The 2025 NFL Draft starts on Thursday night in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with the 32 first-round picks. AL.com has counted down to the event by highlighting the best choice – overall, from the SEC and of players from Alabama high schools and colleges — made with each of the first 32 picks in the 89 NFL drafts.

Best No. 1 pick: Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning by the Indianapolis Colts in 1998

Manning won The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player five times and finished as the runner-up in the voting three times during his 17 seasons.

The quarterback was the first-team All-Pro QB seven times, made the Pro Bowl 14 times and played for the NFL championship team twice.

Manning left the game as the NFL’s career leader in passing yards and touchdown passes and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the Class of 2021 in his first year of eligibility.

Thirteen other No. 1 picks have been chosen for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The 89 No. 1 picks have produced 24 first-team All-Pros and 51 Pro Bowlers.

The first selection in last year’s draft was Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams by the Chicago Bears.

Best No. 1 pick from the SEC: Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning by the Indianapolis Colts in 1998

Frank Sinkwich and Cam Newton were NFL MVPs, Eli Manning won the Super Bowl MVP Award and Charley Trippi is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. All were former SEC stars who were the first players picked in an NFL draft.

Peyton Manning did all those things after leaving Tennessee.

The runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, winner of the Maxwell Award and consensus All-American quarterback for Tennessee’s 1997 SEC championship team, Manning had competition to be the No. 1 pick in the 1998 NFL Draft from Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf.

The Colts went with Manning, and he worked as Indianapolis’ quarterback for the next 13 seasons. The San Diego Chargers took Leaf at No. 2, and he started 18 games in three seasons before finishing his career with four games for the Dallas Cowboys in 2001.

Of the 22 SEC players picked at No. 1, Alabama quarterback Bryce Young is the most recent after going to the Carolina Panthers in 2023.

Best No. 1 pick with Alabama football roots: Auburn quarterback Cam Newton by the Carolina Panthers in 2011

Newton joined the Panthers after winning the 2010 Heisman Trophy for Auburn’s undefeated BCS national-championship team and made an immediate impact for the Panthers. Newton won the NFL Offensive Rookie the Year Award as he threw for a first-year record 4,051 yards and broke the league’s single-season record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 14 in 2011.

Newton went on to set Carolina’s career records for passing yards and passing touchdowns as he became the NFL’s career leader for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 75 and won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award for the 2015 season, when the Panthers reached Super Bowl 50.

The Tennessee Titans hold the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday night.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.