30-Year Anniversary: Greatest Draft of All-Time

[J-Mike88]

Anyone else like studying history.... of the NFL Drafts?
Not boring social studies or Eastern European History of the 1800's.

Many of our younger fans have no idea..... check it out, the 1983 NFL Draft.

http://www.pro-football-reference.co...raft.htm?redir

The last 2 picks of the 1st round, both Hall of Famers.

Look at those 1st 2 Rams picks:
Dickerson had 13,000 yards rushing.
Henry Ellard had 13,000 yards receiving.

An 8th round pick with 84 career receiving touchdowns. Who was it?
A 12th round pick with 55 receiving touchdowns and almost 8,000 yards. Surprise, what team?

49ers at pick 49 with Roger Craig. There's a guy who was a HOF player for a while, gets no hype.
I thought he was better than Jerome Bettis and Curtis Martin, among others....

And of course the trio of HOF quarterbacks in Elway, Marino, Kelly.
957 TD passes between the 3 of them, back in the 80's & 90's, before today's wide open passing games.
Over 148,000 passing yards.

Eli, Big Ben, and Rivers have a long way to go to get to that level with their 2004 Draft Class.
RG3, Luck, Wilson are off to the best start, but let's see how it plays out.

And an 8th rd pick who's now in the HOF.
Quick before looking, who was that guy?
Clue..... think defense.

[Brothgar]

Richard Dent

That draft class was crazy.

[bigbluedefense]

I think the 2011 draft class has potential. So many players declared for the draft that year bc of the upcoming rookie wage scale. It was ridiculously deep.

[FUNBUNCHER]

The 1989 draft had 4 HOFers taken in the first five picks.

[Vikings4ever]

Check out the top half of the first in 07.

Calvin Johnson
Joe Thomas
Adrian Peterson
Patrick Willis
Marshawn Lynch
Darrelle Revis
Lawrence Timmons

[WCH]

Originally Posted by Vikings4ever

Check out the top half of the first in 07.

Calvin Johnson
Joe Thomas
Adrian Peterson
Patrick Willis
Marshawn Lynch
Darrelle Revis
Lawrence Timmons

I think Johnson, Thomas, Peterson, Willis, and Revis can easily be future HOFers. Still, it's hard to argue with '83. That year produced three HOF QBs and an extra 2x Pro Bowl QB in Ken O'Brien. Not to mention the other positions.

[boknows34]

Mark Clayton was the 8th rd pick with 84 career receiving TDs.

8th:
Richard Dent, a HOFer
Gary Kubiak, Elway's backup and future Texans HC.

10th:
Tim Krumrie, All Pro NT.

11th:
Jesse Sapolu, Pro Bowl OT, 3 Super Bowl rings.

12th:
Karl Mecklenburg, All Pro LB.
Anthony Carter, Pro Bowl WR

[J-Mike88]

Originally Posted by FUNBUNCHER

The 1989 draft had 4 HOFers taken in the first five picks.

Yeah thanks for rubbing that one in, again..
Who was the 1 of those 5 NOT to become a HOFer again?

[Monomach]

Originally Posted by J-Mike88

Yeah thanks for rubbing that one in, again..
Who was the 1 of those 5 NOT to become a HOFer again?

He was unforgettable, lol.

Anyway, I dunno about 83 being the best ever. It gets the press because of the QBs, but if you want to see hall of famers, look at 1964.

[WCH]

Originally Posted by J-Mike88

Yeah thanks for rubbing that one in, again..
Who was the 1 of those 5 NOT to become a HOFer again?

Lindy Infante wanted to draft Barry Sanders.

But two weeks before the draft, Sanders ran a 4.39 40-yard dash during an impressive workout in Stillwater, Okla. Up until then, the Packers had a 4.55 time for Sanders, which was nothing to get excited about. Once Sanders wowed scouts with his speed, Lindy Infante, the Packers’ coach at the time, began to lobby on his behalf. The debates began and continued up until 48 hours before the draft.

“Lindy had a lot of trouble with it,” Tom Braatz, the Packers’ former vice president of football operations, said after the Mandarich pick had been announced. “He really liked Sanders. We talked seriously about it -- long drawn-out deals – as late as Friday. After hashing it out with all the coaches and all the scouts and Lindy and myself, we decided Mandarich was better.”

Braatz went on to say: “We had just taken (Brent) Fullwood and we had (Don) Majkowski, so we had a quarterback and a running back."

Wat?

[7DnBrnc53]

Originally Posted by WCH

Lindy Infante wanted to draft Barry Sanders.



Braatz went on to say: “We had just taken (Brent) Fullwood and we had (Don) Majkowski, so we had a quarterback and a running back."

Wat?

That is what these guys were talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZoJGc5qZDc

The Green and Gold Podcast on You-Tube has been doing a series of what-if episodes, and on the one on Mandarich, one of the guys on there said that Packer fans can rest easy because they researched, and they didn't find anything that suggested that GB would take Barry.