NFL Draft: Peter Warrick over Jamal Lewis named one of biggest misses

There was a time when you didn’t bet against Tennessee football players in the NFL Draft. At the turn of the century, the Vols loaded the pros with top-notch talent at every position, and some of them have become the greatest pro Vols in history.

One of these players was Jamal Lewis, who left early after his junior year. Lewis was the fifth pick of the draft, taken by the Baltimore Ravens. However, one analyst says that he should have actually gone higher.

Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports named the Cincinnati Bengals taking Florida State Seminoles wide receiver Peter Warrick with the fourth pick that year over Lewis one of the nine biggest NFL Draft blunders in recent history. Here’s a bit of what he wrote about that pick.

"While it may have been tough to imagine the Bengals selecting a running back after already having Corey Dillon on the roster at the time, had they brought in Jamal Lewis, they’d be looking at one talented backfield. Lewis was selected right after Warrick by the Bengals’ then-AFC Central rivals in the Baltimore Ravens."

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Obviously, Lewis went on to have the bigger career. He immediately became the starter and helped the Ravens capture the Super Bowl title as a rookie. Three years later, he joined the rare 2,000-yard rushing club while also setting the single-game rushing record against the Cleveland Browns, which has since been broken.

Over the course of his 10-year career, Lewis had 10,607 rushing yards and 58 rushing touchdowns. He had seven 1,000-plus yard seasons and made a Pro Bowl. We should note that he also had 1,879 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

Warrick, on the other hand, spent five years in Cincinnati and one year with the Seattle Seahawks. He never reached 900 yards receiving, although he still had two career punt return touchdowns. Still, his career did not pan out the way Lewis’ did.

This wasn’t the first time a UT player was overlooked in favor of Warrick either. In the 1998 national championship game, Warrick had all the hype heading in. He only had one catch, though, while Peerless Price, his counterpart, had 199 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Dwayne Goodrich, who was guarding Warrick, had more interception return yards in the 1999 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl than Warrick had receiving yards, and his pick-six meant he had more touchdowns as well. Lewis, ironically, didn’t play in that game due to a season-ending injury suffered earlier in the year.

Simply put, though, the Vols have always had guys shine over Warrick while Warrick had more hype. This NFL Draft was just one bit of evidence of that. Also, Lewis and Dillon in the backfield, as Sullivan wrote, would have been something to see.