Clemson's Trevor Lawrence went 52-2 as a starter at Cartersville High, winning two state titles. More Local News to Love Start today for 50% off Expires 3/6/23. . Bottom line:The U may not have the same prestige it had at the turn of the century, but there is no denying Miamis presence in the NFL. - Notre Dame, USC, and Ohio State are the schools with the most NFL players in history and the only colleges who have produced 400+ NFL players. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Historically, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania have been hotbeds for football talent. Finally, we broke out every player by position and school to find which schools have produced the most players at specific positions for every NFL team. 1 in health, wealth and education? A new, thorough study confirms what I have long contended to be true. Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. Even with Aikman, Oklahoma has fewer Hall of Famers than Morgan State, San Francisco and Jackson State, all schools with fewer than 100 NFL players. SEC schools continually churn out the most NFL talent. 64 overall) of the San Diego Chargers in the 1973 NFL draft. After starring at Snider High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Woodson stayed close to home and became an All-American for the Boilermakers. 2023 www.clarionledger.com. For the Cardinals, this means that Georgia Tech and Duke footballers last the longest with the franchise at nearly four seasons on average. Yet the Panthers also have the third-most Pro Football Hall of Famers of any football program, pointing to the pull of Pittsburgh for top talent in Western Pennsylvania. You make the call. Bottom line:The Auburn Tigers are not currently considered an SEC powerhouse, but it wasn't that long ago when they were. Both J.J. Watt and Russell Wilson started their college careers elsewhere, then ended their playing days suiting up for the red and white of the Wisconsin Badgers. His work as a syndicated columnist and celebrated sports writer has appeared in numerous magazines, periodicals and newspapers. 1 overall picks and 6,532 TD passes. Heres the breakdown: There are three colleges that have dominated Florida football for decades. With 14 cities producing at least four players on Kickoff Weekend rosters, Texas surpassed Florida to lead the league in home states. Colleges with the most NFL players all time . Of the 16 Tigers to make at least one All-Pro first team, 11 were offensive players including Hall of Famers Y.A. Did you also know that the streak started a dozen years before the NFL was founded so none of the players on those teams made it to the league? They have won just two conference titles in the last 35 years, and of their 61 Pro Bowl players, only one was drafted in the last 15 years (Vontae Davis, 2009). The second-most populous state, Texas also leads the country in a key formula component -- Division I football programs -- with 21, seven more than any other state. But well take what we can get. The Buckeye never have had a Pro Bowl quarterback, never had a QB start all 16 games in an NFL season and never even had one throw for 3,000 yards in a season. Thats a no-brainer. Arkansas (274) 24. The city of Miami has more NFL players than any other city, and these players just arent your run-of-the-mill second and third-stringers. A study conducted by Grand Canyon University found that Notre Dame has produced the most players in NFL history, with 495 of the league's 25,453 all-time players coming out of the school. Ohio, a traditional Midwest football-mad state, is fifth on the list in terms of NFL players. North Dakota State's Trey Lance could be the first Minnesota QB selected in the first round. Bottom line: Youll notice a trend with nearly all of the schools on this list most reside in small college towns and outside of major cities. Notre Dame, USC, and Ohio State have produced 400 or more NFL players in history. But the Texas total computes to only 8.5 players per 100,000, about one-third of what Mississippi has produced. LSU's 3 permanent rivals for 9-game SEC schedule have been set, per report, Quinten Dormady, former Tennessee QB, under playbook investigation in XFL, Alabama basketball adds commitment from 4-star forward, Billy Napier addresses Florida staff openings at start of spring practice, BetMGM Massachusetts Bonus Code: How to Claim the $200 Bonus Bet Offer This Weekend, FanDuel Massachusetts Promo: Pre-Launch Special Scores $100 in Bonus Bets, Jalin Hyatt impresses in limited NFL Combine showing, WynnBET Mass Promo Code: How to Claim Big Value with Pre-Launch Bonus, BetMGM UFC 285 Promo Code: Claim $1,000 First Bet Offer on Any Fight, Texas A&M punctuates impressive SEC season with upset of No. Florida was also the home of superstars like Dalvin Cook, Amari Cooper, Lavonte David, Derrick Henry, Calvin Ridley and Matthew Stafford. Jim Druckenmiller. The state of Mississippi has placed the most players in the NFL capita, according to a by Sidelines. Heres the full chart that Feldman shared on Twitter below: The District of Columbia, with one NFL player for every 54,702 residents, has the most NFL players per capita. The Alabama Crimson Tide has produced the most NFL players out of all college football teams. With the 2020 season officially underway, CBS unveiled an incredible graphic that shows which states produce the most NFL players. Bottom line:1980 was a landmark year for the Georgia Bulldogs football program as they claimed their first national championship while riding the legs of Herschel Walker. Colorado . And while not everyone can get their name called to start a professional football career, everyone can set themselves up for a successful career in another field with the help of a quality education like the one you will receive at Grand Canyon University. Florida ranked third with 149. We also looked at career length to find which colleges players have the longest average careers on different NFL teams. It's no surprise the schools that dominate on Saturdays see their alumni playing on Sundays. Bottom line:While many of the aforementioned schools have had recent success but not decades of winning, the exact opposite can be said for Nebraska. Bottom line:Flordia had recent success under Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, but doesnt have decades of dominance under its belt and didnt become an elite program until the 1990s. Try selecting a different location. North Carolina State has never been to a BCS bowl and hasn't won an ACC title since 1979. A cleveland.com review of opening week rosters found Florida leads with the way with 193 players, based on the place of birth of each player. Beyond that local rooting interest, there is at least one Grand Canyon graduate that has a major impact on the fortunes of an NFL franchise, even if most of his work takes place away from the field. Every April, a new crop of young men try to make the leap from college to the pros where they will try to carve out a career for themselves in the NFL. Thats more than much larger states such as New York (7) and New Jersey (6). All 11 of the school's conference championships have come under Spurrier and Meyer, who made Gainesville a pipeline to the NFL unlike previous coaches. So we set out to determine what state produces the most NFL players. Bottom line:No list about football would be complete without the state of Texas, and the Longhorn State lands its first of two proficient programs. Data was culled from Pro Football Reference to figure out which states have over- or underperformed based on the expected number of NFL quarterbacks produced, decided by population size and the number of Division I programs in a state. As one of the oldest teams in the league, the Cardinals have one of the largest rosters of players all-time, clocking in at over 1,800! Keep this news free and accessible to all by becoming a member and giving a recurring donation of any amount today. U.S. News rank: 18 (tie), National Universities. Here are some takeaways: - Notre Dame has produced more NFL players than any other college, with 495 athletes going on to play in the NFL. Texas has produced more active NFL players than any other U.S. state. Mississippi State upends No. After all, our hometown Arizona Cardinals have the first overall pick! For a better experience, please consider using a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. Mississippi averages 26.6 NFL players for every 100,000 citizens. Some regions of the country, though, have become well known for regularly producing NFL-caliber talent. Iowa not only has the NFLs all-time interceptions leader in Paul Krause (81), but it also has the second all-time interceptions leader in Emlen Tunnell (79). Their time will come. These five state's account for close to 50% of. Oliver Luck hailed from St. Ignatius, but the 44113 doesn't get credit for his son Andrew, who went to high school in Texas. Meanwhile, the Magnolia State has plenty to celebrate when it comes to football or writers and entertainers, for that matter. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alabama round out the top five. We believe that an informed Mississippi is a better Mississippi. Coming in at second for most NFL players on Week 1 rosters is Texas. Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. When you factor in population, the state produces 26.6 pro football players for every 100,000 people. In terms of schools that have produced the most NFL players all-time, Notre Dame just edged out USC for the top spot, with Ohio State joining those historic programs as the only ones to send more than 400 players to the NFL. In fact, those three states rank 1-2-3 all-time for states where NFL players were born. Yes, Bulldogs Dak Prescott and perhaps Fletcher Cox are future Hall of Famers but thats a few years away. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This makes up 2.79% of the NFL. Across NFL draft history, Notre Dame and USC have seen the most alums get drafted, according to drafthistory.com -- and they are also the most popular programs for the Eagles over time. Miami Hurricane alums rank second in NFL touchdowns scored and fourth in Pro Bowl selections, despite having 60-70 percent of the number of players that the top two schools have produced. Action Network's list of the top 10 states with the most active NFL players is listed below. Among states with SEC schools, the per capita numbers are: Mississippi (first, 26.6), Louisiana (fourth, 21.2), Alabama (fifth, 17), Arkansas (12th, 13.4), Tennessee (13th, 13.3), South Carolina (14th, 11.5), Kentucky (16th, 9.9), Texas (23rd, 8.5), Florida (34th, 6), Georgia (35th, 6) andMissouri (38th, 5.3). You might mention that the next time the Crimson Tide kicks your favorite teams butt, as it has done to Southern Miss (63-14), Ole Miss (42-21) and Mississippi State (49-9) this season. Bottom line:No program has more wins or a better win percentage since World War II than Oklahoma a testament to the great players who have come through Norman. It only seems as though Tom Brady has been playing long enough to have hung out with the Lizard King himself, and that Jim Morrison was talking about Brady and California QBs when he crooned, "The West is the best, get here and we'll do the rest." Mississippi State has no former players the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Only two of the 10 most populous cities in the United States have schools on this list with Phoenixs Arizona State and Los Angeles first entry with UCLA. Bottom line:Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Buckeyes' NFL credentials is that they rank second in active players with 65. Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. The state that produced dynamic personalities such as Favre and Gardner Minshew found a way to make an impression. That makes them a bit of an outlier since every other school in the top seven is in a warm-weather location in either the South or Southern California. Second is Ohio State with 67, followed by LSU with 62. None are bigger than Drew Brees, who threw for 80,358 yards in his NFL career, more yards than any other quarterback in NFL history. second most all-time wins in college football history. Johnson was on that same Arkansas team in 1964 and played defensive end during his college days. The dominance of Florida, Florida State and Miami has dwindled slightly over the years, but they are still producing NFL players at a high rate. The Bobby Bowden-Jimbo Fisher era was the best run in program history, and that was evident by FSU having 46 active players in the NFL in 2019. You'll find there's a QB1 state -- the one with the highest percentage of starts per game played -- and one that has produced the most backups. Walter Payton, from Columbia and Jackson State, is the NFLs second all-time leading rusher. LSUs alums rank fifth all-time in touchdowns scored, with most of their best players lining up on the offensive side of the ball. The dominance of Florida, Florida State and Miami has dwindled slightly over the years, but they are still producing NFL players at a high rate. But Florida State is rising up the ranks, and of its four Hall of Famers, three have been enshrined in Canton this decade. Ohio State's Justin Fields was a five-star recruit at Harrison High. You can only publish select stories individually not as a collection. pic.twitter.com/bxIOhq6fqz, Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) September 13, 2018. Rod Woodson already has a gold jacket and is the greatest Purdue football alum not named Brees. During your secondary school years, you likely had a little One of the most common questions students hear is, What do you want to be when you grow up? For many individuals that answer is subject to change over time. Active NFL players from Texas include Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes; Buffalo Bills linebacker Von Miller; Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans; Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford; Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams. West Virginia University's Morgantown recruits many of these athletes. Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelors in journalism, Rick has worked for the Monroe (La.) And that Mississippi number doesnt count such NFL legends as Ray Guy, Robert Brazile and Gene Hickerson, who played their college ball in Mississippi after growing up in nearby states. Here is a breakdown of the states where the most active NFL players were born Sign up for notifications from Insider! LSU - 325 10. With both expected to be top picks in the draft, Georgia will soon have 19 NFL quarterbacks. Another amazing fact: Jackson State, alone, has produced four Hall of Famers, three of them native Mississippians. Bottom line:Lots of schools have proclaimed themselves as "DB U" due to the prolific number of defensive backs they have sent to the NFL. Yale Lary is the only Hall of Famer in school history, and that one HOF selection is the fewest of any school on this list. These rankings are based on rosters published by Stats LLC on Monday afternoon, three days before the start of the season. However, players of that caliber have been few and far between in recent years as the majority of Michigan States NFL alums played in the early days of the NFL. He might be No. The schools that dominate on Saturdays have their alumni playing on Sundays. Their list of 10 Hall of Famers is sure to grow in the near future as Larry Fitzgerald, Darrelle Revis and Aaron Donald likely will receive their gold jackets one day. This is another program that has experienced its most success in recent years, and only rival Alabama has more active NFL players. According to Pro Football Reference, Arizona has produced 19 NFL quarterbacks, eighth most in the country, but it has the lowest percentage of starts (55%) among states with at least 400 games played. California - 460.6 Aaron Rodgers, Pleasant Valley (Chico) - 104.1 Tom Brady, Serra (San Mateo) - 96.4 Carson Palmer, Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita) - 88.1 Jeff Garcia, Gilroy - 87.5 Alex Smith, Helix (La Mesa) - 84.5 2. Bottom line: Oregon won a Rose Bowl in their first season in 1916. The Lone Star State produced a plethora of talented quarterbacks, such as Drew Brees, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Ryan Tannehill. Here are the universities cultivating the talent: In Alabama, theres no denying which school is best at producing professional football players. At present he serves the Minnesota Vikings as their Chief Operating Officer, making him one of the highest-ranking executives in the organization with the 18th pick in this years draft. Always has. 13 Texas A&M at Kyle Field, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. More NFL players (199) graduated from Texas than any. Others create politicians. You could say it all started with the godfather of football, Pop Warner. But that is debatable. If you feel like you're losing control over your gambling experience, call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA, WV), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-888- 532-3500(Virginia) 1-800-522-4700 (NV, TN), 1-800-522-4700 (CO, TN), 1-855-2CALLGA (IL), 1-800-270-7117 (MI). But Michigan also has struggled when it comes to skill position players in the NFL. Alabama is ranked first in the country in terms of NFL players per capita, with one NFL player per 74,683 residents. Please reload the page and try again. After Georgia the drop-off is significant. No matter who you root for, the NFL Draft represents an exciting time in the lives of football fans, one that brings the promise and potential of new talent and new hopes for on-field success. We support responsible gambling. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Warner collected 71 of his 311 career college wins at Stanford and changed the game with the forward pass. Heres the top five schools for sending players to the pros: There are five schools who that dominate when it comes to producing NFL talent in California. The District of Columbia, with one NFL player for every 54,702 residents, has the most NFL players per capita. More:Mississippi State upends No. No. Remember, were talking about per capita here. Louisiana, which doesn't have. Most touchdowns in NFL: James Lofton (76), Most games played in NFL: John Elway (234). Brett Favre, from Kiln and Southern Miss, is No. All four of those states are among the top 10 in producing NFL players, so Penn State is in an ideal location to land top talent. California and Texas are still at the top of the list. Penn State - 359 5. Texas A&M led all Texas college football programs with 37 current NFL players, followed by the University of Texas (29), TCU (25), Baylor (23) and Houston (20). In the 1950s, 69 Spartans were drafted into the NFL, compared to just 59 from 2000 to 2019. Here is another area where Notre Dames influence is readily apparent, as they are the top school at seven of the 24 positions we evaluated, including key positions such as quarterback and running back. The Bruins are considered a basketball school while nearby USC is considered the citys football school, but UCLA gets more than just the Trojans leftovers. However, 13 Wolverines have reached 1,000 NFL rushing yards with the latest being the greatest, Tom Brady. It also doesnt count, for instance, a player such as Peyton Manning whose roots are firmly in Mississippi soil and who spent much of his childhood in the Magnolia State. The Ohio State University has produced a total of 411 players since the 17th NFL season in 1936. Fortunately for the Sooners, Adrian Peterson is sure to increase that number five years after he retires. Those three states currently have 597 players in the NFL. The schools other Hall of Famers are quarterback Bobby Layne, running back Earl Campbell and defensive back Bobby Dillon. Still, they dont have decades of winning traditions, which is why they fall a little lower on this list than many might expect. Westlake (Austin, Texas) High and Isidore Newman (New Orleans) School represent the only two ZIP codes in the country to produce multiple Super Bowl-winning starting quarterbacks. The rest of the country and other places around the world are home to 838 players. Bottom line: Stanford didn't invent football, but the school helped popularize it in the 1920s and '30s with Pop Warner, who coached the Cardinal from 1924 to 1932. There have been 149 players in NFL history to rush for 5,000 yards in a career, but none of them have donned the maize and blue. Trevor Lawrence, of Cartersville High, and Justin Fields, of Harrison High, became the top two recruits in the nation in 2018. St. Ignatius (Ohio) is in the only ZIP code with four NFL quarterbacks, though the most well-known name from that group is Luck -- and it's not the Luck you think it is. With the 2021 NFL Draft now firmly in the rearview mirror, here's an updated look at the 25 schools with the most all-time NFL Draft picks. News Star World, Jackson Daily News and Clarion Ledger. That's the highest start percentage of any state with at least 400 games played. With your help, we've gotten a lot done but we're not finished yet! It was enough to move . In terms of players by decade, the NFL relied heavily on schools from the Midwest such as Notre Dame and Minnesota in the early days, before shifting their focus out west to USC in the 70s and 80s before settling into a varied approach that has seen schools from the Midwest, California, and the Southeast regularly headlining NFL rosters over the last 30 years. Seven of the school's 11 national championships came in the first half of the 20th century, and none of those titles have come in the last 30 years. The Longhorns are no longer on top, and they are chasing Oklahoma for Big 12 supremacy in terms of NFL players produced. 4-year graduation rate: 90%. 3 is Georgia (one in 78,761). For the Cardinals, this evaluation showed us that there was a particularly strong connection to Notre Dame from the 1920s to the 1950s when the team was located in nearby Chicago. NFL Players By College - Overall Top 10 All-Time 1. Only Purdue (676), Oregon (687) and Arkansas (706) have fewer NFL touchdowns. The Sooners have only three Hall of Famers. (You can find them here.). Don Majkowski. Bottom line:Illinois never won a national championship, but the Illini had two of the most iconic players in NFL history. Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports shared a chart on Twitter on Thursday that breaks down which states have the most NFL players per capita. With all due respect to Fran Tarkenton and others drafted before 1980, the best players in Georgia history have come in the last 40 years. Using this data we were able to illustrate some key data points for every franchise in the league, as well as the league as a whole. He has covered the SEC since 2016. By continuing to navigate this site you are consenting to the collection of information via our use of cookies. The Penn State Nittany Lions, who began play in 1889, are among the most storied programs in . It is reflected in the NFL as well. Mississippi averages 26.6 NFL players for every 100,000 citizens. is known world wide for having some of the best athletes in the world. The most notable star to come from the Sunshine State is Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Hall of Famers Warren Moon and Hugh McElhenny came from Los Angeles, six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz came from Hawaii, and Marcus Peters was from Oakland. Again, its not even close. Kelly never got the program to the promised land, and Oregon still is searching for its first national championship. Which state has the highest average draft position for quarterbacks? Total enrollment: 46,810. Not only have they sent the most players to the league, but they also have sent the most players to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (14), which is perhaps an even better measure of the talent produced by a program. While Brady (and his seven rings) is the headliner, the Golden State's dominance is more than just the Golden Boy, a sixth-round pick who graduated from Serra High School in 1995. Texas ranks last in ESPN's QB formula because of the expectations given the state's resources. . Florida is another NFL-producing machine. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. BALTIMORE, MD - SEPTEMBER 09: Quarterback Lamar Jackson #8 of the Baltimore Ravens rushes against the Buffalo Bills during the second half at M&T Bank Stadium on September 9, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. No. Stay up to date with what you want to know. According to Pro Football Reference, Arizona has produced 19 NFL quarterbacks, eighth most in the country, but it has the lowest percentage of starts (55%) among states with at least 400 games . But great players in Norman havent translated to great players in the NFL. California has been strong in its quarterback production in every decade, leading the way in the 1970s, '80s and '90s (based on the final year of high school for each QB). What state produces the most NFL players header image. following organizations: Whoops! DISCLAIMER: This site is 100% for entertainment purposes only and does not involve real money betting. Be sure to visit the Action Networks NCAAF Odds page each week to the lay of the land for betting lines. a proud member of the We center readers in everything we do, informingand engagingMississippians through reporting, podcasts, events and online communities. Or should. Although the Magnolia State has boasted just 11 NFL quarterbacks during the Super Bowl era (tied for 12th among all states), almost all of them were QB1s. Bottom line: Purdue is one of the oldest college football programs. We limited this data to schools who have had at least five players make the all-time roster to weed out one-off outlier players. AV refers to approximate value and is PFRs attempt to quantify a players career value. We will be watching alongside our fellow fans to see how it all unfolds and watch the young men getting drafted move on to the next phase of their lives. Bottom line: Smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania, Penn State isnt far from Ohio, New York and New Jersey. Any sources cited were Check out the full list of 721 quarterbacks divided by state here.