The seventh overall selection in the NFL draft occupies a significant and multifaceted position within the annals of football history, encompassing both celebrated legends and contentious figures. In this discourse, we delve into the extensive archives of the NFL draft to scrutinize the trajectory and impact of players who have notably redefined their respective positions, as well as teams that have boldly gambled on their potential. Our esteemed guest, sports historian Ed Cleese, joins us to elucidate the legacy surrounding the seventh pick, offering insights into the illustrious and sometimes controversial narratives that accompany these selections. By examining the statistical outcomes and historical context, we aim to uncover the patterns and anomalies that characterize this unique draft position. Join us as we embark on an analytical journey through the gridiron, shedding light on the profound implications of these pivotal choices.

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From the hall of Fame legends to some of the most debated busts in gridiron history, the seventh overall pick in the NFL draft occupies some of the most unique and storied space. But what does the data tell us about what the hit rate of this specific slot do?

Well, today we're digging into the NFL draft archives to explore players who redefined his position and teams that gambled at all. Now joining us is sports historian Ed Cleese. To break down the legacy, the legends and a football history of the number 7 selection.

Let's head into the gridiron. You're in the pig pen and pigskin dispatches. 32 Day drive into the greatest picks in NFL history. Now here's our guest, Ed Kleese.

Hey, Darin, how are you today?

I am doing super, Ed. You know, talking about all this history is really getting me juiced up here for the NFL draft and it's in Western Pennsylvania.

Everybody's getting stoked for this. And you, you know, the future, your, your team is getting built here this.

Coming week, one week away. And my team this year has the seventh pick in the draft.

So I've been paying keen attention to the research I've been doing on the number seven pick, trying to find out which commander will be wearing a gold jacket someday.

Oh, all right. So they're going to be on the Wide World of Sports from abc. So. Okay, that's nice.

Nice aging yourself there, Darren.

The agony of defeat. All right, Ed, well, let's get some thoughts in what you think about the history of slot number seven in the seventh pick and you in the draft.

Sure, sure.

This one, I thought separating the top guys was really easy. There, there was kind of like, there was a, there was a very large middle ground.

When I looked at the seventh pick, I didn't find a lot of egregious errors. And I thought there, there weren't that many like super duper tippy top guys. So there's like a big sea of like.

Okay, anywhere from like a little bit disappointing to pretty good player. There was a lot of guys like that. It's been decent the last few years. Okay. Not nothing special. Penny Sewell. Penny Sewell. How do you say his name?

I can never say it right.

I think you got a penny, so I thought you say it.

Well, he's, he's a standout offensive lineman. He's one of the best offensive linemen in the league. He's probably on a Hall of Fame track right now. I would say most likely, but that's about it.

For recent. We like to talk about quarterbacks. This has not been other. You know, we'll talk about.

Blackledge never had more than eight starts in a season. He did finish his career with your Steelers. But what's interesting about both where and Blackledge is. They've had very successful media careers.

You know, where. Where is where has been calling college games for a very long time.

And Blackledge has been one of the top college analysts, like, it feels like for 30 years. Like, he feels like he's been around forever. So they made careers in football, just not as quarterbacks.

Yeah, Blackledge was, you know, played on those Penn State teams of Joe Paterno that, you know, we're known for running the ball. But he was like one of the first good throwing quarterbacks for Penn State.

So that's where he sort of made his name and, you know, had a decent career, you know, like you said, ended with the Steelers, but had some good years with the Chiefs. But Byron Leftwich also ended his career, I believe, as a Steeler, maybe. Maybe went to Tampa Bay, Played a little bit of quarterback down there, too.

But he backed up Ben Roethlisberger and they were opponents and in the Mac when they were in college, Roethlisberger and left, which.

That's right. That's. That's right. Because my leftwatch was Marshall. Correct?

Right, Right.

Yep. And then we've had a few other misses that kind of stood out a little bit.

That did not work out for them one bit.

Yeah, every. Everybody thought maybe he'd be the next Franco Harris, you know.

He was not.

Yeah, he was not. No, not at all.

Not even. And this one kind of was. Because it was a name I didn't recognize. Ben Joe's.

And so my thing about that is, is if you're going to take an interior lineman with the seventh pick in the draft, like you would think that the floor would be decent. You know, like if we miss on this, he'll be an okay player. Not he won't be able to play at all in the NFL.

I'm not sure how you I can see, you know, when teams reach for a quarterback or a receiver or running back because they're kind of desperate and like a guy's got big numbers in college, you take his chance and it doesn't work out. But like a guard, it's like, gosh, how do you miss that badly. I'm not sure what o' Brien's doing now, but it didn't work out for him or the Chiefs.

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We do have a lot of honorable mentions though. That Are that are much happier? Not a lot. Actually. I've got two to talk about briefly and then one that we probably really need to get into.

He's been a pretty big hit. I would say he was. Changed his name now. The Josh. Josh.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

The other Josh Allen.

Wow.

I don't think he should be in the hall of Fame. I think we make an exception for him that we are not making for everybody else. He. Let me start with this.

His last three years in the NFL, it was insane. His numbers, it was crazy. He led the league in catches three times in his career. He had insane numbers those last three years.

I think in his last year, 18 touchdowns. That is phenomenal. He was absolutely a Hall of Fame level talent and was producing at a Hall of Fame pace for sure.

But his career ended after seven years. He is 113th all time in receiving yards. He is 100th in catches. He just didn't do it long enough for me to say that he is Canton worthy.

I think he is a guy that got in based on lobbying mostly. You know, his brother was in the media. People lobbied for him.

I think there was this feeling of, hey, this guy was clearly a Hall of Fame caliber player. So let's put him in the hall of Fame. But if we do that, Darren, then that list is very long.

We've talked, you and I have talked in this countdown about a number of guys that had really good bursts and their careers ended short because of injury or early retirement or, you know, whatever it might be. And they're probably not going to get to Canton because of it. We've made an exception for Sterling Sharp for some reason. But we're.

That we're not making for a lot of other players.

I think there's been some other examples of that.

I mean, Terrell Davis comes to mind who didn't have a great longevity, but, you know, similar to Sharp, he had a, you know, a handful of years that were exceptional and you know, he was probably one of the best at his position at that time. And I think you could say that same thing for Sharp.

So I think that would be part of the argument for why he is in, you know, is it fair to some guys that had lengthier careers, you know, 9, 10, 14 year careers that have the numbers are in the top 10.

You know, I can't think of any examples of that right now, but, you know, they're up there, you know, in the top maybe top 25 and are in the hall of Fame yet. Maybe, maybe there's some, some argument for that. But I think he was one of the best players of his time and.

And I think he had some injury issues, much like Terrell Davis and I think his neck. Yeah.

So that there was some exception taken there because he probably would have put those numbers up if he would have stayed hooked up with Favre for, you know, a better amount of time.

I'm sure he would have, but he didn't. So, you know, if we, like I say if we project for him. I'm not a big fan of Davis, Terrell Davis being the hall of Fame either.

I have a similar argument for him. But anyway, yeah, so I would say that, you know, I guess it all depends on how you weigh the scales, but for me, just not enough.

Okay. All right, so he's not in your top five. So are you ready to discuss your top.

He played all 14 of his seasons with the 49ers. 89 And a half career sacks, which from the interior we've talked about a lot, is a big deal when you're collapsing.

He was very good against the run, but he also collapsed the pocket. So he's sort of doing everything you're supposed to do on that interior defensive line. He did. He was on the Super Bowl.

They won the super bowl his rookie year. So he was part of the 94, 49ers and then part of like the mid to late 90s, Jeff Garcia, some of those teams where they were good but not great.

And then he did go through kind of like the rebuilding years as well before his career ended. He is on the all 90s team of the decade. He is in Canton, and I don't think that I would rank him.

He doesn't necessarily come to mind when I think of like the Aaron Donalds or even like the Warren Sapps that we've talked about in the past is like this all time dominant defensive tackle. But I do think his career was good enough to be in the hall of Fame.

Yeah, very solid player, very well respected. Gold jacket and a bust in Canton.

Yeah.

So good guy. So who do you have next?

He is the almost the exact opposite of Sterling Sharp in a lot of ways because you could maybe say that no one season has stuck out that much for Mike Evans where he's been a little bit more of a volume player. But the, the 11 straight thousand yard receiving seasons kind of blows my mind because that is 11 straight. That is incredible consistency.

Some of them with injury plague seasons,.

Some of them when he was injured, not all of them with great quarterbacks. They've kind of like hit and missed in his career at quarterback.

Obviously they hit big time when they had Brady and they've been pretty good with Baker but you know they've had. There was not always that way, especially early in his career. He's in the top 10 all time in receiving touchdowns now.

There are many, many, many, many hall of Famers behind him on that list. He is likely going to catch Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates on the all time touchdown list and I think he's got a shot at Larry Fitzgerald as well.

So you start adding all that up. He's still playing and I, I do and he's been a pretty money player.

You know he was really good when they won the super bowl and he's been good whenever he's played in big games. So Mike Evans I think is. I'm happy to put him here. He will be in the hall of Fame someday as well.

It's going to be interesting when we talk about him this season being in that offense of San Francisco because he, he might be the guy because yeah, I don't know that they really didn't have all the receivers the last couple of years and he stays healthy. Yeah, he could be truly a weapon with Christian McCaffrey who we talked about a couple of nights ago and his.

Streak did end this past year when he was just too injured. So you just never know. Maybe that was it. Maybe he's reached the end of his road and he's not going to be able to stay healthy and produce anymore.

But maybe he bounces back under this. He probably only needs a year or two to move up that list even, even more than he is now.

Yeah, probably all depends on your health of the kiddo and some things like that that might take some, some coverage off of him.

Yep.

All right, who do you have next?

I actually always felt he was a tad overrated when he was with us. I thought, of course I liked him, kind of loved him. He was, you know, a very good player. Excellent draft pick.

Of course he had a little bit of a tendency to get burned in big spots. He would give up some big plays.

And having grown up with Daryl Green, who was still there, by the way, when they drafted Champ and mentored him a little bit for the. Actually for four, four years they played together. I wasn't really used to that.

I was sort of used to the corner just shuts down that side of the field and Champ sometimes get beat. But he also is the all time leader in the NFL history and passes defended. So he made a lot of plays.

And then when he was traded to Denver for Clinton Portis, honestly a trade that worked out pretty well for both teams, to be fair. And he did. He was better in Denver. He was. He was better in Denver. He got better. He was a really good player in Washington, I thought with some flaws.

And then he was three straight first team all pros in Denver. He led the league in interceptions one year. Like I said, he's the all time leader in passes defended. He was still good at the end of his career.

He had two Pro Bowls in his mid-30s in Denver. He also has a statistical anomaly. He made a.

And what's kind of like funny about this is Champ returned at 100 yards but did not score a touchdown. He intercepted it like inside the one. Like, like, like the negative one, returned it to the other one and got tackled at the 1 yard line. So.

Geez.

So he had a 100 yard interception return but did not score a touchdown. Which is, which is kind of funny there. But, but that, that basically shifted that game. That went from.

It looked like the Patriots are about to take the lead to now the Broncos are up by 11 and the Broncos did win that game. A fairly rare Tom Brady AFC playoff loss. That kind of shifted on a play by Champ Bailey.

I do not consider Champ to be in like that top five all time corners that we talked about. The, you know, Woodson and Green and Lester Hayes, you know, that kind of. I don't really think he's there, but absolutely a Canton guy.

What a cool name. And one heck of a pick by my Redskins who didn't make a whole lot during that era.

It's interesting. You, you talked the other night about Dante hall and you almost said the same words that you talked about Champ Bailey.

Angelo sounds almost like you're more fond of Dante hall as a Redskins.

D'. Angelo. D'. Angelo. D'. Angelo. No, I mean Champ was absolutely a better player than d' Angelo Hall. Don't, don't, don't mistake that.

D' Angelo hall was a little better than people gave him credit for. And I thought maybe Champ was not quite as good as people gave him credit for.

That doesn't mean that I thought D. Hall was better than Champ, because he was not. Okay, all right.

I just want to make sure that was clear because I was, I was going to argue that.

Gotcha.

Okay, who do you have next?

Next I've got a legendary Sooner, my all time favorite player to ever watch play college football. And he's going to be up there in the NFL too.

Wait a second. I don't even see Bosworth on this list. What's going on here?

Who is that? Must watch, must see at the very back end of that, you know, run.

The running back position, I think in the history of the NFL probably has the most lore behind it is some. Something's like the most revered.

When you talk about the names and you know, people talk about Jim Brown and Barry Sanders and Walter Payton and Emmett Smith and going and Zonka and Jim Taylor, you know, and you know, even going all the way back to like Red Grange, you know, and like, like there's like this running back aura that we don't really have so much anymore. And I think ad everybody thought it stand for Adrian. No, it stands for all day. All you.

Back in ou there was these crimson shirts that just said all day on them and that was an homage to, to, to, to ap. But I digress. The, the, the. I think Adrian was like maybe one of the last of the legendary, kind of mythic, almost running backs in the league.

He was phenomenal. I don't think you rattle off all the stats or whatever, but he's fifth all time in yards, so big deal. He had 122 touchdowns. I'm sorry, he's.

I'm sorry, I read that wrong.

And it was Adrian, and I think you could kind of always count on him.

Had that famous run in Pittsburgh where he's just running people over like a Mack truck, sort of that awesome combination of size and power and speed and just could do it all. A really pure running back. Didn't catch the ball that much, you know, it was just sort of that pure back.

Even with my Redskins at the very end, he played the last two years, they were the Redskins for bad teams. He had almost 1,000 yards in each of those years. You know, just kind of.

It's almost like you just, you know, rolled out of bed in the morning and could. Could get you 100. He was awesome.

Yeah, he kept. Seems like he kept coming back, too. He was playing for somebody every year. He might still be playing this year. Who knows?

Yeah, I think. I think the records really mattered to him. Like, I think he wanted to be on those lists. I think he wanted to get.

I think at one point there was a lot of rumor that he really wanted to try to catch Emmett. That was never going to happen. But, you know, he is in the top five. And like we talk about now, with the way running backs are used, that.

That seems to get safer by the year of other people catching you.

Yeah. I think one of the most amazing facts about him is, you know, his recovery time. He tore. That was an ACLE tour.

And he came back, like, in nine months or something, which was unheard of at the time, you know, and he played well. You know, didn't say really poorly.

Played well.

Coming back from it, it's remarkable.

Purple Jesus.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Yep.

Yeah. Okay, so who do you have before him?

Okay, number one, I'm gonna just roll with this. Anybody that wants to step to me on this one to. To argue, bring it. Because, number one, I didn't waffle on I didn't hesitate one bit. It's easy.

I do not put some of the postseason losses on him.

This last one in Denver this past season, you can probably throw a little bit of criticism his way for the really bad fumble before the half and then missing the, the, the play that would have pretty much won the game or at least given him the lead there late. But count, you know, put that on this hand, put all the other stuff in the other hand and it's not even close. We're talking about an all timer here.

You remember he had about his leg ripped off earlier in that game too and still had a great game after that.

This blows my mind, Darren. He has 79 rushing touchdowns in his career. He's 23rd all time in the NFL, all time rushing touchdowns list. Like that's crazy.

There's like hall of Fame running backs that haven't didn't get in the end zone as much as Josh Allen has with his feet. And he has 220 passing touchdowns already too. The dude is unreal.

And his stat sheet, when you go to pro reference, Pro football reference, it almost looks like they made a mistake. It looks like they copy and pasted each year onto the next one. They're all the same. He doesn't miss games. He throws for a gazillion yards.

He rushes for like 800 yards a year. He runs like 10 touchdowns a year. He throws like 30 touchdowns a year. And then beyond all that, you watch him and you're like, this guy is a maniac.

I mean he's, he's my favorite player to watch in the NFL, period. He's like an inspirational kind of guy to watch. He's phenomenal.

The, what he did in the playoff, the 13 second game in Kansas City, you know, there's nothing else you can do. There's nothing else you can do. He was perfect. He gave the ball back to Mahomes with 13 seconds left. You got to win that game.

He never got the ball back again in overtime. If he did, they probably would have won because he is incredible. We saw him in the playoff game in Jacksonville this year. Get it done late.

He is incredible. I think he's obviously, if we're going to talk about him with Montana and Brady, he's going to have to get at least one ring.

He's going to have to get the Super bowl that, you know, it's going to be a hard argument if he never does. But I'm not so enamored with that that I can't see who he is and what kind of player he is.

And that to be perfectly honest, the Bills haven't done a great job of helping him. He is, you know, they're not a bad roster.

They've got some players, but they have not surrounded him with too many guys that can take the pressure off of him on either side of the ball. He's number one on this list. He's going to just solidify that over the years. And I got. I don't think there's an argument.

No, I agree with you. He definitely should be number one on the list for this. For these players that we've talked about.

Probably, you know, in his defense, if they, if they would have, Buffalo would have just sucked up their pride a little bit and went and resigned Diggs before he became a Patriot. That might have been the magic. He needed another receiver.

They just didn't have it, you know, if they were trying to go with Shakir and some of the other guys they had, but they, they needed that guy like a. Diggs, who definitely has been missing from the combination they have up there.

They don't do a ton of free agency. They haven't drafted all that well. They've. Their defenses have been kind of hit and miss. They've been okay. It's certainly never dominant.

You know, he hasn't had a lot of. He hasn't had a lot of games where he can win, you know, 13 to 10.

He doesn't have a lot of margin for error, to have a bad day or, you know, make a big mistake and that. And that becomes a lot to a lot of load to bear. And he bears it really well.

Yeah. Be interesting to see what he does this year with the shakeup and coaching and players on the roster.

But it is his offensive coordinator, I believe it took over his coach.

Yes. There's some familiarity.

Right, right. All right. Well, that's a great top five pick. You know, great pick at number one.

You know, we have some, some interesting facts here for number seven, if you're wondering. You know, you said Washington's picking number seven this year. Might be wondering what position maybe they go to.

Well, the trend says wide receiver, which is the most popular position drafted in the number seven. In the first 90 drafts, there's been a total of five hall of Famers. We've talked about a few of them here.

So some, some good running backs there to talk about and some, some great players overall. And that takes us to our draft fact of the day.

So, you know, we know how, you know, we're normally anticipating here in a week that we call mostly college age players will be drafted guys in their early 20s, maybe 22, 23, but that's what they're normally taken. But there have been two college seasons before.

You need to have at least two college seasons of your high school graduating class before you can be eligible for the draft. So who do you think and what was the age of the youngest player ever taken the NFL draft?

Say we're going way back, so I'm going to say he was 17.

Well, no, there hasn't ever been anybody 17 drafted. 19 Is the youngest and it's fairly recent.

That's where he grew up at and end up attending Louisville, played for them for four years and was drafted at the age of 19.

Wow.

Kind of a remarkable young man to be able to go through his high school years and go into college here in the States and play four years of football as well in college. So that's our draft stat date. Kind of an odd one. And not sure that we'll ever see somebody 19 again coming in.

Maurice Claret was probably very upset about that, but what are you going to do? So. All right, well, that wraps up our pick, number seven and our seventh day before the draft. Tune in tomorrow.

Ed will join us again to talk about the six spot. Ed, we'll talk to you then.

See you tomorrow, Darren.

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