The 1974 NFL Draft

In doing some research on Gale Sayers last week, I had reason to take a look at the 1970 NFL Draft, and I noted that of 442 players selected in that  Draft, only two of them Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blount, had found their way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  It seemed like a low number to me, so I wondered if that was an anomaly or the norm, and that caused me to take a look at the 1974 NFL Draft.

Steelers fans remember this draft fondly, and it is considered by many to be the single best draft class for ANY team EVER.  We all know the players:

Lynn Swann (1st Rd / 21st overall)

Jack Lambert (2nd / 46th)

John Stallworth (4th / 82nd)

Mike Webster (5th / 125th)

The team's first four picks (they didn't have a pick in the third round), four Super Bowl champions, four Hall of Famers.  And of course, just to put the icing on the cake, the Steelers signed Donnie Shell as an undrafted free agent, and he will be the fifth 1974 Steelers rookie who will enter the Hall of Fame later this year.

Okay, that's four draftees plus one free agent in the HOF just for one team, but surely there must have been others from that draft class whose busts now sit in Canton, right?  How many....two, three, five?

Well, thus far, only one other 1974 draftee has made it into the Hall.  I won't make you guess....

It is Dave Casper, tight end from Notre Dame, drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the second round with the 45th overall pick, right ahead of Lambert.  Fittingly, he was a guy who gave the Steelers fits over the many years of those classic Steelers-Raiders battles.

A lot more research needs to be done to state whether two HOF'ers per class is a low number or if five is a high number, but at this point, I am not inclined to dig any further into the issue, which is not to say that I won't do so at some point.  It's a fun little exercise.

Some other tidbits from that Class of '74....

• No other player drafted by the Steelers that year had any great impact, but what do you want after the first four picks?
• In the 13th round the Steelers selected a quarterback, Frank Kolch of Eastern Michigan.  See what I mean about no impact players after the first four guys?
• The Steelers did sign another free agent who would go on to make significant contributions to Super Bowl winning teams, tight end Randy Grossman of Temple. 
• The overall Number One pick in the draft that year was Ed "Too Tall" Jones, DE, Tennessee State, picked by the Dallas Cowboys.  Pretty good player.
• Amazingly, no quarterbacks were selected until the third round when Dallas took Arizona State's Danny White with the first pick in that round (53rd overall).  White became an all-pro with the Cowboys, but he was really the only QB who had an NFL career of any consequence.  A total of 17 other QB's were drafted that year, including Kolch by the Steelers.  You might recognize a few of the names, but, as I said, none had a significant career in the NFL.
• Penn State had eight players drafted, including Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti (1st/11th).  He was not, however, the first Nittany Lion selected.  That was LB Ed O'Neill, the 8th overall pick, selected by the Detroit Lions.
• Pitt had only three players drafted, the first one being LB Rod Kirby (11th/278th), selected by the Bills.  Two rounds and 98 picks later, the third and final Panther was selected, and he did become a player and coach of consequence, OL Dave Wannstedt (15th/376th), taken by the Packers.