Unearthing Hidden Gems: The Most Underrated Selections at Pick 23

Could the 23rd pick be the most underrated spot in National Football League history?

Well, today we're looking at the selection that has produced everything from possibly the greatest punter of all time to hall of Fame cornerbacks and tight ends.

From the dominance of Ray Guy to Ty Law and the legacy of Ozzie Newsom.

Pick 23 is proving breeding ground for legends.

I'm Darrin Hayes, and you're in the pig Pen.

Welcome to Pigskin Dispatch.

Let's count down the greatest 23rd picks ever to hit the gridiron with our guest and Ed Cleese.

Hello, my football friends.

We are leading you right up to the draft in Pittsburgh as 32 straight days here in Pixicin Dispatch, Ed Cleese joins me once again.

Ed, welcome back to the pig pen.

Hello, Darren.

How are you today?

I am doing great.

Are you ready to talk about the famous selections at pick number 23 in the NFL Draft?

I am.

You are?

Well, this is a great piece of football history here.

You know, we are not doing the mock drafts.

We're not talking about the current draft, but we will give you some indicators maybe what may happen this draft based on history.

So, Ed, what are your thoughts on selection number 23 over history?

And, you know, we talked a lot about how the.

The first.

You know, however, when we've done now nine picks or so, kind of surprised about how kind of like, underwhelming a lot of them have been.

I remember when we got to the 25th pick, we were shocked at how poor it was.

And I just keep assuming that, oh, it'll get better, it'll get better the higher we get in the draft, obviously.

And then yesterday we talked about pick number 24, which was an excellent history.

And so I was kind of excited.

Let's go look at 23.

It'll probably be, you know, let's keep the train going and, you know, scorching halt.

Because 23 is pretty underwhelming.

My.

My number, I had a real hard time conducting, putting together a top five number one is a Hall of Famer.

But after that, it was kind of like I had a hard time with it, really, this recently.

The pickings have been kind of slim, too.

Evan Ingram, Christian Derrisa, not much else, you know, and those are okay players, you know, fine, but not.

Nothing special.

And I'd also say it isn't just.

It's a little bit of a volume problem.

But I thought the top end, when I was getting down to the top five, was also kind of light.

So, yeah, it's a little bit underwhelming.

We can start talking about.

I found a whole bunch of solid offensive linemen.

Riley Reif, Brian Bulaga, Michael Orr, from the Blind side, you know, was made famous.

None of them had.

There's no Pro Bowls among that group at all.

But they all had fairly long, successful careers as starters.

And that's kind of where I'm at with this pick is like, there's a lot of lack.

There was a lot of that at 23, which was kind of surprising.

Had a couple honorable mention running backs that didn't make the top five.

McGahey actually had a little bit of a better career than I had remembered, and Deuce was a nice player for the Saints, but again, we're not talking about stars here or, you know, people that dominated the league.

Yeah, well, McGahey had some injury history.

He could have been a star.

He could have been, you know, something really special.

But both for the Bills, and I think.

I forget who he played with afterwards.

He sort of had that lingering injury he suffered, I think, in college.

He had a.

He was in the bowl game, I think.

Yeah, I think he missed his whole rookie year because I believe he won comeback player of the year his first year in the NFL, I believe.

Or was on the list at least, you know, like he was in consideration for it.

So he had a.

He had a horrific knee injury in college in his last game.

Right.

And that's how he tumbled all the way to the pick 23, too.

He probably.

He might have a pretty decent.

Decent career, a solid career, a good player, as did Deuce.

They were both pretty good.

Neither of them made the top five, but they were kind of close in terms of a bust.

The only one I really found, Darren was in, was 91, I believe, or somewhere around.

That was Randall Hill, who was a receiver.

He was a Miami kid, played at the U and was drafted by the Dolphins.

And this is kind of a unique thing.

He was traded by Don Shula after one game.

So his rookie year, he played Week 1 for the Dolphins, and they traded him to the Cardinals.

And Shula basically told the people, I guess, the front office, he's not ready.

We made a mistake, and he was gone.

After one game, he actually wound up back with the Dolphins for a year or two later in his career.

Never.

Never did much.

That was really the only bust I could find.

A real, like, semi interesting story.

And then you can kind of fill me in.

But I believe he had a lot of injuries and his production dipped quickly in his career.

But I remember him as a kid because of the name.

So Louis Lips.

I always thought that was such a cool.

I had his football cards with.

I thought that was.

The Steelers weren't good as, you know, in the 80s, so it's not a team that I look in Oklahoma saw a lot of.

But there was, you know, when they were on, like, he always stood out as, like, a notable player because he was good and because of his name.

Yeah, he was, but he was sort of the superstar.

Think about it.

You know, all the Steelers from the 70s, all our heroes are retired or they're, you know, they're.

They're not at their peak anymore.

So he was the superstar.

And this guy was a tremendous punt returner.

And as a wide receiver, he held all the Steelers records.

You know, he blew away, like, Stallworth and Swan's records.

You know, they were the only.

You know, I think we had the Jefferson, too, for a little bit back before them.

But.

But this.

This guy was on fire without really having a really solid quarterback.

And we talked about Mark Malone and Cliff Stout, where his quarterbacks, you know, not names that you really want to write home about as being tremendous things, but he was very productive.

And yeah, he.

But he was such a superstar, they keyed on him.

And that's still back in the era where, you know, defenders could, you know, really knock this wide receiver silly.

There's still bump and run going on at that point, for sure.

Yeah, for sure.

So he was like my last cut for the top five.

But because I didn't want to hurt your feelings too much, I put another Steeler at number five.

Oh, okay.

I feel so much better now.

I don't have to cut you off here.

He didn't start with the Steelers.

He wasn't drafted by the Steelers.

He played center.

You know, he was a steady presence on some, like, middling Lions teams.

He played several years at the back end of Barry Sanders career.

He was the center on those teams.

And then he ended his career really strong with the Steelers, including a first team all pro selection, which is, you know, a big deal.

So a pretty long career, a good career with a couple teams and kind of ascended and got a little bit better or at least, you know, started getting some accolades.

I wouldn't say he's like a Canton guy, you know, from probably not enough awards and hardware for him, but a really nice career and that first team all pro is something to really hang your hat on.

Yeah, he was probably, you know, next to Jeff Saturday.

He was probably that era's premier center, you know, the right thousands.

And I was, I was ecstatic when the Steelers somehow got him near the end of his career because they really needed a guy after Germany Dawson left.

But yeah, that was a good pick.

Good, solid pick.

So who do you have a number four.

Number four.

And this is where you know, like, oh, this guy's as high as four was.

He had a 15 year career.

He ended with the Bills in the last three years.

But his, the meat of his career was with Dallas in the mid-80s.

Darren, he had three, three straight seasons with 11 and a half or more sacks, which is impressive.

That's a big number.

And he was a starter through like the end years of the Landry era and the very beginning of the Jimmy Johnson era.

And then he transitioned to like a rotational backup player for the super bowl teams.

He was no longer a starter in 92 when they won the first Super bowl, but he did have 10 and a half sacks that season and in the postseason.

If you combine the 92 and 93 postseasons, when they won the super bowl both years, he had four and a half sacks in the playoffs combined.

So he was still an effective player for the Cowboys, you know, from 83 to like 94, 95, something like that.

So that's a long time.

He saw the, the good Landry part, you know, at least the latter part than the bad.

And then he was good with Jimmy.

So he was kind of a Cowboys legend.

He's been there a long time.

He really annoyed me as a Redskins fan over the years.

Like he's just kind of always there, you know, kind of annoying when I looked up his numbers I was like, yeah, he's.

You know, he doesn't have, like a lot of Pro Bowls or awards and things like that, but that's a really long career with some nice numbers.

Yeah, he's.

I mean, just the name alone, I mean, it's such a unique name.

It's a name you never forget and especially when you're an impact player.

So, yeah, it's a good, good selection.

Number four.

Yes.

So moving on to number three, we're going to stay on defense.

He was there in Buffalo for five years.

He actually had an interception as a rookie in the Music City Miracle game, which was kind of like a little fun footnote.

Obviously didn't help the Bills win it,.

But he did what he could.

Then he had nine years with the Vikings, and that's sort of where he turned a corner in his career.

His 10th season, he was 31.

That was his first Pro Bowl.

And then he went two more years after that in a row.

So he went to the Pro bowl for the first time at 31, but also went at 32 and at 33.

And what that tells me, Darren, is not necessarily that he suddenly got a lot better, is that he was probably overlooked in his career.

Meaning, you know, he wasn't a big interception guy or a big playmaker.

Big playmaker.

He was more of like a traditional shutdown corner.

And he was probably playing a lot better for those Bills teams and he got credit for.

Because they weren't very good.

And if you're not making splash plays at corner, a lot of people probably aren't noticing you.

So my guess is that Winfield was even better than we think he was.

Yeah.

That's a good career, though, right there.

Yeah, it was.

I mean, I think he was solid as a Bill, but like you say, he really.

He showed his mustard when he was with the Vikings because that's.

It was a guy that quarterbacks didn't like throwing at very often.

Sure, for sure.

For sure.

And this is Bruce Armstrong for the.

Drafted as offensive tackle by the Patriots.

And, you know, this.

Some.

Some.

Some stuff really sticks out here is he had.

Okay.

He started all 16 games for the Patriots in 12 of those 13 seasons.

So that is impressive.

He made the Pro bowl six times over that span.

He made the second team all pro team a few Times and one thing that really sticks out for him is, you know, his first six years or so miserable Patriot teams.

Those teams were terrible.

The late 80s, early 90s Patriots.

If you're a younger Patriots fan, you have no idea what kind of misery your older fans had to go through.

Those were terrible teams in the late 80s and early 90s.

Unwatchable.

And Armstrong was a very good player on those teams but like, kind of like with Winfield, maybe he was even better and we just don't know it because the team was so lousy and their offenses and their quarterbacks were so bad.

He did have to.

He got to play with Bledsoe and Parcells.

So he did wind up on some successful teams in the mid and late 90s there where he was remained a starter till he started all 16 games in his last season.

So he missed it.

He missed it by a year.

But still an all time great Patriot and probably one of those guys, Darren, that's like just on the cusp of Canton but just missing the little something to get in.

Yeah, very, very true.

You, you know you're having a bad time as a franchise when you, to turn the tide you have to change your logo and your, your color scheme a little bit.

And that was a ch.

Yeah.

And that's one of the reasons I think they did it because they become, they've become so synonymous with like just losing and misery.

Yeah, they had to get rid of Pat the Patriot and man, I'll tell you what, Flying Elvis, looking back, it.

Might be my favorite throwback.

Maybe that's just really better than the Buccaneers.

Yeah, they're both close.

They're both that orange swashbuck.

Yeah, maybe that's, maybe that's just nostalgia for me.

But yes, when I think of Bruce Armstrong, I certainly think of him with the Pat the Patriot uniform on, even though he played for many years there with the.

The new.

The new day, the new.

The new duds.

The Flying Elvis.

Yes, the Flying Elvis.

Yes.

So it's.

We're going to stay in New England for number one, Darren.

So this is making me a little sick with all these Patriots, but number one is very easy.

Two first team all pros, 53 career interceptions.

What puts me over the edge with Ty Law is talk about a big game player.

Notably, it doesn't get much bigger than a pick six in the super bowl.

To upset the Rams.

If you remember he picked off Kurt Warner, took it to the house probably the biggest play in that game that gave the Patriots their first Super Bowl.

Just an excellent player.

He had two this is another one I liked when he was with the I think he ended his career with the Chiefs and he actually had two interceptions of Peyton in his last playoff game.

Laws last playoff game that he ever played he had two they lost that game but he had picked off Peyton twice.

He also made the Pro bowl with the jets and had the most interceptions of his career there later with the Jets.

He's a linebacker very solid player gave you know the Bears that really started him off with that linebacking core that you you know before the Buckuses and or lacquers and that you know that's Bill George was that gold jacket.

John Madden's a coach and the probably the best player drafted probably better than Ty Law.

Ozzy can be a two time hall of Famer easy.

Yes I and I believe he will I think he'll get the second nod there because he definitely deserves it.

For sure.

And just for the record, I realized that Ray Guy is a Hall of Famer.

Still would never take a punter in the first round.

My team has the number seven pick in this draft.

If you told me there is a Hall of Fame, can't miss prospect at punter, I'm not taking them.

Sorry.

Well, the Raiders are.

I mean, Al Davis liked to do that because look, they took Sebastian.

Yes.

Round two.

And he didn't pan out as well as ended up being a weapon for him, though.

Little cute for me, but yes, certainly.

Guy was awesome.

No doubt about it.

Yeah.

So that's just some neat little stats there.

Some other things, you know.

So we had four hall of Famers, if you want to look and maybe get a hint of where maybe somebody will pick at number 23 this year.

We.

Well, by far the tackle position has been the Most popular position 17 times out of the 90 previous drafts, the tackle has been taken in there.

And the school that's been drafted the most has been Ohio State.

So maybe one of the Ohio State tackles will be taken to the number 23 spot this year.

That's what all the history says should be happening here.

That leads us to our draft stat of the day.

And this will take us to.

I remember it.

As for the first five picks were hall of Famers Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Derek Thomas and Deion Sanders.

You know, that's a pretty good draft selection right there.

And I probably should look up.

I didn't even look to see who the guy didn't make it was.

You know, not to embarrass them, but that's some pretty good players to be stuck with.

Give me a second here and I can tell you.

Oh, Tony Mandarich attack.

The incredible bus.

Yeah.

So, yes.

Remember the.

He had the.

The Sports Illustrated cover, the incredible bulk with his shirt off.

And then later the incredible bust.

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

And he.

He was.

There was talks that Dallas might even take him number one instead of.

I remember.

Yep, yep.

Steroid era guy.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, he did wind up coming back into the league and having a couple good years with the Colts.

Kind of a little bit of a reclaim project.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

So.

Well, that is our.

Our pick for day 23 for slot 23 in the history of the NFL draft.

You know, we are going to be doing this.

We're going to continue our journey for another 22 days leading up for that big Thursday night in Pittsburgh when your team will be drafting their future and we really enjoyed having you tonight.

We'll talk to you again tomorrow for slot 22.

See you tomorrow, Darren.

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

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