10 best NFL Draft picks in Tennessee football history
Tennessee football is one of several SEC institutions with a laundry list of greats at the NFL level, but Rocky Top stands alone with one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever lace up a pair of cleats and one of the greatest punishers in the defensive trenches in league history.
The Volunteers may not produce as many first-round draft picks as they used to, but Tennessee’s mark on pro football’s lore is secured in the household names who have traded in the creamsicle colors for an NFL jersey.
Here are the 10 best NFL Draft picks in Tennessee football history
Baltimore Ravens. Jamal Lewis. 10. player. 26. . RB
No. 10 best NFL Draft pick in Tennessee football history: Jamal Lewis
2000 NFL Draft: Round 1, Pick 5
Baltimore Ravens, 2000–2006
Cleveland Browns, 2007–2009
Jamal Lewis had the distinction of being a champion in the NFL and on Rocky Top, helping lead the Volunteers to the 1998 BCS National Championship in a historic Tennessee backfield (more on that later) and being the Ravens offense’s driving force in a Trent Dilfer-led Super Bowl XXXV champion offense.
An ACL tear in his second season likely shortened what would go on to be an NFL All-Decade career at running back, but Lewis was still able to reach the top of his game during the 2003 season — one in which he led the league in rushing and was named Offensive Player of the Year.