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1985 Draft
Bright Blue Shorts Started conversation Apr 19, 2003
It occurred to me that back in 1985 Jerry Rice was drafted by the 49ers the year after they had just won Super Bowl XIX. So they'd be drafting pretty low. Actually JR was taken with the 14th pick, and I got to thinking that perhaps there would be some team above them who would have regretted missing out on him. For example the team with the no.1 pick. Except that was Bruce Smith, so you'd have to say the Bills probably made a good call, although it could have been interesting watching JR playing with Kelly and Reed in the no-huddle ...
Anyway so I just trawled through the 1985 draft and reproduce the whole of the 1st round, plus selected picks from the later rounds (ie people that I've heard of for some reason or other).
Round 1
Sel# Team Player Pos. School
1 Buffalo Smith, Bruce DE Virginia Tech
1* Cleveland Kosar, Bernie QB Miami
2 Atlanta Fralic, Bill G Pittsburgh
3 Houston Childress, Ray DT Texas A&M
4 Minnesota Doleman, Chris DE Pittsburgh
5 Indianapolis Bickett, Duane OLB Southern California
6 Detroit Brown, Lomas T Florida
7 Green Bay Ruettgers, Ken T Southern California
8 Tampa Bay Holmes, Ron DE Washington
9 Philadelphia Allen, Kevin T Indiana
10 N.Y. Jets Toon, Al WR Wisconsin
11 Houston Johnson, Richard CB Wisconsin
12 San Diego Lachey, Jim T Ohio State
13 Cincinnati Brown, Eddie WR Miami
14 Buffalo Burroughs, Derrick CB Memphis
15 Kansas City Horton, Ethan TE North Carolina
16 San Francisco Rice, Jerry WR Mississippi Valley
17 Dallas Brooks, Kevin DE Michigan
18 St. Louis Nunn, Freddie Joe OLB Mississippi
19 N.Y. Giants Adams, George RB Kentucky
20 Pittsburgh Sims, Darryl DE Wisconsin
21 L.A. Rams Gray, Jerry CB Texas
22 Chicago Perry, William DT Clemson
23 L.A. Raiders Hester, Jessie WR Florida State
24 New Orleans Toles, Alvin LB Tennessee
25 Cincinnati King, Emanuel OLB Alabama
26 Denver Sewell, Steve RB Oklahoma
27 Miami Hampton, Lorenzo RB Florida
28 New England Matich, Trevor C Brigham Young
* Pick was exercised in the supplemental draft
Round 2
30 Minnesota Holt, Issiac CB Alcorn State
31 Denver Johnson, Vance WR Arizona
37 Philadelphia Cunningham, Randall QB Nevada-Las Vegas
54 Denver Fletcher, Simon OLB Houston
Round 3
57 Buffalo Reich, Frank QB Maryland
68 New Orleans DelRio, Jack MLB Southern California
Round 4
86 Buffalo Reed, Andre WR Kutztown, Pa.
100 N.Y. Giants Bavaro, Mark TE Notre Dame
105 Chicago Butler, Kevin K Georgia
111 Miami Dellenbach, Jeff C Wisconsin
112 Buffalo Hellestrae, Dale C Southern Methodist
Round 5
113 L.A. Rams Greene, Kevin OLB Auburn
114 Dallas Walker, Herschel RB Georgia
138 Houston Johnson, Lee P Brigham Young
Round 6
142 Minnesota Bono, Steve QB UCLA
158 St. Louis Novacek, Jay TE Wyoming
Round 7
175 Cleveland Langhorne, Reginald WR Elizabeth City State
179 New Orleans Martin, Eric WR Louisiana State
195 Miami Reveiz, Fuad K Tennessee
Round 8
214 Pittsburgh Newsome, Harry P Wake Forest
Round 9
226 Houston Tasker, Steve WR Northwestern
Round 10
260 Tampa Bay Igwebuike, Donald K Clemson
261 Philadelphia Kelso, Mark DB William & Mary
263 Washington Orr, Terry TE Texas
Round 11
285 L.A. Rams Flutie, Doug QB Boston College
290 Washington McKenzie, Raleigh C Tennessee
Round 12
309 Washington Hamel, Dean DT Tulsa
326 N.Y. Giants Welch, Herb S UCLA
1985 Draft
Researcher Eagle 1 Posted Apr 21, 2003
Hey, hindsight is always 20-20.
Unless it's a consistant problem with making awful draft picks, I don't think too many teams worry for too long about what-might-have-been.
It's a fun pastime for fans, though. 
*Dreaming about the Eagles losing their last two games and drafting O.J. Simpson*
1985 Draft
Bright Blue Shorts Posted Apr 21, 2003
Of course, hindsight is always useful. And of course back in '85 there was the threat of players jumping to the USFL which I think is why Walker and Flutie are low down the draft.
In fact of the top 15 above JR, I'd suggest the only serious busts was Ken Ruettgers of Green Bay, although I'm not entirely sure about the careers of Holmes, Allen, Johnson of Tampa,Philly and Houston respectively.
Wonder if the Jets would have preferred Jerry to Al Toon. Although Toon was useful I don't remember him sticking around that many years ...
1985 Draft
Blues Shark - For people who like this sort of thing, then this is just the sort of thing they'll like Posted Apr 22, 2003
Be fair, Flutie was a stretch in any event. Hindsight is wonderful but at the time he was small, under powered and a not a good prospect...as for Walker, well, no real answer for that, but then neither do I have an answer as to why the Vikes got caught in *that* deal either...
1985 Draft
Blatherskite the Mugwump - Bandwidth Bandit Posted Apr 22, 2003
Weren't there some question marks surrounding Jerry Rice's speed? I think Toon got taken off the board because he did better in the 40... and not much else.
1985 Draft
Blues Shark - For people who like this sort of thing, then this is just the sort of thing they'll like Posted Apr 22, 2003
Well lets be fair, Jezza could be a phrase from a French handbook, couldn't he 'Quicker than Steve Largent but smaller than Terrell Owens.'
I think what you might term a value added player...
Key: Complain about this post
1985 Draft
- 1: Bright Blue Shorts (Apr 19, 2003)
- 2: Researcher Eagle 1 (Apr 21, 2003)
- 3: Bright Blue Shorts (Apr 21, 2003)
- 4: Blues Shark - For people who like this sort of thing, then this is just the sort of thing they'll like (Apr 22, 2003)
- 5: Blatherskite the Mugwump - Bandwidth Bandit (Apr 22, 2003)
- 6: Blues Shark - For people who like this sort of thing, then this is just the sort of thing they'll like (Apr 22, 2003)
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