Skip to playerSkip to main content
AJ McKenzie
  • 2 days ago
Obvious Number 1, 1986 49ers too high
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Transcript
00:03the draft was our ticket to success in the nfl pittsburgh selects lynn swan that's the worst
00:09draft i've ever seen that draft class made us world champions
00:22what makes a great draft class the san francisco 49ers are now on the clock
00:27is it landing five pro bowlers in a single draft one of the most productive drafts as far as getting
00:34pro bowl players picking multiple hall of famers i don't think anybody has hit two
00:41it's both tape measure home runs quite like the bears did and the man of the minute is the rookie
00:47of the year gale sayers or finding the core players to build the championship there it is
00:54the dagger's in we're gonna win the super bowl
01:04history has proven it can be all of those things here's nfl network's top 10 draft classes
01:1010 drafts that are in a class all their own
01:17the number 10 draft class of all time the 1995 tampa bay buccaneers it was almost impossible
01:24to draft as bad as the bucks did for about a 10 to 12 year period between 1982 and 1994
01:33the bucks failed to record a single winning season wake up you're looking at me like i'm not even
01:39talking you're not hearing me when it came to draft day the bucks didn't have much success either
01:45when you're in a mess you're stuck in a mess one player is not getting you out
01:49look at these guys are almost gutless and the ones that aren't that are brainless i just felt like
01:53tampa was a franchise constantly looking for that one player that was going to change everything
02:00rich mckay was promoted to general manager of the buccaneers in 1995 and used his first two draft
02:07picks to rebuild the team the first was what an amazing what an amazing general manager he could
02:14be to do that in his first year warren sap there was all these rumors and if you remember two
02:19days
02:19before the draft it was you warren had tested positive for this or warren had done that a lot
02:23of which was not true there were all these rumors out against warren sap and you wondered about his
02:28character he never wondered about his ability we went back to his hometown and did some security checks we
02:33had a good feel for warren sap and it wasn't that he had made a mistake along the way he
02:36had he
02:37admitted to it but warren was a guy who loved football there were a lot of people just scared
02:40off by him he fell down in the first round of the draft a lot more than he should have
02:44we traded from
02:457 to 12 i remember in the room we went through each pick from 7 to 12 and we said
02:50the only team
02:51we thought could take him was minnesota 11. the seattle seahawks select joey galloway kyle brady
02:58the minnesota vikings select derrick alexander hello with the 12th pick of the first round
03:05tampa bay selects warren sap i mean i'm just i'm just happy that you know let's make this decision
03:11and you know i'm just ready to move on and play some ball right now what makes the bucks our
03:15number
03:1510 draft class is that in addition to sap mckay traded up for another first round pick and took
03:21an undersized linebacker who was slipping tampa bay has selected from florida state derrick brooks one
03:28thing that rich mckay was so successful in being able to do he was always big on drafting players in
03:33florida and
03:34miami because he knew those schools so well he even knew florida state so well i told team that
03:38projected me as a safety that i wouldn't work out for him if you drafted me to be a safety
03:43you're
03:43probably making a bad decision because i wanted to play live but i gambled on myself
03:47it was like 230 235 who was recruiting him to play safety they don't they don't really know the game
03:54like that because i had some teams tell my agent if i work out at safety i probably be drafted
04:01higher
04:01than what i do i didn't care where i get drafted at i was going to play linebacker when you
04:07have a team
04:08like the buccaneers that have this almost slapstick history of in the draft for them to hit two home
04:14runs back to back like that was an indication that it was a new day in tampa bay it didn't
04:26happen
04:26overnight but the bond between these two draft picks grew and so did the buccaneers win total
04:40those two pieces that's why you get up early in the morning nobody out there with emotion those
04:45guys were a cornerstone of helping us get the franchise turned around the 95 draft with those
04:50two picks like people talk about the one super bowl they were a top defense for six years in a
04:57row six
04:58years in a row seven or eight
05:08it's going one two really built the foundation the defense got us to this super bowl and they're
05:14trying to win it for it dropping again and looking again and looking again throws up a bit
05:18there it is the dagger's in we're gonna win the super bowl
05:25the number nine draft class of all time the 1985 buffalo bill this movie is rated r adult language and
05:35violence lots of violent no but painful to watch yes that was the buffalo bills before the 85
05:44draft this has just been a horrible and host nightmare for the bills team things when tragedy struck
05:54their general manager i remember hearing about terry bledsoe's heart attack and i started to think
05:59about what shape this team was in a team that didn't have any talent now didn't have who was gonna
06:10look and behold bill polian comes from virtually a closet office well i was working hand in glove
06:17with uh kay stevenson our head coach we were working together to try and fill the gap when
06:23terry unfortunately came ill bill of a triumvirate to lead the negotiations for the top overall pick of
06:30the 1985 draft ralph wilson the owner of the bills liked flutie a whole lot
06:39bill polian liked bruce smith bill polian knows football he is not afraid to look at a player and
06:47say i like that player even if everybody else doesn't the number nine draft class of all time
06:53started with the drafting of bruce smith in the third round the steve maryland quarterback best
07:05known for leading the weapons to a 42 40 victory after trailing the miami 1-0 at the half we
07:12all
07:12believe that frank reich was going to be a good quarterback in national football league the bigger
07:16the game the more pressure the better frank play bill realized you're back we just kind of recognized
07:20that this guy had a smart ability that even if he sat a few years he might come up and
07:24play big if
07:24they needed him after seven years as a backup reich led the biggest comeback in nfl history
07:32the player who caught three touchdown passes from reich was the bills fourth round draft pick in 1985
07:53andre reed was a wide receiver from cootstown small college in central pennsylvania
07:59when i saw him he was playing tight end believe it or not but you could tell the athletic ability
08:03and
08:04you could tell his competitiveness from the day he set foot on the field in minicamp it was obvious
08:09that he was going to be a player absolute deserving hall of famer who was our number one receiver for
08:15the better part of 13 seasons the 85 draft was the first step in buffalo's domination of the afc and
08:24the
08:24bills are making nfl history they are going back to the super bowl for a fourth straight time that was
08:33a great draft by the bills bruce smith you know he's got my vote we've played against him so many
08:39times
08:40and he gave us so many headaches and andre reed was just a big play receiver that draft was a
08:46springboard
08:47for bill pollian he built the expansion panthers into a playoff team and was the architect of the
08:53colt super bowl victory but it all started in buffalo in 1985. hey baby are y'all convinced now
09:04the number eight draft class of all time the 1965 chicago bears the chicago bears george
09:12house had just won an nfl championship with an ag team the bears the world champions so he had to
09:17replace some of these old veterans that were great players hallis had a formula football he loves and
09:23he plays to win the bears relied on defense on on great middle linebackers with ruggedness like this
09:30palace always believed that you needed a quick running back and now the fastest way to streak down
09:36the field with a ball who is he you go all the way back to red gray
09:40george mcafee uh nagurski will uh willie gallimore george mcafee and willie gallimore
09:55at the 1965 draft two running backs tucker frederickson and ken willard went one and two
10:02the next two selections belong to george hallis but back-to-back picks have been known to blow up
10:11in 1992 the colts selected two busts quentin corriott and steve edmond
10:19the 1965 bears draft class also produced two busts both are in the hall of fame
10:26gale sayers dick butkus is the yardstick for linebackers of all time it's unbelievable to get
10:34two hall of famers in one draft butkus who really became the signature player at the middle linebacker
10:41position and then gale say give me 18 years of daylight that's all i need running backs today
10:49are still compared to a player who played more than 40 years ago gale sayers was known as the kansas
10:57comet
10:57but when he landed in chicago his acts of escapism earned him a new nickname the player's nickname for
11:04him was magic and he was he ran with the sense of of a bat in a dark room he
11:09just felt things that were
11:10around him and reacted to them with incredible speed look out look out go on he's got
11:21dick butkus university of illinois chicago bears it was a natural he was hallis's kind of player you
11:27knew hallis was going to take buckets number one butkus was from illinois hallis was an alumnus i want
11:34to let them know that they've been hit this is what i like to do punish the man what people
11:39remember
11:39about him is marlon runners i mean he didn't tackle me and marlon
11:45butkus is the greatest linebacker in the history of professional football
11:48there are a lot of people tell you that that gale sayers may be the greatest running back
11:53and they got them on consecutive picks in the same draft i mean what are the odds of that
11:58we're counting down the top 10 draft classes of all time plenty of great draft class won the 49ers
12:03got defensive they drafted those three starting defensive backs ronnie lot eric right
12:09san franz reset secondary went on to win super bowl 16. california draft dreaming continued in 2004.
12:18san diego struck lightning by landing six new starters
12:24but our next class called the capital home
12:28the number seven draft class of all time
12:30the 1981 washington redskins
12:36they are the world champions for the very first time in 1982 the washington redskins were super bowl
12:42champions in 1987 they won it all again and by 1991 they owned three world titles thanks in large
12:51part to one man and one draft congratulations
12:58general manager bobby bethard began renovating the
13:04redskins in 1978 when joe gibbs walked into washington in 1981 both men mapped out the team's future
13:12our philosophy was really pretty much bobby and all of us you know with bobby calvin was a huge deal
13:19we first met with joe and the staff talked to each position coach to find out really what what are
13:24we
13:24looking for we don't want to bring a guy coach doesn't want he's not going to coach him
13:29i can rest assured that since i've been here bobby's and do everything he can to get me that player
13:33at
13:33that position these weren't guys that bobby bethard said i really like this guy i think this guy could
13:38play well for anybody that isn't how he approached it he could play well for joe gibbs drafting the
13:44right players for gibbs required knowledge instinct and some salesmanship bethard brought it all to the
13:511981 draft bobby did a tremendous job orchestrating that draft first of all we had a top 10 pick that
13:58he traded out of before the draft even started we have two trades to announce bethard's rep was you
14:05know draft picks were currency and and let's roll the dice washington redskins pick mark may tackle
14:13pittsburgh we had russ grim as our 16th player on the board we thought maybe mark would go ahead of
14:20russ and then when we got to the second round we were going to take russ but then joe washington
14:25came
14:25available to baltimore colts who we gave our second for joe washington joe washington to carry
14:29got blockers inside the ten the five touchdown joe washington then the third round he picked russ
14:35grim which was a heck of a draft choice at the time in the fifth round bethard chose
14:42defensive end dexter manley who still remains the redskins all-time sack leader times never last but
14:49tough people do the one thing i loved about bobby bethard he dealt in volume so what he would do
15:02is
15:02get more draft choices finding guys from rounds two to five and then finding small college guys
15:08that just ended up being great success stories case in point bethard's eighth round selection an
15:14unheralded wide receiver from south carolina state who quickly became known as downtown charlie brown
15:27bobby really did something special there he just had a feeling about charlie and i remember he told
15:32me he said you're gonna love this guy this guy's a great route runner very smart ninth round choice
15:37daryl grant was an offensive lineman at rice bethard saw his athleticism and gibbs converted him to a run
15:44stuffing defensive tackle washington selected clint didier wide receiver 12th round pick clint didier
15:52owned all the skills necessary for gibbs two tight end offense charlie brown came in later rounds
15:58daryl grant came in later rounds and clint didier in the 12th round so you know a lot of real
16:04good
16:04players came out of that draft even after the draft bether was still signing talent landing free agent guard
16:16joe jacobi for five thousand dollars
16:21jacobi joined may and grim and the hogs were born the 1981 redskins draft class is number seven on our
16:30list
16:30bobby bethard and joe gibbs found seven starters and by 1982 the redskins were on top of the football
16:38world world world champion right here manly and the redskins won super bowl 17 and the number seven
16:45draft class of all time became one of the finest groups of players ever selected
16:55the number six draft class of all time the 1996 baltimore ravens welcome to memorial stadium the old
17:03girl is back in town yes it's been since december of 83 that a baltimore team has played pro football
17:09here
17:13a new chapter in baltimore football history was opened on april 20th 1996 draft day we moved in march
17:22from cleveland to baltimore and it was a bit of a skeleton crew ozzy really who was the second person
17:30in charge had taken over for the first time was in charge of the the draft we were a new
17:36team in a
17:36new city that didn't have any type of an identity we were trying to sell football into a community
17:52that did not have football for 13 years there was some feeling on the part of ownership that the
17:58player that was wanted was lawrence phillips the running back from the universe of nebraska
18:03for some reasons that weren't necessarily good football reasons and ozzy did a tremendous job
18:10keeping the team in the right direction going with what was the best football decision
18:15hey coach how you doing with the uh fourth choice in the first round the baltimore ravens select john
18:21ogden tackle ucla we had a pretty good offensive line and we took jonathan ogden and he raised people
18:30i prize well you need a running back but we took the very best player that was on our board
18:35ozzy's as good as i've ever been around
18:40when he looks at the board sometimes i think of that character in a beautiful mind when he walks
18:46into the room and he looks at all the mathematical equations and things just kind of jump out at him
18:511996 was considered the year of the linebacker but no one had ray lewis at the top of their list
18:57select kevin hardy linebacker john mobley linebacker duane clemens linebacker reggie brown linebacker
19:05the ravens made ray lewis the fifth linebacker selected overall the baltimore ravens have selected
19:11ray lewis linebacker university of miami the problem with ray lewis was theoretically he's short and
19:17undersized it doesn't seem that way when you watch him play because he dominated just about every game
19:23that he was in in college the face of that defense for a decade has been ray lewis you can't
19:30hurt this
19:31i'm a machine jerk tonight is the night we ride so that camouflage humble we're brothers inside
19:37i mean that team really still defensively rides on his shoulders follow my lead and i promise you i'll
19:42get you there follow my leader come on this came out in 2007
19:50he should have been a much higher draft pick than he was but a lot of people thought that he
19:54was
19:54small from day one i said i wanted to be the greatest to ever play this game no disrespect to
19:59the ones that ever came before me but that's the only reason i'm here i'm here to only be the
20:04greatest to ever play this game by their 2000 super bowl appearance jonathan ogden and ray lewis
20:11were firmly in place as anchors on their side of the ball but it was the ravens fifth round pick
20:16from the class of 1996 that secured a super bowl victory 16 yard line jermaine lewis 25 30 jay
20:26lew kicks it outside he's at the 40 45 he's at midfield down the far sideline still on his feet
20:32he's
20:32going all the way all year long right when you needed it at a key time in so many different
20:42pivotal
20:43ways jermaine lewis would step up and be that x factor to come up with two slam dunk hall of
20:54famers
20:55in the same year in the same round by way of jonathan ogden and ray lewis i don't know how
21:01often
21:01that's happened it's a rare time but that in itself would be a distinction they are the baltimore
21:07ravens since their inception the number five draft the 1986 san francisco 49ers one of our chief scouts
21:15after the draft said to other people that's the worst draft i've ever seen the great thing about
21:21walsh is that he had instincts that he trusted that very rarely let him down bill just had an eye
21:28for talent he was the first guy to me that mastered trading down bill walsh has been called a genius
21:36for drafting jerry rice ronnie lott and joe montana but his greatest draft was in 1986.
21:44in 86 walsh looked at the draft and he thought that it was pretty thin at the top we had
21:52larry roberts
21:53as the man we would pick but we thought well what the heck we might be able to get him
21:57in a second
21:57round now john mcmahon and i were on the phone throughout the draft people were willing to make
22:02trades and so we kept trading back trading back finally i said to bill i said coach we've got to
22:08pick somebody pretty soon or we're going to have every pick in the 12th round by the time the phones
22:13had stopped ringing bill walsh had turned eight draft choices into 14. eight players he drafted in 1986
22:21started at least one super bowl most of them started two in 88 and 89.
22:27on the 12th pick of the second round the 49ers made larry roberts a defensive end from alabama
22:33their first choice in rounds three and four walsh used the six draft choices he accumulated to get
22:40six starters tom rathman here's a fullback who is an outstanding blocker and strong runner but could
22:48catch yeah he could catch the ball which he needed to be on our offense i don't think anybody's ever
22:53drafted to the profile of his player as well as bill walsh just dragging tacklers again
23:03they were not a team in need of oh god we got to bring in all these guys today because
23:07we need
23:08immediate help although the two cornerbacks mckayor and griffin both wound up starting for them as rookies
23:13tim mckayor became a very good cover man they had mckayor and and don griffin on the other side and
23:19that was really the best pair of corners they'd had the number five draft class of all time had
23:25another third round selection wide receiver john taylor it was wonderful as a punt returner and a great
23:33complimentary wide receiver i mean i mean on most teams john taylor would have been a number one wide
23:37receiver to go back to the other side as pull down gets away goes to the 10 stumbles the 50
23:43jumps
23:43over right at the 20 he's out of front of magnificent return of 91 yards by john taylor
23:55in the fourth round the 49ers select the only hall of famer they drafted one team drafted one hall of
24:03famer and none of these guys are even close they shouldn't be top five on the list if you only
24:09draft one hall of famer and everybody else drafts multiple
24:13back to charles haley steve wallace and kevin fagan
24:23charles was a idea of defensive end long-armed guy you could be blocking him and he could reach around
24:29you and grab the quarterback and we were surprised he was there at that pick we took risks on injured
24:34players and fortunately for us they took they all turned out to be outstanding players steve wallace
24:39was a good example kevin fagan was a great example we were always looking for offensive linemen
24:45and we got a chance to get steve wallace who was a very big man and nifty for his size
24:51the 49ers had
24:52already won two super bowls in the early 80s with the addition of these eight starters the number five draft
24:57class of all time won two more in 1988 and 1989 it was probably one of the most productive drafts
25:16as
25:16far as getting pro bowl players and part of a highly successful team we're counting down the top 10
25:23draft classes of all time the 2006 saints draft class marched into new orleans and took them from
25:29last place to the nfc championship game and then they're gonna go to the nfc championship but a great
25:37draft class stands the test of time like this group from the frozen tundra the number four draft class of
25:45all time the 1958 green bay packers lombardi's packers had 10 hall of famers only one of those
25:55hall of famers was drafted by lombardi the seeds of packer greatness in the 1960s were planted in the
26:041950s by general manager of earn llewellyn when vince lombardi was still the offensive coordinator for the
26:10new york giants lombardi strength was not in recognizing talent lombardi strength was taking
26:16what he had and just driving those guys to be the best that they could be i'll tell you something
26:22leroy you're not going to get your job back unless we get a better performance
26:26with bart starr forrest gregg and paul hornig already in place the packers had their greatest draft
26:33in 1958 they had you draft jim taylor you draft i don't know who else you draft ray nischke you
26:45draft jerry kramer that's three names i don't know who else four great selections at the top of that
26:53draft they had the number three overall pick and it was dan curry defense captain dan curry from michigan
26:58state accepts the game football from the all-star queen miss lynn ann wescott curry was a good solid
27:04smart lineback their second round pick was a great fullback from lsu jim taylor his running style was
27:09that he could he could move and get away from it but he loved running over you the third round
27:14pick
27:14became ray nitschke nitschke came to personify the fierce physical nature of that packer defense
27:21ray nitschke ray nitschke was having fun he was just a great guy and he had a lot of fun
27:29and he played the game the way it was supposed to be played unfortunately he's a packer
27:35and the fourth round pick was a guard from idaho they took jerry kramer jerry kramer becomes really
27:41kind of the linchpin of of lombardi's signature offense which is the power sweep there's nothing
27:48unusual about the play it was a play that i picked
27:52running to daylight when lombardi took over the packers and he saw he had jerry kramer who was a
27:59great agile pulling guard and he had a running back like jim taylor who was a stomping fullback who could
28:06hit the line with with splintering force and yet also could really run to daylight and that was the
28:12theory of lombardi's power sweep if you look at this play what we're trying to get is a seal here
28:17and a seal here and try to run this play in the alley you had a great pulling guard
28:24leading a tough smart patient running fullback around the end that becomes the backbone of your
28:30offense really green bay offense is only as successful as the green bay sweep is
28:37the packers third round pick ray nitschke became the soul of their defense
28:43when ray came to green bay ray had developed a snarl much like a junkyard dog who's been kicked and
28:51had
28:51rocks thrown at and beaten on and ray was kind of protecting himself
28:56it was uncoachable that he was a guy with tremendous talent and tremendous fire
29:01but a guy was gonna be a problem we found out later that he was a wonderful warm
29:07a white human being but the first couple years he hid that very well every time i went in raymond's
29:14neighborhood on the field i buckled my hat and i got my forearm ready
29:21though lombardi can't take credit for drafting these players he can take credit for molding champions
29:28at 58 draft had to be uh you know a great draft for the green bay packers they're the guys
29:33that
29:34established the importance of winning led by vince lombardi who turned out to be one of the great
29:38coaches the number three draft class of all time the 1983 chicago bear i thought we drafted from
29:47me how many hall of famers in that draft did very well i thought what we needed we drafted
29:531983 was the year of the i could think of jimbo covert nobody else was really a hall of famer
30:00i don't know if richard dent was in that draft he drafted uh willie galt
30:09quarterback quarterback john elboy and quarterback while everyone was busy picking signal callers
30:15the bears drafted seven key starters for their 1985 championship team the bears pick on the first round
30:23jimbo culvert tackle pittsburgh
30:27i knew i had to have a left tackle to protect the quarterback he was as good as i've ever
30:31seen
30:32put him in day one he played like a man he's a heck of a football player the number three
30:37draft class
30:38of all time added two more starters to their offensive line in tom thayer and mark bortz there was one
30:45of
30:45the stalwarts on the best offensive line they've ever had in their 80 year history bortz who was a
30:50defensive player at college we moved an offense he had great feet they wanted to be a physical
30:55offensive football team they had walter payton and they wanted an offensive line that can control the
31:00game cuts back he's got it in my offensive line i was very proud of i would put him up
31:06against some
31:06of the great offensive lines that played in football the bears had a second first round pick and used it
31:12on a playmaker wide receiver willie galt from tennessee willie galt was key because when you have
31:20an offense that's based on running the football you need the ability to have explosive plays in the
31:25passing game his speed was such that when he was on the field he just if you don't you can
31:31see what
31:31happened before they drafted those guys they just stacked the box to stop walter payton
31:38because none of their quarterbacks were effective tilted the field i mean you couldn't ignore him
31:49we never threw the ball a whole lot willie was a great football player so willie galt was one of
31:53the best additions we made and it was addition we made based on what we needed we needed a speed
31:59wide
31:59receiver chicago also drafted mike richardson dave duerson and richard dent in 1983 when they were
32:08added to the defense it equaled 46. the 46 is a great philosophy the bottom line in anything you do
32:16is
32:16can you execute and these people gave us the ability to execute in that defense mike richardson had a great
32:22ability to read the quarterback and break on the ball dave duerson was a very versatile safety who could
32:28both be up at the line of scrimmage and attack mode and he could also be deeper and play both
32:33effectively dave was a smart guy back there who not only could play the run play the pass but that
32:38secondary was pretty darn good the biggest steal of the 1983 draft for the bears was their eighth
32:44round choice richard dent dent would go on to be the mvp of super bowl 20. richard dent was
32:52good and now he's a hall of famer that was like a diamond in the rough we thought he might
32:57be a
32:58linebacker and then when he balked up to 260 65 pounds he became a real force
33:11in 1985 the bears had one of the most dominating seasons in nfl history and the seven starters from
33:18the class of 1983 were right in the middle of it that particular draft for the bears laid the ground
33:24work for the great 85 team that draft class made us world champions period the dallas cowboys and their
33:32computer virtually invented modern drafting in 1975 the dirty dozen class brought in randy white and
33:38hollywood henderson they ended up with 12 guys to make the team but the cowboys greatest drafts were
33:45under jimmy johnson they were so good we couldn't pick just one the number two draft class of all
33:53time the 1991-1992 dallas cowboys there could have been better circumstances as far as me coming into
34:01this position but i would hope that people would be as excited about this organization about this
34:09football team is what i am he always believed on draft day that
34:18he was smarter than the rest of the gamblers at the table whenever he held the cards you knew
34:24he was going to move he was going to multiply it's a lot like going to las vegas and having
34:29extra money
34:31in your pocket as opposed to going out there with this week's paycheck that if you lose it the baby
34:37doesn't get a new pair of shoes at the height of his playing career dallas traded herschel walker to
34:44minnesota for five veterans and johnson did a terrific job realizing that he was going to build his
34:53team through the draft no team other than expansion team had ever had the multiple picks that we had
34:59and that was because of our herschel walker trade with many stars already aligned johnson used the second
35:07greatest draft class on our list to build half his super bowl starting lineup i wanted russell maryland we
35:14were going to be picking seriously half that's that's almost impossible and for probably anybody else
35:25somewhere i don't know fourth or fifth in the first round and so i want to make sure i was
35:29going to get
35:29russell even if it had to be the first pick in the draft but i said we're not going to
35:34pay first pick
35:34money and we were able to work this out the dallas cowboys have selected russell maryland throughout that
35:41draft i was able to take playmakers and that's what we were looking for as far as helping the team
35:46when the cowboys got into that 91 92 drafts they end up with nine nfl starters drafting russell
35:54maryland with the first pick in the 91 draft they draft elvin harper
36:05they draft dixon edward there you go dixon that's the way to stick it in there nice job of wrapping
36:13what do you mean whoop stick it in there i don't i don't want to stick it in there
36:21they pick up eric williams leon glatt larry brown
36:29they get kevin smith
36:36they get robert jones and if that wasn't enough then they pick up some guy named darren woodson
36:42nine guys in two drafts it's amazing that you pick up guys like that and they actually
36:47drafted jimmy smith also now he never started for the cowboys but he goes on to become the
36:53all-time leading receiver for the jacksonville jaguars though jimmy smith never worked out for
36:58the number two draft class of all time several other late round picks did we were able to get
37:04some good players late in the draft that's where the real value is when we get the leon
37:08letts and the larry browns leon let brought the ball down there he was almost six six six seven as
37:14a
37:14point guard and basketball at his junior college one of the assistant coaches was watching this
37:19basketball game and he goes who's that and it's like well that's leon let he plays football too
37:23they got to the seventh round they take leon let
37:29anybody that tells you that in the 12th round that scouting prevail is misleading they had to take
37:36somebody in the 12th round super bowl mvp and they got him at a low low price all right and
37:44it was
37:44like you know what let's just take somebody who's close so we don't have to pay for him to come
37:49in
37:49this kid at tcu larry brown the cornerback let's bring him in we wanted a defensive back that had
37:55speed larry brown had speed at training camp he got so discouraged he walks out of camp they encourage
38:02him to come back becoming not only a starting cornerback in the national football league but a
38:06super bowl mvp four wide receivers here's a pass in the flat picked up by the cowboys larry brown may
38:12score at the 30 20 10 out of bounds at the six yard line the cowboys 1991 and 1992 draft
38:27classes produced
38:27nine starters and by the end of the 1992 season our number two class had helped dallas win the first
38:35of three super bowls
38:42those drafts those were pretty stout and i think you saw the results of what they did it was a
38:48remarkable
38:49run but it was a run because they had some talent here the number one draft class of all time
38:59the
39:011974 pittsburgh steelers it's the greatest of all time not only is it the greatest of all time it's not
39:06even close if there's a better one i want to see it though the steelers were successful in the early
39:1270s
39:12it was the 1974 draft class that turned them into a dynasty chuck knoll came in 1969 they got joe
39:21green
39:21that kicked off everything believe me there was a pretty good basis with guys like bradshaw and green
39:26and franco and ham but that 74 team propelled that to spin it into a great team super bowl 13
39:35captured by
39:36the pittsburgh steelers when chuck knoll came into 1969 he sat down with art rooney jr and they decided
39:45they would build through the draft they had hired bill nunn a year before bill nunn was their x factor
39:52with black schools in the south that weren't highly scouted even though they had great athletes and had
39:57already produced some good players
40:02when draft day arrived in 1974 a player from one of the small black colleges was on top of chuck
40:08knoll's draft board that's how they stole stalwart they had his film and other teams didn't
40:16chuck knoll wanted john stalwart in the first round we said now we think we can get this guy
40:21later the scouts convinced chuck that stalwart would be there later that if they didn't grab swan
40:27in the first round somebody else would pittsburgh on the first round selects lynn swan wide receiver
40:34southern california the second was jack lambert from kent state pass intercepted picked off by
40:40jack lambert at the 15 yard line they came out the fourth and i said stalwart and all just joking
40:47said like up and done stalwart as is his man redshaw hesitates and then throws deep for stalwart
40:52in the end zone touchdown pittsburgh johnny stalwart and the fifth pick was mike webster another player
41:00from that 1974 draft year is donnie shell they signed him as a free agent rookie that year
41:09lynn swan brought with him that trojan attitude he wasn't a real big guy but he sure had the
41:15compensating factors of the greatest leaping ability he ever seen rumor has it the reason that stalwart
41:23slipped to the fourth round is because the steelers refused to share his college film so bill nunn
41:29went back to alabama a m where john stalwart played and they gave him the film the coach had given
41:35none
41:35the instructions we were allowed to keep it for seven days move this film on so we watched it two
41:41weeks
41:41have gone by and the film is still there and i go in they're still watching the film and the
41:45steelers told them well we're looking for it here we'll see if we can find it they may not admit
41:49this
41:49but they purposely kept that film back so the other teams couldn't see it thus the mystery of john
41:54stalwart continued and the steelers snapped them up he pulls it in at the 30 the 20 the 10 the
42:005 and it's
42:01a touchdown for pittsburgh where'd you stick his ass that'll cool your ass off what you've seen of jack
42:09lambert on films down through the years is all true for that three three and a half hour period
42:16on a sunday afternoon he was not a human being lambert was a tough guy get the hell out of
42:23there
42:23he was so tough that one scout said he got hair in his eyeballs one of the steelers scouts as
42:28legend
42:29has it they were practicing one day on a gravel parking lot because of weather jack lambert comes
42:35up he's diving around comes up picking gravel out of his legs and the steelers just thought this guy
42:42was the total ultimate gamer i remember he came in the locker room it's towards the end of our rookie
42:47season and jack walked by and my locker was near the door and he goes hey swan you should have
42:52been
42:52number two i should have been number one and just walked away but that was jack
42:59though they're actually
43:05though uh mike lefster should have probably been higher too
43:10number one on our list four seems to be a popular number for the 1974 steelers draft class
43:17they won four championships in six years the pittsburgh steelers are the champions of the
43:22national football league for the fourth time the term dynasty is used there and i think it's correct
43:28why were the steeler teams of the 70s so good uh because we wanted to win everything and four of
43:35them are in the hall of fame to hit four hall of famers when no team is drafted more than
43:41two in one class
43:43it's just uh well not only is it unprecedented i really don't think you'll ever see it again
43:49four hall of famers and four picks that's a class no one has been able to repeat who knows
43:56someday it may happen again until then the 1974 steelers will be at the top of our list