The NFL Draft is one of the greatest risks for any team. All it takes is one wrong move for a franchise to go from contenders to bottom dwellers and vice versa. No general manager wants to be the guy who traded up to get a bust while missing out on a future superstar. It’s easy to see guys in the first or even second rounds who could have gone for different teams and those squads grousing on it.
What's even more amazing is how some of the biggest talents didn’t go in the first round. In fact, some fell all the way to bottom round before they were finally taken as afterthoughts. It’s bizarre to see these future Hall of Famers going for such a low number and many a team kicking themselves at missing them. While some are more famous than others, these are the 10 biggest draft steals in history to prove it’s not always the top guys who go onto the biggest fame in the NFL.
10 Richard Sherman (Round 5, Pick 184)
Try to imagine the Seahawks and their “Legion of Boom” without Richard Sherman. It almost happened as despite winning accolades at Stanford, Sherman fell to the fifth round in 2011. Sherman himself is still ticked he went that low and it’s hard to blame him given how his career turned out.
A five-time Pro Bowler who led the league in interceptions in 2013, Sherman was a key reason Seattle got to two Super Bowls and led the league in scoring defense twice. Even if his last few years haven’t been as great, Sherman’s earlier work shows he was right being mad he went so low in the first place.
9 Willie Davis (Round 15, Pick 181)
Back in the 1950s, it wasn’t uncommon for a guy picked in the draft to be unable to take part because of military commitments. Willie Davis was a good example as that, combined with a so-so college career, meant he went to the 15th round in 1956 and didn’t play for the Browns until 1958.
Cleveland traded him to Green Bay in 1960 and Davis blossomed into the backbone of the Packers defense that helped win five NFL titles, including the first two Super Bowls. While sacks weren’t counted as a stat back then, Davis holds the record for those and most recovered fumbles in Packers history to make him a great steal.
