Heading into the 2014 NFL draft, all the talk at the top of the board was about Jadeveon Clowney, the highlight-making defensive end out of South Carolina, who was the no-brainer pick to go No. 1 overall to the Houston Texans.
As it turns out, Clowney was nowhere near the best player to come out of the top 10 picks in that draft. He wasn’t even the best player at his own position, as Khalil Mack has put together a much more productive career over the past decade.
Outside of Mack, the only other stud to come out of that top 10 was Mike Evans, the dominant wide receiver out of Texas A&M selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 7 overall:
Looking back at the Top-10 from 2014 NFL Draft 👀 pic.twitter.com/xlIOMVPeyi
— PFF (@PFF) April 2, 2024
Evans wasn’t the first receiver off the board, either. The Buffalo Bills traded up from No. 8 to No. 4 overall for Clemson’s Sammy Watkins, who has bounced around the league and never made the kind of impact that Evans has over his time in the league.
A future Hall of Famer, Evans is the only player in NFL history to start his career with 10 straight seasons of at least 1,000 receiving yards. He currently ranks 13th all-time in touchdown receptions, and will likely move into the top 10 after another season of his usual production.
The Bucs knocked that top-10 pick out of the park, and it’s still paying off a decade later.
