen his best game ever.

So about a month before he died, about six weeks, Six weeks later, he was, he was killed.

There's actually an oral history about it.

If you Google Sean Taylor, packers game.

There's quotes from Farve, there's quotes from his defensive coordinator, Greg Williams, where people just marveled at.

I've never seen anybody cover ground like that in a game before.

It's like I threw the ball and every as far as, like, I threw it.

And then number 21 was there.

Wherever I went.

He was just there like radar.

I couldn't shake him.

So Sean Taylor was a, was a phenomenal player.

He was incredible to watch.

Unfortunately, his career was just too short to make the list.

Okay, well, so who did you put in your top five?

Well, this was, I, I kind of waffled on this, but I just said, darn it, I'm doing it.

I had, I had Justin Jefferson in the top five and I had CD Lamb in the top five.

I actually think that Chase is a little bit better than both of those guys.

I would agree.

He's on a ridiculous pace.

It is ridiculous.

Okay, Darren.

He has 352 catches in the last three years.

In the last three years.

And he has 54 touchdowns already in his career.

This guy is unstoppable.

And he's benefited from Burrow, of course.

But Burrows missed a ton of time in, in Chase's career, a ton of games.

And it doesn't matter.

He just, I mean, it's incredible.

He is, he is an unbelievable receiver.

And I, I, I went crazy over both CD And Justin Jefferson.

But Chase is better.

He's the best receiver in the NFL right now.

Yeah, there's a lot to choose from.

There's a lot of really good ones.

There's a lot of really good.

Puka comes to mind, too.

There's a lot of really good ones.

But Chase is.

Boy, I, you know, if I'm doing an expansion draft for my team, he might be like, I'm right there taking Jamar.

He is awesome.

He's going to move up this list.

Yeah, I think you're definitely right there.

Okay, so who do you have above Jamar Chase?

Another guy that's probably going to go to the hall of Fame.

I think that's going to.

What might hurt him is that he was very much in that lockdown corner mold, which means he wasn't.

He was doing such a good job of eliminating a side of the field that he wasn't necessarily compiling a ton of stats.

He does have three first team all pros, eight Pro Bowls all decade team, which is crazy.

He had four punt return touchdowns as a rookie, so four in his rookie year.

I think they went away from having him return kicks after a while.

I don't think, you know, it was too risky to have him there.

But for, for a decade he was.

Maybe they thought they were scoring too much with maybe.

Yeah, for a decade he was just about the best corner in the league, you know, give or take.

And you know, play for the Cardinals was after the Warner years.

So, you know, it was on the Carson Palmer team.

You know, they're pretty good there.

For a couple years they were decent.

So he had some moments, but mostly in obscurity, which is probably another reason we don't talk about him.

But I think a Hall of Fame player.

Yeah, I think he's probably on his way to Canton, I'm sure.

Yep, good, solid guy.

Okay.

Who's above him?

Well, the next three all do have jackets and we're not going to argue that it's the offensive.

But really the thing for me is that guy was a end zone seeker.

He was a heat seeking missile to the end zone.

He is second all time in rushing touchdowns.

Really, really incredibly caught the ball very well.

Very, very consistent throughout his career.

Kind of did it all, you know, was an explosive player, bunch of big highlights.

If you're going to knock him, I think you'd look at.

He only played in 10 playoff games and to be perfectly frank, he was not good in nine of them.

And in their.

2007 Was the one year the Chargers had playoff success.

They won two games.

He did not perform particularly well in those two games.

Then they went to the AFC championship game in New England.

That was a close game.

Philip Rivers played that game on a torn ACL and LT had two carries in the game because that wasn't it a migraine that he was out with?

I think, I think something odd like that.

Yeah.

And he got a lot of flack for it.

And I remember him sitting there on the sideline with his helmet and his visor on, just kind of sitting there during the game.

And it's a very tricky thing for me in my living room to tell a guy you're not being tough enough or to get out there because I Have no idea what, what he's actually feeling or going through.

But there were some whispers that people were frustrated and like, you know, why is he not out there?

So he never had that like postseason moment or success, but it does not detract from his incredible career and the fact that quite being just plainly saying this as plainly as possible, he scored the second most rushing touchdowns in the history of the NFL, which is pretty darn good.

Yeah.

And he was a fantasy football for anybody that had him on their team.

He was like the first pick in every fantasy draft for like eight years.

Yeah, the guy was a stud at that.

Definitely.

I'm surprised that you had him at three though.

I mean, I have a pretty good idea who your other two are going to be, but I'm a little bit surprised by that.

But.

But go ahead, let's go.

Let's talk about the next guy.

Number two is Junior SEO.

20 Years in the NFL and unfortunately, maybe we know now that there may have been too many for him.

He eight times over, 100 tackles, six time All Pro.

So for me, Junior Sale.

The 90s NFL.

Completely synonymous with, with the 90s NFL.

I feel like he was like the defensive player of the 90s in a lot of ways.

There's some others, but like, he really sticks out.

And he was, he was so hard to miss, Darren, in a Chargers game like everywhere.

Right.

And he played with a ton of passion.

Sideline to sideline guy, sideline to sideline.

Super emotional, a playmaker.

Number 55.

He looked cool.

He had a cool name.

He was, you know, he had so much juice to him.

He was just sort of that, you know, when you're playing outside with your friends, who's going to, I'm say out, you know what I mean?

Like, he was just a legend.

Awesome player.

Was still very good as an older player, you know, bounced around some teams, wound up with the Patriots.

I think he played all that much, but, you know, was still in the league.

Obviously the tragedy with his taking his own life and the head issues and things like that.

Terrible, terrible.

But when you talk about a legendary player at a really cool position in a kind of a forgotten place now, you know, San Diego, it's a shame because the Chargers now, it's almost like they don't exist in a way because they have no fans.

Nobody cares about them in la, but they really did care about the Chargers, and I know in San Diego, and I know they cared very much about junior Seattle, and it's kind of a shame that they're not there anymore, but.

But he kind of always will be in a way.

Right.

You know, when you think about that era of that franchise.

Yeah, most definitely.

Tragic story, but awesome player.

Yeah, just incredible.

All right, well, who do you have the number one spot?

You know what?

Some people might push back on this, but I, I.

Darren, I have, I have nothing.

I have.

Because I don't need anything else.

He's the best cornerback of all time.

End of sense.

Period.

End of sense.

And this is coming from a guy.

Who's best coverage corner.

Well, there's two aspects to the game.

That's the job of the corner.

Okay?

That's the main job of the corner.

That is.

That is why you draft a corner, is to take away the best receiver of on the other team to cover somebody.

And you're talking to a guy who's one of his heroes is Daryl Green.

All right?

But Deion was better.

Deion's the best corner of all time.

The people that wanted always poke holes in him, always say, well, he doesn't tackle very well.

I'm actually not even sure that that's.

That was necessarily true, but that was just something that I think that people wanted to try to find.

Negative.

Because we're talking about a guy that literally just shut off a side of the field for like a decade.

Meaning literally there were games and statistics where they said no targets.

Right.

The quarterback didn't even go there.

All right?

And he was great against great players, too, including Jerry Rice, who probably struggled more against Dion than anybody else he ever faced.

Cowboys.

And who won the Super Bowl?

1995 Cowboys.

Okay.

He shifted the balance of that era, of the Cowboys 49ers rivalry.

I've never seen a player at that position that was that good.

He did have the added element.

I believe it was 15 return touchdowns in his career between punts, kicks, interceptions,.

And even played a little offense, too.

A little bit offense, too?

Yeah, a little bit offense.

I don't think.

I think that all the teams kind of wanted to dabble with that, but then they were like, dude, we can't risk getting this guy hurt on offense.

I really.

And the Redskins rookie was Desmond Howard, the Heisman Trophy winner and who did not have one of having very good career as a receiver, but was a good returner.

And early in the game, the Falcons punted to the Redskins.

And there was like, a throwback, like.

Like, I think Brian Mitchell caught it, threw it a lateral over to Desmond Howard.

And Desmond Howard ran for a touchdown.

And apparently this kind of irked Deion.

Like, oh, everybody's talking about this young kid being the returner.

So on the next kickoff, just, you know, two minutes later, the Redskins kick the ball off to Deion.

He takes it 101 yards to the house and any.

And he dances on the way, like, as a way to say, watch this kid.

You know what I mean?

Like, you know, I'll let you have your moment for, like, 90 seconds before I take the spotlight away from you.

And I personally really appreciated Dion's Persona.

I liked it.

I think it was good for the game.

He never.

The guy never once got in trouble off the field.

Like, it was never, never a problem.

He was just a showman.

He was.

He had fun with it.

I think he created a character called Prime Time.

I think it was very purposeful.

I think it was part of his shtick and his bit.

And I think that he was kind of like Deion Sanders for.

For a lot of the time.

And then when the camera came on, he was Prime Time and he put on a show.

I think that has value for me.

I think there's a lot of reasons that a guy goes to the hall of Fame and is a memorable player.

I think football's supposed to be fun.

It's supposed to be interesting and entertaining.

And so you had this amazing player who also had a ton of bravado and did these fun dances and would trot into the end zone.

And that's what it's.

That it's supposed to be fun.

It's supposed to be fun.

I never thought he ever crossed the line into, like, poor sportsmanship or anything like that.

You know, he was a ton of fun.

He was like, you know, so cool.

And beyond all that, I think he's the best corner to ever play in the NFL, and he's number one on my list here.

Interesting.

Interesting.

I mean, I think he is one of the greatest athletes that's ever played the game of football and, you know, definitely one of the top corners, but I don't know that I would have had him number one on this list with Ladanian Tomlinson and Junior Sale, you know, right.

Right there.

I almost maybe would have had him second or third on this list and had one of the others up at the top because I think their careers as.

As far as the impact that their position, I think made it be even a little bit more than what, Deion Sanders.

That's hard to say because he was definitely an impactful player, but I think he was missing that element of tackling because teams would run on him.

You know, I don't know that he would survive it in today's game where people are running his own reads and bouncing things the outside where that corner does have to have responsibility of stop and run once they, you know, once they break contain.

But, you know, in his era, definitely he was a no better ball hawk on the field than Deion Sanders and maybe, maybe never a better punt and kick returner than Deion Sanders because he was an athlete.

He was.

And I'm not.

I'm not often wrong, Darren, and I'm not wrong here either.

Okay.

All right.

Well, that, that is a.

Definitely a great list.

When we're arguing about the top three who should be number one.

I think that's the first time we've had that.

That happened in our 20 some episodes we've had.

But we've had a lot of hall of Famers in this pick.

Also.

We had nine altogether.

Of course, we know him for some other teams.

Mike Ditka wasn't always a coach.

He was a great tight end for The Chicago Bears.

1961.

And then we had three years in a row during.

Just during World War II and just after Steve Van Buren.

And you'll be.

We talked, you know, a little bit about, you know, the draft picks draft stat of the day.

But I guess I.

Before I do that, I almost forgot again.

Our most popular position taken all Deion Sanders is a defensive back more times than any other position at the number five spot.

A draft stat of the day talks a little bit about the monopolies of college football in the NFL Draft in the top five.

When you have three players from your team in the top five, that's, that's pretty remarkable.

And it's happened four times in national Football League draft history.

Boomer center.

There you go.

But it was the Golden Domers that did it first.

I remember that.

The Heisman Trophy winner, too.

All right, well, that takes us to the end of our day.

Number five slot.

Number five discussion.

We are going to go into the top four tomorrow.

Number four spot.

So stay tuned.

Ed, we'll see you back then.

See you tomorrow, Darren.

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