NFL Draft: The SEC’s No. 1 No. 28
The 2023 NFL Draft starts on April 27 with the first-round picks at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. The SEC has produced 395 first-round selections and another 108 choices among the top 32 picks who were not first-rounders. AL.com is counting down to the draft by highlighting the SEC players chosen in the first 32 picks.
The New Orleans Saints selected running back Mark Ingram with the 28th choice in the 2011 NFL Draft, and the former Alabama All-American is still going.
Ingram played in 10 games for the Saints in 2022 in his second time around with New Orleans, where he’s the franchise career leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.
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Ingram has three Pro Bowl and three 1,000-yard rushing seasons. The 2009 Heisman Trophy winner is the only one of the SEC’s No. 28 selections who has played in the NFL’s all-star game without being a member of the championship team (from the days when the league champ played a team of all-stars from the rest of the NFL to wrap up the season).
Dick Plasman did that twice as a member of the champion Chicago Bears and also played on three NFL title teams. The first SEC player drafted at No. 28 also was the last NFL player to play without a helmet. That came in the 1940 NFL championship game. A teammate said Plasman “had a piece of cement for a head.”
That didn’t keep Plasman from appearing in eight NFL seasons, even though he lost the 1942 and 1943 campaigns to World War II. After 12 NFL seasons, Ingram is the only other of the 11 SEC players picked at No. 28 who has played in more than six seasons.
The four SEC players drafted in the first round with the No. 28 pick include:
· Tennessee linebacker Keith DeLong, San Francisco 49ers, 1989
· Alabama running back Mark Ingram, New Orleans Saints, 2011
· LSU linebacker Patrick Queen, Baltimore Ravens, 2020
· Georgia defensive lineman DeVonte Wyatt, Green Bay Packers, 2022
The 1989 draft was the first with 28 picks in the first round, and every NFL Draft since 1992 has included at least 28 in the first round. The seven SEC players drafted with the No. 28 pick who were not first-rounders include:
· Vanderbilt end Dick Plasman, Chicago Bears, 1937
· Alabama center Joe Domnanovich, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1943
· Tennessee guard Bob Dobelstein, Chicago Cardinals, 1945
· LSU defensive back Dan Sandifer, Washington Redskins, 1948
· Georgia halfback Billy Mixon, San Francisco 49ers, 1951
· Georgia Tech back Stan Flowers, Washington Redskins, 1958
· LSU center Bo Strange, Philadelphia Eagles, 1961
As a rookie, Sandifer led the NFL with 13 interceptions, 258 interception-return yards and two interception-return touchdowns and also had the longest reception in the league with an 86-yarder.
In addition to Ingram, Queen and Wyatt played in the 2022 season.
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(The list includes only players selected in the regular NFL draft. The drafts from other leagues are not included nor are any supplemental drafts that have been held by the NFL.)
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.