This offseason I am taking a position-by-position look at the best NFL draft values of the millennium: In short, which teams received the most bang for their draft-pick buck?
Higher draft picks were not dismissed for this exercise, but I tended to side with the highest-achieving lower selections. Extra weight was also given to longevity and the value those players provided for the teams that drafted them.
Pass rushers are clearly very high on the NFL food chain, often ranking just below quarterbacks in terms of positional importance. It's therefore not much of a surprise that any list of the league's best pass rushers (regardless of draft pedigree) is going to be littered with many former first-round picks.
Not surprisingly, some big names didn't make the cut, including former first-rounder Cameron Jordan. I also omitted Trey Hendrickson, who was a third-round pick of the Saints, yet much of his big production has come since joining the Bengals. Saints fans might hold those two against me, but I would encourage them to check out the rest of this series, which features plenty of their fine draft work.
Drafted: Round 5 (No. 138 overall), 2003.
Mathis qualifies as one of the great all-time draft values, emerging from the flotsam and jetsam of the latter rounds to become a Colts legend. He was one of the most prolific pass rushers in SWAC history, racking up 20 sacks, 32 tackles for loss and 10 forced fumbles during his senior season at Alabama A&M but had trouble earning attention from the NFL, which roundly viewed him as too small at 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds.
But the Colts took a chance on the smaller-school rusher early in Round 5 and were richly rewarded. Mathis became the master of the strip sack, totaling 123 sacks and an NFL-record 54 forced fumbles in a brilliant 14-year career, spent entirely in Indianapolis. His career improved as it went along, too, going from a pass-rush specialist and Dwight Freeney’s sidekick to one of the league’s better defenders. Mathis’ 2013 season (21.5 sacks, 12 forced fumbles, including playoffs) was as good a campaign as almost any pass rusher has had in the past several decades.
The 2003 draft saw Terrell Suggs slip to the 10th pick after a poor combine workout, and Osi Umenyiora lasted until the 56th selection. But Mathis, a five-time Pro Bowler and one-time first-team All-Pro, ended up as the best value in that class, authoring what remains a criminally underrated career.
Drafted: Round 4 (No. 106 overall), 2019.
Mike Mayock’s first draft with the Raiders provided some surprising picks and some disappointing ones. But few modern-day general managers have been able to pluck a Day 3 talent at the same caliber as Crosby in their maiden drafts.
After sliding in the draft until the early fourth round, Crosby hit the ground running as a rookie, finishing second to No. 2 overall pick Nick Bosa for Defensive Rookie of the Year. In fact, their careers grade out fairly similarly since then, too, with Crosby earning four Pro Bowls and being named second-team All-Pro twice, while providing comparable production in spite of being taken more than 100 spots after Bosa.
Crosby’s high-energy, heart-on-his-sleeve style has made him a fan favorite, even for some struggling Raiders teams. The 2024 season saw Crosby miss games due to injury for the first time in his NFL career, but he remains at the peak of his powers heading into his age-28 season and figures to be among the leading candidates for Comeback Player of the Year in 2025.
Drafted: Round 1 (No. 30 overall), 2017.
The strong 2017 draft featured some serious pass-rush heft, including the likes of Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson and Haason Reddick. But sitting atop the current sack standings from that group is Watt, who barely cracked the first round in spite of his brother, J.J., having already won three Defensive Player of the Year awards by then.
Our only first-rounder on the list, Watt slid because of college injury questions, along with only one year of production at Wisconsin. But it was clear early on, with Watt becoming a productive rookie starter in Pittsburgh, that he’d outplay his draft slot. By his second season, Watt began a still-active streak of seven straight Pro Bowl invites, simultaneously earning four first-team All-Pro honors. He also has finished in the top five of Defensive Player of the Year voting five times in his eight NFL seasons, winning the award in 2021.
Watt is sitting at 108 sacks, 126 tackles for loss and 33 forced fumbles entering his age-31 season -- all good for top-35 placements all time in those statistics. Whether he holds out amid contract negotiations prior to what looks like an all-in season for the Steelers is a topic for another forum, but the work Watt has produced to this point has made him a natural fit for my value list, especially when you consider some of the pass rushers who went ahead of him (Taco Charlton, anyone?).
Drafted: Round 4 (No. 126 overall), 2004.
The cowboy hat-wearing Allen was an instant hit for the Chiefs after being a late fourth-rounder out of Idaho State -- a school that hasn’t produced another Pro Bowler or All-Pro before or since Allen. He lassoed quarterbacks for 136 sacks in his career, also adding an impressive 32 forced fumbles, 19 recoveries and six interceptions. Allen is also tied for the NFL’s all-time lead in safeties, with four, although they all came during his time in Minnesota.
The primary reason Allen ranks fourth on this list -- and not higher -- is because he only spent four of his 12 seasons in Kansas City, with some of his finest seasons coming during six years with the Vikings. The Chiefs received draft picks from Minnesota in return that would turn into Branden Albert and Jamaal Charles -- which wasn't of equal value, necessarily, but those were respected, multi-year standouts.
Allen’s Hall of Fame career (he'll be enshrined in August) is beyond debate. Contributing immediately -- and doing so as an unheralded prospect -- vaulted him to early fame with the Chiefs, and even though his body of work came largely with other teams, he’s still considered one of the better draft steals in recent lore. The 2004 draft is best known for the quarterbacks up top (SEE: Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger), but Allen currently is the only HOFer from that class.
Drafted: Round 3 (No. 70 overall), 2011.
Houston just edged out Elvis Dumervil for the final spot. If you weigh them side by each, Houston did just a little more for the team that drafted him and was a bit more of a well-rounded player, even if he came a round earlier in their respective drafts.
The massive-framed Houston was coming off a 10-sack season at Georgia and tested very well at the combine but slipped to Round 3 of the 2011 draft. By the end of his rookie season, though, it was clear he should have gone much higher. Houston would rack up 112 sacks, 19 forced fumbles, five picks and four safeties (tied for the most ever) -- most of which came during his Kansas City days.
Interestingly, the Houston pick was a throw-in for the Chiefs moving down five slots in Round 1, in a trade that involved Phil Taylor going to the Browns and Jonathan Baldwin going to K.C. Both were notable busts who never fulfilled their potential, but picking Houston two rounds later would make the Chiefs massive winners of that deal.
