Tennessee football: Top 10 Vols who weren’t first round NFL Draft picks

Tennessee football had no players taken in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. But plenty of Volunteers drafted later have had great pro careers.

It was a shock to nobody that Tennessee football had nobody taken in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday. However, the result was still embarrassing considering the event was being held in Nashville.

Either way, though, that’s been the nature of the Vols this decade. Their lack of college production has translated to fewer and fewer names being called out on draft day, something that was unheard of for this program in the 1990s.

But it’s not all bad news. Tennessee football has a history, even up to this decade, of producing high-quality NFL talent with guys not taken in the first round. In fact, they could have a chance to do that this year, especially with defensive linemen like Kyle Phillips, Alexis Johnson and Shy Tuttle.

In the past, UT has had second and third rounders, late rounders, undrafted free agents and supplemental draft picks all make a name for themselves in the NFL. So it’s far from over for this draft class.

Let’s look back at some examples. In this post, we’re going to rank the Vols who had the greatest NFL careers despite not being taken in the first round. To be clear, this does not take their college careers into account. In fact, lack of enough college production could be a reason some of these guys weren’t taken higher in the pros.

We’ll analyze the number of years these guys played and the overall success they had at their position. To nobody’s surprise, there will be plenty of players who were very successful and made a huge impact representing Rocky Top.

So let’s go ahead and break down all the guys we’re talking about. These are the top 10 former Tennessee football players who had great pro careers despite not being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.