Auburn’s NFL Draft: Fifth round active for Tigers
The fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft on April 29 will consist of the 136th through 177th selections.
Seven of the 27 Auburn alumni who played during the 2022 NFL season entered the league in that range of picks – Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson, Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jack Driscoll, New York Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood and tight end C.J. Uzomah, New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton, Jacksonville Jaguars safety Daniel Thomas and Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker K.J. Britt.
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Carlson is the only former Auburn player who entered the NFL in those picks to earn first-team All-Pro recognition, which he did during the 2022 NFL season.
Thirty-one players have been drafted from Auburn with the 136th through the 177th picks. But 27 Auburn alumni have been fifth-round draft choices.
That’s because over the course of the 87 drafts, the picks comprising the fifth round have changed as the number of teams in the NFL has increased and the league has instituted compensatory picks as part of its free-agency plan. The 27 Auburn fifth-round picks have been selected at No. 59 to No. 176 in the draft.
Fifth-round possibilities from Auburn in this year’s draft could be running back Tank Bigsby and linebacker Owen Pappoe.
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The Auburn players who have been picked with the 136th through 177th selections of an NFL Draft include:
No. 138 pick: Walter McFadden, defensive back, Oakland Raiders, 2010.
After playing in four games as a rookie with Oakland, McFadden signed contracts with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers, but never played for any of those teams.
No. 139 pick: Anthony Redmon, guard, Arizona Cardinals, 1994.
A prep star at T.R. Miller, Redmon spent his seven seasons in the NFL primarily as a right guard. He played in 79 NFL games, with 69 starts – 46 starts with the Arizona Cardinals, 19 with the Carolina Panthers and four with the Atlanta Falcons.
No. 140 pick: Gerald Gross, halfback, Baltimore Colts, 1966.
Gross is among the 12 players among Auburn’s No. 136 through No. 177 picks who did not play in an NFL regular-season game.
No. 141 pick: Mike Burrow, guard, Buffalo Bills, 1979.
While Burrow didn’t play in the NFL, his son Jabo Burrow played at Vanderbilt.
No. 142 pick: Jimmy Burson, defensive back, St. Louis Cardinals, 1963.
Burson also was selected by the Houston Oilers with the 63rd choice in the 1962 AFL Draft, but he went with the NFL. Five of his six seasons were spent in St. Louis. In 65 career games, Burson intercepted 16 passes. On his last interception in his last NFL game, Burson scored a 73-yard touchdown in the Atlanta Falcons’ 14-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 15, 1968.
No. 144 picks: Dick Wood, quarterback, Baltimore Colts, 1959; Nate Hill, defensive end, Green Bay Packers, 1988.
Wood had a knack for being on a collision course with some of the pro football’s best quarterbacks of the 1960s. The Colts drafted him in 1959, but they already had Johnny Unitas. Wood made it to the new AFL and played on five teams in five seasons. He got two starts with the Chargers in 1962, even though San Diego had Tobin Rote and John Hadl. He was the Jets’ starting quarterback in 1963 and 1964, but New York replaced him with rookie Joe Namath. He started four games in 1966 for the expansion Dolphins, but Miami drafted Brian Griese the next year.
Hill played in four NFL games in 1988, then recorded seven sacks in two seasons with the Sacramento Surge of the World League of American Football. The Surge won the World Bowl in 1992, Hill’s second season.
No. 145 pick: Jack Driscoll, offensive tackle, Philadelphia Eagles, 2020.
Driscoll has started 16 games for Philadelphia, playing tackle and guard, as an injury-replacement.
No. 146 pick: Jamien Sherwood, safety, New York Jets, 2021.
Sherwood was an opening-game starter at linebacker as a rookie for New York, but an ankle injury and torn Achilles tendon limited him to five games. He played in every game in 2017.
No. 148 pick: Bruce Yates, tackle, Detroit Lions, 1966.
No. 150 pick: Jerry Sansom, end, Cleveland Browns, 1957.
No. 153 pick: Alvin Bresler, wide receiver, San Francisco 49ers, 1971.
A track standout at Auburn, too, Bresler played with Terry Beasley as wide receivers for the Tigers and was selected by San Francisco one year before the 49ers drafted his former teammate.
No. 155 pick: Mike Pelton, defensive tackle, Kansas City Chiefs, 1995.
The former Goshen High School standout was Auburn’s defensive-line coach in 2011 and 2012.
No. 156 pick: Denvard Snell, tackle, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1949.
Snell didn’t play in the NFL, but he was the football coach at Wicksburg High School from 1951 through 1954.
No. 157 picks: Kurt Crain, linebacker, Houston Oilers, 1988; C.J. Uzomah, tight end, Cincinnati Bengals, 2015; Daniel Thomas, safety, Jacksonville Jaguars, 2020.
Crain coached the defensive line at Auburn from 1993 through 1995, when No. 155 pick Mike Pelton was one of his players, and outside linebackers in 1996.
Uzomah caught 29 passes for 435 yards and seven touchdowns at Auburn. In the NFL, he has 184 receptions for 1,823 yards and 15 touchdowns in 94 regular-season games (including 74 starts). Uzomah is on course to join Gary Walker and Will Herring as the Auburn alumni chosen with the 136th through 177th picks to play in 100 NFL regular-season games.
Thomas returned a blocked punt 16 yards for a touchdown in Jacksonville’s 39-29 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Oct. 25, 2020. His only NFL interception so far came with a 53-yard return.
No. 158 pick: Dick McGowen, back, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1941.
A member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, McGowen went into the Army instead of the NFL in 1941 and was on active duty until 1945. After World War II, he became an assistant football coach at Auburn and also was the head coach of the Tigers’ baseball team for seven years.
No. 159 pick: Gary Walker, defensive tackle, Houston Oilers, 1995.
The seventh of nine players drafted by the Houston Oilers in 1995, the defensive tackle from Auburn outlasted all the other selections except for quarterback Steve McNair, the third player picked in the NFL Draft that year. In 11 NFL seasons, Walker played in 155 games, made 148 starts and earned Pro Bowl recognition twice — in 2001 with the Jacksonville Jaguars and 2002 with the Houston Texans. Walker played with both Houston franchises. Spending his first two seasons with the Houston Oilers, then playing two seasons with the Tennessee Oilers after the franchise moved to Nashville. After three seasons in Jacksonville, Walker finished his career with four seasons with the Texans.
No. 160 pick: Gregg Carr, linebacker, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1985.
Carr played in 57 games over four seasons for Pittsburgh. He got credit for a safety in the Steelers’ 20-16 loss to New Orleans on Nov. 29, 1987, when Saints punter Brian Hansen stepped over the endline rather than punt from the end zone late in the game.
No. 161 pick: Will Herring, linebacker, Seattle Seahawks, 2007.
Herring played in 109 NFL regular-season games in eight seasons, making his living mainly as a special-teams standout. He intercepted three passes and recorded one sack in his career.
No. 162 pick: Dell McGee, defensive back, Arizona Cardinals, 1996.
Currently the running-backs coach at Georgia, McGee persevered to play in three games for Arizona in 1998.
No. 165 pick: Al Giffin, tight end, Denver Broncos, 1969.
No. 167 pick: Daniel Carlson, place-kicker, Minnesota Vikings, 2018.
Cut by Minnesota after missing three field-goal attempts in his second NFL game, Carlson tied for the NFL scoring lead in 2020 with 144 points and in 2021 with 150 for the Las Vegas Raiders. Carlson earned first-team All-Pro recognition in 2022, when he set an NFL single-season record with 11 field goals of at least 50 yards.
No. 171 pick: Darius Slayton, wide receiver, New York Giants, 2019.
Slayton’s rookie season got off to a late start when he missed the first two games with a hamstring injury. Then he caught 48 passes for 740 yards and eight touchdowns. No rookie from Auburn had ever caught more than five TD passes in the NFL, and it’d been 68 years since Ray Pelfrey did that for the Green Bay Packers. Slayton led the Giants in receiving yards in 2019 and did it again with 751 in 2020. After dipping to 339 receiving yards in 2021 and taking a pay cut to say with the Giants, Slayton led New York in receiving yards again in 2022 with 724.
No. 172 pick: Edmund Nelson, defensive end, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1982.
Nelson played in 84 NFL regular-season games across seven seasons, spending the first six with Pittsburgh. In 1984, Nelson recorded seven of his career total of 16 sacks.
No. 173 pick: Dave Woodward, tackle, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1962.
Woodward married Miss Auburn of 1960, Sandra O’Kelley of Chattanooga.
No. 174 picks: Aubrey Clayton, back, Cleveland Rams, 1944; Cameron Artis-Payne, running back, Carolina Panthers, 2015.
In four seasons with Carolina, Artis-Payne ran for 491 yards and five touchdowns on 118 carries and caught 10 passes for 86 yards. He played for the XFL’s Dallas Renegades in 2020 and the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes in 2021.
No. 176 pick: K.J. Britt, linebacker, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2021.
Britt was on the field for 324 special-teams plays during his rookie season. An injury cost him five games in 2022.
No. 177 pick: Craig Ogletree, linebacker, Cincinnati Bengals, 1990.
Ogletree’s NFL career was limited to 11 games in his rookie season. In 2020, Ogletree officiated at the funeral of former Auburn coach Pat Dye.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.