An FCS player has never been the top overall pick at the NFL Draft. North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz might change that.
If the Rams pick Carson Wentz at No. 1, NDSU will make small-school history
The biggest star of North Dakota State’s dynasty has a chance to be one of the two highest lower-level NFL Draft picks ever.
Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
The odds that the 6’5 passer hears his name called before anyone else skyrocketed on Thursday, when the Tennessee Titans traded the first overall selection to the Los Angeles Rams for a haul of draft picks. The quarterback-hungry Rams will likely stare down Wentz and California’s Jared Goff before deciding who will lead the team in its West Coast revival.
If it’s Wentz, he’ll carry the banner of the five-straight FCS champion Bison while he strides towards the podium. The fully home-grown, late-blooming FCS player will also represent an entire level of college football.
Division I football split into two groups in 1978: I-A (now FBS) and I-AA (now FCS). The basic difference is that FBS teams have more scholarships for players, which means a much higher level of competition, even though NDSU’s been better than many FBS teams recently.
Since then, no player has made the jump from the lower half of the division to be the first overall pick in the draft. Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair was the closest. In 1995, he was selected third, behind Penn State’s Ki-Jana Carter and USC’s Tony Boselli.
You’d have to go back to 1974 to find a player picked at No. 1 who didn’t come from college football’s top level.
Ed “Too Tall” Jones was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, back when Tennessee State was in Division II. Before then? Top picks came from current FBS schools or contemporary equivalents, all the way back to the first-ever pick, Jay Berwanger of the proto-Big Ten’s Chicago in 1936.
A pick outside the power conferences is surprising enough, as it was when Central Michigan’s Eric Fisher went No. 1 in 2013. This would be a step beyond that.
A lot of mock drafters now need to update their picks, but Wentz is the early favorite to go No. 1 to Los Angeles. If those predictions hold true, he’ll also be just the fifth quarterback from below the top subdivision to be selected in the first round since the AFL-NFL merger 1970 and the first since the Ravens picked Joe Flacco in 2008.
A look at the company he’d join suggests Wentz has a fair chance at success. Here are the five from outside the FBS or FBS-equivalent since in 1970.
| | Pick | Games started | Pro Bowl? | |||
| 2008 | 18 | Joe Flacco | Delaware | Ravens | 122 | Y |
| 1995 | 3 | Steve McNair | Alcorn St. | Oilers | 153 | Y |
| 1983 | 24 | Ken O'Brien | California-Davis | Jets | 110 | Y |
| 1979 | 7 | Phil Simms | Morehead St. | Giants | 159 | Y |
| 1971 | 3 | Dan Pastorini | Santa Clara | Oilers | 117 | Y |
If the Rams or quarterback-needy Browns select Wentz in the first two picks, he’d wind up drafted higher than five Pro Bowlers.
Finding FCS players in the first round is a rare feat on its own. It’s been eight years since an FCS player was selected in the first. However, Wentz might not be alone on April 28.
Eastern Kentucky (by way of Ohio State) defensive end/outside linebacker Noah Spence has also been a constant presence on scouting sheets. The pass rusher has the talent of a first-rounder, but questions threaten to sink his stock. He was ruled permanently ineligible to play in the Big Ten back in 2014 after failing drug tests. That forced him down to EKU, where he racked up 22.5 tackles for loss and 15 quarterback hurries against a decidedly non-Power 5 level of competition. He now appears on many mock drafts around No. 20.
If Spence can rebound, he and Wentz would be the first pair of FCS players to be selected in the first round since 2008 and just the fifth and sixth in total since 2000.
If you expand that to FCS players drafted in the first two rounds, you wind up with 16 athletes who had varying impacts as professionals.
| | Pick | Games | Games Started | ||||
| First Round | |||||||
| 2008 | 16 | Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie | Tennessee St. | DB | Cardinals | 123 | 105 |
| 2008 | 18 | Joe Flacco | Delaware | QB | Ravens | 122 | 122 |
| 2000 | 21 | Sylvester Morris | Jackson St. | WR | Chiefs | 15 | 14 |
| 2000 | 23 | Rashard Anderson | Jackson St. | DB | Panthers | 27 | 9 |
| Second Round | |||||||
| 2015 | 46 | Jaquiski Tartt | Samford | SS | 49ers | 15 | 8 |
| 2015 | 61 | Ali Marpet | Hobart | C | Buccaneers | 13 | 13 |
| 2014 | 62 | Jimmy Garoppolo | Eastern Illinois | QB | Patriots | 11 | 0 |
| 2013 | 60 | Robert Alford | SE Louisiana | DB | Falcons | 41 | 29 |
| 2012 | 33 | Brian Quick | Appalachian St. | WR | Rams | 51 | 16 |
| 2012 | 40 | Amini Silatolu | Midwestern St. | G | Panthers | 33 | 28 |
| 2010 | 61 | Vlad Ducasse | Massachusetts | T | Jets | 78 | 22 |
| 2008 | 58 | Dexter Jackson | Appalachian St. | WR | Buccaneers | 7 | 0 |
| 2008 | 46 | Jerome Simpson | Coastal Carolina | WR | Bengals | 62 | 37 |
| 2007 | 48 | Justin Durant | Hampton | LB | Jaguars | 108 | 92 |
| 2006 | 42 | Danieal Manning | Abilene Christian | DB | Bears | 128 | 96 |
| 2006 | 64 | Tarvaris Jackson | Alabama St. | QB | Vikings | 59 | 34 |
Excluding the four players picked in the three most recent drafts, only six of the other 12 have started 32 or more games in the NFL. While gems like Flacco, Rodgers-Cromartie, Durant and Manning have justified their lofty status, the relative disappointments show all draft picks are risks.
Two players with FCS backgrounds wait for the biggest night of their lives. Each will represent a small school in the NFL. But while Spence can make a splash, only Wentz can make history.
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