BATON ROUGE — For the first time since 1951 and only the second time in the history of the program, LSU has a shot at having three players selected in the first round when the NFL Draft takes place starting on Saturday in New York City.
All seven rounds of the NFL Draft will be televised by ESPN or ESPN2 beginning at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday. The first three rounds will take place on Saturday, followed by rounds four through seven on Sunday.
Two LSU Tigers are projected to go early in the first round with quarterback JaMarcus Russell likely to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Oakland Raiders. LSU’s LaRon Landry is considered the top safety in the draft and has been mentioned by draft experts as being one of the first 10 players selected. According to ESPN, Russell is rated as the second-best player in the draft, while Landy is No. 5.
LSU’s other first round hopeful is that of wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, whose draft stock shot up following his workouts at the NFL Combine in February. Bowe, who caught 65 passes for 990 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2006, capped his LSU career as the school’s all-time leader in TD receptions with 26.
Bowe has been projected as a mid-to-late first round pick. He’s been tabbed as the 17th best player and the No. 2 rated wide receiver in the draft according to ESPN.
The only other time that LSU has had so much first round hype surrounding its players came in 1951 when the Tigers had three first round picks. That year, quarterback Y.A. Tittle was taken with the third overall pick by San Francisco, Ebert van Buren was picked No. 7 overall by Philadelphia and Kenny Konz was the final pick (No. 14 overall) of the first round by Cleveland.
Back then, there were only 14 players taken in the first round of the draft, but there were a total of 30 rounds and a total of 362 players selected. The Tigers had seven players drafted in 1951, including Rip Collins, who was the second pick of the second round (16th overall) by the Green Bay Packers.
LSU has also had more than one first round pick on two other occasions ? 1960 and 1962. Billy Cannon was the first overall pick by Los Angeles in 1960, while backfield mate Johnny Robinson was taken two picks later by Detroit.
In 1962, Wendell Harris was nabbed with the ninth pick of the first round by the Baltimore Colts, while Earl Gros was chosen with the 14th and final selection of the first round by Green Bay. Since the 1962 NFL Draft, LSU hasn’t had more than one player taken in the first round.
In all, the Tigers have had a total of 26 first round NFL Draft picks, which includes a player taken in the opening round for the past three years. Last year, running back Joseph Addai was the 30th pick overall by the Indianapolis Colts. Marcus Spears was the 20th overall pick by the Dallas Cowboys in 2005, while Michael Clayton was taken 15th overall by Tampa Bay in 2004.