NFL Draft results for reigning Super Bowl champions aren’t pretty
Recent first-round results for defending Super Bowl champions have mostly not panned out.
Much of the focus of every NFL Draft is understandably concentrated on the teams at the top of the order. Those are the teams in dire need of franchise-changing talent (usually a quarterback) in order to become contenders, and they usually have the inside track on the best players available.
Conversely, very little attention is given to incumbent Super Bowl champions and their respective draft night decisions. Looking over the last 10 reigning champions, it’s easy to see why. The results have been mostly uninspiring to the point where the best first-round move didn’t even involve drafting a player, while the worst one was a trade up for a seemingly forgotten quarterback bust.
For each team, we will also look at the best pick for that season.
2024 Kansas City Chiefs: Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas
Kansas City addressed its lack of wide receiver depth by getting the lightning-quick Worthy after trading up to No. 28 with the Buffalo Bills. Worthy caught 59 passes for 638 yards and six touchdowns and had three rushing TDs, showcasing his game-changing speed. His 157 receiving yards against the Philadelphia Eagles (albeit mostly in garbage time) is a Super Bowl rookie record.
Best draft pick: TBD. It’s too early to make a declaration, but Worthy is the overwhelming favorite given fourth-round safety Jaden Hicks was the only other major contributor.
2023 Kansas City Chiefs: Felix Anudike-Uzomah, EDGE, Kansas State
It hasn’t been a promising start for Anudike-Uzomah, who has just three sacks and 14 QB hits in limited playing time in two seasons. He’s a lower-end rotational pass rusher who’s not yet been able to average 20 snaps a game. Luckily for the Chiefs, George Karlaftis and Chris Jones are still the stars in the trenches.
Best draft pick: Rashee Rice. Prior to his season-ending knee injury in Week 4 of last year, the second-round receiver was well on his way to becoming Patrick Mahomes’ long-term top target. He was an immediate positive in their last championship season and should be pivotal in KC’s offense next season.
2022 Los Angeles Rams: Traded first-round pick for Matthew Stafford
When you give up multiple firsts for Matthew Stafford and he wins you a Super Bowl, you’ve made the right move. Having also traded second- and third-rounders for Von Miller midway through their championship season, LA’s first pick wasn’t until No. 104 overall in the third round, when they used on Wisconsin offensive lineman Logan Bruss. He tore his ACL as a rookie and placed on the practice squad the following year. Bruss didn’t even make his Rams debut until last season, during which he was waived and claimed by the Tennessee Titans.
Best draft pick: Kyren Williams. Their top pick is clearly running back Kyren Williams, who is coming off consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons and has been plus-value as a fifth-round pick.
2021 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, EDGE, Washington
The Buccaneers went all-in on getting Tom Brady in free agency and it paid immediate dividends. They stayed at No. 32 in the 2021 draft and took Washington Huskies pass rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. Tryon-Shoyinka recorded 15 sacks over four seasons but wasn’t a truly impactful pass rusher. He just signed with the Cleveland Browns in free agency.
Best draft pick: Tryon-Shoyinka. This is damning with feint praise, to be honest. Six of Tampa Bay’s seven-player class are no longer with the team, with quarterback Kyle Trask the last man standing after throwing 11 passes in four years.
2020 Kansas City Chiefs: Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB, LSU
If there’s a real “What-if?” to explore with any of these defending champions, it’s the 2020 Chiefs. On the heels of their first title with Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, Kansas City went with a bit of a luxury pick in Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who peaked as a rookie with 1,100 scrimmage yards and five touchdowns but quickly found himself battling injuries and the emergence of Isiah Pacheco. Jonathan Taylor went 10 picks after Edwards-Helaire, while the next pick after CEH was Tee Higgins. Ouch.
Best draft pick: L’Jarius Sneed. The fourth-round cornerback became an important part of Kansas City’s last two Super Bowl titles before he was traded to the Tennessee Titans.
2019 New England Patriots: N’Keal Harry, WR, Arizona State
Bill Belichick’s dubious track record with early-round wide receivers was on full display here. Harry only caught 57 regular season passes through three forgettable seasons in New England. Deebo Samuel and A.J. Brown were the next two receivers taken, and they famously traded their second-rounder to the Seattle Seahawks, who selected DK Metcalf.
Best draft pick: Damien Harris. This was a horrendous class emblematic of the Patriots’ waning talent in the last years of the Belichick era. The now-retired third-round pick had over 1,000 yards of total offense in 2021 and scored 15 touchdowns in New England’s most recent playoff season.
2018 Philadelphia Eagles: Traded out of the first round
After winning their first Lombardi Trophy, the Eagles moved out of Round 1 and paved the way for the Baltimore Ravens to select some fella named Lamar Jackson. They moved a little further up in the second round from No. 52 to No. 49 and drafted tight end Dallas Goedert, who has been a very solid player for the Eagles, albeit one who’s been subject to recent trade speculation.
Best draft pick: Jordan Mailata. Howie Roseman only made five picks in 2018. Three of them were Goedert, Josh Sweat (fourth round), and Mailata (seventh round). The former rugby player has become one of the best offensive tackles in the sport and is coming off an All-Pro second-team selection plus a Super Bowl ring.
2017 New England Patriots: Traded first-round pick for Brandin Cooks
This was a sparse draft for the Patriots, who had a league-low four picks largely due to offseason trades. They gave up a first- and third-rounder to the New Orleans Saints for the speedy receiver Brandin Cooks, who was traded to the Los Angeles Rams one season later. They also lost their second-rounder to the Carolina Panthers in a horrendous trade for Kony Ealy, who was waived later that August.
New England’s top pick was pass rusher Derek Rivers, selected at No. 83 in the third round. Injuries and ineffective play led to only 14 regular season appearances in four years before he was waived in the middle of the 2020 season.
Best draft pick: Deatrich Wise Jr. This is truly by default. Conor McDermott and Antonio Garcia never made the regular season roster. Wise was a wise fourth-round choice who became a very good defensive lineman over eight seasons, racking up 34 sacks before signing with the Washington Commanders this offseason.
2016 Denver Broncos: Paxton Lynch, QB, Memphis
Remember him? The Broncos needed a quarterback after noted Nationwide Insurance spokesman Peyton Manning retired as a two-time Super Bowl champion. They traded up from No. 31—the New England Patriots lost their first-rounder as Spygate punishment—to No. 26 with John Elway’s eyes firmly set on the 6’7 Paxton Lynch. The former Memphis star was due to be Manning’s heir apparent.
He could not beat out Trevor Siemian in training camp.
Lynch only made five appearances and four starts with the Broncos, winning just once. His stats weren’t horrendous—79 of 128 for 792 yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions, 18 sacks taken—but it was clear to the Broncos after just two seasons that he was not the franchise QB.
Best draft pick: Justin Simmons. It wasn’t a disastrous draft as a whole for Denver. All-Pro safety Justin Simmons was a third-round selection who played eight seasons with the Broncos and was one of the few bright spots throughout their (since broken) playoff drought.
2015 New England Patriots: Malcom Brown, DL, Texas
Having just won a Super Bowl with Malcolm Butler’s dramatic goal-line interception against the Seahawks, clearly the Patriots felt emboldened to take a defensive player named “Malco(l)m B” in the first round. While Brown did win two rings and earn PFWA All-Rookie honors, the former Texas star had a fairly unremarkable career and was not re-signed upon completion of his rookie contract.
Best draft pick: Shaq Mason. With all due respect to Joe Cordona, a long snapper who’s part of the Patriots’ All-Dynasty Team, positional value loses out here to Mason, a fourth-round pick who was one of the better guards in the NFL at the height of his seven-year Patriots career.
The last time a Super Bowl winner picked a Pro Bowl player in the first round of the ensuing draft was the 2005 New England Patriots, who sat at No. 32 and selected seven-time Pro Bowl selection Logan Mankins. The 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers get an honorable mention for moving up to No. 25 to draft Super Bowl 43 MVP Santonio Holmes, who never made a Pro Bowl.
All of this is to say that it shouldn’t be a shock if Howie Roseman and the Eagles doesn’t get an amazing draft haul this year. It seems like that’s just the natural cycle for a reigning Super Bowl champion.