Tennessee football: Top 10 NFL careers of Vols taken in second round

This one was a very close call between linebacker Carl Zander and Travis Henry. As a two-time 100-plus tackler in 1983 and 1984 with Tennessee football en route to a 1984 All-SEC season, Carl Zander was a solid producer. He and Henry both spent seven years in the pros.

Zander’s was all with the Cincinnati Bengals, and even started in the team’s Super Bowl loss to the San Francisco 49ers. On top of that, he played 106 games and started in 92 of them during that seven-year run, while Henry played in only 90 and started in just 69 games. However, Henry made a Pro Bowl, something that is significant enough to just slightly give him the edge.

As the Vols’ all-time leading rusher in college and a national champion, Henry was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the second round of 2001. A 5’9″ 215-pound power back, he spent the first four years of his career in Buffalo and made that Pro Bowl in 2002 while breaking 1,400 yards that year and then  breaking 1,300 yards the following year.

After Buffalo, Henry spent two years with the Tennessee Titans, where he helped with Vince Young’s development and then broke 1,000 yards for a third time with 1,211 in 2006. Then he finished his career in Denver in 2007. Henry had 6,068 rushing yards and 38 touchdowns for his career along with another 951 receiving yards and two touchdowns.