Three former No. 1 overall picks will be playing for a different NFL team in 2021 than the one who drafted them with the top pick in their respective draft.
The NFL rewards teams who struggle, as the team with the worst record at season’s end earns the top pick in the next year’s draft, giving them an opportunity to get the best young talent for the next season. Most of the time, it’s a quarterback taken with the top pick, but not always. Sometimes there’s not a quarterback worth taking with the first overall pick.
This offseason has seen some movement from previous No. 1 picks, as three taken between 2009-2016 are no longer donning the uniform that they wore their rookie year and up through this point.
Prior to this offseason, Matthew Stafford was the longest-tenured No. 1 pick with the team who drafted him, having spent 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions. Stafford accomplished little with the Lions as far as winning goes, but he threw for 45,109 yards and 282 touchdowns during his 12 years at the helm in the Motor City.
Stafford was traded to the Rams this offseason and LA has a lot of expectations for the former Georgia quarterback. For the first time in his career, he has a legitimate shot to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Remember earlier how I mentioned that quarterbacks aren’t always the No. 1 pick? Eric Fisher was a prime example of that, as that year’s draft class was dreadful and the Chiefs felt Fisher was the best player available.
Fisher spent eight years with the Chiefs, making the playoffs in all but one season and winning a Super Bowl in the 2019 campaign. He was released this offseason after suffering an Achilles injury and likely not being able to play in 2021 and the Chiefs needed to get under the salary cap.
The 2016 NFL Draft had two quarterbacks at the top of the draft and two teams actually moved into those No. 1 and 2 spots in order to ensure they landed one of the two. Jared Goff went No. 1 overall to the Rams and was pretty good for them, helping them make a Super Bowl in the 2018 season, only to lose to the Patriots.
I mentioned that Goff was “pretty good”, but pretty good wasn’t enough for Sean McVay, who opted to trade for Stafford instead. Goff is now off to Detroit, as the two franchises swapped former No. 1 overall picks to see if that’d put them in a better place.
Three former top picks in the NFL Draft are moving on from the teams who drafted them.
Now that these three players are no longer with their respective teams, Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns is now the longest-tenured No. 1 pick with the team who drafted him. Garrett was the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns and recently signed a five-year extension, keeping him in Cleveland through 2026.
Garrett’s extension keeps him with Cleveland, but will Baker Mayfield be the next former top pick to sign a big deal or will he be moving elsewhere after this year? Kyler Murray appears to be the guy for the Cardinals, but a playoff berth needs to happen to ensure he stays in Arizona. Joe Burrow is only one year into his career, so we probably won’t see him move anytime soon.
Three former No. 1 overall picks getting moved/released in one offseason isn’t normal, but this clearly isn’t a normal offseason.