Unveiling the Legacy of NFL Draft’s 24th Selection

Can a 24th pick in the draft actually be the most important spot on the board?

From the ball hawking secondary of Ed Reed to the legendary career of Aaron Rodgers, pick number 24 is a powerhouse for franchise legends.

Grab your notebook and settle in.

It's time to head back into the pig pen with our guest, Ed Cleese.

Hey, Darren, how are you?

I am doing super.

You know, we are really counting down now.

24 Days is not very many days and you know, these teams are really getting ready for the draft and we're getting ready with some great football history.

Yes, for sure.

Yeah, it's starting to get into the.

This is, this is going to be a good one.

Yesterday we talked about how bad the number 25 pick history it was and it was shockingly bad.

And this one is quite good.

Yeah.

This one mean, God, you would think it was like a top five pick with some of these stars that we're going to be talking about tonight.

Yep.

Yeah, this one, this one was very impressive when I was going back.

Right.

All right, well, why don't you, I mean, if you want to give any more opinion on it or if you want to get into your top five.

Yeah, well, this is, I'd say lots of strong candidates and I think that my top three is excellent here, just excellent.

The last 10 years, you know, we kind of talk about that a lot.

I'd say it's been so, so, so it's kind of cooled off over the years.

Tyler Smith for the Cowboys is a nice player.

Josh Jacobs was drafted 24th.

And DJ Moore.

Those are three guys that everybody would kind of know that, that are, that are good contributors to their teams.

All five of my top five came from that period along with a few honorable mention.

And remember, you know, we mentioned this every time.

Really.

I guess that's 10 drafts.

And for all the other numbers that was maybe somewhere between maybe 12 at most, maybe 15.

This one I counted between 22 and 25 guys that you would say that was a good pick.

That team is happy they made that selection.

So almost half, which is very different from the other ones that we've done in terms of busts.

There was only a few.

There was a.

Do you remember Bjorn Warner?

No, I. I saw the name and I thought maybe he was a tennis player.

I wasn't sure.

Yeah, there aren't a lot of Bjorns that have been drafted into the NFL and maybe this is why he was.

He played like high school football in Germany.

So he was like a German.

I don't.

There's a weird backstory on how he got into football, but he played at Florida State and played well.

Obviously wound up in a first pick.

He was out of the league quickly.

Do you remember Tom Ricketts?

That name sounds much more familiar than, than Bjorns does.

I can't remember him as a college player.

So that would be kind of a bust.

And then probably the biggest bust that we all remember would be in 91.

The Raiders took Todd Marinovich, who, you know, famously.

His father.

Famously.

Well, really, I guess you could say almost abused him into becoming an athlete, a quarterback.

He fell off the deep end, got in all kinds of issues.

You know, post career was short.

I don't think he really loved football at all.

He probably hated it.

And then, you know, was.

Had a lot of off field issues and a little bit of a tough go.

And then one other one I had that was kind of negative or just sad was Corey Stringer was drafted there in 95 and if you remember, he passed away in training camp from heat stroke.

I think about four years into his career.

He was having a nice career for the Vikings on the O line.

And so that.

That one kind of stuck out as sort of maybe the negative ones.

But then I've got.

We got to talk about my honor.

And that's the only two time Heisman winner Archie Griffin from Ohio State was drafted in.

And let's see what year that was now.

1976, The bicentennial year.

Exactly 50 years ago, didn't do so well in the NFL.

But a great college player, right?

Yeah, he was.

No, really, almost.

He was out of league quickly.

If I, if I, my, my memory serves.

So, yes, that.

Yeah, definitely a bust there.

I have the honorable mention.

We can't get into these guys, but this will give you an idea of some of the guys.

These, these are the guys that did not make my top five.

DEZ Bryant, Brandon Merriweather, Jonathan.

Jonathan Joseph, Eric Molds, Rodney Hampton, Ken o', Brien, quarterback for the Jets.

All those guys had had nice careers.

And then, you know, if, if they would have been selected at pick 25, they would probably be in the top five.

Exactly.

Some of them would have been the running for sure.

And my toughest cuts, I had three of them.

David De Castro, offensive lineman that you're very familiar with, stays in Pittsburgh.

Dallas Clark, tight end for the Colts during some of their glory years, of course.

And then my toughest cut.

I know you'll remember this guy.

We're going way back.

1981, The Chargers took James Brooks, sort of a jack of all trades, Swiss army knife, running back.

And as a kid I remember being.

Now he, I remember him more as a Bengal.

He's on that 88 Bengals team.

The late.

He would kill the Steelers when, when he was with them.

He was great.

He was great.

He was.

He was maybe a little bit ahead of his time too, because he was such a good receiver.

He was.

They could mean and line him up on the outside as well.

So James Brooks was the guy.

He was my final cut outside the top five.

But a really nice player.

Yeah.

And, and I, I know why, you know, we're letting some of these people out of the top five because you've got some superstars that you're going to talk about in your top five.

So I.

The spotlight is yours and let's shine on them.

So number five.

The negative we'll start with is his career was over in a flash.

It was.

He went downhill.

We talk about the short life of a running back a lot and he would be the ultimate example of that.

He played 10 years, but he only had 18 starts over his last four full seasons.

So he wasn't a factor at the end.

But he perhaps had the best three year start for any running back in the history of the NFL.

Like literally he had over 4,500 yards those first three years.

He had a 2,000 yard season, which of course is an ultimate benchmark for that position.

So his first six years, he was over a thousand each year.

And then after that everything slipped.

His yards per carry, everything went downhill and he was kind of a non factor in the league fairly quickly.

But he, for a couple years there, you may have argued he was the best player in the NFL.

Yeah, he was definitely.

The dude had some wheels that were on fire because I just remember the speed of that guy.

And I think, you know, he wasn't like a tremendously big back.

He wasn't super tiny either.

But you know, Cedar, think about how they were running them.

They were running them, you know, a lot of B gap and stuff.

You know, the zone blocking was just starting to come in.

So he's running through between the big guys and that takes a toll on a body.

You know, when you're, when you're giving up, you know, 150 pounds of these guys and you're fast, you know, you take away your speed, that does a lot to your career.

And we've seen it, we've seen it with that position a lot.

And you know the Titans, Eddie George, Chris Johnson and Derrick Henry since moving to Tennessee.

So we're talking three legit, all time great running backs to play in the Titans.

So it's been a rich tradition for them.

Yeah, most definitely.

But the other thing with Johnson is there seemed to be like right when he had his big payday, that's when his career started falling.

So maybe his pockets were way down with too much money.

Maybe you just never know some guys.

That does happen to some guys.

I would like to think it was more of the positional just taking the beating.

And like you say, you lose that step at that position, it's hard to make up for it.

But you never know.

You could get a little fat and happy too.

That's definitely possible.

Could be.

All right, so who do you have at number four?

Same position, almost the opposite kind of career and player.

He, he was, he was, he never had like an explosive, unreal season like Chris Johnson did, but eight straight thousand yard seasons and you know, he was in the post greatest show on turf era for the Rams.

So I think sometimes people get that confused like he was the running back for those teams.

He wasn't this was like Post Warner, the Mark Bulger teams, when the Rams were good but no longer great and they ran the ball a whole lot more.

He also was a very good receiver.

And when I looked at his numbers and everything, he's just very, very steady.

Just, you know, eight years in a row.

Going for 1,000 yards is rare and worthy of this list and worthy of being ahead of Johnson because of that longevity.

Yeah, he was just, he was almost like a beast mode before beast mode.

You know, he was really tough in between the tackles and just gained those tough yards for you.

But very steady, very consistent and really, really good back for the Rams.

Yep.

And now as we get into the top three, now we start talking Canton.

So one of these guys is already there.

The next, the other two will be.

My number three guy will be in Canton someday.

He is still going, kind of going strong.

You know, he's a legacy player.

You know, his dad Steve played tight end in the NFL for a number of years.

And Cam, 15 seasons and counting, he's missed a couple of games, but I think that's literally it like a couple games in 15 years.

And one thing I really love about Cam Jordan, many times in his career, Darren, he's led all defensive linemen in the NFL and snap count.

So not only is he playing and starting these games, he's on the field all the time.

He's not rotated out very often.

He plays off, you know, three downs, four downs.

Doesn't get a lot of breathers.

He's had three all pro appearances.

We always talk about that as being much more indicative of greatness than pro Bowls.

So, you know, you're 15 seasons into your career, you never come off the field.

You're still getting double digit sacks.

I will see you in your gold jacket.

Yeah, that's really called taking care of your body through the years.

You know, great, great physical specimen, great ball player and great guy.

I mean especially a guy that's taken a beating in there with the big fellas.

You know, every player, you're just getting.

Beat on everything because you're right, he's, he's not a speed rusher.

You know, he's not a, I mean he's, he plays on the edge, but he's not, he's not that typical.

Like long, sleek.

He.

He can, he can do it all.

A tremendous player and apparently a great guy and a legendary saint.

So the gold will, will look good on him.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Good pick.

Okay, so who do you have?

A2.

This is kind of fun because you could probably go back and forth on this one.

2.

We could probably fight here all day.

So I kind of flipped a coin, but I actually, I have a reason.

I have a reason.

I don't have any notes for Aaron Rodgers because I don't think anybody needs me to tell you about him or point anything out about Aaron Rodgers that you don't already know.

If we're talking very, very broad and big picture here, I suppose if you're going to try to poke any holes in his career, it would be.

There have been some postseason disappointments, not necessarily that fall back on him because he's had some bad luck.

Some.

The defense, you know, he's had that, that shootout in Arizona, they lost when you can't really blame him.

You had the, the choke job in Seattle in the NFC Championship game, but there, there were a couple playoff games in there where their offense struggled a little bit.

So if you're squinting really hard to, to poke any holes in Roger's career, I guess you can maybe find some.

But in my opinion, I don't have him in the top five quarterbacks of all time, but I do have him number one as a thrower of the football, maybe even ahead.

The only other one I could think of was Marino, but I think I have Rogers number one and just pure accuracy and throwing a football.

Yeah, I mean, I appreciated him before, but seeing him play for, for my team last season, the guy has got it all going on between the years, too, because he has got be one of the most intellectual quarterbacks in the line.

You know, save Tom Brady that has ever played the game.

When you're, when you're doing the hard counts and you're, you know, you know, just all the little stuff, you know, not taking timeouts when coaches are telling you to take timeouts because it's just a dumb idea and just all kinds of stuff that he's doing.

Smart passing, but yeah, he can definitely spin a ball and put it in really tight places that most humans would never think about throwing to.

Yeah, he's, he's.

I mean, what are you going to say?

That when I think of Rogers, I Probably always think of that three throw in Dallas in the playoff game on the sideline.

That's the one that sticks out to me because that right there is like no one else maybe in the history of the NFL could do that.

You know what I mean?

In terms of the.

How long that throw was, how accurate it was kind of on the move.

It's just unbelievable.

So just an incredible talent, an interesting guy playing.

Played in an iconic venue for so long and played for a very, very long time.

So how could you possibly not have that guy, number one, Ed, right?

Yeah, that's.

That's true.

And he's also the master of the off season drama as I think we're starting to see again this year.

Yes, he, he enjoys the spotlight.

I think we, I think he likes to hear himself talk.

I think we can all agree with that.

Now, number one, though is a guy that was actually kind of quiet, I think actually.

Nine all pros.

That's insane.

He has the most all time interception return yards and he has the most all time postseason interceptions.

And the reason I point that out is because Reed was so, so tough and good and physical against the run and he was a playmaker and he was a big game player.

And the main reason that I've got Reed over Rogers and it was the only way I could weigh it out was on the all time safety list.

I would have Ed Reed a little higher than I would have Rodgers on the all time quarterback list.

I think you could definitely make the argument that Ed Reed is the best safety in the history of the NFL.

The only thing about Reed would be his career wasn't super long.

It wasn't, you know, he didn't have one of those 18, 19 year careers.

It was more of like that 10 to 12 year window.

But that's enough for me.

Yeah, well, I would debate he's the best safety because I think a guy that played parallel in the same division with them, I might argue he might be better than maybe I compared him.

I did them side by side with Paul Malu.

I did that.

And there's Reed wins in pretty much all of the analytical categories.

Anything that you can measure reads above, including games played.

And I thought Reed's career was almost like a tad short, but he played more than Palomalu did.

That would, that's a very close battle, but I would have read ahead.

Fair enough.

I think Reed was a better ball hawk and he stayed in single position, Palomalo was a chess piece and changed way offenses had to play the game and you know, I think he was a little bit more versatile than Ed Reed, but neither here.

This is Ed Reed Spotlight.

You pick him number one, and I think that's a good selection.

I, I like how you've chose him over Rogers.

I think that's fair the way you did that.

And he is our only slot, number 25, that has a gold jacket right now.

So that gives him a little edge over Rogers.

But Rogers, he'll be there.

Rogers until five years away before he's even eligible.

So, yeah, Rogers and Jordan will be there.

Maybe they'll go at the same time if they retire on the same year.

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

Very true.

All right, well, that's a pretty solid top five.

I would, I'd take those five guys on my team any day and you know, I might take them now on my team.

Yeah.

Really?

No kidding.

So, yeah, that's, that's some really good pick in there.

That's really worth talking about, you know, except for Griffin, which we already had something to say about.

We do have some interesting statistics though, if you're thinking that maybe history might repeat itself and your team is picking and at number 24.

Well, defensive backs have gone more than any other position 13 times out of the 90 NFL drafts that we've had so far.

And you know that that's the other thing is if you're looking for schools that might be selected.

While the University of Pittsburgh and USC are tied as the most frequent school selected at this spot, each appearing four times, having one of their players drafted in number 24 slot.

Go Panthers.

Yeah.

And Trojans.

Okay, I guess that leads us to our draft stat of the day.

And this is a kind of cool one.

This is going all the way back to the first draft.

There was absolutely not one scout on a team at the number at the first draft held.

1936.

The inaugural NFL draft was a quiet affair in a hotel room and there was no cameras, really.

Nobody even knew what was really going on.

It was a, you know, it was kind of a new thing.

I think no sport was doing any drafts.

The NFL, I believe, was the first one to be doing that.

And they made picks based on newspaper clippings and that's what they did.

But this is the thing that's really going to blow your mind.

There's 81 players drafted in the first draft, only 24 of them played in the NFL.

All the rest of them, including the number one pick, the Heisman winner who was the very first Heisman.

He was a very first NFL draft pick.

And the very first Heisman winner was Jay Burwanger.

Ended up going and becoming like a foam salesman or something instead of NFL.

Right, probably.

That.

That makes sense.

Now they got him hooked up to electrodes so they can like read their dreams before they make a pick.

Yeah, yeah, that's come a long way.

Yeah, it definitely has.

So it'll be interesting to see who gets selected at the 24 pick this year and.

But we're going to be coming back with 23 more days leading up to the draft and we'll be right here with you.

Ed will talk to you tomorrow about slot number 23.

See you tomorrow, Dan.

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