SEC’s all-time first-round draft picks at LB
The line between defensive end and linebacker has blurred, but depending on how you classify the players, as many as four SEC standouts at the position have a chance to get drafted in the first round come April 30: Florida’s Dante Fowler Jr., Missouri’s Shane Ray, Kentucky’s Bud Dupree and Mississippi State’s Benardrick McKinney.
To date, NFL teams have selected 38 SEC linebackers in the first round, starting with Alabama’s Lee Roy Jordan in 1963, the second linebacker ever drafted that high.
By the 1980s, if more than one SEC linebacker wasn’t selected by the end of the first round, it was a down season. The SEC placed three linebackers in round one in 1985 (Freddie Joe Nunn, Alvin Toles, Emanuel King) and 1989 (Derrick Thomas, Eric Hill, Keith DeLong).
Based on NFL careers, the ’89 group has an excellent case as the SEC’s best-ever class of linebackers. Before he died young, Thomas was a nine-time Pro Bowler with 126.5 career sacks. Hill made more than 1,000 career tackles in 11 seasons, and DeLong earned a Super Bowl ring with the San Francisco 49ers.
Here’s a complete list of the SEC’s first-round picks, followed by a few observations.
Year | Player | School |
---|---|---|
1963 | Lee Roy Jordan | Alabama |
1970 | Jack “Hacksaw” Reynolds | Tennessee |
1975 | Glenn Cameron | Florida |
1977 | Robert Jackson# | Texas A&M |
1979 | Barry Krauss | Alabama |
1981 | E.J. Junior | Alabama |
1982 | Johnie Cooks | Mississippi State |
1983 | Billy Ray Smith | Arkansas |
1984 | Wilber Marshall | Florida |
1984 | Billy Cannon# | Texas A&M |
1985 | Freddie Joe Nunn | Ole Miss |
1985 | Alvin Toles | Tennessee |
1985 | Emanuel King | Alabama |
1987 | Cornelius Bennett | Alabama |
1988 | Aundray Bruce | Auburn |
1988 | Clifford Charlton | Florida |
1989 | Derrick Thomas | Alabama |
1989 | Eric Hill | LSU |
1989 | Keith DeLong | Tennessee |
1990 | Keith McCants | Alabama |
1990 | Tony Bennett | Ole Miss |
1992 | Quentin Coryatt# | Texas A&M |
1996 | Reggie Brown# | Texas A&M |
1997 | Dwayne Rudd | Alabama |
1998 | Takeo Spikes | Auburn |
1999 | Al Wilson | Tennessee |
2005 | Thomas Davis | Georgia |
2005 | David Pollack | Georgia |
2007 | Patrick Willis | Ole Miss |
2008 | Jerod Mayo | Tennessee |
2010 | Rolando McClain | Alabama |
2010 | Sean Weatherspoon# | Missouri |
2011 | Von Miller# | Texas A&M |
2012 | Melvin Ingram | South Carolina |
2012 | Dont’a Hightower | Alabama |
2013 | Jarvis Jones | Georgia |
2013 | Alec Ogletree | Georgia |
2014 | C.J. Mosley | Alabama |
#School was not an SEC member at the time.
SCHOOLS RANKED BY FIRST-ROUND LBs
1. Alabama 11
T2. Tennessee 5
T2. Texas A&M 5
4. Georgia 4
T5. Florida 3
T5. Ole Miss 3
7. Auburn 2
T8. Arkansas 1
T8. LSU 1
T8. Mississippi State 1
T8. Missouri 1
T8. South Carolina 1
T13. Kentucky 0
T13. Vanderbilt 0
*Again, not an SEC member at the time of the listed first-round picks.
It’s no stunner to see the Tide on this list, but a few others stick out.
If you’re unfamiliar with Aggies football history, you may assume the team ranks much lower than tied for second in all-time first-round linebackers. Texas A&M has been atrocious at the position since it joined the SEC in 2012, two seasons after Von Miller became a first-round pick of the Denver Broncos.
It’s also shocking that the Georgia Bulldogs didn’t have a single first-round pick at linebacker until 2005. UGA could move into second place on this list, at least in a tie, after the 2016 NFL draft with Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd.
And OK, I know UK isn’t a football powerhouse, but its goose egg is surprising onsidering Kentucky has three current linebackers in the NFL — Danny Trevathan, Avery Williamson and Wesley Woodyard — and among the SEC’s Top 10 all-time leading tacklers, the Wildcats have produced four
SEC FIRST-ROUND LBs BY DECADE
1960s: 1
1970s: 3*
1980s: 13*
1990s: 5*
2000s: 4
2010s: 6*
*Numbers do not include Texas A&M or Missouri linebackers drafted in the first round.
The 1980s remain the gold standard for SEC linebackers, but the current decade is closing fast.
The SEC didn’t produce a first-round linebacker in ’80 or ’86 and still managed 13 for the decade. Alabama sent four first-round linebackers to the NFL in the ’80s alone, including legends Cornelius Bennett and Derrick Thomas.
Not a single SEC linebacker went in the first round from 2000-04, but including current SEC member Texas A&M, the 14 conference programs have produced at least one each year since ’10.
MOST INTERESTING NICKNAME
Jack “Hacksaw” Reynolds, a first-round pick out of Tennessee in 1970, earned his nickname in a most interesting way in Knoxville.
He sawed a car (rumored to be a Chevy or a Porsche) in half after a previously-unbeaten Vols team suffered an embarrassing 38-0 road loss to Ole Miss.
According to the Knoxville News:
“I cut through the entire frame and drive shaft, all the way through the car. I started on Sunday and finished Monday afternoon. It took me eight hours total time,” said Reynolds, describing the efforts. He had purchased a cheap hacksaw and 13 blades, breaking all of them by the time he was done. After finishing the work, he got a witness and went to bed. The next day, when he brought more of his friends to see his handiwork, the car was gone, with nothing but the 13 broken blades left behind.