Unraveling the Mystery of the 22nd NFL Draft Pick

What do you think could pick 22 in the NFL draft be the ultimate wild card?

From the hall of Fame grid of Ernie Stotner to the explosive modern dominance of Justin Jefferson.

We're breaking down the busts, the steals and the icons who proved you don't need to be a top 10 pick.

To change the game.

Step into the pig pen as our guest and Ed Cleese joins us.

And history is on the clock.

Welcome, welcome pro football fans.

Ed Cleese has been joining me here all along.

We're going 32 straight days.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Penny.

Hello Darren, how are you today?

I am doing super, getting stoked for this Western Pennsylvania draft that's going to be coming up here and I'm really stoked about the history we're going to be talking about tonight with the pick selection number 22.

All right.

To say about that, I'd say this pick was kind of interesting.

It was a little bit of a weirder when I was kind of like figuring out this is the history here, good, bad and different.

It's kind of a strange one.

We start a lot of these with looking at very recent like what you know.

And a lot of times we've finding that it's been pretty underwhelming recently.

These later, I guess now mid to later first round picks but the last few years we've had Armari and Hampton Quinon, Mitchell, Zay Flowers.

So some guys that are on a pretty good track so the teams have kind of hit on some of those picks.

Number 22 and by far and away the best one of that group was Rex Grossman.

By far and away, like not Even close.

And what really leads us there is the amazing, incredible Cleveland Browns.

Because how they pulled this off, I do not know.

Those three quarterbacks in a very short span, all in the first round combined, their record for the Browns was a combined 10 and 30.

So they won a combined total of 10 games for the Browns.

And all three of them, one of Quinn may not have played.

Yeah, Quinn played in Kansas City.

We didn't wound up in Houston.

And Johnny Football never went anywhere else.

And they didn't win any games really those other places either.

Like, they're so.

It's not like they, you know, found themselves later.

These were all colossal busts, just complete busts from the same team in the same slot in a.

What is that, a seven or eight year period.

Unbelievable.

And JP Lossman was the other quarterback not drafted by the Browns.

Yeah, but the unbelievable part, I think even a couple of those, they were the worst team in football the year before and either traded out of their top pick or didn't take a quarterback with that top pick and decided to wait till later.

Probably not the best of choices for them.

Well, maybe that's why when you whiff that badly that many times almost in a row, it's incredible.

Amazing.

Shout out to my Browns friend Joe, who's hopefully listening and just hanging his head in Brown's misery, with which they're very used to.

You have to really squint hard here for like looking for honorable, honorable mention types, I think Anthony Costanzo, Tyrone Poole, Alonzo Spellman, you know, so that.

Those are some names that I kind of, kind of stood out as.

Okay, I remember those guys.

They played all right.

The only really notable thing to me was that this, this was a good.

This has been a pretty good draft spot for wide receivers.

And we're gonna, you're gonna see that when we go into my top five.

The one that didn't make the cut for me was Percy Harvin.

Nice career, wasn't a great receiver, was pretty good and an incredible special teams player, but.

But a nice career that didn't quite make the cut.

Yeah, I, I think he was a good one, but I, I can see where five guys would be ahead of him on your list.

So I'm interested to see what order you're going to put him in.

So.

Sure.

Number five.

So number five is not a receiver.

Number five is an offensive lineman.

Just really steady.

Just super steady.

Played 10 years all with San Francisco, won three Super Bowls and this was a big deal as you know for me Darren is those all pros and he was back to back first team all pro in 92 and 93.

So that's a, that's a.

So that means you're at the top of your game for a couple of years.

There's and you know, play 10 years in the in there and you're a 10 year starter for a Super bowl winners.

That's great.

And I believe he is a little side on him.

I think he is in the National Jewish Sports hall of Fame.

Interesting.

Okay, not the gold jacket but, but,.

But there are some very good NFL players that are in the Jewish Football hall of Fame.

So.

Yep.

And he's one of them.

So a heck of a career for Harris.

And he also told one of my favorite Joe Montana stories on NFL films is in they said in Super Bowl, I guess It's Super Bowl 23 against the Bengals before the final game winning drive.

He said he was in the huddle and they were looking at Joe like what's the play call?

What are we going to do?

He's like everybody's like getting fired up.

We got one drive.

And he said Joe, true to his nickname, Joe Cool looked at Harris and he said hey, is that John Candy over there?

And.

And he pointed it and Harris Barton said he looked over and sure enough John Candy's like sitting there in the front row and you know, he said the rest of the team's all, you know, nervous and going and, and Joe Montana's just looking around looking at celebrities.

And he said that kind of calmed everybody down.

So he told a really good story.

And John Candy was a CFL owner.

He was.

Yep, yeah, big football fan.

So going to number four, a guy that I remember pretty well even though he was drafted when I was very young.

A corner for the Browns.

He played almost.

He's drafted in 81 and he was last year was 89.

So he was basically an 80s Browns guy.

So that he played pretty much the whole decade again just like Harris Barton was back to back first team all pro.

This was in 86 and 87.

He was second team in 88.

So you know, a really strong run of accolades there.

26 Career interceptions.

He was a little bit more of a shutdown corner too that we've talked about instead of a playmaker.

And he was alongside Frank Minifield.

And some people have said they are the best cornerback tandem of all time.

Minifield made the all pro team in 87, 88 and 89 and Dixon is making it 86 and 87.

So you've got like arguably the two best corners in the NFL on the same team at the same time.

And a little side note, that's fun for Hanford Dixon, he named the dog Pound.

Oh, okay.

I didn't know that.

He said.

Yes, he said.

Because they said he was always barking at Minifield and so he came up with the name the dog pound.

Yeah.

Of course, Minnafield and Dixon were both playing under those Maori Schottenheimer teams that got ever so close to making a Super bowl.

Except for a guy out in Colorado that stopped him a couple times.

Unfortunately for them.

Yes, Very nice career and a legendary Brown in a lot of ways.

Now we get in our top.

So maybe the Browns instead of drafting quarterbacks, should have done all DBs and they got guys like camp for Dixon.

Yeah, perhaps, perhaps they should just stop trying to get Cor.

Maybe the Browns should be the first team to ever just play without a quarterback and see, see, let's see how that goes.

I think they've done that for, for.

Quite a few years.

We've tried everything else.

So now we get into our top three and you'll see a definite positional trend here.

Number three.

I've got Bad Moon Rising.

Some people might forget that and they probably really forget that he was traded to the Falcons after his rookie year for a package that included the first pick in the draft that the Colts used to take Jeff George.

So this was a very bad trade for Indianapolis.

It was a very good trade for Atlanta.

He had in a five year span, he had 80 or more catches in four of those years.

He had over 1,000 yards in four of those five years.

He had 10 plus touchdowns in four of those five years.

And people forget that was actually a little bit before the run and shoot Falcons when ironically Jeff George got there.

Ryzen was kind of already gone.

So he was more with like Bobby Hebert and Chris Miller.

So he was putting these numbers up when they really weren't quite airing it out the way they would later in the 90s.

By the later 90s, he kind of bounced around a little bit.

But one thing that's interesting in 96 and I don't remember this how he got there, but he played a few games with the packers in 96 and he didn't do much of anything.

He caught like 13 passes.

Okay.

But he had a good postseason and he caught a touchdown in the super bowl against the Patriots.

So he actually has a ring.

He caught a touchdown and was on the 96 Packers.

And then he actually made the Pro bowl for the Chiefs in 97 towards the end of his career there.

So his career kind of extended a little bit longer than I remembered.

He's got a ring, which I'd kind of forgotten about.

And an interesting guy off the field too.

You kind of had some swagger and some juice to him.

Kind of like those Falcons teams did with Jerry Glanville.

A really fun player and a top five worthy in my opinion.

Yeah, and like, like you alluded to earlier, probably one of Chris Berman's more famous renamings next to Eric Biennami, of course, that's probably the best one he ever did.

But yeah, bad mood rising was a pretty good sustained by Boomer on espn.

Yes.

One of my favorite Boomer nickname stories is I always liked Natron refried means.

But then apparently he.

Apparently Natron didn't like it and word got back to Chris Berman.

So then he changed it to Natron means business.

There you go.

You probably like that.

I always preferred refried meats.

That was much better.

That is a little bit of a stretch.

I liked.

I liked it.

So number two, we're breaking ranks here a little bit because you know, the only other really modern player mean drafted maybe in the last five years that I've included in my top five so far was Jordan Love.

Because that was a really weak year.

A pick and I had a hard time.

So I just kind of projected.

So I'm projecting with this player.

However, I think even if he retired tomorrow, he would still potentially be in the top five.

His pace right now, Darren, it's off the charts.

He is like on a Hall of Fame track.

That's like no doubt.

He's been on four All Pro teams already.

His, his numbers were only down this past year due to their kind of QB misery.

He is awesome.

There's a lot of good receivers in the NFL right now.

If you tell me you think Justin Jefferson is number one, I'm like, I'm with you.

You know that.

No argument for me.

The dude's headed to Canton.

The only, you know, something strange is going to have to happen for him not to wind up being number one on this list eventually.

Yeah, I mean, he's got, you know, decent wheels, but he's a great route runner and contested catches.

You know, he's, he's off the charts on.

So yeah, he's, he's a great target for no matter who is wearing the quarterback helmet in purple up there in Minnesota.

So you're not going to do much better than on a 22nd pick than to draft Justin Jefferson.

Yeah, that's, that's for sure.

That's for sure.

All right, so who do you have a number one?

You know, he had a really interesting career and it was a little bit, you know, sometimes I go back and I'm a little surprised at the things I find.

And you know, he had a slow start to his career.

His numbers weren't very, didn't really stand out early.

And then he had five straight 90 plus catch seasons.

That's pretty nuts.

He had 111 and 105 in back to back years.

The year they lost the super bowl to Seattle.

He was 33 years old.

Very sad.

I didn't really realize exactly how big of a Broncos legend he was.

And when I started thinking about it, I started thinking, what makes, you know, what makes a guy a legend for a fan base?

And of course they have to be.

I can think of one playoff play.

It's coming, it's coming.

So, you know, I think they got to be really good.

It then helps if they've got a little bit of personality or swagger to them, which he had.

And then it really helps if they also are part of big, memorable Moments provided for fans.

The first play of overtime.

That kind of moment really ingrained you with the fans.

And then the next thing is if you're on teams that matter to the fan base, meaning that era of Broncos football, they won a Super Bowl.

They were very close in other years, very memorable teams.

So if you're a Broncos fan, that era of Broncos football is probably very important to you, very special to you.

And Thomas was right in the middle of all of it throughout all that time.

So I know they were really devastated when he passed away, and you know that.

I don't quite know if he's a Hall of Famer, but.

Pretty close.

Pretty close.

I think he's got a shot.

Yeah, pretty close.

And I think he's got a shot, too, and.

Yeah, so he really stuck out and one of the greatest Broncos of all time and a really fun player to watch.

Yeah, I. I think that's a great pick.

Great, Great talk.

Well, first of all, you know, I'm going to be a homer for the Steelers.

I think Bud Dupree.

I. I think he was.

He.

I think he was pretty decent.

Edge.

Edge guy.

I would have loved if the Steelers would have kept him.

I think he was a great.

Her teammate.

Did, you know, a little bit.

Didn't have.

I think Felix Jones, you know, I don't.

I know he's a Dallas guy, so you don't want to talk about him, but I think he was pretty solid as a running back.

But William the Refrigerator Perry didn't even get a mention at all.

That's the Fridge, man.

That's in.

That's in my notes, Darren, and it's an oversight.

The funny thing about.

I did have that jotted down, and I just.

I just.

I overlooked it.

The.

The thing about Fridge is he's one of those guys that his contribution to the game is from the cultural impact.

He was not a great player.

You know, he had a nice career.

He had a nice career, but he was not like a great.

He was a short yardage back.

Yeah.

So 85.

But yes.

I mean, he was sort of the cultural icon that pushed the 85 Bears, who were pushed.

Personality everywhere, over the top.

When you're like, you know, 390 pounds and you're Walter Payton's running mate in the backfield.

You know, that's saying something.

I mean, hey, look, I can remember it to this day, Darren.

They call me the Fridge.

I might be a rookie, but I'm no dumb cookie, you know what I mean?

I remember it well.

That's right in the.

I'm, you know, 8 years old and 85.

So that, that really stuck out.

And yes, that's definitely an oversight.

How could you miss the Fridge?

That's.

That's right.

Yeah.

So we did have one hall of Famer so far, but not an era that you talk about.

Ernie Stotner, I believe was the Steelers first Hall of Famer.

I'm not sure if he went in first or if John Henry went in first, but Sotner, very solid defender on some very bad Pittsburgh teams, but was probably one of the top defenders in football back in the 50s.

And I'm sure you remember him well.

No, I don't.

I think he retired even before I was born.

I'm quite sure he did, but yeah, so other than that, you know, not really too many big names.

You know, Frank Reagan played for the Giant or was drafted by the Giants in 41, had a decent career.

A Buddy Dial, another giant picked in 59, had some good seasons with them.

And that's really about it other than the folks that you had talked about already with in the 80s on up.

So we.

That takes us into some stats of pick number 22.

That's we're on, right?

Yeah, pick 22.

If you're looking to see maybe what is the most frequent position.

So who can we.

If you have a side bet with your buddies, what position will be picked?

I would take DB because that has been selected more times than any other 15 times in the last 90 drafts.

The next closest was tackle at number 12 in the number 22 slot.

And the most common school that has been chosen at the 22 slot has been Michigan State.

Six times Michigan State has been players have been drafted in the 22nd spot out of 90 drafts.

That's a pretty high percentage.

Yeah.

So maybe a DB from, from the Spartans will be the draft in this year's draft pick.

All right.

Kind of an interesting, interesting draft stat of the day today.

Have you ever heard of the Salata rule?

I Have not.

Okay.

The Salata rule is where they came up with Mr.

Irrelevant, who I'm sure you've heard.

Yes.

You know, Brock Purdy is probably the most famous of this.

The last selection in the draft.

Well, the final pick of the draft, Mr.

Relevant, is celebrated, but teams used to fight not to have it.

And the NFL said, no, no, no, we do not like that.

So upstepped Paul Salata, who the Salata rule is named after, who created the Irrelevant Week to honor the last player drafted with events like a trip to Disneyland for that player.

And hence the.

The legend began and continues today of Mr.

Irrelevant because of Paul Salata.

Well, thank you, Mr. Salata.

All of the Irrelevant players taken.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

So think about Brock Purdy.

He got to go to Disneyland, and I'm not sure if they still do that, but he was honored because.

Because of Salata and became an NFL starter.

So what do you know about.

Yep.

So pretty cool.

So, Ed, that, I think, wraps up our day 22 and our slot 22 of the history of the NFL Draft.

We are going to be back tomorrow for slot number 21.

And keep that countdown going right up to the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh.

And we will see you tomorrow.

See you tomorrow.

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