The Buffalo Bills hold the 28th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft and many mock drafts have the Bills going with a wide receiver. We've seen mocks with defensive ends, safeties, and even corners. The most likely possibility is that Brandon Beane moves out of the 28th pick, whether that's a move out of the first round or a move up, is yet to be determined. But I thought it would be fun to look at the history of the 28th pick and put together a top-ten list.
Since 1966, the Super Bowl era, there have been 58 picks in the NFL Draft. There was a time when the 28th pick fell late in the second round, then early second, and now it falls late in the first round. But it's still the 28th overall, regardless of the round and there have been some very good players, including pro bowlers, All-Pros, and a couple of Hall of Famers. The list also includes a center the Bills selected with the 28th pick of the 2009 NFL Draft.
Five wide receivers have been taken with the 28th pick, including former Bill, Kelvin Benjamin, and a former New York Giants receiver some Bills fans might remember, Mark Ingram. Ingram had a decent career, but didn't make our top ten; however, in the 1990 playoffs, he recorded 11 receptions and 168 yards over three games to become a Super Bowl champion. There have been 35 defensive players taken, compared to 23 on the offensive side of the ball. The most selected position group was in the secondary, with 13 players selected.
Like I said this list includes two Hall of Famers, with four Super Bowl appearances between them, including three wins. One was considered the fastest man in the NFL during his playing days and the other was one of the greatest linebackers in the league. However, we have eight other players to talk about first, so let's get into it.
Marcedes Lewis was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2006 NFL Draft. He played for the Jaguars for 12 seasons, where he recorded 375 receptions, 4,503 yards, and 33 touchdowns. He played in 170 games, starting 157. He would leave Jacksonville and continue his career in Green Bay, where he played from 2018 to 2022. Last season, he played for the Chicago Bears, however, as of right now, he is not listed on the Bears' official roster.
When I wrote this article, there was nothing I could find that confirmed or denied he decided to retire, and overthecap.com has him listed as a free agent. At 40 years old, he’s played an outstanding 18 years in the NFL, totaling 436 receptions, 5,114 yards, and 40 touchdowns. Of the players in my top ten, he’s played the longest and has 268 games under his belt.
Monte Jackson was a trade selection of the Los Angeles Rams in the 1975 draft. He only spent three seasons with the Rams, before joining the Oakland Raiders for the next five seasons. In 1983, he returned to the Rams for his final season. He played in 112 games, starting 75. He was a first-team All-Pro in 1976 and a Pro Bowler, when he recorded a league-leading ten interceptions and returned three of them for touchdowns. He finished fourth in AP Defensive Player of the Year voting that year as well.
He followed up the 1975 season with another Pro Bowl and was voted second-team All-Pro while recording five interceptions. He is a Super Bowl champion, having won with the Raiders in 1980 in a season when he started ten games. He finished his career with 23 interceptions, returning them for 289 yards, three touchdowns, and four fumble recoveries in a nine-year career.
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I was so glad to see Eric Wood was a 28th overall pick, so I could add him to this list. All bias aside, Wood is more than deserving to make this top ten. He could have made this list even higher if not for a neck injury that ended his career early. The Buffalo Bills selected Wood in the 2009 NFL Draft, trusting him with a starting position from the get-go. He played in 120 career games starting every one of them.
A little trivia for you too, the Philadelphia Eagles were the original owners of the 28th pick in that 2009 draft. They traded the pick to the Bills, along with the 121st pick (Shawn Nelson) for Bills’ tackle Jason Peters. Playing his entire nine-year career with the Buffalo Bills, Wood reached the Pro Bowl in 2015. He was a key contributor to the team's playoff return in 2017, ending a 17-year drought.
The Baltimore Ravens drafted Patrick Queen in the 2020 NFL Draft. Regarding Bills Mafia, Queen's calling card is getting truck on the trailer for Madden 24, which Queen took exception to. But we'll move on here. Queen was third on the Defensive Rookie of the Year voting and voted second-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler last season. He's still young with only four years in the league but well on his way to a stellar career.
He’s started every game of his career so far with 67 starts under his belt. He’s totaled 454 combined tackles and recorded more than 100 in three of his four seasons. The one season he didn’t total 100-plus, he finished with 98. He also has four career interceptions, five forced fumbles, 13.5 sacks, and 37 tackles for a loss.
Guy Morriss was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1973 NFL Draft. Offensive linemen are hard to rank, and even more so from the earlier years. The league didn’t track penalties or sacks allowed in the ’70s, but Morriss had an incredibly long career, playing for 15 seasons, from 1973 to 1987. He started 173 career games, out of 217 played. In one stretch from 1976 through 1983, he started every game, 116.
Morriss spent the first 11 years of his career with the Eagles, before moving over to the New England Patriots for four seasons from 1984 to 1987, but started only 22 games of 59 games played. He started for the Eagles in Super Bowl XV and was a backup during the New England Patriots loss in Super Bowl XX.
The New Orleans Saints selected running back Mark Ingram in the 2011 NFL Draft. Ingram played in 156 games over a 12-year career, starting in 100 of them. The majority of his career was with New Orleans, having played with the Saints for ten years, from 2011 to 2108. Over the final four years of his career, he played for the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans, before returning to the Saints in 2021, completing his career in 2022.
Ingram 8,111 yards, with a career 4.5 yards per carry, and 65 touchdowns. He was also solid in the passing game, recording 303 receptions, 2,124 yards, and another ten touchdowns. Ingram was voted to three NFC Pro Bowls, in 2014, 2017, and one with the Ravens in 2019. His dad, Mark Ingram Sr. who I mentioned at the beginning of this article, was a wide receiver in the NFL, playing for the New York Giants during their Super Bowl XXV victory. Interestingly, both father and son were drafted in the 28th spot.
Laken Tomlinson was an original draft pick of the Detroit Lions in the 2015 NFL Draft. He only spent two seasons with the Lions before trading to the San Francisco 49ers in August, 2017. In return, the Lions received a fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft, which they used in another trade to acquire Damon Harrison from the Giants. Hindsight being what it is, I’d say the Lions are kicking themselves for letting Tomlinson.
Since the trade, Tomlinson started every game for the 49ers between 2017 and 2021, including a Pro Bowl in the 2021 season. In 2022, Tomlinson signed a free agent contract with the New York Jets, where he has again started every game. He possessed incredible durability throughout his career, having played in 146 games so far, starting 138. He has started a consecutive 80 games so far and is set to continue that streak in 2024. Tomlinson also played in a Super Bowl with the 49ers, in a losing effort to the Chiefs.
Joe Staley was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2007 NFL Draft. He went on to play for the 49ers from 2007 to 2019, accomplishing a rare feat in today’s NFL. He played the entirety of this career with the same team that drafted him. Staley started every game he played in his entire career, 181 regular season games, plus another 11 starts in the playoffs. Staley also played in two Super Bowls; however, was unable to come away with a ring.
Staley earned six Pro Bowls and three second-team All-Pros. He was also named to the NFL 2010 All-Decade team. He was voted by his peers into the NFL Top 100 three years straight from 2012 to 2014. He even has three career receptions for 26 yards. Staley announced his retirement in 2020 and will likely be in the running to make the Hall of Fame once his eligibility opens in 2025.
Darrell Green, once considered the fastest man in the NFL, was drafted by Washington in the 1983 NFL Draft. He went on to become one of the greatest corners in league history with seven Pro Bowls, two second-team All-Pros, and one first-team All-Pro. He played for an incredible 20 seasons, which is unheard of today and even more unheard of, is all 20 seasons were with Washington.
Green has 54 career interceptions and returned six of them for touchdowns. Not only was he a great cover corner, he wasn’t afraid to make a tackle either. He recorded 1,202 career combined tackles, including an impressive 109 during his rookie year, which helped him become the runner-up Defensive Rookie of the Year. Green was part of Washington’s two Super Bowl-winning teams in 1988 and 1982. Green was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Derrick Brooks tops our list as the greatest player selected with the 28th pick of the NFL draft. He was selected in 1995 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He went on to become one of the greatest linebackers in league history, having wracked up 11 Pro Bowls, four second-team All-Pros, and five first-team All-Pros. He helped the Bucs win their first Super Bowl in team history in 2003. Brooks was top-six in Defensive Player of the Year voting four times, winning the award in 2002.
In Brooks' rookie season, he played in all 16 games, starting 13 of them. It was the last time he would play in a game and not start. From 1996 through the 2008 season, Brooks started every game for the Bucs, never missing a game. He has 221 career regular season starts and 11 playoff starts. In his career, he recorded 25 interceptions, scoring a touchdown on six of them, and 1,713 combined tackles. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014.