Tennessee football: Top five NFL careers of Vols drafted in final round

Peyton Manning, Marcus Nash, Leonard Little, Jonathan Brown and Terry Fair were the famous names departing from Tennessee football’s 1997 SEC Championship team, a reason the 1998 team was expected to rebuild. However, Trey Teague was the center, so his departure was a major hit as well. But like Jeff Smith, blockers in college for Manning didn’t always get their due.

Anyway, Teague fell to the seventh round and the 200th pick. He and Nash were both joining a Denver Broncos team that had just won the Super Bowl, but Nash was taken in the first round with much higher expectations. Well, it turned out that the 6’5″ 300-pound lineman would be the more successful of the two in the pros.

Teague didn’t playin 1998, but as the Broncos began to rebuild in 1999, drafting another UT legend in Al Wilson, he appeared in 16 games, starting in four. Two years later, Teague became a regular starter in the pros. After spending four years in Denver as a tackle, Teague moved to Buffalo and became the center for the Bills, blocking for Travis Henry.

While in Buffalo, Teague started every game for four years. The last team he signed with was the New York Jets. Teague finished his eight-year career appearing in 94 games and starting in 80 of them, so it’s safe to say he worked out as a late-round draft pick.