Tennessee football: Ranking Vols 5 first round NFL Draft picks this decade
Tennessee football has had five players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft in the 2010s. Here is a ranking of those five former Volunteers.
In the past, Tennessee football made a name for itself in the NFL Draft, and they would stock up the first round with talent. After all, they had 10 first round picks in the 2000s, 12 in the 1990s and nine in the 1980s.
Simply put, they loaded up the first round, and multiple times, they would have three first-rounders in one year. That was a testament to the success they had and the talent they produced during that time period.
But as the final NFL Draft of this decade got underway, the Vols were almost certainly not going to have any first round picks this year. That leaves the total number of former Tennessee football players taken in the first round this decade at five.
The Vols haven’t been this light on first round draft picks since the 1970s, showing how far they fell this decade from the program that Johnny Majors built and Phillip Fulmer maintained. In fact, two of their five first rounders selected this decade actually only played in the 2000s, and when you take that into account, their numbers parallel the 1970s.
However, this decade has still produced some talent, as we showed with those draft picks. So it’s worth noting that they deserve to be touted for still representing Rocky Top well in the pros, and we’re going to do that in this post.
Yes, knowing that no more first-rounders will go, it’s time to rank the five former Vols taken in the first round this decade by their NFL careers. We may be cheating with two of the players ending their college careers in 2009, but they were still taken this decade.
Our criteria takes into account their pro careers, but we also throw in a bit of potential in there the rest of the way, as most of these guys are still playing. So let’s break them down. Here are the five Tennessee football players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft this decade.