The Hidden Gems of the 15th NFL Draft Selection

What do a Super bowl champion, a Hall of Famer and a Supreme Court justice all have in common? Well, they all started at NFL draft pick number 15. This is the draft spot that produced the first ever defensive MVP, Alan Page.

But the greatness at 15 doesn't stop at the 70s in the relentless motor of JPP to the hard hitting legacy of Derek Johnson. Pick 15 is where teams find their defensive pulse. Today we're digging into the lure of the 15th overall selection in the NFL Draft.

Ed Cleese is our guest as always, as we have 32 days counting down here on Pigskin Dispatch. Welcome to the pig pen. You're in the NFL draft history.

Hey, Darin, how are you today?

I am doing super Ed.

You know, we are over the hump, you know, starting to go downhill as we start to gain a little bit of momentum and talk about some really outstanding players here drafted in the top. A 15 and 15 spot is what we'll be looking at today.

Yeah, and I'd say don't get your hopes up for number 15. This, you know, one thing I've been waiting for is I've been waiting for when does the sea change?

Meaning, you know, right now it's been kind of hit or miss with every pick and I just keep thinking, naturally, okay, as we get closer and closer to number one, we're just, these lists are going to get harder and harder. We'll have better and better players and then it'll be like, okay, from this pick on, it seems to be a change.

I'll tell you right now, we're, we're, when we talk about 15, we'll have done 15 through 32.

And I do not see so far a terribly discernible difference between any of these pick numbers in their history in terms of like, it's not getting better and better, it's more all over the place. You know, I think we talked about how we thought pick number 24 was one of our best and pick number 25 wasn't.

And then we were really kind of impressed with number 16 that we did yesterday and then completely unimpressed with 15. So it just kind of speaks to this, the nature of the draft and this inexact science.

And even as we get higher and higher, it's not improving very much. And I'd say specifically the last nine picks, I could find almost nothing. We've got out of the last nine number 15 pick picks taken.

Really, really rough.

Yeah, we, we have some rough times for the players. We have a little bit of tragedy to talk about in these selections, especially recent. And I guess that takes us into.

You know, why don't you give us some of your honorable mentions here before you get in your top five. Sure.

They of course went to the super bowl and ironically, in the 85 playoffs, they played the Raiders and Mark Wilson. So it was like the. And Wilson had a very nondescript career. Was. Did not have a big career at all. And neither did Easton.

He was kind of out within a few years. So that wasn't great. And then if we go on to just non quarterbacks.

But before, before you get off those, I mean, it was kind of both of those players, you know, both Eason and Wilson got drafted on teams that had a quarterback that was legendary, that was leaving. You know, Stabler was a, you know, centerpiece of the Raiders for many years and Wilson came into sort of that heir apparent.

You know, I know Plunkett ended up coming in there right around that same time too, but he was planted him. Yeah. And then. But Eason was replacing Steve Grogan, who had really a pretty outstanding career for the Patriots.

Save recent quarterbacks that the Patriots have had. And so. Yeah, so. But so, you know, they were put in a tough spot too, as a rookie.

Yeah. And Eason, of course, was part of that 83 draft class.

So not only does he have to deal with, you know, replacing Grogan, but, you know, he was always compared to, you know, Marino and Kelly and the other quarterbacks that were taken in that kind of infamous 83 draft.

Right, right. That's true. Very true.

Yeah. So I didn't find a whole lot in like the other bust I had. There's a whole lot of like average decent players.

So if you take somebody 15th overall and they can never get on the field, that's really, really bad. You Teal Green. This was kind of unfortunate. A long list of blown picks by the Dolphins or.

Mm, yeah, I remember.

All right, Huey Richardson, drafted in 91 by the Steelers. He had two tackles in his career for the Steelers and was traded to the Redskins for a seventh round pick and never really made their.

Their mark in Washington either. But one thing that's interesting about him, he was inside the World Trade center on 9 11.

He was scheduled to have a meeting on an upper floor that got delayed and he was in the bottom floor when the plane hit and was able to escape.

Wow, that's very fortunate.

And then in a long list of jets busts, we had Ron, I think we pronounce it Pharaoh Pharrell maybe. He was at 84, jets, two years, two sacks. So some, some rough times there.

Yeah, definitely not making the New York sack exchange with those numbers.

No, no. And that would have been right at the time. So they could have benefited if he would have panned out. You know, he would, he would have made another.

But he really did there, Darren. At the beginning of his career for the Titans, he was, he made it. He was really good for, for a little period.

So, so it's. What you're saying is Washington is the place where great defensive linemen go to fizzle out their careers.

Yeah, there's plenty.

Yeah, I'm joking.

Yeah, no, there's plenty. There was. Sean Gilbert was another guy we traded for.

Yeah, I mean, at the time, I don't think Haynesworth was a bad purchase. He was, you know, the top, one of the top defensive linemen going on.

So you can't really fault them too much because they were, they thought they were getting a marquee player. I think just the player, you know, maybe sat on his riches a little bit too much. His wallet was too fat for him to move around anymore.

The oral history of that from what I, believe me, I've dug deep into it, was that they were bidding against themselves that nobody else in the league was willing to go where they were. And that was one of those.

At midnight, the night free agency started, they fired up the private jet and they just asked Albert how much he wanted and they were like, you know, by 5:00am we're going to have this deal done. Just not a smart way to do business again. You're bidding against yourselves and you lose.

Yeah, that's true. All right, so is that all for your honorable mentions?

It's for honorable mentions.

Okay, let's, let's get into your top five.

They got believe. Yeah, they were. The 95 Broncos were really good and they had 14 touchdowns for that team.

He didn't have a lot of he, his catch numbers weren't huge, but he's like yards per catch were. So he's kind of like a big time player, a big, big play player, big play receiver that had a really nice career.

All right, so who do you have number four?

Number four. A brother of a guy that we had on this list before. So that's, that that's going to be good for both of them.

He was not as good and it was not as. Didn't have quite the accolades. But he was a four time Pro Bowler and, and was considered one of the top players at his position for several years.

Yeah. And people may wonder, they were twins but ended up, you know, Marquis came out a year earlier.

Right.

A little bit better player. And both, they both played center in the NFL. So both had pretty good, good careers in the NFL. Yep.

Nice. Yes.

All right, who do you have at number three?

Not like a, not that like that defensive end, the outside linebacker position. He was a big time high tackle guy. He took a little bit to hit his stride.

He got off to a little bit of a slow start and I think there were some whispers whether that they may have missed on him. But then he had a five year stretch where he missed one year with injury in that stretch. But he had 100 plus tackles in all those years.

Four Pro Bowls and two All Pros mixed in. He ended with the Raiders and he just missed the Mahomes era.

So he was done like he was out of, he was out of Kansas City kind of right when Mahomes was coming in. So those Chiefs teams he played for were solid, good playoff level teams, but not great.

He is the Chiefs all time leading tackler and I know that he is considered one of the best defensive players in Chiefs history. Definitely not a Hall of Fame guy, not a Canton guy at all. Probably not even consideration.

But you know, I think if you go into the ring of honor for your specific team at some point, that's, that's a pretty big deal.

Yeah, that definitely is, I think definitely worth getting that ranking. And you're ranking for the top five of the pick. Number 15.

Yep.

So. So who do you have above him?

First team all pro in his second year in the league with 16 and a half sacks. That's massive. Then he was in the Pro bowl. Then he had some injuries Then he had a 12 and a half sack season.

And that really stunted his career. But what kind of gets him on this list is after it looked like maybe he was kind of just going to be a fade out.

So he really bounced back strong. He's technically still active. He made a couple appearances last year for the Bucks. They signed him late in the year.

But he's got 94 and a half career sacks. Sacks in his career. And I would say that had it not been for that accident, he would have stayed a little bit more on track.

He'd probably have, you know, well over 100 and be a little bit higher on the list. He's again, much like Johnson, he's not a Canton guy. It's not a Hall of Fame guy. It's not even a debate.

But he's had a very nice career and was obviously a very good pick at number 15.

Yeah, I mean, especially early in his career when he's with the Giants, it's almost like you're looking at the Giants defense line. You're like going, how is this fair that they have, you know, Michael Strahan is getting all these sacks.

I think JPP comes along and they just had some really solid players up front that really put a lot of pressure and I. That's probably why they won that, especially one super bowl against the Patriots. And yeah, Tom Brady, some fits. He couldn't.

He was a key part of that. He was a key part of that for sure.

Yeah. Most. No doubt. Yeah. All right, well, who do you have? Number one?

Number one.

He had some injuries, so he missed some time in there, but once he turned 30 is about when he had his big run. So he turned 30 and then he went to the Pro bowl four out of five years from there. He had 30 career interceptions.

He had five years with 100 or more tackles. He led the league in tackles one year.

He was a great pairing with Steve Atwater, who was obviously number one on our list when we did his pick number. He is fourth all time in games played for the Broncos. He is first all time and tackles for the Broncos and he is also in their ring of fame.

I kind of put him over the other guys because he had a little bit of a longer career and stuck around and just one of those guys that, you know, Dickenberg and you know, Merlin Olsen calling those, those NBC games in the 80s and the Broncos late in the afternoon and like just Dennis Smith always there. Always there. Dennis Smith. Dennis Smith.

Just.

Just a very recognizable guy. Very recognizable name to me. And again, not a super strong top five here.

Yeah, yeah. I can't think of how you could argue over. Over that.

I believe he still has many of the Green Bay packers rushing records and touchdowns. I'm not sure if yardage, but he's up there in a lot of those categories. And what an outstanding back.

You know, Lombardi's packers would not be the same if it wasn't for. For Jim Taylor and everything that he brought with his talents in the backfield.

They made four Super Bowls. Alan Page was a big part of that. A great leader. Ended up becoming a judge, you know, winning the law, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So he laid down the law in football and in real life, so.

Yeah, no doubt.

So, yes, two. Two outstanding players from that, you know, the middle of the country there up north.

Yeah, both. Both would easily be number one of. Ahead of these other guys.

You know, had a. Had a decent career, not hall of Fame, but, you know, really solid player for them.

And really, I can't really talk about too many other folks that really had great impact that we haven't already talked about.

Yeah, I agree. That was. Yeah, it was. It was kind of surprising. When I was going through my list, I kept thinking, okay, well, where's. Where.

I kept kind of scrolling looking like, well, where's the really interesting one I'm going to talk about? And I just kept going and said, oh, he's not here. So. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Well, people may be wondering, you know, we looked at these 90 years of the NFL and what was the most popular position drafted at the 15 spot?

I don't know that we talked to about too many of them today. In our top fives or even honorable mentions, linebacker is the top pick at number 15.

So maybe if your team is picking 15 this year, that's a chance they may have there had. Of course, the two hall of Famers we talked about. And that takes us to our draft stat of the day.

Can you imagine sitting through a draft like that all in one day, too, by the way, not three days like we have today. Adding a twist to this procedure, this is where it gets interesting.

But I'm surprised the jets haven't asked if we can bring that back.

Yeah, the jets and the Browns, you think they'd be all over that right now trying to get that, but I don't think they would win over the. In this era. So, no, sir. The NFL wants parody, so that's what they get. So. And it's kind of a fair system, and I. I think we want to keep it that way.

Right. All right, well, I think that wraps up our. Our slot. Number 15, folks.

If you missed some of the other episodes, we have 16 through 32 in the YouTube channel and on, where you have your favorite podcast on and on pigskindispatch.com so check it out there. We probably have some links here in the show notes, too. You can check out on both the podcast and YouTube channel.

And stay tuned because we're gonna have pick number 14 tomorrow. I'm joined once again by the guy sitting across from me right now, many states away in Oklahoma, Ed Cleese. So, Ed, thank you for joining us tonight.

We'll talk to you tomorrow.

I'll see you tomorrow, Darren.

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