List of National Football League first overall draft choices

The National Football League draft is an annual sports draft in which NFL teams select newly-eligible players for their rosters. To be eligible, a player must be out of high school at least three years. Teams are ranked in reverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first. The current draft system has seven rounds and in 2008, 255 players were selected in the draft.

A total of 72 players have been selected first overall. The Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Cardinals (now Arizona Cardinals), New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all share the record of having the most first overall draft picks, each having held it four times. Only three players have been selected the NFL Rookie of the Year and a total of 11 first overall picks have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

List of first overall picks

{|class="wikitable sortable"
-! Year !! Player !! Position !! College !! Pro Team
-
1936||Jay Berwanger||Halfback||Chicago||Philadelphia Eagles (did not sign)
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1937||Sam Francis||Fullback||Nebraska||Philadelphia Eagles
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1938||Corbett Davis||Fullback||Indiana||Cleveland Rams
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1939||Ki Aldrich||Center||TCU||Chicago Cardinals
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1940||George Cafego||Halfback||Tennessee||Chicago Cardinals
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1941||Tom Harmon||Halfback||Michigan||Chicago Bears
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1942||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Bill Dudley||Halfback||Virginia||Pittsburgh Steelers
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1943||Frank Sinkwich||Halfback||Georgia||Detroit Lions
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1944||Angelo Bertelli||Quarterback||Notre Dame||Boston Yanks
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1945||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Charley Trippi||Halfback||Georgia||Chicago Cardinals
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1946||Frank Dancewicz||Quarterback||Notre Dame||Boston Yanks
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1947||Bob Fenimore||Halfback||Oklahoma A&M||Chicago Bears
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1948||Harry Gilmer||Quarterback||Alabama||Washington Redskins
-
1949||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Chuck Bednarik||Center/Linebacker||Penn||Philadelphia Eagles
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1950||Leon Hart||End||Notre Dame||Detroit Lions
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1951||Kyle Rote||Halfback||SMU||New York Giants
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1952||Bill Wade||Quarterback||Vanderbilt||Los Angeles Rams
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1953||Harry Babcock||End||Georgia||San Francisco 49ers
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1954||Bobby Garrett||Quarterback||Stanford||Cleveland Browns
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1955||George Shaw||Quarterback||Oregon||Baltimore Colts
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1956||Gary Glick||Defensive back||Colorado A&M||Pittsburgh Steelers
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1957||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Paul Hornung||Halfback||Notre Dame||Green Bay Packers
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1958||King Hill||Quarterback||Rice||Chicago Cardinals
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1959||Randy Duncan||Quarterback||Iowa||Green Bay Packers
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1960||Billy Cannon||Running back||LSU||Los Angeles Rams (Signed with Houston Oilers)
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1961||Tommy Mason||Running back||Tulane||Minnesota Vikings
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1962||Ernie Davis||Running back||Syracuse||Washington Redskins
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1963||Terry Baker||Quarterback||Oregon State||Los Angeles Rams
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1964||Dave Parks||End||Texas Tech||San Francisco 49ers
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1965||Tucker Frederickson||Running back||Auburn||New York Giants
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1966||Tommy Nobis||Linebacker||Texas||Atlanta Falcons
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1967||Bubba Smith||Defensive end||Michigan State||Baltimore Colts
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1968||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Ron Yary||Offensive tackle||USC||Minnesota Vikings
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1969||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|O.J. Simpson||Running back||USC||Buffalo Bills
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1970||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Terry Bradshaw||Quarterback||Louisiana Tech||Pittsburgh Steelers
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1971||Jim Plunkett||Quarterback||Stanford||New England Patriots
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1972||Walt Patulski||Defensive tackle||Notre Dame||Buffalo Bills
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1973||John Matuszak||Defensive end||Tampa||Houston Oilers
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1974||Ed "Too Tall" Jones||Defensive end||Tennessee State||Dallas Cowboys
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1975||Steve Bartkowski||Quarterback||California||Atlanta Falcons
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1976||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Lee Roy Selmon||Defensive end||Oklahoma||Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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1977||Ricky Bell||Running back||USC||Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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1978||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Earl Campbell||Running back||Texas||Houston Oilers
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1979||Tom Cousineau||Linebacker||Ohio State||Buffalo Bills (did not sign, signed with CFL Montreal Alouettes)
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1980||Billy Sims||Running back||Oklahoma||Detroit Lions
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1981||George Rogers||Running back||South Carolina||New Orleans Saints
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1982||Kenneth Sims||Defensive tackle||Texas||New England Patriots
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1983||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|John Elway||Quarterback||Stanford||Baltimore Colts (traded to Denver Broncos)
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1984||Irving Fryar||Wide receiver||Nebraska||New England Patriots
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1985||Bruce Smith||Defensive end||Virginia Tech||Buffalo Bills
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1986||Bo Jackson||Running back||Auburn||Tampa Bay Buccaneers (did not sign, entered 1987 NFL Draft)
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1987||Vinny Testaverde||Quarterback||Miami (FL)||Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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1988||Aundray Bruce||Linebacker||Auburn||Atlanta Falcons
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1989||bgcolor="#FFCC00"|Troy Aikman||Quarterback||UCLA||Dallas Cowboys
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1990||Jeff George||Quarterback||Illinois||Indianapolis Colts
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1991||Russell Maryland||Defensive tackle||Miami (FL)||Dallas Cowboys
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1992||Steve Emtman||Defensive tackle||Washington||Indianapolis Colts
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1993||Drew Bledsoe||Quarterback||Washington State||New England Patriots
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1994||Dan Wilkinson||Defensive tackle||Ohio State||Cincinnati Bengals
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1995||Ki-Jana Carter||Running back||Penn State||Cincinnati Bengals
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1996||Keyshawn Johnson||Wide receiver||USC||New York Jets
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1997||Orlando Pace||Offensive tackle||Ohio State||St. Louis Rams
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1998||Peyton Manning||Quarterback||Tennessee||Indianapolis Colts
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1999||Tim Couch||Quarterback||Kentucky||Cleveland Browns
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2000||Courtney Brown||Defensive end||Penn State||Cleveland Browns
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2001||Michael Vick||Quarterback||Virginia Tech||Atlanta Falcons
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2002||David Carr||Quarterback||Fresno State||Houston Texans
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2003||Carson Palmer||Quarterback||USC||Cincinnati Bengals
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2004||Eli Manning||Quarterback||Ole Miss||San Diego Chargers (traded to the New York Giants)
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2005||Alex Smith||Quarterback||Utah||San Francisco 49ers
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2006||Mario Williams||Defensive End||North Carolina State||Houston Texans
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2007||JaMarcus Russell||Quarterback||LSU||Oakland Raiders
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2008||Jake Long||Offensive Tackle||Michigan||Miami Dolphins
-

:colorbox|#FFCC00 - denotes Hall of Fame

Note: From 1967-69 the NFL and AFL held a combined draft.