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The NFL Draft is one of the most anticipated events on the calendar for football aficionados, with the latest group of potential superstars all finding their way into the NFL.
We see legends emerge from the later rounds, with none bigger or more successful than Tom Brady, selected in the sixth round.
Antonio Gates had a Hall of Fame career, having been selected to the Pro Bowl eight times, despite going undrafted in 2003.
But what of those who are tipped for greatness? The players who are selected as the best performing prospect at the collegiate level, the Heisman Trophy winners?
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The NFL Draft has seen a number of Heisman Trophy winners go on to be fantastic in the league, fulfilling their potential and more.
Who are the 5 best Heisman winners selected in the NFL Draft?
5. Joe Burrow: Quarterback, 2019 Heisman Trophy Winner
As one of the most recent Heisman Trophy winners, you may be wondering how Burrow is already one of the best, yet the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has everything to become a Hall of Famer.
After failing to earn a starting spot at Ohio State, Burrow transfered to LSU, where his simply stunning performances earned him Heisman recognition.
In 2019 Burrow led LSU to a national championship, throwing for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns. It was quite an incredible feat, and it saw the Bengals take him with the first overall selection in the NFL Draft of 2020.
What followed has been even better, with Burrow breaking the record for most pass completions in a single game by a rookie, as well as recovering from a serious knee injury to take the Bengals to the Super Bowl.
He is the franchise player in Cincinnati and will be for a long time to come. He is exactly what you want from a first-round quarterback and will only get better. This fact must be scary for the rest of the AFC.
4. Lamar Jackson: Quarterback, 2016 Heisman Trophy Winner
In three years with the University of Louisville, Lamar Jackson was an athletic phenomenon.
While registering acceptable numbers from a throwing perspective, it was his ability to rush from under center which earned him Heisman recognition in 2016.
In 13 starts for Louisville in 2016 Jackson was able to rush for 1,571 yards and score 21 rushing touchdowns himself.
For context, this is just 32 yards short of what Christian McCaffrey put up in the same college season, and he was the best running back in the draft. Jackson also scored eight more touchdowns than the future Carolina Panther.
Critics were worried about whether Jackson was too unorthodox an athlete to succeed as a quarterback in the NFL, with his throwing mechanics being far from perfect.
Yet, under the tutelage of John Harbaugh, he has become the face of the franchise in Baltimore after being selected with the 32nd pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
It didn’t take Jackson long to settle into the NFL, having been named the NFL MVP for the 2019 season, which was his first as a guaranteed starter with the Ravens.
Not only did he break the NFL record for rushing yards as a quarterback, but he was also the league leader in throwing touchdowns.
Two Pro Bowl appearances later, Jackson is one of the NFL’s biggest stars, and his best is still yet to come. At age 25, Jackson will be around for years to come and is likely to have a Hall of Fame career.
3, Charles Woodson: Cornerback, 1997 Heisman Trophy Winner
The Heisman trophy is an award that has been dominated by offensive players, so you can imagine the excitement when, in 1997, Charles Woodson became the first and only primarily defensive player to take home the award.
Playing as a cornerback for the University of Michigan, Woodson was a prodigy in the true sense of the word ahead of his selection.
Having recorded seven interceptions in the 1997 college season, Woodson’s athleticism attracted the Oakland Raiders, who selected him with the fourth pick of the 1998 NFL Draft.
An 18-year career followed, in which Woodson became a reference point in his position, as well as shining as a safety at times.
He won a single Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers in 2010, as well as winning the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2009.
To end his career, Woodson would return to Oakland and spend three seasons there, not missing a single game.
He caught 65 interceptions in his NFL career, which is the fifth most in league history and also holds the record for the most career defensive touchdowns with 13.
As a defensive player, Woodson couldn’t have achieved any more, at least from an individual perspective. He more than lived up to his potential and proved the Heisman voters right.
2, Roger Staubach: Quarterback, 1963 Heisman Trophy Winner
It’s difficult to assess Roger Staubach's collegiate career because it was too different a system to the one we now recognize.
In his 1963 Heisman winning season, Staubach threw for just 1,474 yards and seven touchdowns and is the last player from a military academy to win the award.
Selected as a tenth-round selection in the 1964 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys, Staubach was also selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1964 AFL Draft.
His legacy is that of one of the first modern stars of the sport in the sense we would recognize today.
He retired in March 1980 with the highest career passing rating in NFL history and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985.
His scoring drives were iconic, as was his value to the Cowboys setting themselves up as the most popular sports team in the United States of America.
The term Hail Mary pass is even a legacy of Staubach’s career, as he uttered a Hail Mary prayer as the he threw a last-second 50-yard pass in a 1975 playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings.
In 2010, Staubach was named as the no.1 Dallas Cowboy of all time by the Dallas Morning News, highlighting just what he meant to the city.
Staubach won two Super Bowl titles with Dallas, as well as being the MVP in the 1971 Super Bowl win over Miami.
1, Barry Sanders: Running Back, 1988 Heisman Trophy Winner
No player is more synonymous with a franchise than Barry Sanders is with the Detroit Lions.
His 1988 Heisman Trophy came after a stunning season in which he rushed for 2,628 yards and 37 touchdowns.
This brought to an end a collegiate career with Oklahoma State that saw him rush for 3,797 yards in total and score 52 rushing touchdowns.
Sanders was prolific, you just couldn’t tackle him and he was set to be one of the most desirable players in the 1989 draft.
He beat Troy Aikman to the Heisman in 1988, showing just how impactful he was for Oklahoma State.
Detroit became his home and Sanders was an instant hit, rushing for 1,470 yards in his rookie year and scoring 14 touchdowns.
He would play for a total of 10 seasons in the NFL, leading the league in rushing yards on four occasions, including a stunning 1997 season in which he rushed for 2,053 yards and won the MVP award.
He was the Offensive Player of the Year in both 1994 and 1997 and is the greatest player to ever play for the Lions.
Sanders had no frills, he was just productive. There is a reason why he is one of the most widely popular players in NFL history, he just did his job and did it stunningly well.
The #3 pick in 1989 never had a season in which he rushed for less than 1,100 yards, and he has the most seasons with 1,500 or more yards with him achieving that feat five times.
Sanders is the greatest running back to ever play the game, and his Heisman Trophy award was a perfect prediction of the success he would have in the NFL.
