Unveiling NFL Draft Legends: The 20th Pick’s Immortal Impact

They say the NFL draft is a gamble, but at pick number 20, some teams didn't just find players, they found immortals.

Did you know that the 20th overall selection has produced three first ballot legends?

From the finest player Lombardi ever coached to the man who took his team to the super bowl on a broken leg.

Today we're counting down the most legendary voices of gridiron lore from the 20th spot.

Ed Cleese joins us here in the pig pen as we count down the top 32 spots in NFL history.

Number 20 is on our list today.

Welcome to the pig pen as we count down all 32 top picks at 32 straight days.

Hey, Darren, how are you today?

I am doing great.

You know, we are getting so much closer to the draft here in Western Pennsylvania for the National Football League's future.

Stars are going to be coming out and.

But we're going to talk a little bit about the past.

Stars have been drafted at slot number 20.

Remarkable 20 days to it.

20.

Talking about slot number 20, what do you have to say about the history of this amazing draft selection spot?

I, I've been torn on what to do with the more recent guys, how to slot them in, and there's a definite star in the making right now.

He hasn't been in the league, he just hasn't been around quite long enough.

But that would be Jackson Smith.

Yeah, that's right.

So we'll just call him Ninja Smith.

There's a few other notables in the last dozen years or so.

Another guy, that was Garrett Bowles has been a starter for the Broncos on their own line for a number of years now.

Brandon Cooks is a guy that we all know and then we had two offensive linemen that both of them may have been in top five consideration, but they both retired early.

Guys that were having good careers and then called it quits kind of early.

And then ragged out, tried to Come back last year and got injured and I don't know if he's still trying to make a comeback this coming year or not, but there's been rumors but.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

So let's talk about Kenny Pickett, taken with the 20th overall pick.

I would say that that is definite bust category.

Yeah.

When you're looking at.

I see he's recently talking to some teams of joining at the time we're recording this, probably signed with one but it'll be what is six team and seven years or whatever.

It's kind of crazy.

Yeah.

So he's, he's kind of on that bust watch at least.

I mean it certainly was a bust for the team that drafted him.

In terms of other busts, I found a whole lot of players that were drafted 20th overall Darren that I would say were average to disappointing, but maybe not a whole lot that I would say were just busts.

I got a couple names for you.

That's where the jets took Darren Lee.

And if you remember, Darren Lee is now in jail.

He is charged with murder of his girlfriend, I believe.

So rough.

You know, that's a terrible thing he had.

He didn't play well for them.

He.

And that's kind of goes back to the thing.

We talk a lot about character when it comes to the draft and these teams that do all their homework.

And to me there are just certain red flags that teams should not overlook.

And it looks like the jets overlooked him with him and pretty, pretty rough, rough case for him right now.

Yeah, yeah.

That's two bad situations there that you just mentioned.

But, but we do have some promise coming up and I'm sure you have a top five that you're going to be sharing with us.

Yes, we can talk about some notables first.

Some like honorable mentions, guys that didn't quite make the top five that I'd say were considered.

That would be Luther Ellis who was a long time lion, a very good edge rusher, defensive end, he was drafted in 95.

His peak was just super short.

So, you know, it was a very brief kind of moment that he was on top.

Will Wolford was drafted by the Bills and was on their super bowl teams and the offensive line was kind of a stalwart for them.

He was drafted in 86 and an OG.

None of those guys quite made the list, but yeah, some solid careers there.

Yeah, it's, you know, really some good names.

As you mentioned there, you know, I failed to mention at the top.

We have had three hall of Famers from this draft slot over the last 90 drafts.

I think you're going to be talking about one of them probably in your top five.

So why don't you give us your number five spot?

Number five.

He was drafted by the Chiefs.

I would say never a, you know, dominant player per se, but he did have two second team all pros and he went to, he went to five straight Pro Bowls.

Again, Pro Bowls.

At this stage, they're, they're kind of difficult to use as a, as a benchmark.

He had 89 and a half sacks.

Unfortunately, he played his entire career with the Chiefs.

Unfortunately for him, he just missed the Mahomes era.

So he was on those good but not great Chiefs teams.

He was also very versatile.

Darren, he was listed at multiple positions.

They kind of moved him from that edge to more of a traditional linebacker.

So just a really nice career that set him a little over some of those other honorable mention guys for me.

All right, that's a pretty solid pick though.

Great player.

So who do you have above him?

Yeah, the rest of the list, I think we go a little bit.

We're scaling up a little bit.

And this is a guy that I, I have a really strong memory of and I'll let you know.

Was Mike quick, wide receiver for the Eagles.

He had a very quiet rookie year and then he had a really big five year run that I really don't think people really remember.

He had a 99 yard overtime touchdown against the Falcons.

Obviously the longest overtime touchdown in history can't be any longer than that unless it's a punt or kick return.

My first ever NFL game was not a Redskins game.

Mike Quick scored a touchdown in that game, which my dad and I left early.

It was 23 to nothing going into the fourth quarter and the Eagles were winning.

And the Falcons came all the way back in the fourth quarter.

One of the biggest comebacks in NFL history, which we missed.

But I did not miss the Mike Quick touchdown.

So that's always.

He's just a guy that I kind of feel like I kind of grew up watching.

I think unfortunately he was a big yards per catch guy, so a big play receiver.

I think what really hurt him, Darren, was he missed the window.

For the Eagles, meaning the early 80s teams, the one that went to the super bowl, and then the late 80s teams, the Buddy Ryan and in the mid-80s, they weren't very good.

And that's when he had his big years.

So he was doing a lot of his work for teams that weren't particularly good and they weren't really in the playoffs.

And then his last three years were just completely injury saddled.

So.

So he had that five year burst, then it was kind of over.

And he never really got to play for those better Eagles teams.

He was on a couple of them, but wasn't contributing much.

But he's really a.

A lifelong Eagle because he's now been in the booth with Merrill Reese as their color commentator on radio for the past 30.

Over 30 years now.

So he's been.

He's been doing.

So he's like a lifelong Eagle.

Yeah, he has one of the most appropriate names for a wide receiver in the NFL next to maybe Max Speedy.

You know, just when you have that.

Mike Quick, what a cool name.

Yeah.

Right.

When you have something that portrays, you know, Fast, you know, Quick or Max Speedy, you know, those are great names for wide receivers and very appropriate.

Pretty fast guy.

Yeah.

And like I said, for me just kind of personally, it's like one of the first guys I remember in the NFL as kind of standing out.

So moving on to number three.

This one surprised me because I saw his name on the list and I was like, I'll look into it.

And then it surprised me where I wound up actually ranking him.

The Bucks drafted cornerback Akib Talib, a guy that we probably all remember.

And one of the, you know, the.

The number three and number two, Darren, are.

Have a lot of trends.

Okay?

So they're very similar.

And when.

When.

When Talib was drafted, he had a lot of conduct issues early in his career.

Nothing horrible.

But he, like, he was missing meetings, he was late.

The team was suspending him.

The league suspended him for, like, I think he had a battery charge.

He missed the game for.

And so for his first few years in the league, he was a good player, but was probably leaving a lot on the table.

And for the next year and a half, he really got his career, like, on track.

He became a.

He went from being a good player to a more than good player.

Bill Belichick will do that, too, if you play on his defense.

Exactly, exactly.

And then he went from a good player to borderline great player.

He made a couple all pro teams.

He was like the leader of the secondary, and he had a really great run in Denver.

He kind of ended quietly with the Rams.

And then kind of funny, if you remember, Fox gave him a chance in the booth, and he was kind of controversial.

He was kind of interesting.

He was very different than a lot of other color.

Color commentators.

And I thought he was really good.

Like, really good.

But then he went and got himself in some more trouble again off the field and kind of lost that gig.

And I'm not really sure what he's up to now, but sort of this kind of, like, cycle for him.

But he got his act together for long enough to really have a very nice career in the NFL and make my list.

All right.

Well, I think he's very solid.

I'm.

I'm anxious to see who you have ranked above him.

Yeah, this was tough because number two, it's the same position.

First of all, he was the defensive rookie of the year in 92.

And also in his rookie year, they played the Cowboys on Thanksgiving and he got ejected for kicking Michael Irvin, which really made me happy.

And I've always kind of had a warm spot in my heart for Dale Carter ever since.

Good.

Made it.

Made a good decision there.

On Thanksgiving, he had a couple second team all pros he went to four straight Pro Bowls, but he again, he had several off field violations in 99.

He signed with the Broncos.

He had a nice year for them.

It was like his fourth or something like that.

And then he really never played again.

I mean, he kicked around the league for another year or two, but never played again.

And then that was it.

He was similar to Talib, and you could argue one above the other.

And what broke the tie for me was that I thought just at their peak, Carter was probably even, even better.

Like lockdown, shut down, corner.

Yeah, I, I don't have any problem with that.

You know, especially when you get the defensive Rookie of the Year award and, you know, you start off really strong.

Maybe he has that little bit advantage over Talib, who had a little bit slower start.

So.

Yeah, and just a PSA to all the kids out there.

Seriously, it's like both of these guys, we have them high, but who knows how high they could have been on the list.

Maybe they're both gold jacket guys if they, you know, would have made better decisions and taken more advantage of the opportunity.

You know, you just never know.

Number one, we're going to stay in the AFC west and we're going to stay in the defensive backfield.

Talk about rock solid, man.

10 Years with the Broncos, one with the jets, eight time pro baller, two time all pro.

But I'd say he had 125 tackles, Darren, or more in each of his first five years.

So that is like massive production.

He also played in 17 playoff games.

He won both of those Super Bowls with Denver in 97 and 98.

And something that people may forget is that he had a great game in Super Bowl 32 against the Packers.

He had a sack, he had a forced fumble that got them points.

He was like everywhere in that game.

I remember that.

And I also remember there was some controversy.

A lot of people thought he should have been the MVP of that game, that he really earned it.

Like, he.

He was one of those guys, you watch that game, you're like, who's that?

You know what I mean?

We obviously knew who he was at this point, but I mean, that guy was dominating the super bowl, literally.

So he is, of course, in the hall of Fame, a massive hitter.

I would say he had a lot of aesthetic things about him.

I mean, me and my friends as kids, like I know his nickname was the Assassin.

And if you're out and every time somebody got hit in football, you might be like, oh, that's like Atwater, you know, he had the famous Monday night hit on Christian Okoye where he stopped him in his tracks.

We've seen that a million times.

So, you know, just sort of that old school monster safety, relatively short career.

So maybe in the pantheon of safeties, he's not quite as high as some of the others, but I mean, an awesome, awesome player and easy number one on this list.

But you're really showing some Denver Bronco love here.

The last three of all had parts of their career with the Broncos.

Yep, all.

And really, two of them had the, you know, their best years with the Broncos.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I think that's a really great, you know, top five you have there from the pick number 20.

Now we mentioned earlier that there were a total of three hall of Famers.

Of course, Atwater was one of the hall of famers.

And the first one, people may know him more as a coach, but this guy was an awesome player.

1956, The Green Bay packers took Forest Gregg, you know, you may remember, maybe a coach of the Bengals.

Maybe that's a little bit before your day.

But you know, Greg was a nine time Pro Bowler, seven times all Pro, three time super bowl champ, and I believe even some championships before the super bowl with Green Bay packers in the Lombardi era, definitely one of their stalwarts was he.

And another one is another guy that played in a Super bowl, lost the super bowl.

So two really big players from yesteryear to round out our hall of Famers for sure.

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

So I got a couple little interesting stats here.

You know, pick number 20, if you're wondering if your team's picking there, well, you might be saying, okay, what position is the most popular?

But wide receiver has a slight edge over some other positions.

11 Times and 90 drafts a wide receiver has been taking taken in there.

And the most frequently drafted school in the spot is the Michigan Wolverine.

So some big blue getting drafted at.

Pick number 20 finally, not USC or Ohio State.

Yeah, that's sure there's another Big Ten team, you know, Big Tens dominating the draft here.

And that sort of takes us to our draft stat of the day.

This is a little short and sweet.

And I'm glad you mentioned USC because our draft stat mentions USC.

USC holds the longest active streak of 24 years of having a player drafted in the first three rounds.

So that's kind of, kind of remarkable.

You sit there and think about it.

You out of what, 96 picks, you know, right to go that 24th street years every year.

Okay, that's pretty good.

And it's not powerhouse.

What's that?

Go name them all now.

Go name them all.

We'll pass on that.

I'll edit it in.

I'll look really smart.

All right.

Well, Ed, I think that wraps up our slot number 20 selection.

And thanks said for joining us here and bringing the great history once again.

We'll see you tomorrow.

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